According to Dick Van Dyke, the series never got a full season pick-up. It was always renewed a few episodes at a time.
In one episode, a stunt with a motorcycle was required. But the production team didn't have the budget to perform this stunt in real life. Dick van Dyke, being a computer animation enthusiast, created the visual effects on his home computer using the LightWave 3-D animation software, and they were used on the show. He was paid $200 for creating the sequence.
The series was not well received at first, and was almost canceled in its first season, but the show was saved by re-runs during the summer hiatus.
There was some concern when the series began that Dick Van Dyke was too old to play a still-working doctor.