Kath & Kim

2002 · 4 seasons · Comedy
7.5 Modest

Series finished

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Comedy

Kath & Kim is a character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship. The series main characters consist of Kath Day-Knight, a cheerful 50-year-old woman, her self-indulgent daughter Kim Craig, Kath's boyfriend and second husband, the metrosexual Kel Knight, as well as Kim's estranged husband Brett Craig and her lonely, overweight "second best friend" Sharon Strzelecki. The series is set in the fictional suburb of Fountain Lakes in Melbourne. It is primarily filmed in Patterson Lakes. The series was conceived by Turner and Riley in the early 1990s as a weekly segment of the Australian comedy series Fast Forward. The skit was then developed into a full-series. The first series of Kath & Kim premiered on ABC TV on 16 May 2002, with three further series following, while a television movie, entitled Da Kath and Kim Code, was broadcast nationally on 25 November 2005. Kath & Kim has garnered much critical acclaim since its debut, winning two Logie Awards, for "Outstanding Comedy Programme" and the "Best Television Drama Series" award at the Australian Film Institute Awards. In Australia, it has become a pop culture phenomenon, and is a success with audiences nationwide. Internationally, the series has spawned a cult fanbase, and in 2006 it was announced an American version of the series would be produced, to air on NBC. Riley and Turner served as executive producers on the US version. The American version was also picked up by Seven, which debuted the program on 12 October 2008, just three days after its debut in the United States.

Country of origin
🇦🇺 Australia
Year
2002
Created by
Gina Riley, Jane Turner
Channel
Seven Network

Trivia & behind the scenes

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Origins

The characters of Kath, Kim, and Sharon originated in the mid-1990s as a weekly segment on the Australian comedy series Big Girl's Blouse, with an earlier embryonic version appearing on the sketch show Fast Forward in the early 1990s.

Origins

Big Girl's Blouse had been deemed a failure by the ABC head of comedy, who wanted to cancel Kath and Kim, but the show was championed by ABC Head of Television Sandra Levy, leading to the unusual arrangement of a comedy show being produced by the drama department.

Origins

The show's title is a pun on the old-fashioned idiom 'kith and kin,' meaning friends and family.

Filming

Kath's home, nicknamed 'Chateau Kath,' was a real rented property in Patterson Lakes, Victoria, chosen for its resemblance to Sylvania Waters; the ABC fenced off the canal behind it to make it look more suburban, and the house was eventually sold in 2016 and demolished in 2022.

Filming

Scenes set at the fictional Fountain Gate shopping centre were actually filmed at Westfield Southland, with additional footage shot around the Melbourne suburbs of Cheltenham and Moorabbin.

Casting

Magda Szubanski is credited as a 'special guest' in the opening titles despite appearing in every single episode of the series.

Casting

Singer Michael Bublé and comedian Matt Lucas were fans of the show and personally asked to appear in it, while comedian Barry Humphries declared himself a fan before taking part.

Casting

In the American NBC remake, the character of Sharon was dropped entirely at the insistence of Magda Szubanski.

Music

The show's theme song is a cover of Anthony Newley's 'The Joker,' performed by Gina Riley in the style of Shirley Bassey's version, with a reworked recording debuting in the Da Kath & Kim Code telemovie.

Filming

For the feature film Kath & Kimderella, holiday scenes were shot in Positano, Italy, with the overseas filming taking a total of two weeks; the working title was 'The Kath & Kim Filum,' deliberately misspelling 'film' with a 'u' in the show's signature style of humour.

Reception

When Kath & Kim moved to the Seven Network in 2007, its premiere became the highest-rating episode in Australian television history at the time, and the fourth season became the highest-rating TV season in Australia for 2007.

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