In 2002, a new Aussie sitcom burst onto the stage.
Kath & Kim ran for just four seasons but its impact on the world is such that many sayings from the show made it into the Aussie vernacular.
The show started on the ABC and was a huge hit here and overseas, even spawning a US version of the show.
Let’s take a look at the show’s beginnings, its celebrity fans and the sayings that made Kath & Kim a household name.
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Kath & Kim was created by Australian comedians Gina Riley and Jane Turner, who first met as teens at community theatre, but the characters date back even longer.
They first appeared on Australian TV in the TV shows Something Stupid and Big Girl’s Blouse.
Riley said her inspiration for the character of Kim came from the 1996 Channel Nine reality TV show Weddings, while Turner said another Aussie reality show, Sylvania Waters, also influenced the over-the-top characters and documentary-style production.
As Riley explained to Sydney Morning Herald in 2022, “Jane had [created] Kath, and we just started mucking around. It was the beginning [of Kath & Kim], but we didn’t know that then.”
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An ongoing skit featuring the characters appeared on Big Girl’s Blouse. Later, the pair began working on a TV show starring the two characters, with Turner playing Kathleen “Kath” Darleen Day-Knight, a middle-aged suburban mother, and Riley as her narcissistic daughter, Kimberly “Kim” Diane Day.
The fact the pair were the same age did not stop them embracing their roles as mother and daughter, with Turner donning wigs to transform into Kath.
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The other main cast members were Peter Rowsthorn, who played Kim’s henpecked husband Brett Craig, Glenn Robbins as Kel Knight, Kath’s metrosexual boyfriend and later husband, and Magda Szubanski as the lonely Sharon Strzelecki, a character she created.
They asked Robbins if he would reprise a character from the sketch comedy show Fast Forward, which was then fleshed out by the pair.
All the cast knew each other from their comedy days, while Riley’s husband Rick McKenna produced the show.
The series was set in Fountain Lakes, a fictional suburb of Melbourne, but the house used for filming was in Patterson Lakes in south-east Melbourne.
But days before the show was to start filming, ABC tried to cancel the deal because an executive thought it would flop. The deal only went ahead after the pair said they took legal action and a new director of television was appointed.
Kath & Kim first hit Australian screens on May 16, 2002, and became one of the ABC’s highest-ever rating TV shows, something that shocked Riley.
“We thought it maybe would have a little audience, we thought it was good enough to give it a go. We thought three people and their dog might like it, you know?” she said.
Turner said inspiration came from everywhere. “Sometimes we’d come up with a funny line or situation or funny thing we overheard or a joke and we’d work a situation around it. Then we’d improvise in our characters and write the dialogue,” she said.
The show became part of pop culture, and also spawned a plethora of sayings, including “Look at me [pronounced ‘moi’], “pash rash” and “You’re not a freckle, you’re a mole.”
After three seasons at the ABC, the show moved to Seven for its fourth and final season, with Turner announcing the show would end in 2007 because “we can’t think of any more ideas.”
During its run, a who’s who of stars lined up to make guest appearances, including Kylie Minogue, Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush and Shane Warne.
Riley said every time a star wanted to do the show “we’d pinch ourselves.”
Warne played a Shane Warne impersonator, Wayne Shaun, who married Sharon and sealed the deal with a pash.
Minogue came on board to play Epponnee-Raelene, the grown-up daughter of Kath and Kel, in a flash-forward dream sequence of her wedding day.
In all 32, 25-minute episodes of the show were made. There was also a 2005 made-for-TV movie, Da Kath & Kim Code, a 2012 film, Kath & Kimderella, and a US version that ran for one season.
A two-part special to mark the show’s 20th anniversary, Kath and Kim: Our Effluent Life, aired in 2022.
Years after the show stopped production, Kath & Kim it continues to win fans all over the world, but Riley hosed down hopes of a revamp.
“We are so grateful that it still lives on and people are still watching it, but we can’t recreate that. That was a time and place. It’s not coming back.”
Both Riley and Turner are now 63.
Riley last provided voice work for a 2022 episode of Fisk. She and McKenna have one child.
Turner, who is married with three children, had a recurring role in Rake and last appeared in a French TV series Parlement.
Szubanksi went on to star in the Hollywood film, Babe, and the animated movie Happy Feet, and reprised her role as Sharon for a 2019 Uber Eats commercial with Kim Kardashian.
Robbins, 66, went on to create the character Russell Coight, and continues to work, while Rowsthorn has also kept busy, most recently starring in The Amazing Race Australia 2023 celebrity edition alongside daughter, Frankie.