The series was shot entirely in Madrid, Spain and produced by New World Television (U.S.), The Family Channel (U.S.), Ellipse Programme of Canal Plus (France), Beta TV (Germany), and RAI (Italy).

When the commandant of Los Angeles, Alcalde Luis Ramone, terrorizes the people of the pueblo and oppresses them, Don Alejandro de la Vega summons home from Spain his son Diego to fight the alcalde and his men.

When Diego arrives, he finds his town in a sorry state, and while pretending to have little interest in anything but books and his experiments, he creates the secret identity of El Zorro: The Fox.

The bridle and breastplate worn by Toronado in this series are identical to the one worn by Zorro's horse in the Alain Delon film Zorro (1975) and by Chico, the Queen's horse, in the syndicated television series Queen of Swords (2000-2001).

The original pilot (as included in the DVD boxed set Zorro: The Complete Series) focuses on a young man named Antonio de la Cruz, played by Patrick James, who is told by a mortally wounded Don Diego de la Vega to take on the mantle of Zorro.

[9] Two tapes of episodes from this series were released to the United States home video market in 1996.

Also, some of the episodes use the abbreviated version of the opening credits that appeared in reruns on The Family Channel.

"The Legend Begins" is included in its episodic version, rather than as the expanded movie that was originally aired and later released on VHS.