The original pilot, written by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore based on a dramatic script by Clyde Phillips, was set at a publishing house editing children's books rather than a magazine, with Susan breaking up with a live-in boyfriend named Ted instead of jilting a fiancé at the altar.

Nancy Marchand originally played Susan's grandmother Nana in the pilot, but was replaced by Barbara Barrie when the series was picked up; similarly, Kurt Fuller and Caroline McWilliams were replaced by Swoosie Kurtz and Ray Baker as Susan's parents.

When NBC picked up the series, former Murphy Brown writers/producers Gary Dontzig and Steven Peterman were brought in to redevelop the concept and became co-showrunners, reworking the pilot's characters Eric and Ted into Jack Richmond and his brother Kip, whom Susan leaves at the altar.

Although the show's setting changed from a publishing house to a magazine, the main office set kept most of its features from the unaired pilot, with the main difference being that the elevator was moved to stage right.

A cardboard cutout of actress Elizabeth Ashley, who played a client in the unused pilot storyline, still appears briefly in the background near the filing cabinets throughout the show's first three seasons.

Exterior shots of the fictional magazine's office were filmed at the real Newhall Building at 260 California Street in San Francisco.

Actor David Strickland, who played Todd Stites, died by suicide in a Las Vegas motel room on March 22, 1999; the show incorporated his death into the season 3 finale 'A Day in the Life,' which killed off his character and included in-character interviews of the cast sharing real memories of Strickland.

The season 3 finale dealing with Todd's disappearance ends with his favorite song, 'Praise You' by Fatboy Slim, playing as the cast sits in a circle praying, and closes with a memorial tribute to David Strickland reading 'The Gods of comedy looked down upon you and smiled.'

Before the fourth and final season, Judd Nelson and Andrea Bendewald left the show and the writing staff was almost entirely replaced, prompting new showrunners Maria Semple and Mark Driscoll to retool the series by turning The Gate into a men's magazine relocated to a Chinatown warehouse.

The show was a ratings hit in its first season, airing between Seinfeld and ER and drawing nearly 25 million viewers per episode, but collapsed after being moved to Monday nights against Cosby in season two, falling from #3 to #71 in the ratings within a year.

One fourth-season episode, 'The Gay Parade,' was never aired by NBC and only later shown on Lifetime, while the final four episodes, including the two-part series finale, were burned off in an overnight NBC All Night broadcast slot on December 26, 2000.