How Saddam Hussein saved The Late Show, and helped shape Australian comedy

It is impossible to imagine Australian comedy – or indeed Australian film and TV – without Late Show. Front line and Castle, Did you pay attention?Martin and Molloy’s stage and radio antics, Judith Lucy’s biting stand-up, even high-end drama productions like Lamb of God (co-produced by Jason Stephens) all owe something (and in some cases everything) to the eight-member team who wrote, produced, directed, edited, and appeared on ABC’s one-hour comedy show, which ran for 40 episodes across two seasons on Saturday. night in 1992 and ’93.

But it is quite possible to imagine the world in which the show is no happen, because for a very long time it’s unlikely to happen.

By the time the first episode aired in July 1992, the crew – without Lucy in season one – had had a lot of stab at translating the relationship they displayed on stage and on radio (some of them first appeared together as part of the Melbourne University Revue in mid 1980s, at that time many of them as D-Generation) to the small screen.

Season 2 cast, back row, lr: Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner, Mick Molloy, Tony Martin, Jason Stephens. Front row: Saint Cilauro, Judith Lucy, Rob Sitch.Credit:A B C

“Technically, Late Show had seven pilots before it took off,” said Tony Martin, who has become the team’s unofficial chronicler. “I always say two years Late Show like years six and seven of our radio show.”

There are several pilots for Nine (which has this masthead), including a parody of current affairs and a longer form 60 minutes send-up (not hard to imagine the seeds for Front line sprinkled there), then a variety show is modeled LDinner with David Letterman, to run four nights a week. But nothing quite clicked.

“Kerry Packer is not a fan,” Martin said. “We’re not Channel Nine style, so we were shown the door.”

It’s not just about not fitting in with the brand, he admits. All players have a hard time being in front of the camera without being a character. “We’re just stupid playing ourselves. We’re not very good at hosting.”

Nonetheless, in August 1990, ABC offered them a chance. But then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and broadcasters had to shift money from comedy to current affairs to run rolling coverage of the Gulf War. We wanted the show, they said, but we wouldn’t be able to attend until March 1992.

“And that’s for the best,” said Martin. “Saddam Hussein saves” Late Showbecause in that year and a half a lot of great things happened.”

One is that Martin and Mick Molloy toured extensively doing stand-up, and as a result became much more comfortable talking to audiences like themselves.

That means an odd mix of sketches, live comedy, reviews – from everything from disgusting videos to late-night commercials – “gag-dub” reworks of old TV shows. blue (as barge) and Hurry up (as Pension time) and the song parody has what it desperately needs: someone to anchor the whole glorious mess.

“It’s hard to explain to people what it’s like because I don’t know another show that has so many different styles,” Martin said. “I can’t think of a style of comedy that wasn’t on the show.”

In 2001, he oversaw the production of the best compilation DVD, Champagne Edition, but there is so much missing due to copyright issues. He said a businessman wanted $60,000 in return for allowing his cheap and disgusting late-night commercials to appear on DVD; multiply that by all the material they make fun of under the review and commentary rubrics, and it’s impossible.

John Waters in Rush. The colonial-era drama was overdubbed with goofy jokes and sound effects and repackaged as The Olden Days.Credit:A B C

As a result, he says, “despite being excellent, the DVD misrepresents the show because it makes it look like a sketch.”

Some of what they built is impossible to do today. But Martin didn’t know that the show was as exciting as some people remember – “we were more daggy than edgy; sometimes there’s a little bit of sarcasm but we’re more interested in silliness” – and he doesn’t remember the lawyers being involved, though he imagines the odd thing may have been censored.

John Jarratt, Sigrid Thornton and Lucky Grills at Bluey. When the 1970s detective series was reissued on DVD, dubbed Bargearse episodes were included as bonus material.Credit:Seven

“It was a lot looser in those days,” he notes. “No internet, no Twitter commenting on everything. You’ll get an angry letter – ‘did you say something mean about Penelope Keith’ [the English comic actress who starred in The Good Life and To the Manor Born] – but it usually arrives three weeks after the sketch goes live.”

Making the show look like The Beatles recorded the White Album. “We all have parts we’re working on that no one else knows about until we see them in training,” he said.

Not only did they make it all, they financed most of it themselves, plowing their earnings back into filmmaking because they were determined to make it exactly as they saw it in their minds.

“We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars producing all those prerecorded bits,” says Martin. “It was like a film school. We are totally addicted. Neither of us has kids, that’s the key, so we have all day and night just to watch the show.”

Although most of each program has been pre-recorded, the secret sauce will be aired. “You can’t add fake laughter, and everything will die regularly Late Show.”

But towards the end, the audience became almost too willing. “Suddenly they were screaming and shouting like we were The Beatles – or, rather, like us [fellow comedy troupe] Doug Anthony All Stars. And I said, ‘Oh, no; You can’t tell what worked and what didn’t anymore’.”

There is no single reason why they stopped. They all have other things they want to do – Molloy has become the show’s breakout star and the newborn Working Dog crew has started brewing Front line – and after seven years everyone was exhausted. In addition, he said, “we are all worried that we will not be able to match the quality for the third series. And everyone’s running out of money, to be honest.”

Every now and then someone would hang the idea of ​​a reunion in front of them. The fact that Martin and Molloy had a disagreement years ago and things remain tense between them is a problem, but not insurmountable. More of a drag is the fact the reunions are generally disappointing.

“It’s hard to think of anything that’s not so bad,” Martin said.

Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch, with Steve Bisley and Tiriel Mora, in the latest TV affair satire Frontline.Credit:A B C

If they do, it has to be a one-off, he said, “but it has to be the best episode ever. Late Showit has to be the best ever Damn ScaredStreet interviews have to be the funniest you’ve ever seen.

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“Maybe if we spent a year planning one episode, that would be great,” he added. “But otherwise you’re just going to say, ‘Oh look how old they all are’.”

Email the author at kquinn@theage.com.au, or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin.

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