Creators Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone were both longtime fans of the 1953 short 'Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century' and spent six years trying to get the concept made as either a TV series or feature film before receiving a production commitment.

Before developing Duck Dodgers, Brandt and Cervone had been working on a prime-time Daffy Duck series with Paul Rugg, described as 'The Larry Sanders Show meets Jack Benny,' which never emerged from development hell; they later reused some of its unused concepts for Duck Dodgers.

Several classic Looney Tunes characters were reimagined as sci-fi parodies: Yosemite Sam became 'K'chutha Sa'am,' a parody of Klingons from Star Trek, while Elmer Fudd became 'The Fudd,' a parasitic mind-altering alien disease combining elements of the Flood and the Borg from other sci-fi franchises.

The robotic Centurion soldiers of the Martian Empire are a homage to the Cylon Centurions from Battlestar Galactica, and their voice actor Michael Dorn's casting is considered a nod to his famous role as Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The purple-haired 'Instant Martians' that appear in the series originally debuted in the 1958 Looney Tunes short 'Hare-Way to the Stars,' where the Martian Commander used them to try to capture Bugs Bunny.

The show's theme song, arranged by the Flaming Lips, is performed by singer Tom Jones in a style reminiscent of the theme from the James Bond film Thunderball.

Duck Dodgers featured a caricature of Tom Jones in the season two episode 'Talent Show A Go-Go,' in which the character sings Jones's real-life signature song 'It's Not Unusual.'

The series won a 2004 Annie Award for Music in an Animated Television Production (composed by Robert J. Kral) and later won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for voice actor Joe Alaskey.