The show is based on creator Adam F. Goldberg's own childhood and family in the 1980s, and he regularly videotaped real family events as a kid, some of which are reenacted for episodes and then shown alongside the original footage before the end credits.

The project originally received a script commitment from Fox in 2011, but after Goldberg's previous show Breaking In was canceled, he moved it to ABC rather than wait for another pilot season. The show was originally titled How the F--- Am I Normal?, later softened to How the Hell Am I Normal?, before ABC settled on The Goldbergs in April 2013.

Wendi McLendon-Covey was cast as the pilot's lead on January 11, 2013, with Jeff Garlin and George Segal joining afterward.

George Segal died in March 2021 due to complications from bypass surgery; his final episode, 'Couple Off', which had aired just before his death, closed with a 48-second video tribute, and the following season's premiere was dedicated to his memory.

After multiple misconduct allegations and HR investigations, Jeff Garlin left the show in December 2021 during production of season 9; for the rest of that season his character Murray was kept on screen using outtakes, a stand-in, and CGI, before being killed off off-screen at the start of season 10.

The character Pop Pop was originally played by Paul Sorvino in his first appearance before being recast with Judd Hirsch in later seasons.

The real-life person who inspired the bully character J. C. Spink actually appears in the show himself, portraying a school bus driver.

Several real-life counterparts of characters made cameo appearances playing themselves or related roles, including Chad Kremp, Brea Bee, Rubén Amaro Jr. as his own father, and the real members of the JTP crew (Barry Goldberg, Matt Bradley, Andy Cogan, Geoff Schwartz, and Rob Smith) appearing together at the end of two season 5 episodes.

The show's theme song 'Rewind' was written specifically for the series by I Fight Dragons, at Goldberg's request, since they were his favorite band.

After departing as showrunner following season 6, Adam F. Goldberg publicly declared seasons 7–10 non-canon to his original vision, and since he wasn't consulted on the official series finale, he later wrote his own 'canon' ending in comic book form in which the family is killed by horror character Victor Crowley to prevent any future reboot or sequel.

A spin-off pilot called Schooled, centered on characters Rick Mellor and Andre Glascott, was initially passed on by ABC in 2017 despite testing better than the original series' pilot; it was later aired as a special Goldbergs episode titled 'The Goldbergs: 1990-Something' before ABC picked it up as a full series.