Hey Dad was Australia’s Full House
– actually, it was quite popular in Germany too - the sitcom you
believed was funny. When it wasn’t. (It also lasted near as long as the
chunky-blend-vomit that was Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen’s big break.
And yes, it was our entire fault. We kept watching it – even after
Nudge packed his bags (which, if anything, should’ve been the
indication that the polish had worn from the turd)).
The tacky
HSV7 sitcom centred on the long-suffering Martin Kelly (Robert Hughes),
a successful architect in Sydney bringing up his three children - and
their dropkick friend, Nudge – alone while working from home. Adding to
the “madness” was Kelly’s dim-witted assistant, Betty (Julie White), a
woman who’d forget to pack her ‘brain’ when she moved from Walgett to
the big smoke.
Most episodes usually centred on Kelly battling
with the numbskull Betty, or Nudge eating the family out of house and
home. And yeah, at times there were some rather funny moments (the
early days of the sitcom showed evidence of on-hand scriptwriters) to
be hand – usually thanks to Chris Truswell’s dorky drop-in.
Looking
back on it now though, it’s pretty clear just how ‘bad’ this show was.
Either we’ve been spoilt by such better-written much-funnier sitcoms
since, or there was just plain-and-simple nothing else on TV at the
moment, but it’s a mystery why we all tuned in each and every week (I
understand why we tuned in to see the ABC’s Mother & Son, that was great, but this?).
Nice trip down memory lane, all the same.
EXTRASThis “Best Of” DVD features a dozen or so episodes from the show’s
early days. Some of it’s funny… but most if it is well, pretty damn
lame. Conclusion:
Movie 50% Extras: 10% 
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