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troperville

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tools

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toys

• 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

Examples:

• 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.
• 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.
• Hey, It's That Girl!: Delta Goodrem appeared in a few episodes.
• 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.
  Nudge: I'm doing the Royal We here.
  Martin: Well, don't do it on the carpet!
• 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 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