The series grew out of a 58-minute pilot film, Superman and the Mole Men (1951), starring George Reeves and Phyllis Coates, which was later edited into a two-part TV storyline called 'The Unknown People' and remains the show's only multi-part episode.

Production of the first season began in 1951 but the show sat unaired until September 1952, when Kellogg's, which had previously sponsored the Superman radio series, agreed to sponsor it for broadcast.

George Reeves personally asked that Phyllis Coates receive equal star billing as Lois Lane when the series began.

The show was extremely low-budget, costing roughly $15,000 per episode, and it moved studios several times over its run, filming at RKO-Pathé, California Studios, Charlie Chaplin Studios, and Ziv Studios.

Real Los Angeles landmarks stood in for Metropolis, including the E. Clem Wilson Building and Los Angeles City Hall as the Daily Planet, Queen of Angels Hospital, and Griffith Observatory as Jor-El's laboratory.

Superman's flying was achieved differently across seasons: stuntmen using cables and wires performed takeoffs in season one, before a springboard system designed by SFX supervisor Thol 'Si' Simonson let George Reeves launch himself out of frame in later seasons.

Flight footage was created by filming Reeves lying on a spatula-like torso-and-leg mold mounted on a counterweighted boom, allowing him to bank as if flying; in some later episodes his legs were left unsupported and can be seen hanging.

Much of the show's score was drawn from stock music libraries shared with B-movies, including a cue in 'Peril by Sea' that also appears in Plan 9 from Outer Space, while the famous opening March was adapted from Sammy Timberg's 1940s Superman cartoon theme.

At the U.S. Treasury Department's request, the production team made a special 1954 short, Stamp Day for Superman, to promote school savings stamps to children; it is the only episode of the series to have entered the public domain.

George Reeves appeared as himself playing TV's Superman in a 1957 episode of I Love Lucy, though his name was only shown in the closing credits and the on-air announcement of his identity was cut after the first broadcast.

After John Hamilton's death and George Reeves' sudden death in 1959, producers considered continuing the series as 'Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen' using a stock-footage/stunt-double composite of Reeves, an idea Jack Larson rejected.