The 2001 live-action sitcom was the first live-action adaptation of The Tick, following a successful animated series that ran from 1994 to 1996; the pilot was completed in May 2000 and written by the four main animated-series writers.

Executive producer Larry Charles aimed to give the show a character camaraderie similar to Seinfeld, insisting the interaction between characters mattered more than superhero costumes or action.

Because The Walt Disney Company had inherited rights to Fox's earlier children's programming, the animated series' characters American Maid and Die Fledermaus could not be used, so they were replaced with new characters Captain Liberty and Batmanuel.

Guest stars on the series included Ron Perlman, Christopher Lloyd, Kurt Fuller, Armin Shimerman, Mike Hagerty, Penn & Teller, and Dave Foley, along with early appearances by then-unknown actors T.J. Thyne and Missi Pyle.

Costume designer Colleen Atwood redesigned Tick's suit so his face was fully exposed instead of using the pupil-less eyes of previous versions, allowing Patrick Warburton to use his expressive face for comedic effect.

The antennae on Tick's mask were remote-controlled by puppeteer Mark Setrakian to enhance comedic timing.

Due to budget constraints, episodes were filmed with several-month gaps between shoots, and the shooting schedule per episode was shortened from six or seven days to five, increasing costs through overtime pay.

The show's writer Christopher McCulloch met Patrick Warburton while working on the sitcom, which led him to later cast Warburton as the voice of Brock Samson in The Venture Bros., a series Tick creator Ben Edlund also occasionally wrote for.

Fox canceled The Tick after only eight of its nine produced episodes aired, largely because it competed against Survivor: Africa and NBC's Must See TV lineup, and because Fox did not own the series outright and rarely promoted it.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld called the Tick pilot 'the best thing I've ever directed' and, along with producer Barry Josephson, expressed hope that strong DVD sales might lead to a feature film.

Ben Edlund later developed a new live-action Tick series that premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2016, with Sonnenfeld and Josephson returning as executive producers and Warburton as a producer, though Warburton's role was recast with Peter Serafinowicz at Amazon's request.