What is Kath and Kim?
Kath and Kim is an Australian television comedy about a suburban mother and daughter living in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Fountain Lakes. Created by Jane Turner and Gina Riley, it first aired on the ABC in 2002.
Jane Turner plays Kath Day-Knight, a cheerful, fitness-loving mother, and Gina Riley plays her spoilt, self-absorbed daughter Kim. Magda Szubanski plays Sharon Strzelecki, Kim's loyal, sports-mad second-best friend, and Glenn Robbins plays Kath's partner, Kel, a high-class purveyor of meats.
The show satirises suburban life, consumerism and pretension, with characters often mispronouncing words. Catchphrases such as look at moiye and noice, different, unusual became part of Australian slang.
Success
Kath and Kim ran for four series, moving to the Seven Network, and was followed by the film Kath and Kimderella in 2012. It won many Logie Awards and is regarded as one of Australia's greatest sitcoms.
An American remake aired on NBC in 2008 but was less successful.
Fountain Lakes was inspired by real outer-suburban estates of Melbourne, and the show was filmed in the area of Patterson Lakes, where canal-front homes and shopping centres feature heavily.
Did You Know?
Kath and Kim's characters first appeared in sketches on the ABC comedy series Big Girl's Blouse in the 1990s.