Patricia Edgar agreed to have Jennings write the series on the condition he would be mentored by and collaborate with the director, actor, and writer Esben Storm.

The partnership between Edgar, Storm and Jennings was an efficient team for the development of the first series, whose characters and community were set around a lighthouse on a coastline.

[3] Edgar's instructions, based on research done on Australian children's viewing preferences,[5] was to balance the stories around a family with three leading child characters.

Edgar stressed the importance of jokes and humour and told Storm to push the boundaries, while grounding the series firmly in the emotions and issues of growing children.

The first 13 half-hour episodes were part of a three-program package the ACTF sold to the Seven Network in September 1988, which also included Kaboodle and The Greatest Tune on Earth.

[7] The first series of Round the Twist was based on the popular novels Unreal!, Quirky Tales, Unbelievable!, Cabbage Patch Fib, and Uncanny!

The lyrics and music of the theme song were written by Andrew Duffield and sung by Tamsin West, who played Linda Twist in the first series.

In a subplot, Tony falls in love with Fay and spends the series developing a relationship with her, culminating in a marriage proposal at the finale.

The series provides a lot of laughter and suspense and retains the surprise endings which made the books so popular among modern young readers.

In this series, Mr. Gribble is not concerned with removing the Twists from the lighthouse; rather, he campaigns for a Senate seat with the fictional Progressive Conservative Party.

In this series, Mr. Gribble plans to turn Port Niranda into the honeymoon capital of the world by tearing down the lighthouse and building a casino in its place.

The seventh episode of series one was supposed to be "Frozen Stiff", but that had to be changed as it was too expensive to freeze a house and thirty animals inside large ice blocks.

[20] An Australia-wide search for the child leads was conducted, and more than 800 children auditioned for the roles of Linda, Pete, Bronson, and the Gribble gang, Rabbit, Tiger, and Gribbs.

[22] In 2000, the ACTF completed the development of the fourth series of Round the Twist, which was written by Storm, Boseley, Louise Fox, Christine Madafferi, and Robert Greenberg.

[23] Filming for the series started on 7 February 2000, and continued for three months in and around Melbourne, in the Crawford Productions' studio, Williamstown Primary School, and Airey's Inlet.

In 1995, TV 4 Sweden advised that the Round the Twist series won its time slot in the afternoons with a 25 percent audience share.

[24] The ACTF received letters and phone calls from viewers of Les Twist Famille in France, many of whom had watched the program on Canal J, the French children's channel.

[24] In Canada, CBC Television started screening the program in May 1995, while the French-language version was broadcast on sister channel Télévision de Radio-Canada later that year.

[24] The second series was pre-sold to the BBC and Ravensburger in Germany, and received an upfront distribution advance from DARO[definition needed] for Spain, Portugal, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, USSR, Africa (excluding South Africa), Ireland, Greece, Belgium, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iceland, and South Korea.

[25] The Foundation produced a study guide to accompany the Family Album series, which included information on individual programs and activities for students to supplement Round the Twist, and was sent out to all schools in Australia.

[25] The ACTF donated 210 videos to the Starlight Fun Centre Trolley program operating in pediatric wards in hospitals around Australia; Round the Twist and Lift Off were particularly requested.

In the 5.00 pm time slot, season 3 was consistently watched by 323,300 people, including:[23] The Foundation hosted Queen Elizabeth II during her Australian tour in March.

She visited the Melbourne set of the fourth series on 23 March 2000, where she was greeted by Edgar, Janet Holmes à Court, and Dame Margaret Guilfoyle.

[23] The Queen included Round the Twist as part of her itinerary in recognition of the ACTF's achievements on behalf of young people since its inception in 1982.

[23] The third series (which was screened on the ABC and BBC when the Queen visited the set) attracted 2.1 million viewers in the UK in 2000 and was the highest-rated program for 5–12-year-olds in the 5:00 pm timeslot in Australia.

[15] As part of a package distribution arrangement, Round the Twist was sold to Spain, Portugal, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, USSR, Yugoslavia, Africa, Ireland, Greece, and Belgium.

[36] The first series went to air on BBC 1 in April and May 1997, where it was named the second most popular children's program in the ratings published by Broadcast magazine during that period.

[20] Series 4 was delivered to the ABC in December 2000 and pre-sold to the BBC, Buena Vista International (for its Disney Channels in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), and Nickelodeon UK.

[6] The Foundation built a dedicated Round the Twist website which went online in February 2000 to coincide with the ABC's first screening of the third series.

[citation needed] On 2 February 2010, Magna re-released the whole series as a new packaged box set named the "Completely Twisted Collection".