Kath & Kim: Selma Blair and Molly Shannon share with SheKnows

Kath and Kim arrive

The show premiered October 9 to impressive numbers and as Kath and Kim heads into week two, the duo charged with bringing the Australian television hit to American shores are surprisingly optimistic. Given their rich characters, that is hardly surprising.

"These women think they're classy, but are really somewhat tacky," Saturday Night Live alum Molly Shannon (Kath) sets up. "They are products of celebrity magazines and how big they are in our culture. They idolize celebrity and worship the magazines -- those magazines are their bibles! They eat it up. They devour it. They love fantasizing about these celebrities lives and reading about pop culture."

The funny kicks off when young Kim returns home, having given up on her marriage after less then two months at it.

"Kath is finally trying to get her life on and move forward, but now she's sucked back into that vortex of Kim," sighs Shannon. "Kath's ultra-feminine. She loves being a lady and wearing belts, perfume, cream and high heels and showing her stuff, but she's also a together, single woman who raised her daughter on her own, bought her own house, makes her payments, owns her nice car...and this was supposed to be her time!"

Kath has already turned Kim's old room into a gym and met a man, played by funny guy John Michael Higgins, but Kim still doesn't seem to get where her mom is coming from – or much else for that matter!

"My character's in a state of arrested development, which I see all time," Selma Blair (Kim) reveals. "People just don't want to grow up."

Fun at any age

Speaking of growing up, those who are familiar with these actresses may have noticed an age discrepancy here.

While it's common to play with ages in casting, if Shannon and Blair were playing their own ages here, Kath would have had to have Kim at about six years old!

"If you squint your eyes when you're watching, don't put it on hi-def, and put some Vaseline on your eyeballs, I look so young," Blair quips, before explaining. "It's part of the humor that we're the same age as actresses, because that's part of this culture. My character could be 20, 30 or 40. You just have no idea. She's demented! She's in her clothes from when she was in seventh grade and thinks that's hot. We see it all the time, especially in the tabloids."

It's of note that we also tend to see Blair in those tabloids and celeb rags, rarely doing anything but looking good, which almost kept her from landing the role of this tacky, quirky wannabe. 

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