After the episode "Catteries Not Included" aired on August 27, 1988, as a preview,[2] the series premiered on The Disney Channel on March 4, 1989.

In the last few minutes of the episode, the case was resolved, usually in dramatic fashion and the final moments would have a humorous wrap-up scene between the Rangers.

Rescue Rangers was originally conceived as the first of three new companion shows to Disney's popular DuckTales series, which had more than doubled the ratings among child audiences in its time slots after its debut in the fall of 1987.

He initially pitched doing a TV series based on The Rescuers, but Disney rejected that idea as a sequel to that film was already in production.

When he proposed the show in a meeting with Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the idea was well received except for the character of Kit.

At Eisner's suggestion, they replaced him with the chipmunk duo to give the show some established Disney characters to work with.

[9] By late 1987, two years before its television debut, the show was announced under its original proposed title of "Chip 'n Dale and the Rescue Rangers".

[20] While Chip and Dale were established characters, in order to bring them into the series only their general appearance and basic personality traits were kept.

[9][8] The series premiered in March 1989 on The Disney Channel before moving into a regular slot in syndication in September of that year.

A full-length theme song was recorded by The Jets, a Minnesota pop group, and released on The Disney Afternoon soundtrack.

In the United Kingdom, Disney released one Region 2 volume in 2007, titled Chip 'n Dale - Rescue Rangers - First Collection.

[29] Despite the set being similar to the US version, it contained only 20 episodes, while having 6 language tracks: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch.

On December 5, 2012, a second DVD set of the series was released in the UK, but as a Region 2 version of Volume 2, titled Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Season 2.

The series was brought back to Amazon Instant Video in the United States in 2016, being currently available for purchase in SD and HD.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released the entire series on Blu-ray Disc in a 2022 multi-region, high definition six-disc set, keeping its original image ratio (1.33:1).

[37][38] In fall of 1989, McDonald's produced a series of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers themed Happy Meal that included toy versions of the main characters riding small vehicles.

This choice was based on the extreme and unexpected popularity of Darkwing Duck, another Disney Afternoon property which BOOM!

[51] A live-action CGI feature-length film[53] directed by Akiva Schaffer; written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand; produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman;[54] and starring John Mulaney and Andy Samberg as the voices of Chip and Dale was released on May 20, 2022, on Disney+.