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:
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; for example, in one show Santo talked about his family's highly ethnically styled home — which was eccentric even by their community's standards — with the sequence in question 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, and sometimes in blackface or brownface. 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'. Their worship of all things Boon included praying to a small golden statue of Boon, playing Scrabble, 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.
  • In , the two discuss "Arnie"'s films. "Schwarzenegger" talks happily about his latest project, and despite Molloy's warnings to the crowd before "Arnold" came out on stage to not mention Last Action Hero, a crowd member mentions he didn't like it, and "Schwarzenegger" shoots him dead on the spot, quipping "Opinion noted.". "Arnie" proceeds to show off his latest movie trailer, a remake of Citizen Kane, updated and "improved on", directed by Twins director Ivan Reitman, whom he comically and continually refers to as a "genius".
  • The interview with Prince Charles was a to-camera interview as he tours his home, talking about the features interspersed with jabs about how much he loathes things like sex with his wife Diana.
  • The interview with Paul Keating was a satire of both journalism and politics during the era of Prime Minister Paul Keating going head to head with Opposition Leader Dr. John Hewson.

    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 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 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. The first two Shitscared sketches were shot at Channel Nine for the unaired pilots of The Late, Late Show.

Pissweak World

Several-minute advertisements for mediocre theme parks with the 'Pissweak' brand name.
These included :
  • Pissweak World
  • Ye Olde Pissweeke Worlde
  • Pissweak Movie World
  • Pissweak Aero World
  • Pissweak Marine World
  • Pissweak World Fun Park
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 :
  • "Ride a bucking bronco!" – clip showing a child sitting on a golden retriever.
  • "See a bush printing press!" – clip of a man holding a child's head on top of a photocopier printing out a copy.
  • "Ride a stage coach!" – clip shows dejected children inside a trailer being driven down a road.

    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. 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 collection.
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, 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 ten episodes are also available on the last two discs of the complete series of Bluey on DVD.
The music used for the Bargearse theme music is the 1970 Jazz track "Brass in Action" by Keith Mansfield.