Upper Middle Bogan is an Australian TV sitcom on the ABC, premiering in August 2013. It stars Annie Maynard, Patrick Brammall, Glenn Robbins, Robyn Malcolm, Robyn Nevin and Michala Banas, and was created by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope.
The series follows the story of two families living at opposite ends of the freeway. Bess Denyar is a doctor with a posh mother, Margaret, an architect husband, Danny Bright, and twin 13-year-olds at a private school, Oscar and Edwina. When Bess finds out that she is adopted, she is stunned, but even more so when she meets her birth parents, Wayne and Julie Wheeler. She also discovers that she has three siblings: Amber, Kayne and Brianna. The "bogan" Wheelers head up a drag racing team in the outer suburbs and are thrilled to discover the daughter they thought they had lost.
Three series of eight episodes each have so far aired.
This series contains examples of:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Wayne and Julie video call their daughter's husband to check whether he is having sex with her as they suggested.
- Artistic License – Geography: Bess is seen taking the Dandenong Bypass exit on the Eastlink in the opening credits, a lower socioeconomic area of Melbourne, hardly an affluent suburb that an architect and anethetist would be living in, especially the house they live in.
- Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Edwina considers this with her crush BJ, buying a new wardrobe with Amber's help, before being persuaded to dress as she normally would to see whether he's even worth her attention. He isn't.
- Berserk Button: Margaret didn't mind that her husband was having an affair. She was extremely angry that he wouldn't call Bess to thank her for their anniversary gift.
- Blue Blood: Margaret tries to convince people that she's descended from nobility even though her family were among the first convicts sent to Australia. She's eventually told that the truth actually makes her an Australian blue blood and that a lot of people go to great lengths to pretend that they're from original convict stock. The Wheeler clan, on the other hand, has actual noble blood.
- Book Dumb: Oscar. He seems to have a natural aptitude for cars, although it's implied that he can read and learn quickly as long as something interests him.
- Comically Missing the Point: Brianna mixes up the user ID on app controlled womens underwear, inadvertently causing Danny to pleasure his mother-in-law. All Brianna takes away from this is that the underwear worked properly.
- Cool, but Impractical: Danny fulfills his dream of designing and building his own house. It is a minimalist monstrosity with a brutalist interior filled with hard, uncomfortable furnishings. It takes a huge fight to make him realize that the family doesn't like it.
- Creator Cameo: Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope have both made appearances, the former as one of Bess' co-workers.
- Deadpan Snarker: Margaret and Amber.
- Distracted by the Sexy: After being rejected by her crush BJ Amenta - Shawn's drag racing rival, who turned out to be incredibly shallow - Edwina exploits this by dressing sexy and distracting him into starting a race too soon.
- Dumb Blonde: Brianna.
- Embarrassing Tattoo: Wayne has several that he got in Thailand.
- Exiled to the Couch: A variant. When Bess finds out that Danny lied to her about turning on the air conditioner despite his own (unsuccessful) efforts to cool the house without it, she exiles him to Margaret's house.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Oscar and Edwina are straight examples. Kayne/Brianna and Amber fit the bill but Amber's swearing and demeanor make it a little less clear.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: An in-universe example: Edwina arranges for her school orchestra to play "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?" by The Angels, so she can use her bassoon to toot in time to "No way, get fucked, fuck off!" at the appropriate point.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Julie and her sister Susan, who she never even mentioned to her family in over 30 years. It transpires that their relationship fell apart after Julie had Bess adopted out.
- High-School Sweethearts: Wayne and Julie.
- Hypocrite: Bess criticizes a school for looking down on the Wheelers lack of education but when her son says he wants to leave school in Year 10 to be a mechanic she says that "I wasn't talking about us, I was talking about them". She immediately realises how that sounds and tries to make it up to him.
- Hypochondria: Bess is constantly worried that she's suffering from one horrific malady or another, not helped by the fact that she's a doctor who has to deal with sick people. Danny is constantly trying to assure her that she doesn't have a chronic disorder that will result in a painful death.
- Insistent Terminology: Margaret insists that the school construction project is a cloister.Amber: By the way, I had a look, it's just a bloody walkway.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Danny and Wayne both get this treatment. Danny because his wife is having abandonment issues, Wayne because of a "Fawlty Towers" Plot put in motion by a cracked tooth.
- Mistaken for Gay: After Bess brings both Margaret and Julie to a Mothers Day function, they get mistaken for a lesbian couple. Rather than explain the adoption situation, Julie and eventually Margaret decide to go along with it to help Bess's chances with an application.
- My Beloved Smother: Too say that Margaret was an over-protective mother would be to say that the Pacific Ocean is wet. Bess had to wear floaties to swim even as a teenager.
- Oblivious Adoption: Bess wasn't told until she was in her late thirties, and there's no indication that Margaret would have told her if Bess hadn't suddenly found out their blood types were incompatible. Bess remains resentful about it for much of the first season.
- Odd Friendship: The snobby Margaret and coarse Amber form a fairly close bond over the course of the show, making Bess jealous. Also applies to Margaret and Brianna after she becomes her personal trainer
- Safety Worst: Margaret was this kind of parent during Bess' childhood. Julie calls her out on it, but Margaret argues that the woman who gave her away has no right to judge her.
- Seven Minute Lull: When Amber and Brianna try to tell Kayne about Bess's trip to New York for Christmas, they have to yell it at him over the sound of a neighbouring house's Christmas lights display. Naturally, it cuts out at the worst possible moment and Julie finds out.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Amber, who can't seem to switch it off, even when talking to a private school board.
- Slobs vs. Snobs: The Wheelers vs. Margaret Denyar respectively, with Bess in the middle and trying to make them get along, with at least some degree of success.
- The Talk: After an embarrassing sex ed talk at Oscar and Edwina's school their parents offer to answer any questions they have, Edwina is not interested but Oscar is very enthusiastic which makes his parents uncomfortable. In a later episode Edwina asks her mother the age at which she first had sex but has already decided that the reason for her aunt's marriage problems was having sex too early, before they were emotionally ready, which delights her mother.
