The Late Show (1992 TV series)
The Late Show is a popular Australian comedy sketch and satire show, which ran for two seasons on the ABC. It aired weekly on Saturday nights from 18 July 1992 to 30 October 1993. Cast. "The Late Show" has its roots in the 1980s comedy group, "The D-Generation". Consisting mostly of Melbourne University students, "The D-Generation" managed to gain a cult following with their radio and TV appearances. After the breakup of the original "The D-Generation", some of the members went on to perform on the commercial TV programme "Fast Forward . The remaining members filmed several pilots for what was to be called The Late Late Show" at Channel Nine. These were rejected, and so the group accepted the ABC's offer of a one-hour timeslot on Saturday night. The cast members were: Segments. "The Late Show" featured a number of popular, recurring segments. Introduction: Stand-up. The show opened with a stand-up routine, usually by Martin and/or Molloy, but was sometimes opened by another of the hosts instead. The stand-up was often topical, usually focusing on the week's news, or it was about a topic of  the host's choosing. (In one show, Santo talked about his family's highly ethnically styled home—which was eccentric even by their community's standards—for example, the sequence in question was complete with video clips of the house's odd exterior and interior.) The Late Show News Headlines. "The Late Show News Headlines", presented by Gleisner, would blend the week's real news headlines with fake information and footage. For example, when covering the replacement of Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, footage from an Asian bodybuilding competition was shown. The News Headlines would also feature interviews with newsmakers , most often played by Sitch in costume and prosthetics. Some of the better-known impersonations included H. Ross Perot, Jeff Kennett, John Hewson, Paul Keating, Imran Khan, Yasser Arafat, Gareth Evans and Desmond Tutu. Mick's Serve. This would accompany the News Headlines, Molloy joining Gleisner at the News Desk as Gleisner would get Molloy to comment on a topical issue. This slowly escalated from discussing the issue with an ever calm Gleisner, to an irritated Molloy showing signs of annoyance with the issue, eventually Molloy would rant over the issue while becoming increasingly enraged. The skit would always end  with Gleisner calling in Men in White Coats to douse Molloy and the News Desk with fire extinguishers. Street Talk. In "Street Talk", Martin and Molloy would take to the streets of Melbourne and interview passers-by on issues of the day. These vox-pop interviews often proved more of an opportunity for the pair to ridicule their interviewees, especially their dress sense. The Oz Brothers. This segment saw Cilauro and Sitch as two siblings obsessed with the Australian cricketer David Boon. The segment featured catchphrases such as 'I've had a gut full', 'This country's stuffed', and 'I  can't burrleevet' (believe it). Their worship of all things Boon included praying to a small golden statue of Boon, playing Scrabble (only the word 'Boon' was used by both brothers), posters of Boon adorning the walls of their home, and playing a Boon video-game in which the player could select the size of Boon's moustache and gut. David Boon himself appeared in one episode in which he read the brothers a bedtime story. Celebrity Interviews. Martin went through hours to apply prosthetic make-up to be interviewed in-character as Paul Keating, Prince Charles, Arnold Schwarzenegger and  Michael Jackson. The Toilet Break. "The Toilet Break", as the name suggests, was designed to allow viewers time to use the toilet during the commercial-free show (the ABC, being a public broadcaster, has no adverts during shows and minimal amounts of commercials between them, usually only for the ABC Shop). The 2-minute-long segment was played in the middle of every show, featuring old music clips, with a countdown displayed on the top left-hand corner of the screen. During the first season, the toilet break consisted mostly of clips from The Natural 7 from "The Saturday Show . The second season exclusively used clips from Pot Luck", which were judged by Bernard King. Shitscared. "Shitscared" starred Rob Sitch as a stuntman combining Evel Knievel and Ed Wood (in that he was similarly unable to grasp his own sheer incompetence and lack of aptitude in his chosen field) compounded by the 'spanner in the works', Mick Molloy as his half-witted assistant and Tom Gleisner as the interviewer. Sitch played the arrogant expert, who loved to pontificate about "the stunt game". He would fashion detailed plans for each stunt, with an emphasis on "safety". He would boast about his  own significance, mumbling and glossing over any questions relating to poorly funded, rundown buildings and stunt apparatus variously referred to as 'Stunt HQ'. Mick would always manage to ruin Rob's planning, inevitably resulting in physical injury for Rob, which would get him a slap on the back of his head from Rob (although Mick was always wearing a crash helmet). The first two "Shitscared" sketches were shot at Channel Nine for the unaired pilots of "The Late, Late Show" (no relation to the American show hosted by Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson and James Corden). Pissweak World. Several -minute advertisements for mediocre theme parks with the 'Pissweak' brand name. These included : Each would feature a guided tour with examples of the many low-quality attractions. Featuring The Pissweak Kids and Tom Gleisner as the Park Guide, with narration by Tony Martin. Park highlight narration examples (from Pissweak Town): Graham and the Colonel. Similar to Roy and HG, "Graham and the Colonel" were two satirical sports commentators, played respectively by Sitch and Cilauro dressed in green ABC sports jackets. Whilst the characters often forgot lines and used many corny and humourless jokes, the segment was much loved. This segment  aired just before the end of each episode. The intro music for the segment was "Light and Tuneful" by Keith Mansfield, the same music used by the BBC to introduce its Wimbledon coverage. The Olden Days. "The Olden Days" was a segment where the cast overdubbed "Rush", a black-and-white historical drama series produced by the ABC in the 1970s. It was aired during the first series of the show. Martin did the voice of the star of the show, Governor Frontbottom (as well as Judge Muttonchops). Molloy supplied the voice for the John Waters' character Sergeant Olden. Other  characters were used intermittently. "The Olden Days" was released by the ABC as a VHS video containing all the segments in order, although it has been out of publication for a number of years. On 15 August 2007, it was released on DVD in "The Late Show Presents Bargearse and The Olden Days". Actors Brendon Lunney and John Waters appeared as surprise guests on "The Late Show" after the last episode of "The Olden Days". Bargearse. Replacing "The Olden Days" in the second series of the show, "Bargearse" was an overdubbed version of "Bluey", a 70s police drama set in  Melbourne, Australia. The segment was originally to be an overdubbing of an Australian soap opera, "The Young Doctors", titled "Medical Hospital", but the rights to the footage were pulled at the last minute. The ABC series "Truckies" was considered for overdubbing in a segment intended to be titled "Truck Wits", before the writers settled on "Bluey". This change left the writers with very little time, and as a result the planned 20 short episodes was cut down to 10, which aired in the second half of series two. Bargearse was named after its protagonist, Detective Sergeant Bargearse, an overweight, moustache -sporting "rough-and-tumble" cop. The sketches exploited Bluey's weight with plentiful fat jokes, as well as many fart noises. Bargearse was voiced by Martin, while his sidekicks, Ann Bourke and Detective Glen Twenty ("Glen 20" is a household disinfectant spray in Australia), were voiced by Lucy and Sitch respectively. Other minor characters were revoiced by Cilauro, Molloy and Kennedy. Lucky Grills, who played Bluey, appeared on "The Late Show" two times: as a guest in the mock press conference for the Biodome participants, and in the musical appearance as noted above. On 15 August 2007 a "Bargearse" and  The Olden Days double-feature DVD was released. The music used for the "Bargearse" theme music is the 1970 Jazz track "Brass in Action" by Keith Mansfield. Shirty: The Slightly Aggressive Bear. "Shirty: The Slightly Aggressive Bear" was a parody of children's TV shows. The twist was that the main character, Shirty, would react harshly to even the smallest insult. Many episodes ended with a destroyed set, a firearm being shot, or injury to the other characters. In the last episode of the first series, a sketch revealed that Shirty was played by the "Hando" character from "Romper Stomper  as played by Russell Crowe. Although in a best-of" episode two weeks prior, it was suggested that Shirty was routinely played by Mick. It was stated on "The Best Bits of The Late Show" DVD commentary by Jane (who played the segment's other recurring character, Miss Tammy) that Rob Sitch was in the suit. The Shirty costume was actually that of Percy Panda, a character played by Jack Manuel in the ABC children's show "Adventure Island". Charlie the Wonderdog. "Charlie the Wonderdog" was a series of (7) short episodes which first aired during "The Late Show's  second series. The segment was created after last-minute changes led to Bargearse"s planned twenty episodes being cut down to ten. Starring Charles 'Bud' Tingwell and the "Pissweak Kids" (a group of children who also starred in the Pissweak World sketches), "Charlie" was a parody of fictional animal shows, such as "Lassie" and "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" in which the animal regularly ends up saving the day. Charlie was a Golden Retriever owned in real-life by Gleisner. The sketch featured purposely bad overacting from the children and usually involved an unimposing villain or disaster (such as a "smuggler" stealing  native fauna—sticks and twigs—from the bush) that had to be prevented. The actors would constantly praise Charlie as a highly intelligent "wonder dog", in contradiction of the behaviour of Charlie himself, who regularly had to be dragged around by a visible rope to perform stunts. When the dog was required to bark to alert the others of danger, obvious overdubbing was used over footage of Charlie with his mouth closed or looking distracted. As the series went on, the problems and situations that Charlie faced became more and more over the top. Charlie was eventually assassinated in one of  the sketches, only to come back in the "Charlie the Wonderdog" Christmas Episode. Geoff and Terry. Geoff and Terry (Sitch and Cilauro, respectively) were two conman entrepreneurs, who would appear regularly with a "new exciting product" or scheme. Sitch and Cilauro primarily used the segment to make Kennedy, who played the interviewer, laugh and forget her lines. Kennedy also admitted in the "Best of the Late Show" DVD commentary that she was in fact drunk during one of the live sketches. After a particularly bad performance Sitch and Cilauro vowed never to do "Geoff and Terry" again and the pair  were reborn as "The Oz Brothers". Music Video Parodies. Parodies of real songs, complete with highly accurate recreations of music video sets, costumes and wigs. The parodies included: - A completely original number, Martin and Molloy performing ""What's All That About?"", the title reused in Molloy's future work. Other segments. - Another included a stand up piece asking the audience what the baffling lyrics to Stand by R.E.M. meant before Martin performed his own live version of the song, showing that you could substitute any collection of bizarre statements for the actual lyrics. "The Late Show" was also able to  get many well loved Australian TV personalities on as guests. Charles "Bud" Tingwell played the grandfather in "Charlie the Wonder Dog", and popular TV and radio voice-over man Pete Smith was also a regular. Many guests had cameos of only a few seconds, brought in for throwaway gags. One memorable joke had John Farnham offering wine, producing a bottle of water and smiling to himself. Musical finale. All episodes in the second series ended with a musical performance. Martin would announce that Molloy had organised for a major celebrity to perform, only for Molloy to sheepishly admit he had  booked a minor celebrity of a similar name usually possessing no musical ability. The humour in Molloy's recurring "errors" in booking the performers may have run dry if not for the hilarity of having well-known Australian non-musical celebrities and politicians performing. The performances included: "The Late Show" finale in 1993 had a 'real' guest on to sing at the finale: Don Lane, who was notably appearing on a competing network during the show's Saturday night timeslot. Famous non-guests were Robert Gottliebsen ("Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer) and Tony Bonner ("This Used to Be My  Playground" by Madonna). After "The Late Show". Citing the enormous effort involved in producing each week's show, and the desire to explore other formats, the cast decided that the second season of "The Late Show" would be their last. Most of the performers have remained prominent in the Australian comedy scene. Kennedy, Gleisner, Cilauro and Sitch formed Working Dog Productions, and made the successful TV programmes "Frontline" (1994–1997), "Funky Squad" (1995), "A River Somewhere" (1997–1998), "The Panel" (1998–2004), "All Aussie Adventures" (2001–2004) and "Thank God You're Here" (2006–2009), and the successful movies "The Castle" (1997), "The Dish" (2000 ) and "Any Questions for Ben?" (2012). Martin and Molloy had a top-rating radio show "Martin/Molloy" (1995–1998) with co-star Pete Smith joining them often, before moving into film with "Tackle Happy" (2000), "Crackerjack" (2002), "Bad Eggs" (2003) and "BoyTown" (2006). Martin hosted a radio show on the national Triple M network called "Get This" (2006–2007), has written two books of humour—"Lolly Scramble" (2005) and "A Nest of Occasionals" (2009), has directed episodes of the ABC-TV comedy series "The Librarians" and in September 2011, began co-hosting "The Joy of Sets" on Ch-9. Molloy hosted "Tough Love" from  2004 to 2006 and was then dropped from the radio station. Lucy appeared in both "Crackerjack" and "Bad Eggs", and continues to tour with a series of successful one-woman shows and in 2011, appeared in the ABC-TV series "Judith Lucy's Spiritual Journey". Stephens is now the Director of Development for Fremantlemedia Australia, one of Australia's leading independent television production companies. He was the creator behind "The Choir of Hard Knocks". He also produced and co-executive produced the 2007 film "The King", the telemovie based on the life of Graham Kennedy. Stephens also developed the comedy  Newstopia (2007) starring Shaun Micallef. Molloy and Kennedy host the Triple M drive radio show "Kennedy/Molloy". "The Late Show" celebrated its 20th anniversary on 18 July 2012. Martin tweeted: ""Thanks to all for Late Show anniv wishes. 20 years ago tonight I was preparing to tell the nation I'd just removed a hatstand from my arse.""