Philip Roth, one of America's most honored novelists and the author of the novel upon which this series is based, actually grew up in the Weequahic neighborhood of Newark, as does the fictional Levin family here. And in sync with the series' main characters, Roth's father's name was Herman, his mother was Elizabeth (known as Bess), and he had an older brother named Sanford, or Sandy for short. Roth was born in 1933, and would have been 7 at the time of this imagining. Roth, who died at age 85 in 2018, was sometimes referred to as "The Bard of Newark." Apart from this series, at least seven feature films have also been based on his novels.
While this is a fictional tale, it does use accurate depictions of the time; for instance, Charles A. Lindbergh was, in actuality, very Antisemitic. Lindbergh was leader of the America First movement, created in 1940 after Adolf Hitler had invaded Poland, and believed the US should take a neutral position in WWII. He was quoted in Readers Digest in 1939 as saying " We can have peace and security only so long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood, only so long as we guard ourselves against attack by foreign armies and dilution by foreign races." He believed in eugenics, that Germany had a 'Jewish' problem, and was close friends with Henry Ford, another well-known Antisemite.
The "Spirit of St. Louis" used is a 100% accurate, flying reproduction of the original Ryan NYP, built by volunteers at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook, N.Y. (with technical assistance from the National Air and Space Museum, where the original "N-X-21" resides). The flying reproduction appears May through October, in the Aerodrome's "Pioneers of Aviation" weekend airshows.
Morgan Spector was offered the role of Herman directly because he had given an impressive audition for The Deuce (2017), David Simon's previous show.
The series takes place from June 1940 to November 1942.