The "disorienting" view when the family is in the country was created by shooting in widescreen without anamorphically adjusting the image.
Cinqué Lee and Joie Lee originally wrote the script as a pilot for Nickelodeon. A test pilot was screened for inner city children who disliked it. The Lees converted their idea into a screenplay.
According to Delroy Lindo, he was very intimidated by working with children as had not worked with children before and did not have his own children at the time.
A scene was filmed in which the family's oven explodes but it was deleted. This was based on a true incident in Spike Lee's life.