Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske and consumer products director Michealene Risley approached DiC Entertainment CEO Andy Heyward and ABC to develop a Sonic show; after being shown the character, Heyward agreed and secured the license.

DiC originally planned only a single Saturday morning Sonic series intended to air in Fall 1992, but when the network rejected DiC's plan to also produce weekday syndicated episodes, DiC proposed making a separate, very different Sonic show for syndication, which became Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

ABC initially agreed only to air a single half-hour prime-time special (which became the episode 'Heads or Tails') before eventually delaying it and picking up the show for a full season starting Fall 1993.

After the shows were split, the Saturday morning series was deliberately made darker and more dramatic to distinguish it from the syndicated Adventures series, which was designed to be light-hearted and evoke classic theatrical cartoons like Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry.

Sonic's uncle character Sir Charles 'Chuck' Hedgehog was named after writer and animator Chuck Menville, who died in 1992, according to producer Robby London.

The show's animation was outsourced to the Korean studio Sae Rom Production and the Spanish studio Milimetros, while pre-production for the first season was handled by the Canadian Studio B.

The show was ultimately cancelled after Sega of America discovered DiC had been selling the show's animation cels without authorization, breaching their contract; Sega filed a prohibitory injunction against DiC in 1995, effectively ending production.

Hackers discovered a near-complete sprite sheet of the cartoon's Robotnik design hidden in the data of the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, speculated to have been intended for a scrapped English localization.

Sonic co-creator Naoto Ohshima later said he is a fan of the series and owns a promotional animation cel given to him by DiC Entertainment during production.