Kath & Kim stars reveal ABC pulled the pin on show just days before filming

It’s spawned one-liners that are entrenched in the Australian language, but the stars of Kath & Kim have revealed the beloved show almost didn’t happen.

2 min read

November 10, 2022 - 4:53PM

It’s one of the most beloved Aussie shows of all time.

But if certain ABC bosses were to have gotten their way back in 2002, Kath & Kim may have never come to fruition.

Written by and starring Australian actresses Gina Riley and Jane Turner, the comedy series spawned four seasons, a 2005 telemovie Da Kath & Kim Code and the 2012 movie, Kath & Kimderella.

And now – an upcoming two-part special to mark the show’s 20th anniversary, Kath & Kim: Our Effluent Lives, which premieres November 20 on Channel 7.

In a lengthy interview with The Age to celebrate the reboot, 61-year-old Riley (who played Kim) revealed the little-known story of how the national broadcaster wanted to cancel the show just days before the first day of shooting.

Gina Riley and Jane Turner as Kath and Kim. Icons.

“As I remember it, it was the Friday afternoon and we were going to pre-production the following Monday and we got a call saying, ‘It’s no longer the direction we want to go in,’” Riley recalled to the publication.

“We were completely rocked, but we thought we’ve got a pretty watertight deal memo. And they were like, ‘We’re doing you a favour; you don’t want to do this to yourselves.’

“And then we went, ‘OK, we’ll go somewhere else.’ And they said, ‘Oh, no, you can’t take it anywhere else.’ So that was when we went, ‘You know what? This is very unjust. And we’re going to fight it.’”

Turner (Kath), who is also 61, added: “When the ABC wanted to cancel just before we were to start shooting it was hard to take. But we fought back.

“We were very determined to make the show we had pitched, and in reality we didn’t stop writing and working on it. It was too awful so we just pretended it wasn’t happening.”

An engagement for the ages.

Magda Szubanski as the one and only Sharon.

Australian television producer Sandra Levy was appointed director of television shortly after that meeting, and one of her first duties was to “sort out” Kath & Kim.

“And we did very quickly and very satisfactorily,” Levy said “It seemed to me that the ABC had made a commitment to it, and from what I could see it was going to be a terrific show. I was just trying to untangle what looked like a debacle, really.