The Late Show

The Late Show was a popular Australian comedy show, which ran for two seasons on the ABC in 1992 and 1993. The cast and writers were: Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Tony Martin, Mick Molloy, Rob Sitch, Jason Stephens and Judith Lucy (1993 season only).

Related Topics:
Australian - ABC - 1992 - 1993 - Santo Cilauro - Tom Gleisner - Jane Kennedy - Tony Martin - Mick Molloy - Rob Sitch - Jason Stephens - Judith Lucy

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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.

Related Topics:
1980s - The D-Generation - Melbourne University

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After the breakup of the original The D-Generation, some of the members went on to perform on commercial TV program Fast Forward. The remaining members filmed several pilots for what was then known as 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.

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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, but when it became clear the public loved it, most of them backpedalled. Despite being on the ABC network (which the show once parodied as using the slogan "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.

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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. Equally, the performers' interest in the mechanics of television production gave them a great deal of control over the look and feel of the pre-filmed segments of the show, and meant that their parodies of television and movies were often remarkably accurate - which paved the way for their future careers in production.

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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 (1995-1998) before creating films such as Crackerjack (2002) and Bad Eggs (2003) (both of which also starred Judith Lucy) and the documentary Tackle Happy (2000). Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch formed Working Dog Productions, which made the top rating TV shows Frontline (1994-1997), The Panel (1998-), A River Somewhere (1997-1998) and All Aussie Adventures (2001-) and the hugely successful movies The Castle (1997) and The Dish (2000).

Related Topics:
Martin/Molloy - Crackerjack - Bad Eggs - Tackle Happy - Frontline - The Panel - A River Somewhere - All Aussie Adventures - The Castle - The Dish

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