"Howards' Way" was created and produced by Gerard Glaister and Allan Prior, with lead writer Raymond Thompson as story and script consultant—at a point in the BBC's history when the organisation was making a concerted populist strike against ITV in its approach to programming. The series debuted on BBC1 in 1985, the same year that the BBC launched its first ongoing soap opera "EastEnders" as a challenge to the ratings supremacy of ITV's "Coronation Street". Although "Howards' Way" is commonly cited as an attempt to provide a British alternative to glossy American sagas such as "Dallas" and "Dynasty", it also acts as a continuation of plot themes explored in a previous Glaister series, "The Brothers", which involved a family's personal and professional crises running a road haulage firm, and embraced several soap opera touches in its characterisations and storylines.