The role of Arthur Spooner was written with Jerry Stiller in mind, but he initially turned down the part.

Veteran comedian Jack Carter was cast as Arthur instead and a pilot was shot with him in the role. Stiller then changed his mind and took the part, requiring the scenes featuring Carter to be reshot.

The show was partly inspired by the classic sitcom The Honeymooners, with Doug and Carrie loosely based on the Kramden couple, sharing similar mannerisms and deadpan expressions.

The 2001 episode 'Inner Tube' pays direct homage to The Honeymooners: a distraught Doug dreams he is Ralph Kramden, Carrie is Alice Kramden, and Deacon is Ed Norton, with the sequence filmed in black and white and mixed to mimic 1950s audio quality.

Gary Valentine, who plays Doug's cousin Danny Heffernan, is Kevin James's real-life brother; both actors created stage surnames for their careers, with 'Valentine' being their father's middle name.

Arthur's on-again/off-again love interest and eventual wife Veronica Olchin, played in most seasons by Anne Meara, is married in real life to Jerry Stiller, who plays Arthur.

The series was filmed in front of a live studio audience at Sony Pictures Studios' Stage 28 in Culver City, California, even though the show is set in Queens, New York.

The opening credits originally featured James's starring credit over a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge with the World Trade Center visible in the Manhattan skyline; this shot was edited after the September 11 attacks.

Kevin James and Ray Romano appeared on each other's CBS sitcoms as part of a network crossover; Romano's guest appearances as Ray Barone were popular enough that the other principal cast members of Everybody Loves Raymond also appeared, and the four crossover episodes all contained 'Ray' in their titles.

Starting in season two, the show used the theme song 'Baby All My Life I Will Be Driving Home to You,' written by series writers Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, composed by Jonathan Wolff and Scott Clausen, and performed by Billy Vera and the Beaters.

The show's first season received a 33% 'rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but by its ninth and final season it had risen to an 85% 'fresh' score.

The character Sara Spooner, Carrie's younger half-sister, appeared only in the first few episodes; producers reportedly could not develop storylines for her, so she was quietly dropped and later dialogue suggests Carrie is actually an only child.

In March 2021, surviving cast members including Kevin James, Leah Remini, Victor Williams, Patton Oswalt, Gary Valentine, and Nicole Sullivan held a table read of the 2003 episode 'Cowardly Lyin'' on Facebook as a tribute to Jerry Stiller, benefiting the Henry Street Settlement.