[7] The series is a "fresh reimagining" of the original sitcom Mother and Son, which starred Garry McDonald as Arthur and Ruth Cracknell as Maggie, and ran from 1984 to 1994 on the ABC.

[1] Matt Okine had wished to create a reboot of Mother and Son since 2013, when he had been touring Hong Kong with Denise Scott, who would later play Maggie in the series.

Okine admired the original series, describing it as "a beautiful snapshot of 1980s Australian suburbia, made hilariously unforgettable by its co-stars Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald".

Although he acknowledged that he and Scott had "huge shoes to fill", Okine was optimistic that the series could work: "With my hairline going the way it is, I feel like I was born to play a 2023 version of Arthur!

[6][8] Okine chose this location because he wanted to use a realistic setting for where Arthur Boye's father would have moved from Ghana in the 1970s, as Sydney has been noted for being a culturally diverse city.

"[22] A Sydney Morning Herald reviewer wrote that, "For a sitcom, this Mother and Son is not necessarily funny; in fact, it's low-key depressing.

A lot of the gags sit there without a sharp pay-off, lending the series […] a flat energy that might be the best argument yet for the return of the TV laugh track."