Old Tom is a Larrikin series, and this is a very refreshing change from a lot of young kid's TV. To understand it though, you need to understand the concept of larrikinism.

Wikipedia says 'Larrikinism is the name given to the Australian folk tradition of irreverence, mockery of authority and disregard for rigid norms of propriety.' This is pretty close to Old Tom. Not that he's anti-social by any means. He's just a smelly, rotten old one-eyed, food-obsessed tomcat with a broken leg and various other disabilities, who gleefully gets into adventures without a second thought about what anyone else might think about it.

In the series, he constantly outrages his foster mother's social-climbing neighbour with his chaotic behaviour, and naturally kids love it, though apparently not all serious minded adults do. I can't help but quote this review from the front page on imdb to prove my point.

"The main characters always getting into trouble doing things that the target audience really shouldn't be seeing. For instance, when tom goes to any establishment, he usually leaves it a wreck with disgruntled customers and a wrecked store area. He also has manners that i think could incite children to develop. For instance in some scenes tom even emits belches."

You can probably guess that I find that comment pretty nearly as funny as the series.

It's not an all-time classic, but with his doting, middle-aged human mum, and his insatiable, hedonistic desire for whatever, this stinking, fish-head wielding old coot of a tomcat is worth a dozen moralistic, fingers down the throat, behave-like-this series as far as I'm concerned.