The show was a co-production between British and Dutch producers. The animation was split by two studios: Top Craft in Japan (episodes 1-6, 8, plus intro and ending) and DePatie-Freleng (episodes 7 and 9-13) from The United States with some minor differences in animation. All Topcraft episodes (with its unique sound effects) were directed by the prolific Tsuguyuki Kubo, who worked heavily with Rankin/Bass (among others) on a strong majority of their features, movies (The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn), and syndicated series (ThunderCats). English, Dutch, German, Swedish and Spanish language versions exist, among others. In the English-language version the title character was narrated by veteran actor Peter Ustinov, with Olwen Griffiths and John Challis. The show debuted in 1980 and consisted of thirteen half-hour episodes.

The show was based on original artwork by British illustrator Nick Price, original scripts and ideas by Jeffrey O'Kelly, and television scripts for each episode by Richard Carpenter and John Halas. Two episodes (#8 and #12) were written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, both dealing with ecological issues. Episode 9 was written by Loek Kessels.

In the UK, the show featured as part of the Watch It! strand for children on the ITV network and later got repeated on Channel 4 as well as being broadcast on The Children's Channel on cable and satellite television. In Canada, the series aired on TVO in Ontario and on Knowledge Network in Vancouver. It also aired on the ABC in Australia and ran from 1 March 1982 to 20 September 1991, M-Net and Bop TV in South Africa, RTB in Brunei, RTÉ in the Irish Republic where it was shown a number of times up until 1998, PTV in Pakistan, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. in the US, TV2 and TV3 in Malaysia, MediaCorp Channel 5 in Singapore and in New Zealand on TV1 and Channel 2.

The Dutch dubbing was directed by Frans Voordrecht, by with voices by Jules Croiset, Trudy Libosan, Dick Scheffer and Rupert van Woerkom.

A German dubbed version was also produced, starring Walter Jokisch as Doctor Snuggles, produced by the Bavaria Atelier GmbH, that premiered in June 1981.

The Swedish version features John Harryson and the French version Roger Carel as Doctor Snuggles.

Also, a comic series was produced, published in Germany and Sweden.

Vicky the Viking, known as About this soundWickie und die starken Männer (help·info) in Germany and Austria and Chiisana Viking Bikke (小さなバイキング ビッケ) in Japan, is a German-Austrian-Japanese animated television series which tells the adventures of Vicky, a young Viking boy who uses his wits to help his Viking fellows. It is based on the novel Vicke Viking (1963) written by the Swedish author Runer Jonsson. It premiered on the German TV channel ZDF on 31 January 1974 but aired in various countries. 

The series' main character is Vicky, son of Halvar, chief of the Viking village of Flake. Unlike his village fellows - including most of the other boys of his age - Vicky is blessed with a sharp and imaginative mind which helps his fellow Vikings out of many tight situations, including rival Viking lord Sven the Terrible. Certain results of his intellectual approach shown in the series and the film adaptation include building a makeshift catapult to beat his father in a stone-ferrying contest, fitting their longship with kites to make it glide through the air, and using a small sawfish to cut an escape hole through a wooden door.