Monk

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The show was originally to be made for ABC (the American one) with Michael Richards starring. When he pulled out, so did ABC. However, when the show was successful on the USA network, ABC agreed to carry second-run episodes (much in the same way that USA carries second-run episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit). This only lasted for a year.
In France, the first episode (in 2 parts) was re-edited into a single 44 minute episode, so half the minutes were cut and are still unpublished in France.
All episode titles begin with "Mr. Monk..." except for the season eight episode, "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk."
The characters of Captain Leland Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Randall Disher (named Randall Deacon in the pilot) serve much the same function in Monk as did Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes stories. This relationship may have inspired these characters' names: taking the first two letters of each name in order - LE from "Leland", ST from "Stottlemeyer", RA from "Randall" and DE from "Deacon" - spells out "Lestrade". (However, after the show's pilot episode, Randy Deacon's last name was changed to Disher.)
The show's writers occasionally satirize Monk's near-perfect memory. For example, in "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" he can't remember if a crime scene on a roof is his 4th or 5th worst nightmare, since he "didn't bring the list".
The sponsoring network used the term "Monkish" to publicize the series. The word describes Adrian's odd behavior but also is a play-on-words that relates to his monk-like isolation.
This was the first show that the USA network filmed in the US. All previous shows were filmed in Canada.
The characters and basic structure of the series were inspired by the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The character name "Adrian Monk" was intended to be unusual like that of Sherlock Holmes. Other characters correspond to Holmes characters: Sharona Fleming (a nurse) and Dr. Watson; Capt. Stottlemeyer and Inspector Lestrade; and Monk's brother Ambrose and Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's brother).
Adrian Monk contains ten letters, Monk's favorite number.
Producers originally considered offering the role of Sharona Fleming to Queen Latifah.
The police station where Stottlemeyer and Disher work as well as a number of crimes throughout the series are said to be located on Vinton Street in San Francisco. However, the real Vinton is in Madison, New Jersey, where series creator Andy Breckman lives.
In Germany, the series is presented by a well-known brand of consumer tissue (as of April 2008), playing with Monk's obsessive-compulsive behavior.
The season four premiere, Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan was originally supposed to be a crossover with Law & Order.
One of the few crime dramas to actually feature the crime taking place.
The shifting letters in the title sequence are a nod to the fact that Monk has OCD and therefore likes things to be straight.
Tony Shalhoub (Adrian Monk) is the only actor to appear in all 125 episodes of the series. In second place is Jason Gray-Stanford (Lt. Randy Disher}, who appeared in every episode except for "Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum", "Mr. Monk and the Game Show", "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic" and "Mr. Monk and the UFO".
Monk's irrational fears in order of severity from most to least are as follows: germs, needles, milk, death, snakes, mushrooms, heights, crowds, elevators.
In this pilot episode, the character played by Jason Gray-Stanford is listed as "Lt. Deacon". Throughout the rest of the show's run, his name is Lt. Randy Disher.
In this episode (the first one of the series), Monk's wife Trudy is played by the actress Stellina Rusich. She played Trudy in only 4 episodes during seasons 1&2 (up to episode 2-5). After that the part of Trudy Monk was played by the actress Melora Hardin, starting in episode 3-8. Hardin appeared in 10 episodes total, all the way up until the last one, season 8, episode 16.
In this pilot episode, the character played by Jason Gray-Stanford is listed as "Lt. Deacon". Throughout the rest of the show's run, his name is Lt. Randy Disher.
In this episode (the second one of the series), Monk's wife Trudy is played by the actress Stellina Rusich. She played Trudy in only 4 episodes during seasons 1&2 (up to episode 2-5). After that the part of Trudy Monk was played by the actress Melora Hardin, starting in episode 3-8. Hardin appeared in 10 episodes total, all the way up until the last one, season 8, episode 16.
Vezza says that he was conceived during the Northeast Blackout of 1965, a blackout that affected much of the Northeastern United States and left 80,000 people without power for up to twelve hours. Nine months after the blackout, there was supposedly a big increase in births, called the "Blackout Baby Boom." However, examination of birth statistics showed no significant difference compared to previous years.
According to Stottlemeyer, Monk has helped the SFPD solve six cases (since his departure from the force) as of the start of this episode. Since this is the fifth episode of the series, we have seen four of them at this point.
This is the first episode where Monk utters the line "It's a blessing/gift and a curse".
John Wurster, Kevin Nealon's character, is named after Jon Wurster, Tom Scharpling's (writer of this episode) comedy partner on his WFMU radio show.
Final acting role of Zakes Mokae.
Rita Bronwyn is named after Bronwyn C, a disk jockey at radio station WFMU FM in East Orange, New Jersey. Andy Breckman (creator of Monk) and Tom Scharpling (writer/producer) both host shows on WFMU.
"Terry T" is named after WFMU DJ Terrie T. Terrie T is also writer Tom Scharpling's wife. "Kenny Freedman" is named after WFMU Station Manager Ken Freedman, who co-hosts Seven Second Delay with Andy Breckman (the creator of Monk) on WFMU.
This episode was originally written for Ringo Starr. However, since the crime involved the victim being shot in an alley, the producers thought it too reminiscent of John Lennon's assassination. They also considered singers Brian Wilson and James Taylor before deciding to go with Willie Nelson.
Tony Shalhoub actually plays the clarinet. Though not a clarinetist, he was taught to play the simple piece used in the show's ending.