Absolutely Fabulous grew out of a French and Saunders sketch called 'Modern Mother and Daughter', in which Jennifer Saunders played a mother named Adrianna and Dawn French played her daughter, already named Saffron.

The character name 'Edina Monsoon' derives from Saunders' husband Adrian Edmondson, whose nickname was 'Eddy Monsoon', though the show has no other connection to his 1984 Comic Strip play Eddie Monsoon: A Life?.

Saunders said she drew inspiration for the characters' antics from nights out with pop band Bananarama, recalling gags from their heavy drinking, including once seeing a member fall bottom-first out of a taxi onto the road.

Dawn French, co-owner of the production company behind the show, was originally intended to play Saffron but a younger actress, Julia Sawalha, was cast instead; French only appeared once in the original series, in a cameo in the episode 'Magazine'.

Before reviving the show for its fourth series, Saunders wrote a pilot called Mirrorball featuring the same cast in different roles, but she felt the Ab Fab characters were too rich to abandon and used a new series instead, with some Mirrorball characters carrying over into series four.

The theme song 'This Wheel's on Fire' has been performed by different artists across specials, including Marianne Faithfull and P. P. Arnold for 'The Last Shout', Hermine Demoriane with a French accent for the 'Paris' episode, and Debbie Harry (who also guest-starred) for the 2002 special 'Gay'.

Kylie Minogue recorded a cover of 'This Wheel's on Fire' for the soundtrack of Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, released in June 2016 ahead of the film.

In 1994, the Pet Shop Boys released a Comic Relief single combining dialogue excerpts from the show with dance music, credited to 'Absolutely Fabulous produced by Pet Shop Boys', which reached number six on the UK Singles Chart.

A US remake attempt for Fox in 2008–2009, relocated to Los Angeles and written by Saturday Night Live writer Christine Zander, cast Kathryn Hahn as Eddy and Kristen Johnston as Patsy, but Fox declined to commission a full series.

A French film adaptation, Absolument fabuleux (2001), starred Josiane Balasko and Nathalie Baye, with Saunders making a cameo alongside Catherine Deneuve; singer Amanda Lear was offered the Patsy-inspired role but turned it down, joking she had 'already lived it'.

Roseanne Barr attempted to develop an American remake starring Carrie Fisher and Barbara Carrera that never materialized, but she incorporated elements of the show into her sitcom Roseanne, in which Saunders and Lumley guest-starred as Edina and Patsy.

Episodes of Absolutely Fabulous were shot in front of a live studio audience.