A lot of the shows episodes were filmed in 1983 and the show released in Winter 1984 as a mid-season replacement by NBC.
Sho Kosugi also doubled as Lee Van Cleef's stunt double on a few episodes that he was not featured or did not appear in as he also handled the stunt work for the show as well.
In the UK, this series (shown late at night by some ITV broadcasters) was blamed for a sudden interest in ninja throwing stars among teenage boys. In the mid 80s, teachers reported an upsurge in confiscating poor quality home-made stars made in metalwork classes.
Every episode after the pilot began with a recap of Lee Van Cleef's character backstory with a flashback to the same scene from the pilot episode with Timothy Van Patten narrating and blending into the latest episode.
The show was inspired by the success of Enter The Ninja, which was released in 1981 and starred Sho Kosugi and Franco Nero and was a major success for Cannon Films which would spawn two sequels also starring Kosugi, Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja 3: The Domination and then followed by American Ninja, which would spawn four sequels. Kosugi also had three more ninja films in which he starred in: Pray For Death, Nine Deaths of the Ninja and Rage of Honor.