The Stanley Hotel is not only where the mini series was filmed but is also the hotel that originally inspired Stephen King to write the novel, having stayed a night there just as the hotel was closing for the season and was nearly empty of guests and employees (detailed at 0:09:40 in the episode 1 DVD commentary). He stayed in Room 217, which had long been said to be haunted. (The actual hotel room is on a corner, not in the middle of the hallway as it appears in the film.)
The miniseries brings back the animate hedge animals from the novel; these were replaced with a hedge maze in The Shining (1980) because Stanley Kubrick felt the effects of the time were not up to it.
One of Stephen King's biggest objections to the Stanley Kubrick version was that Jack Nicholson played Jack Torrance as if he was already mad. This adaptation takes great pains to make Torrance seem fine at the start, slowly succumbing to madness as he endures an isolated winter at the Overlook Hotel.
This mini-series came about largely because of Stephen King's dissatisfaction with the Stanley Kubrick film. King had always been quite publicly opposed to the changes that Kubrick had made to his novel but to re-obtain the rights from the Kubrick estate, he had to publicly recant his opinions.
The role of Jack Torrance was originally offered to Tim Daly. He was interested but unavailable, and suggested they offer the part to his Wings (1990) co-star and good friend Steven Weber. Daly eventually worked with Stephen King in the mini-series Storm of the Century (1999).
Stephen King: Author plays Gage Creed, the band conductor. Gage Creed is also the name of the 2-year-old boy played by Miko Hughes in Pet Sematary (1989), also based on a book written by King. King also had a cameo in Pet Sematary.
Frank Darabont: in the living room as a ghost. Darabont directed The Shawshank Redemption (1994) (based on King's short novel), and visited King to tell him he would direct the upcoming The Green Mile (1999). While there, he was talked into appearing as an extra.
Stephen King: was extremely unhappy with Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the novel, which is why he had such a hands-on approach with the mini-series. He not only wrote the teleplay, but he even makes a cameo in it. The mini-series brings back a lot of the things that Kubrick ejected, particularly Jack's struggle with alcoholism.