Every scene was rehearsed with the actors improvising things to make it funnier if possible. This whole process was observed by the writers, who took notes of the improvisations they felt worked and incorporated them into the shooting scripts.
During her acceptance speech during The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards (2013) Julia Louis-Dreyfus was accompanied on stage by Tony Hale. When they stood on stage together as Louis-Dreyfus gave her speech, Hale pretended to feed her lines, just as he does on the show, playing her obsequious personal assistant.
According to creator Armando Iannucci, the show was intended from its inception to portray three distinct phases of Selina Meyer's career, first as a thankless vice president, then as an unpopular president, and finally as a failed former president.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus offered British actress Sally Phillips a recurring guest part as the Finnish Prime Minister, as she is a big fan of Phillips' sketch show Embrasse le poney (1999).
Armando Iannucci created the character of Tom James for Hugh Laurie after learning he was a fan of the show.