The Golden Palace was created as a sequel to The Golden Girls after Bea Arthur grew tired of the original show and chose not to return for an eighth season, prompting the series to be retitled and revamped.

Creator Susan Harris and producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas had mixed feelings about continuing the show, but felt obligated to do so to keep providing work for the cast and crew.

Rue McClanahan had suggested keeping the original Golden Girls format and simply adding a fourth roommate to replace Bea Arthur's character, but the producers rejected this idea.

British comedian Alexei Sayle was originally cast as the hotel's chef, who was initially conceived as Eastern European, but he was replaced by Cheech Marin before the pilot was shot.

The idea of a Latino chef as a comic foil dated back to the very start of The Golden Girls, when a character named Coco (played by Charles Levin) appeared in the first episode but was written out due to difficulties fitting him into a cast dominated by four strong female personalities.

Cheech Marin took the role partly to break away from being typecast as a Los Angeles stoner and had previously worked with producer Paul Junger Witt on a film project; he was promised a spin-off series for his character if The Golden Palace succeeded.

The Golden Palace marked the first starring television roles for both Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle.

According to Don Cheadle, the director of photography struggled to properly light scenes featuring him alongside Betty White due to their contrasting complexions, requiring changes to White's hair and makeup to reduce the contrast.

Exterior shots of the hotel were filmed at The Carlyle hotel on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive, while the rest of the series was taped at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, California.

Unlike on The Golden Girls, where Estelle Getty often needed multiple takes because she had trouble remembering her lines, Rue McClanahan noted this was no longer an issue on The Golden Palace, speculating Getty may have subconsciously been intimidated by Bea Arthur.

In 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd, the episode 'Camp Town Races Aren't Nearly as Much Fun as They Used to Be' gained renewed attention for its handling of racism and the Confederate battle flag, after journalist Seb Starcevic highlighted it in a viral Twitter thread.

NBC offered only a 13-episode order for the new series, but producers wanted a full season, so they moved the show to CBS, which promised a complete season order.

The Golden Palace has rarely been syndicated as a stand-alone series; Lifetime aired it in rotation as a de facto eighth season of The Golden Girls in the mid-2000s, and many fans of the original show were unaware the sequel series even existed.