[1] The show was written and hosted by comedians Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee, and produced by Zapruder's Other Films, the production company owned by Andrew Denton.

[2][4] While this led to early comparisons with another popular Zapruder production, The Gruen Transfer, the release of The Joy of Sets revealed it to have a completely different structure and content.

The first episode aired nationally in Australia at 9:00 pm on Tuesday, 20 September 2011,[3] and featured guests Warwick Capper[3] and Peter Phelps.

Andrew Murfett of the Melbourne Age thought that TJOS was the best Australian light-entertainment show of 2011, calling it the 'hidden gem' of the year and saying it deserved a better audience.

[14] Joey Alcock on imdb.com wrote that the show gave the hosts great leeway to create humorous moments and most of the gags hit the mark.

"Arguably the most compelling edge that The Joy of Sets has is Martin's extensive knowledge of television shows, and particularly some of the more obscure and often esoteric moments in TV history".

He did comment on the disproportionately high number of longterm fans of Martin's and Kavalee's previous work (particularly Get This) amongst the live audience which he believed prompted the hosts to sometimes overly rely on legacy material and in-jokes.

[15] David Knox writing on tvtonight felt the show was cheap and cheerful but overly scripted, missing the chance to work on the hosts’ abilities to perform live.