Hey Dad..!

Hey Dad..! is an Australian Sitcom from The Eighties, about a widower dad of three kids.

The characters:
 * Martin Kelly, an architect
 * Betty: His cousin from the countryside, became his secretary (not a very good one)
 * Simon: His son
 * Debbie: His teenage daughter, often goes on dates
 * Jenny: His little daughter
 * Nudge: Simon's best mate

"Nudge: I'm doing the Royal We here. Martin: Well, don't do it on the carpet!"
 * All Girls Like Ponies: Jenny definitely wants one.
 * Big Eater: Nudge. Regularly plundering Martin's fridge.
 * Birthday Hater: One episode revolves around Betty refusing to reveal the date of her birthday, and even claiming that she doesn't have a birthday. It's eventually explained that she once knew a dying child who wasn't going to live to see his next birthday, so she gave him hers.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Martin did this during the early episodes, but stopped soon. The entire cast did so at the end of the series finale to take a bow.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Nudge's disappearance from the series was never explained. So much for being Simon's best friend.
 * Country Mouse: Betty, from Walgett
 * Cousin Oliver: Arthur McArthur, a.k.a. "the little fat kid"
 * Credit Card Plot: Done multiple times.
 * Dawson Casting: Christopher Mayer (26) as Simon (18)
 * Deadpan Snarker: Martin tries to be this. His kids still don't think he's cool.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Whoever wrote the episode in which it is revealed that Nudge has seen The Terminator 17 times hadn't seen it once. The fact that Ahnuld's character is a cyborg was referred to as a Twist Ending.
 * Disappeared Dad: Towards the end of the series, Martin Kelly goes to Saudi Arabia for a highly-paid job, and a friend of the family will play the father's role instead.
 * The Ditz: Betty the secretary. Also, Nudge.
 * Drop-In Character: Had several drop in characters over the years, most famously "Nudge". Inexplicably, one of the drop in characters, Ben, ended up moving into the family proper.
 * Everybody Dies: The bizarre finale in which the family is taken hostage by a bank robber who blows up their house. The "dad" of the show's title lived on by virtue of having been absent from the show for some time by then.
 * The Heart: Betty, since the family lacks a mother.
 * Missing Mom: Martin Kelly is a widower. In the first episodes, this is sometimes mentioned; later, not so much.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Nudge's real name is Gerald Noritis, but probably even he doesn't remember.
 * Royal We: Nudge used it, when he became convinced that he was long-lost royalty.


 * Spin-Off: Hampton Court was only linked to its parent show through the Betty character. It was critically panned and cancelled after 13 episodes.
 * Standardized Sitcom Housing: by contrast, is set in what appears to be a realistic Australian house. Certainly, most Australian houses will have a separate lounge room (or living room) and kitchen, and many lounge rooms will have more than one comfy chair.
 * Stealth Insult / Insult Backfire: Martin often does this to Betty, who never gets it.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Continued for a 13th and 14th season after the titular character left, with a family friend serving as an unofficial father figure. Over its long lifespan, the show had a nearly complete changeover of cast, with replacements alternating between thinly-disguised substitutes and unexplained Other Darrins.
 * Thirty Minutes or It's Free: One episode about a diet, or a hunger strike, or something, that ended with the starving characters giving up and ordering pizza - which then never arrives, because one of the other characters deliberately misdirects the delivery guy in an attempt to get the pizza free.
 * Women Drivers: Debbie