Hey Dad..!

I think, this comedy series is one of the best I have ever seen. If you are searching for a good laugh, try "Hey Dad". I can watch it 1000 times, and I can always laugh over the jokes. After watching this show over some time, the actors are almost becoming something like family members. When it was on air in my country, I never missed an episode.

Hey Dad was moderately funny, not overly funny. Each show had it's moments, but for the viewers sake, it didn't reach that laugh quota, to maintain it's 23 minute episode. But there are other misfiring comedies, The Hogan Family, that was more drama suited, and the dreaded News Radio. Different comedies cater to different viewers. What one person may find funny, ten other people don't. When first making it's Adelaide debut on Valentines, 1987, the show incredibly aired only three episodes before being taken off, where later some characters, actors, left, where new ones came on board, like little Matthew Krok, and Comedy's Inc's Ben Oxenbould, where the comedy had soured a bit. In the early shows, the character stealer was of course the annoying neighbour, food seeking Nudge. One line in the very first show had Nudge, asking the infamous Hughes, an unexceptional actor, (and I'm not being personal) if he had the Rolling Stones, to which Hughes's Martin Kelly character replied, being a master architect and all "No, I've only got the parallel rulers". Truswell who starred as a rotten apple cop in the third Underbelly series, was a great asset to the show, he departure would so angered a lot of viewers. Okay it may of not of been a comedy hit, but being part of this likable family, sharing their lives, if too admiring some of the actors, makes up for the low denominator of laughs, and I say this for all low on laughs comedies, where if you've become involved in these families, and the interesting and well developed characters, this is a good replacement.

As my title says, it started off quite well, but constant character changes and a general lack of material to work with effectively killed the show.

Personally the show started going awkward for me when Paul Smith was replaced as 'Simon' - Christopher Mayer was ok but he never quite made it for me. And this was right in the early seasons.

Anyway, aside from that, the show was pretty good until in the space of 1 season or so Debbie, Simon and Nudge (practically half the main cast) just disappeared and were replaced. The biggest problem here was not that they were replaced but rather their replacements were almost IDENTICAL to the earlier characters. Ben was Simon with a bit of Nudge thrown in. Arthur was also a bit of Nudge. Samantha was Debbie.

Needless to say that after this the show started going downhill quite rapidly. Even the replacement of Martin Kelly was for naught because Greg Russell was (surprise surprise) yet another identical replacement. If you're going to replace characters, please make them DIFFERENT. Making them practically identical to the originals only serves to remind us of how good the original cast was compared to the current one.

The only character that stayed with the show throughout was Betty (Jenny doesn't count because she was played by 2 different actresses, who both played her differently), which was pretty sad. Betty may have been funny at first but in the end all she did was mess up everything again and again and again. Was funny at first, but after a couple of years you want something else for a change.

In all, the series was enjoyable, but it's best years were 1986-1991 when the original cast (well at least most of it) was in.

I was reminded of Hey Dad! by a site called "Jump the Shark". It's been a very long time since I've seen it but looking back it was surprising I grew up with an Australian sitcom alongside other shows such as Growing Pains and Family Ties.

As everyone probably knows the show's early years were the best but I persisted with it until a little kid showed up in the house and wasn't just a guest star. Hey Dad! didn't leave any real impression on me and the only jokes I remember today are Betty putting white-out on the screen of her new computer and Dad's Volvo being taken out for a joy ride with the car being put in reverse at 60 km/h.

I avoid Australian programs on commercial TV nowdays and I wonder if that's just because I'm older or because the programs in the 80's and early 90's were a lot better.

Hey Dad..!'s appeal is in making the lives of the characters something we all wish we could have. It is so easy to identify with them, and although their lives seem crazy, we wish sometimes our lives could be a little crazy, which would be better than our day-to-day lives. Hey Dad..!'s comedy is usually reliant on sarcasm, the quintessential feature of Aussie humour, although by today's standards it doesn't seem so bad anymore. It takes us back to the good old days of comedy without necessarily criticising other people, as well as some decent morals, things today's television lacks.

Its finest hour would have to be its 1992 season, probably the reason Channel Seven runs it so often. This is when the writing quality reached its peak.

Don't criticise it because of its non-aggressive humour. Just take it as it is. It'll do you good.