Elizabeth Berkley broke her left knee in a fall before filming, and as a result, she could not appear in this episode.
After the group hits rock bottom, the first page of the newspaper article shows a group picture of the gang without Jessie. Her character was digitally removed from the photo since she wasn't in it. The image itself was one of the publicity shots for the show.
Screech gives a "tell-all" interview about the band to a newspaper. Eighteen years later, in real life, Dustin Diamond wrote a "tell-all" book about Saved by the Bell (1989).
The gang, minus Jessie, sings the song, Friends Forever. At the end of both the Season 1 episode, The Election (1989) and the Season 3 episode, The Last Dance (1991), one of the main characters, Zack in the former, Kelly in the latter, asks another main character, Jessie and Zack respectively, if they're still friends, to which they are answered with "Forever."