Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Sydney (based on Summer Hill), it revolves around high school experiences from the viewpoints of three individuals: "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; private-school exchange student Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan-Australian student Jonah Takalua.

The series lampoons Australian high-school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed as a documentary with non-actors playing supporting characters.

As he did in a previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year, Lilley plays multiple characters, including the aforementioned Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah.

Summer Heights High was a massive ratings success for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was met with mostly positive critical reaction.

[2] Following the success of Summer Heights High, Lilley has developed two spin-off shows: Ja'mie: Private School Girl (2013) and Jonah from Tonga (2014).

According to the prologue, a production and filming team travelled to an Australian public high school and followed the daily life of the students and staff for one term.

The team would film a documentary from the opinions of the students and staff, especially the three main characters: Ja'mie King, a mean girl-type perfectionist exchanged from a private school; Mr G, a drama teacher with an inflated sense of his talent; and Jonah Takalua, a stereotypical Tongan delinquent, all played by the series' writer, Chris Lilley.

He then brags about his life story in performing arts and discusses a typical drama class, where he incorporates his unique teaching style.

Thrilled with the temporary promotion, he makes a few changes such as clearing-out Mrs Cotton's desk and moving himself in, and walking around the school to pass on the news to students of his new role.

He also unveils plans for a new performing arts centre with a 10,000-seat theatre complex that will require the demolition of demountable classrooms used by the special education students.

However Ja'mie is shocked to discover messages from Sebastian to another girl Year 7 student on his mobile phone but exaggerates the meaning of the texts because they only talk about "saving each other a seat in English".

Margaret sees him from her office and comes out to speak with him in his car, where she asks him to reconsider his resignation and offers him the title of 'Creative Coordinator of the Drama Department' which he calls insulting.

Three weeks later on the last day of term, Mr G declared the musical a "hit" despite poor ticket sales leading to only one show being performed.

At the school gate, Mr G can't control Celine on the footpath near the road and wishes goodbye to students over a portable amplifier.

[15] The third episode was accidentally made available to the ABC website a week early, leading to it also being uploaded to YouTube prior to its television broadcast.

[20] Summer Heights High was released on DVD in Australia on 25 October 2007, and was accompanied by a signing appearance by Lilley at an ABC Shop in Melbourne's CBD.

[22] A soundtrack was released[23] through ABC Shops and the Australian iTunes Store, the latter also containing audio extracts from songs in the series including Mr G's "Bummer Heights High", "Naughty Girl", "She's a Slut" and Jonah's "Being a Poly".

Writing for TV Tonight, David Knox called the series "a treat" and stated "Lilley is the best comic to emerge from the ABC since Kath & Kim came into their own".

[26] Summer Heights High received generally favourable reviews from American critics; it holds a Metacritic score of 67 out of 100.

[27] Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times praised Lilley's performance of Jonah, saying the character "gives the series the heart without which it would otherwise expire".

[28] Some critics noted the humour may not translate to American audiences; David Hinckley of the New York Daily News said "while its outrageous characters are often amusing, their palate of jokes runs thin".

[1] Along with Spicks and Specks, Summer Heights High helped ABC TV to achieve its strongest midweek ratings for 2007.

[34] The first episode of Summer Heights High was nominated for the Best Comedy award at the Banff World Television Festival in 2008, losing to Extras.

Even before Summer Heights High aired, some community groups complained about a "rape joke" and Mr G's inappropriate "touching" of a boy with Down syndrome.

[37] ABC apologised to the family, stating that the situation was purely coincidental and assured them that the filming of the episode in question had been completed eleven days before her daughter's death.

[40][41] In response to the George Floyd protests, Summer Heights High was one of several of Lilley's series that Netflix removed from its streaming service due to the use of blackface and brownface in the portrayal of characters.

[42][43] Writing for The Guardian, Seini F. Taumoepeau called Lilley's Jonah character a "racist construct" who did not accurately represent Tongans.

[44] The creators of the 2004 ABC TV documentary series Our Boys stated that Lilley drew inspiration for the Jonah character from their work.

[45] The subject of Our Boys recalled being "absolutely embarrassed, full of hate, angry and exploited" by the "racist" Jonah character that was based on him.

[45] Responding to suggestions there could be a second series, Lilley stated in June 2008 that he was yet to decide what to do next as he had not considered writing further episodes as "it was always a one-off thing".