The second season focuses on the cancellation of Ava's talk show, and Chris starting a business with Reagan's brother Scott (Luka Jones).

The series was based on creator Emily Spivey's life when she went back to working on Saturday Night Live after giving birth to a baby boy.

[3] On February 1, 2011, Up All Night received a pilot order, written by creator Spivey and directed by James Griffiths, under the title Alpha Mom.

[5] After the success of Maya Rudolph's movie Bridesmaids, Up All Night went through some retooling which now has her character Ava as a talk-show host and Reagan as the show's producer, instead of them being PR executives.

[6] Some media critics compared the character change to Rudolph's impersonation of Oprah Winfrey on Saturday Night Live.

[10] The series was created by Emily Spivey who serves as executive producer alongside Lorne Michaels, Jon Pollack, and Erin David.

In a year when a large number of new sitcoms passed off hackneyed conventions as hip cultural satire, Up All Night rang surprisingly true.

[77][78] HitFix reviewer Daniel Feinberg gave the series pilot a positive review, but disliked the office settings and the writing for Rudolph's character commenting that "Will Arnett and Christina Applegate are playing parents, but Maya Rudolph is playing a sitcom character".

[81] Slate writer Hanna Rosin has praised the show in particular for slowly subverting the sitcom archetype of the father incompetent at managing the household.

In early episodes, he propped up the infant on the couch so he could play his video games or watch hockey, and didn't really notice when she tipped over.

"Like the classic doltish dad, she creates elaborate schemes to fix domestic problems but only winds up making everything worse.

as NBC's fourth highest rated scripted series after The Office, Smash and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.