Based on TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the show was popular in the US, and ran for three seasons on CBS. The show's story editors were Hank Saroyan and Steve Gerber, who both contributed episodes and had a firm hand in the writing of the series.

Although aimed at a young audience as many animated series are, the show has distinctive plots, and is unusual in children's television for the amount of ethical awareness and empathy displayed to and encouraged in the viewer. It is not unusual for members of the band to lose hope or break down in tears, only to be comforted by others, or reinvigorated through good works. The level of violence was controversial for children's television at the time, and the script of one episode, "The Dragon's Graveyard", was almost shelved because the characters contemplated killing their nemesis, Venger.[1] In 1985, the National Coalition on Television Violence claimed it was the most violent show on network television. At least some of the criticism of the show was based not so much on its actual content, as its association with the Dungeons & Dragons franchise[citation needed] which had become highly controversial by the 1980s due to its supposedly occult content.

In 1987, the series premiered in France (under the name "Le Sourire du Dragon" — The Smile of the Dragon) and in the United Kingdom, satellite television channels were showing repeats at least into the late 1990s. In 1999, Saban Entertainment bought the Marvel Productions catalog, minus the Hasbro related series, including all the broadcast rights. Saban later merged with the Fox Entertainment Group, and for about six months, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon was broadcast during the Saturday morning and weekday afternoon FoxKids time block. In August 2002, Disney acquired Fox & Saban and gained the broadcast rights to the cartoon; however, it had not been shown on any affiliated television channel until April 7, 2006, when it was broadcast on Jetix on Toon Disney. BCI has recently acquired the DVD rights. The series was very successful in Brazil, and was aired during the Xou da Xuxa, the most famous Brazilian children's show, named as Caverna do Dragão (Dragon's Cave). The whole series is currently available on DVD in the United Kingdom and was released in the United States on DVD for the first time ever on December 5, 2006.

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