During the mid-1970s, Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee sold CBS the rights to produce a prime time live-action Spider-Man series, produced by Daniel R. Goodman.

Stan Lee and producer Daniel R. Goodman fiercely clashed over the direction of the series during initial production, with Lee later stating in an interview that he felt the series was 'too juvenile'.

David White played J. Jonah Jameson in the pilot TV movie, but the character was recast for the series proper and played by Robert F. Simon.

Hilly Hicks played a notably younger version of Robbie Robertson in the pilot TV movie, but the character was not retained for the series.

Although the series' storylines were set in New York City, it was mostly filmed in Los Angeles.

All of Spider-Man's stunts were performed by the series' stunt coordinator, Fred Waugh, rather than lead actor Nicholas Hammond.

For VHS release, several episode pairs were spliced together into movie-length episodes, with newly filmed bridging scenes set at the Daily Bugle inserted to smooth the transition between unrelated stories; these bridging scenes were never broadcast in the original run or reruns.

Nicholas Hammond revealed in a 2002 interview that a 1984 reunion TV movie was planned to team up the Amazing Spider-Man cast with The Incredible Hulk cast, with Bill Bixby set to direct and reprise his role, but Universal cancelled the project; Lou Ferrigno later disputed the reason given for his unavailability in his 2003 autobiography.

In 2026, writer Dan Slott revealed that a crossover story pairing Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man with Christopher Reeve's Superman was considered for the Spider-Man/Superman intercompany crossover, but Marvel rejected it due to rights and licensing concerns, leading Slott to instead write a 1930s-set story with Spider-Man Noir and the Golden Age Superman.