Arnold
Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoHey Dad..!
January 24th 2007 06:11
If you lived in Australia between 1987 and 1994 (or, inexplicably, Germany around the same time), chances are that you watched an episode or two of 'Hey Dad..!', one of the few successful Australian sitcoms.
Successful Australian sitcoms are few and far between. The 70s and early 80s had one or two (including 'Kingswood Country' and 'Mother and Son'), but beyond 'Hey Dad..!'s 7-year run I can only think of about three more sitcoms to have had any degree of success - 'Frontline', 'We Can Be Heroes' and 'Kath and Kim' - all of which are somewhat unconventional as far the 'traditional' sitcoms go.
Anyway, getting back to 'Hey Dad..!', it was fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. Martin Kelly is a work-at-home architect raising a family on his own. Betty - the bane of his existence - is his somewhat slow-witted secretary. His children - Jenny, Debbie and Simon - do their best to aggravate his existence, and Nudge is the mooching neighbour who never seems to go away. For some reason this show was a big hit in Australian and Germany. I have a theory that this is due to the fact that there was nothing else being played on Australian television. As for Germany, I have no idea, and the high number of German-based 'Hey Dad..!' websites has baffled me for years.
As the show went on various characters disappeared (Nudge, Debbie) or were played by new actors (Simon, Jenny). New characters were introduced to keep the show afloat, including the popular and highly annoying Arthur McArthur (portrayed by Mathew Krok, who is now allegedly a Mormon) who entertained Australia for a good two or three months with his catchphrase 'I'm only a little kid'. Other characters to get introduced into the show included Sam and Tracy (substitues for Debbie), and Ben (a dim-witted substitute for Nudge). The show hit it's all-time low point in it's last year when Martin Kelly - the main focus of the show - left and got replaced by Uncle Greg, leaving Betty as the only original character left.
TRIVIA...
* A spin-off called 'Hampton Court' was launched in 1991. It featured Betty as the main character. It was a huge flop.
* Naomi Watts appears in an early episode as Simon's 'dream girl'.
* The last episode ended with the house blowing up and every character being killed. It was a silly and bizarre way to end a show that had been resoundingly in the 'melodrama and light comedy' mould.
And why am I talking about 'Hey Dad..!' at the moment? Well, it's getting a DVD release soon! Set to be released in mid-March, the double-DVD will feature 13 episodes.
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thats all that needs to be said!
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ok one more time....
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