The Late Show (1992 TV series)

This article deals with the Australian coemdy show of the early 1990sThe Late Show is also a commonly used name for the American television show The Late Show with David Letterman. It is also the name of a 1977 movie": The Late Show (movie)

The Late Show was a popular Australian comedy show on the ABC in 1992 and 1993.

The show starred:

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 D Generation, some of the members went on to perform on commercial TV programs such as The Comedy Company and Fast Forward. The remaining members floated a few pilots with the commercial networks, which were rejected, before accepting the ABC's offer of a one-hour timeslot on Saturday night.

Despite Saturday night being a time when many of their target audience were preparing to go out for the evening, the show was able to quickly build quite a following. The critics initially panned the show, however when it became clear the public loved it, most of them backpedalled. Despite being on the ABC network (which the show once parodied as being "Still number four", a reference to their poor ratings), by the second season it was easily winning its timeslot, and had become one of the ABC's highest rating shows.

The show owed its success to its very Australian brand of self-deprecating humour. The performers on the show were its biggest critics, often blowing off any mistakes they made during its live filming as inconsequential, since they maintained that nobody would want to watch the show anyway.

Perhaps the most popular segments of the show were the sketches that ran from one week to the next. The olden days was an overdub of the 1970s Australian show Rush, and their most popular segment was where they overdubbed the show Bluey, retitling it Bargearse, a reference to the overweight detective who starred in the original show. In the second season, Charlie the wonder dog was a much loved sketch, a dig at shows like Lassie and Skippy where the animal always ends up saving the day.

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 wonderdog, and popular TV and radio voice-over man Pete Smith was also a regular. Other Australian personalities to make appearances included Myrtle Woods, Don Lane, former Victorian premier Joan Kirner, Rex Hunt and Max Walker.

After the second season in 1993, the performers decided to pursue other projects. Most stayed prominent in the Australian comedy scene. Tony Martin and Mick Molloy had a top rating radio show Martin/Molloy before creating films such as Crackerjack and Bad Eggs (both of which also starred Judith Lucy). Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch formed Working Dog Productions, which makes the top rating TV show The Panel, and also made the movies The Castle and The Dish. Late Show, The