Some of the voice actors of the film reprise their roles in the series, among them Jodi Benson as Ariel, Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian, Kenneth Mars as King Triton, and Pat Carroll as Ursula.

The Little Mermaid premiered on September 11, 1992, with the animated prime time special called "A Whale of a Tale," then moved to Saturday mornings.

The opening theme to the show is an instrumental combination of the songs "Part of Your World," "Under the Sea," and "Kiss the Girl."

The proposed series would feature puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop interacting with a "live" Ariel.

But after Jim Henson's untimely death along with production difficulties and as the video release of The Little Mermaid soared in sales during 1990 and early 1991, Disney quietly dropped plans for "The Little Mermaid's Island" in favor of a more ambitious plan: an animated weekly series for CBS.

Jamie Mitchell, an artist and graphic designer who worked on Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, was named the producer and director of the new series.

Ariel becomes friends with and adopts a baby killer whale named Spot that was separated from his family because of human poachers.

The show's broadcast debut in September 1992 was in the form of a half-hour prime-time special, The Little Mermaid: A Whale of a Tale.

The series has been available with the exception of the pilot episode ("Whale of a Tale") through The Walt Disney Company's streaming platform Disney+, since the service's launch on November 12, 2019.

"[14] Katerina Dailey of Screen Rant included The Little Mermaid in their "10 Best Disney TV Shows That Started As Movies" list, stating, "The film is a great watch even 30 years later.

"[15] KJ Dell Antonia of Common Sense Media gave the series a grade of two out of five stars, writing, "Spin-off sinks for everyone except besotted fans.

The segments star Sebastian, and are set outside of the sea, taking place after the wedding between Ariel and Eric in the film.