Among its co-stars are Staci Keanan, Angela Watson, and Christopher Castile as Carol's children Dana, Karen, and Mark, Brandon Call, Christine Lakin, and Josh Byrne as Frank's children J.T., Al, and Brendan, and Sasha Mitchell as Frank's nephew Cody.

The series was often described as a copy of The Brady Bunch because of its similar premise, and was otherwise ignored by critics after the pilot episode, which met with a consistently negative reception.

It was filmed at the inland Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, with a coastline digitally superimposed onto its parking lot in aerial shots.

CBS concurrently reached a deal with Miller-Boyett Productions to acquire the rights to it and Family Matters from ABC, as that network attempted to build its own Friday night lineup of family-friendly situation comedies for the fall of 1997, called the "CBS Block Party".

[6] Ratings continued to decline despite the network change, and the show ended its run in June 1998 without an official series finale.

On September 29, 2017, Hulu acquired the streaming rights to Step by Step along with fellow Warner Bros. TV properties Family Matters, Full House, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and Perfect Strangers,[11] in addition to fellow ABC programs Boy Meets World, Dinosaurs and Home Improvement.

[23] Reviews of the pilot episode were consistently negative, with Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times calling it "plain awful"[24] and Matt Roush of USA Today describing it as "demonically slick junk food";[25] other critics declared it to be the "worst" new show of the season.

[26][27] It was frequently compared to Brooklyn Bridge, a critically acclaimed CBS series which premiered the same day, as representing the "worst" and "best" of television, respectively.

[24][27][28] Variety's Jean Rosenbluth was more positive, calling it a "modestly amusing, occasionally heartwarming show" despite its "utter lack of originality",[3] and argued that while it wasn't comparable to Shakespeare, "neither was The Brady Bunch".

[25] Rosenbluth described the children as a "well-cast lot", in particular singling out Keanan as the "most amusing";[3] her "wisecracking timing"[29] was commended by Ray Richmond of Knight-Ridder News Service,[29] who in addition forwarded the actress as the "best thing"[29] about the series, a sentiment echoed by Ron Weiskind of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,[30] who found her to be the only one who "shows any talent"[30] out of the cast.