The first season was co-produced with NBC Productions (now Universal Television) and was originally perceived as a Top Gun meets A Few Good Men hybrid series.

[19] Akin to Law & Order, the plots from many episodes were often "ripped from the headlines" with portions of the plot either resembling or referencing recognizable aspects of actual cases or incidents, such as the USS Cole bombing ("Act of Terror" and "Valor"), the rescue of downed pilot Scott O'Grady ("Defensive Action"), the Cavalese cable car disaster ("Clipped Wings"), the USS Iowa turret explosion ("Into the Breech"), and the Kelly Flinn incident ("The Court-Martial of Sandra Gilbert").

The creator of JAG, Donald P. Bellisario, served for four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and after having worked his way up through advertising jobs, he landed his first network television job as a story editor for the World War II–era series Baa Baa Black Sheep, where he got a habit of promoting a consistent promilitary stance in a business where he got the perception that "antiwar" and "antisoldier" mentality were the commonplace.

[21] Following the cancellation of his series Quantum Leap, Bellisario moved his production deal from Universal to Paramount (headed by former Universal executive Kerry McCluggage), and began working on a one-shot screenplay of a murder mystery aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, where the victim was a woman and naval aviator, inspired by the then-current introduction of female fighter pilots onboard aircraft carriers and in the wake of fallout of the Tailhook scandal.

Bellisario chose to go ahead with the lawyers and remarked the unique advantages it brought from a story-telling point of view: "Unlike most law shows, I've got a detective, a prosecutor, and a defender.

"[21] With the cancellation on NBC and the immediate pick-up by CBS, showrunner Donald P. Bellisario was allowed greater creative freedom in terms in story and casting.

While over on NBC, its West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer wanted more action rather than legal drama and imposed a new female lead, Tracey Needham, rather than continuing with Andrea Parker as in the pilot movie.

[22] At the start of the third season, JAG moved its production base from the Paramount lot at Melrose Avenue in Hollywood out to Valencia Studios in Santa Clarita in order to save costs and putting more of the budget on screen rather than spending on soundstage rentals.

A few examples of buildings acting as stand-in on location shooting are:[23] The advance of computer-generated imagery (CGI) made the process of removing palm trees and California license plates simpler still.

[3] Initially, the producers of JAG did not receive any co-operation from the U.S. Department of Defense entertainment media liaison offices, due to sensitivity in light of all the accumulative negative publicity that had been generated from the Tailhook scandal and its aftermath.

[1] Between 12–14 July 1999, three of the lead actors (Elliott, Bell, and Labyorteaux) and crew filmed aboard the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) off the coast of southern California for scenes for the first 3 episodes of the 5th season.

However, in keeping with JAG tradition, the outcome of the toss is never seen, as the screen fades to black, showing only the coin, which bears the inscription "1995 – 2005", the years the series spanned.

The result of the coin toss was eventually revealed in the 2019 finale of the tenth season of NCIS: Los Angeles, "False Flag", in which David James Elliott and Catherine Bell both appeared.

The pilot movie received a moderately positive review in Variety, which noted that it "borrows from recent features Crimson Tide and Apollo 13 in being jargon-heavy to help generate atmosphere but as Rabb's character is allowed to develop, JAG could become one of the season's highlights.

"[29] Entertainment Weekly was less impressed by the first episodes of the first season and noted that there is, "...nothing new about JAG‘s plots; they’re the sort of good-guy-against-the-establishment stuff you’d expect, with the scripts (including a recent one cowritten by the mystery novelist Robert Crais) a slight cut above most hour-long dramas.

[22] JAG had its highest ever ratings in the fall of 2001 (season 7), beating episodes of The Practice airing on ABC in the same timeslot and in symbiosis with the other CBS law dramas on Tuesdays, Judging Amy and The Guardian.

Chegwidden, now a civilian attorney in the private sector hired by Director Vance to provide legal representation for Special Agent Gibbs, in the season ten NCIS finale, "Damned If You Do".

David James Elliot and Catherine Bell returned to their roles as Harmon Rabb and Sarah MacKenzie for the first time since JAG ended in the last two episodes of the tenth season of NCIS: Los Angeles.

[57] First Monday was a short-lived series co-created by Bellisario and Paul Levine about fictional U.S. Supreme Court justices and their clerks, which aired in 2002 and starred James Garner and Joe Mantegna.

Senator Edward Sheffield (Dean Stockwell), who appeared in three episodes of that show, later became a recurring character on JAG as the new Secretary of the Navy, starting in season eight.

However, no other episodes of the series proper was released on any home entertainment media while show was still in production, allegedly due to syndication deals made with several broadcasters.

[63] On April 26, 2010, Intrada released an album of music on compact disc from the series, featuring Bruce Broughton's theme and his pilot movie score (tracks 1–15) and weekly composer Steven Bramson's score from the second-season episode "Cowboys & Cossacks", including Broughton's format music (the main and end title theme and commercial bumper.