The show was Ullman's first project for network; it led to the creation of the sketch comedy series Tracey Takes On...

After actress Linda Granger is hit by a bus, Penny takes over her role in Finian's Rainbow playing on Broadway.

After ending her eponymous Fox show in 1990, Ullman chose to take a break from television and concentrate on motherhood, having given birth to her second child in 1991.

The special entitled Tracey Ullman Takes on New York was filmed on location in Manhattan over a period of three weeks.

Ullman and her husband agreed, and the pair set up production in Los Angeles in 1995 to begin work on Tracey Takes On....[6] The special is split into three acts with one bit (Linda Granger being hit by a bus) shown from the point-of-view of two different characters: Penny Johnson and Fern Rosenthal (who causes the accident).