The series was announced on January 24, 1995, as a Timon and Pumbaa spin-off set to premiere that fall as part of The Disney Afternoon block. Gary Krisel, then president of Walt Disney Television Animation, compared the comedic duo's potential to classic pairs like Abbott and Costello, Hope and Crosby, and Martin and Lewis.

Producers Bobs Gannaway and Tony Craig deliberately shifted away from the film's lush, lyrical tone toward a more Tex Avery-style slapstick approach, and chose to let Timon and Pumbaa travel the world instead of staying confined to the Serengeti in order to keep the series fresh.

Writer Kevin Campbell revealed that he and Gannaway created a giant list of puns based on country names early in development, then used a 'Which Animals Live Where' atlas reference book to decide where in the world each episode's animal-based story could take place.

Ernie Sabella voiced Pumbaa for the entire run of the series, reprising his film role, while Nathan Lane only reprised Timon for the first ten episodes before being replaced, first by Quinton Flynn and then by Kevin Schon.

Rob Paulsen and Tress MacNeille took over the voices of hyenas Banzai and Shenzi respectively, replacing film actors Cheech Marin and Whoopi Goldberg, while Jim Cummings reprised his role as Ed from the film.

Animation production was outsourced to a large consortium of overseas studios, including Walt Disney Animation Australia, Toon City, Wang Film Productions, Rough Draft Korea, Sunwoo Animation, and Toonz Animation, among others.

The show's underscore, composed by Stephen James Taylor, frequently featured a microtonal xylophone and pan pipes tuned according to an African tribal scale.

A scene in the episode 'Catch Me if You Kenya' featuring a butterfly collector was removed from reruns due to his clothing and appearance evoking Asian stereotypes, but the scene was later reinstated when the show launched on Disney+ in November 2019.

A scene from the episode 'Uganda Be an Elephant' was reused in the 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie Stepsister from Planet Weird, and the title card artwork for the two Zazu-centered episodes was referenced in the House of Mouse episode 'King Larry Swings in'.