In 1998, Entertainment Weekly praised the series as one of the '100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time,' and in 2007 Time magazine included it in its list of 'The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME.'

Jerry Seinfeld has said that The Abbott and Costello Show, with its focus on funny situations rather than life lessons, inspired his own sitcom Seinfeld.

The show was designed to let Abbott and Costello bring their proven burlesque routines to television in a format they controlled, avoiding the unpredictability of live TV and the musical numbers or love stories typical of their feature films.

Several episodes featured a pet chimpanzee named 'Bingo,' dressed in the same outfit as Costello, who was eventually fired from the show after biting Costello.

The show did not use a traditional laugh track; instead, completed episodes were screened for a live theater audience whose reactions were recorded and added to the soundtrack.

The first season was filmed at the Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, nicknamed 'The Lot of Fun,' which was demolished in 1963, while the second season was shot at Motion Picture Center Studios, later known as Desilu-Cahuenga Studios, where I Love Lucy and the Danny Thomas and Jack Benny shows were also filmed.

Lou Costello owned the show while Bud Abbott worked on salary, and Costello's brother Pat Costello was credited as producer, though his role was largely nominal.

In the 1993 Mel Brooks spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights, actor Chuck McCann played a Lou Costello lookalike who yelled 'Hey, Abbott!' just as Costello did in the original films, a joke repeating a gag from Brooks's earlier show When Things Were Rotten.