The series was created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, who explore an alternate history version of the Hollywood Golden Age in the post-World War II era where traditional power dynamics, racism, and homophobia in the film industry are dismantled.

On February 23, 2019, Netflix gave the production a straight-to-series order for seven episodes, with Brennan and Murphy set to executive produce alongside stars Darren Criss and David Corenswet.

Dylan McDermott's character Ernest 'Ernie' West, a pimp who runs his business out of a gas station, is based on real-life figure Scotty Bowers.

Jake Picking plays a fictionalized version of actor Rock Hudson, portrayed as a young unknown beginning to understand his own identity.

On September 3, 2019, it was reported that Patti LuPone, Holland Taylor, Darren Criss, Jeremy Pope, Dylan McDermott, Jim Parsons, David Corenswet, and Joe Mantello had all been cast in series regular roles.

Several supporting characters are fictionalized versions of real Hollywood figures, including Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec), Hattie McDaniel (Queen Latifah), Vivien Leigh (Katie McGuinness), Tallulah Bankhead (Paget Brewster), Eleanor Roosevelt (Harriet Sansom Harris), George Cukor (Daniel London), and Noël Coward (Billy Boyd).

Although feature articles in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Town & Country, and Rolling Stone covered the production as depicting the real-life story of Scotty Bowers, the Netflix production's credits make no reference to Bowers or his tell-all memoir, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars.

The series received mixed reviews, holding a 59% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic, with critics praising the acting and production values but criticizing its tone, writing, and artistic license with history.

Hollywood received 12 nominations at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, including acting nods for Jeremy Pope, Holland Taylor, Dylan McDermott, and Jim Parsons, ultimately winning two awards.