This was the second Tom and Jerry TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera, following The Tom & Jerry Show in 1975, and the first Tom and Jerry series produced by Turner Entertainment after it bought the franchise from MGM in 1986.

Concept art by Jerry Eisenberg initially showed Tom living with his parents, but this idea was changed so that he lives with human owners instead.

The series was one of the last Saturday-morning cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera before the studio shifted its focus toward creating shows specifically for Cartoon Network.

Parent company Turner Broadcasting System bought the Hanna-Barbera studios in late 1991, which took effect starting with the show's third season.

In this series, Spike and Tyke were altered from the original shorts: Tyke, though still young, can now talk and is portrayed as smarter and more intelligent than in the classic cartoons.

The Droopy and Dripple segments' detective-themed episodes were later spun off into their own show, Droopy, Master Detective.

Season 4 introduced a new adaptation of the Blast-Off Buzzard segment originally from CB Bears, this time giving the characters actual dialogue; only two episodes of this segment were made.

The show received a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1992 for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition.

An Arabic-language version of the series aired on the Spacetoon channel in the MENA region from July 13, 2000, to December 31, 2004.