He employs his wife's cousin[2] Betty Wilson, a good-natured ditz from the New South Wales country town of Walgett, as his secretary.

Many episodes deal with the daily stresses Martin faces as the family patriarch, such as settling arguments amongst his children.

He frequently endures Betty's elaborate excuses for tardiness and is constantly frustrated with her delayed productivity at work.

Simon's best friend is Gerald "Nudge" Noritas,[3] a neighbour who constantly helps himself to whatever food he can find in the Kellys' kitchen.

Martin also breaks the fourth wall several times to deliver sarcastic one-liners to camera, although this is discontinued after the first 12 episodes.

At the end of season 12, Martin leaves for a $300,000-per-year contract to design and build a deep water port and mini-city in Saudi Arabia.

[4] Production took a temporary break in mid-1991 when Hampton Court, another Gary Reilly sitcom featuring Betty Wilson, was produced.

was to be recorded in front of an audience, the crew would work overnight to take down the Home and Away set, replacing it with the Hey Dad..!

[6] The exterior shots of the Kelly house were filmed using a miniature model constructed by British artist and designer Mike Worrall.

Recording of the exteriors took place in-studio over the course of a two-day period, undergoing a range of lighting situations to re-create various weather conditions and times of day.

Producers often found themselves taking phone calls from people wanting to know the address of the house, with the hope of purchasing it and moving in.

appeared in issue 291 of MAD Magazine's Australian edition, featuring characters such as Barfin' Killjoy, Petty, Simple, Dunny, Junky and Bludge.

The sketch featured series regulars Glenn Robbins as Martin Kelly, Peter Rowsthorn as Simon, Mary-Anne Fahey as Debbie, Christine Keogh as Betty and Russell Gilbert as Nudge, along with child actor Rebecca Smart (who was making a guest appearance in that week's episode) as Jenny.

In 1992, Christopher Truswell briefly reprised the role of Nudge in an episode of another popular TV comedy series, The Late Show, in which he appeared as part of the fictitious supergroup of "Grassby, Grills, Nudge & Plumb" (a parody of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which also included politician Al Grassby, actor/comedian Lucky Grills and actor Gwen Plumb appearing as themselves).

The Movie and was to star Stephen Curry (who made a cameo appearance in the Real Stories episode) as Hey Dad..!

In a March 2010 interview with Woman's Day magazine, regular cast member Sarah Monahan claimed she had been molested on set during the production of the series.

In addition, cast member Ben Oxenbould claimed he discovered Hughes touching a different young girl, who was a guest actor on an episode, in a way that seemed inappropriate.

[14] Reilly said he confronted a man accused of inappropriate treatment of a young cast member hired after Monahan had left the program.

[22] Hughes was arrested in London on 9 August 2012 on 11 charges relating to the sexual and indecent assault of five girls in Sydney between 1985 and 1990.

[29] Under the cover of darkness on the morning of 14 June 2022, Hughes was released into the custody of Australian Border Force officers to ensure he would be flown straight out of the country.