The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper and written by Kirk Ellis, based on David McCullough's 2001 biography 'John Adams'.

John Adams won four Golden Globe Awards and thirteen Emmy Awards, more than any other miniseries in history.

On Rotten Tomatoes the miniseries holds an 82% approval rating, with critics praising its production values but noting the casting 'leaves something to be desired'.

Critic Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times had mixed feelings, arguing that Paul Giamatti was 'the wrong choice for the hero', leaving 'a gaping hole' at the center of the story.

The 110-day shoot ran from February 23 to August 2007, taking place in Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Virginia, as well as in Budapest and several other Hungarian towns including Keszthely, Sóskút, Fertőd, and Kecskemét.

A Continental Army winter tent encampment was recreated at Williamsburg's Public Hospital using special-effects snow, while the College of William and Mary's Wren Building stood in for a Harvard interior.

Sets, stage space, and production offices were housed in an old AMF warehouse in Mechanicsville, near Richmond, Virginia, and the surrounding countryside of Hanover and Powhatan counties doubled for the areas around early Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

The score was composed separately by Robert Lane and Joseph Vitarelli, who worked independently of each other—Lane recording in London and Vitarelli in Los Angeles—each scoring different episodes of the series.

Alongside the original score, the soundtrack also features pieces by classical composers Mozart, Boccherini, Gluck, Handel, and Schubert.

The series takes considerable creative license with historical events, such as inventing a fictional tarring-and-feathering scene implicating Samuel Adams and John Hancock that does not appear in McCullough's book and has no historical evidence supporting it.