Jim Henson initially conceived the Storyteller as a fully animatronic puppet character before deciding otherwise.

Ron Mueck filmed a test with facial prosthetics on an actor, which convinced Henson that a made-up human performer would be more effective than a full puppet for the Storyteller.

The Storyteller character was created using heavy make-up, including large prosthetic ears and a prosthetic nose, giving him a half-puppet appearance reminiscent of the titular character from Roald Dahl's The BFG.

The Storyteller's talking dog was a realistic puppet of a brown and blonde Pudelpointer, performed and voiced by Brian Henson.

For the Greek Myths follow-up series, the Storyteller character was recast with Michael Gambon replacing John Hurt, though Brian Henson continued to perform and voice the same dog.

Jim Henson invited director Steve Barron to helm several episodes after being impressed by Barron's work directing the music videos for David Bowie's songs 'As the World Falls Down' and 'Underground' from Henson's film Labyrinth (1986).

NBC deemed the Greek Myths episodes too strong for children and refused to broadcast them as a separate series in the US, leaving them unaired there until HBO reran the full 13-episode series in 1997.

The episode 'The Three Ravens' was slated to air as part of The Jim Henson Hour, but the series was cancelled before it could be broadcast, delaying its US airing until the 1997 HBO rerun.

A planned Blu-ray release titled Jim Henson's The Storyteller: The Complete Collection, combining both series, was delayed from August 2025 to November 2025 by Fabulous Films in the UK.

A reboot series developed by Neil Gaiman with The Jim Henson Company and Fremantle was announced in February 2019 but was never produced.