Don't Blame Me (TV series)

Australia

The story

Don't Blame Me (also known as Don't Blame the Koalas in the United Kingdom) is an Australian children's television program produced by Southern Star Group that premiered on October 14, 2002 and ended on March 30, 2003 originally on the Nine Network and is currently shown on ABC3 with a total of 26 episodes. It was nominated for only three awards, two of those at the 2003 Australian Film Institute Awards with Liam Hess' Young Actor Award being the only win.

Premise

Don't Blame the Koalas follows Gabrielle, Greg and Jemma King, an upper-crust family from London who, after learning they are bankrupt, travel to Sydney to live with their Australian relatives, Chris, Kate and Mark, with the belief they have inherited a large cattle ranch, only to discover upon arriving that what they really inherited was a largely unprofitable, slightly rundown wildlife park. The show is set in Wallaby Park, an Australian wildlife park in the Ku-ring-gai National Park on the suburbs of Sydney. Most of the comedy in the series is slightly surreal in a Round the Twist/Driven Crazy-style way. Special effects and sounds are used to convey the characters' actions mixed in with slightly sped up footage when walking. Many of the characters frequently break the fourth wall. Having to do whatever means to keep the wildlife park up to building code standards for visitors, Vinnie has a dark past that he must call upon his old friends still involved in the Golden Triangle to save the day.

Main

Liam Hess as Gregory King
Hollie Chapman as Jemma King
Basia A'Hern as Kate King
Shaun Loseby as Mark King
Henry Nixon as Chris King
Fiona Terry as Gabrielle King, Gregory and Jemma's mother
Anh Do as Vinnie, a Vietnamese-Australian animal handler

Recurring

Wendy Playfair as Mrs. Smythe
Rhys Wakefield as Brad
Sophie Luck
Celia Ireland as Schoolteacher
Roy Billing as Principal
Brittany Byrnes as Actress #3
Carole Skinner as Weird Wanda
Laurie Foell as Miss Crowley

Episodes

Series overview

Filming

Don't Blame the Koalas was filmed in the Australian wildlife reserve in Waratah Park NSW, previously made famous as the home of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Like Malcolm in the Middle, hallmarks of the series' filming and structure, many of which heavily influenced later programs such as Mortified and In Your Dreams (both of those series also feature at least one character frequently breaking the fourth wall), included the following:

A 1 1/2-second whip pan as a transition from one scene to another.
Frequent pieces to camera delivered by the King family.

Crew

Executive producers: Kris Noble, Noel Price, Nick Wilson
Producers: Noel Price, Dennis Kiely
Writers: Kym Goldsworthy, John Armstrong, John Thomson, Simon Hopkinson, Geoff Newton, Noel Price, Chris Kunz, Nick Wilson, John Benson
Directors: Marcus Cole, Ralph Strasser, Kevin James Dobson, Ray Quint
Script editor: Kym Goldsworthy