Trivia

The 'Aunt' who hits Offred on the side of the head during the Red Center scene is portrayed by author Margaret Atwood.

Because reading is outlawed for women in Gilead, the hardest set to design and build was the grocery store as every single item had to have a pictograph designed for it, instead of words saying what it is.

In a "New York Times" essay published in March 2017, as well as in the new introduction to a 2017 edition of her novel "The Handmaid's Tale," Margaret Atwood said that when she started writing the book, her title for it was "Offred." This is the name given to the main character by the repressive regime that is enslaving her. In addition to its primary meaning (that she is the property of a commander named Fred), Atwood also explained that she intended for the name to also remind the reader of the word "offered," meaning, "denoting a religious offering or a victim offered for sacrifice." The series's showrunners chose to name the first episode of the show "Offred."

The episode won 4 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period Program (One Hour or More), Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

The song that concludes the pilot episode, "You Don't Own Me," was recorded by Lesley Gore in 1963 and was #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in a row in 1964. It was something of a departure for Gore, who had previously been known as a teenaged bubblegum pop singer; she had recorded her biggest hit, "It's My Party," as a junior in high school. "You Don't Own Me" was received as an anthem of women's independence and empowerment and was later seen as an early inspiration for the feminist movement. Gore herself eventually broke out of the teen singer mold, becoming an Oscar-nominated songwriter in her own right and coming out as a lesbian.