It followed the lives of the Adams-Foster family led by a lesbian couple, Stef Foster, a police officer, and Lena Adams, a school vice principal, who raise one biological son and four adopted teenagers in San Diego, California.

It concluded with a three-episode finale, which also acted as an introduction to Good Trouble, the spin-off series starring Maia Mitchell and Cierra Ramirez.

The matriarchal heads of this family are police officer Stef Foster and her life partner Lena Adams, a school vice principal.

Their multiethnic, blended family include Brandon, Stef's biological son from her previous marriage, and twins Jesus and Mariana, who were adopted as children.

Most of the show takes place at the family's craftsman-style home in the quiet San Diego suburb of Mission Bay and at Anchor Beach Community Charter School.

The Fosters was originally conceived by openly gay creators Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige[11] who wanted to write a drama that reflected the "modern American family".

"[12] On July 6, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter, among other sources, reported that Jennifer Lopez and her production company, Nuyorican Productions, were developing the yet-to-be-titled hour-long drama for ABC Family, with Lopez set to executive produce alongside Simon Fields and Greg Gugliotta, as well as showrunners and head writers Peter Paige and Brad Bredeweg.

The show's two-hour 100th episode acted as a Season 5 finale, setting up the three-part limited series event that aired in June 2018.

Maia Mitchell, Daffany Clark, Cherinda Kincherlow, Annamarie Kenoyer, Alicia Sixtos, Hayley Kiyoko, and Angela Gibbs star in the series.

"[42] St. Louis Post-Dispatch critic Gail Pennington echoed the sentiment, writing "Intelligent enough for adults, accessible enough for younger viewers and entertaining enough for both.

Entertainment Weekly critic, Sarah Caldwell wrote that "[s]eeing a lesbian, biracial couple on a family TV show is a big deal.

"[44] Philadelphia Daily News critic Ellen Gray wrote, "Stef and Lena [are] the kind of parents I've met more in real life than on television.

"[45] TV Guide critic Matt Rousch felt similarly, writing, "there's something refreshing about its unforced approach to redefining what a family looks like.

[11][47] In his review of the pilot episode, Variety's Brian Lowry criticized what he felt were formulaic elements, writing that what was distinctive about the series appeared to have been "extracted during the pitch meeting, indicating a show either built by committee or incorporating too many notes."

Although acknowledging that Polo and Saum were competent actresses and that the show "had its heart in the right place", Lowry described the series as an "utterly by-the-numbers affair".

[48] PopMatters critic Maysa Hattab detected some of the same problems, writing "[T]he Fosters feel less like a family than a careful assembly of machine-tooled parts, as if the show were engineered for a focus group approved 'family drama' category", while conceding that the lead characters, Stef and Lena were "a likeable pair".

[49] On October 8, 2012, more than seven months prior to the series debut, the socially conservative One Million Moms organization, a division of the American Family Association, condemned Lopez and the show, encouraging audiences to boycott it.

[50][51] The group, which has routinely advocated against the depiction of same-sex couples in the media, stated: "While foster care and adoption is a wonderful thing and the Bible does teach us to help orphans, this program is attempting to redefine marriage and family by having two moms raise these children together.

Josh Middleton, a writer from Philadelphia magazine, called One Million Moms' statement "silliness" as well as "ridiculous" and said, "They obviously missed the boat on shows like Modern Family and The New Normal, which have been on air—and killing it in the ratings game—for a while now".