Produced by PBS for the American Experience documentary program, it recounts the Adams couple's lives and partnership through both dramatizations and interviews.
The film was directed by Peter Jones and written and produced by Elizabeth Deane, and it first aired on PBS in the United States on January 23, 2006.
Louis Howard of DVD Talk gave John and Abigail Adams four out of five stars, writing that it is "[a]nother strong entry" of the American Experience program.
"[3] Leigh H. Edwards of PopMatters expressed that the documentary is better at "refram[ing] its subjects for a 21st-century audience" than Benjamin Franklin, another film from American Experience about a founding father.
Edwards stated that it "avoids [...] hagiography by focusing on many of Adams' own weaknesses and self-doubts, even while emphasizing how his genius and foresight led him to become [...] the 'premiere political thinker in Revolutionary America.