Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks replaced Delta Burke and Jean Smart for season six after well-publicized behind-the-scenes conflicts, but Duffy was not brought back for the seventh season and was replaced by Judith Ivey.

Delta Burke left the show at the end of the fifth season after a much-publicized feud with the show's producers, leading her character Suzanne to be written off as moving to Japan.

Jean Smart left at the beginning of the sixth season because she wanted to spend more time with her young child, so her character Charlene was written off as moving to England with her Air Force husband.

Hal Holbrook's character Reese Watson was killed off in season five so that Holbrook could appear on the series Evening Shade.

The exterior of the Sugarbaker & Associates design firm house was filmed at the Angelo Marre House in the historic Quapaw Quarter district of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Suzanne Sugarbaker's home as seen in the series is actually the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, also located in the Quapaw Quarter; both filming locations are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The show contains several references to Bill Clinton, a real-life friend of creators Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason: Charlene mentions having worked for him during his Arkansas governorship, an episode shows Julia stranded at the airport trying to attend his first inauguration, and the character Allison Sugarbaker is noted as a Wellesley College alumna like Hillary Clinton.

Dixie Carter, who played the liberal-leaning Julia Sugarbaker, was actually a libertarian-leaning Republican in real life and made a deal with the Thomasons that Julia would sing a song in a future episode for every liberal-leaning monologue she delivered.

After the show suffered dismal ratings in Sunday and Thursday night time slots and was nearly cancelled, a viewer campaign saved it and CBS returned it to its Monday night slot, after which its ratings solidified in the top 20.