There’s a very short list of Australian TV shows that can genuinely claim to have changed the landscape. The Late Show is on it.
Airing on the ABC in 1992, The Late Show was the full flowering of the D-Generation — the sketch comedy group that had already made noise on radio and with their earlier ABC series. But The Late Show was something else. It was sharper, weirder, and more confident. It felt like a group of people who had nothing to lose and everything to prove.
The team
Rob Sitch. Santo Cilauro. Tom Gleisner. Mick Molloy. Jane Kennedy. Tony Martin. Judith Lucy (who joined in 1993). Each one would go on to have a significant career of their own — Working Dog, The Panel, Frontline, film. But here, together, they were operating at a level that Australian comedy rarely reaches.
Why it still holds up
Most sketch comedy ages badly. The Late Show doesn’t — or at least, not badly. The Pissweak World segments, the newsreader parodies, the sheer willingness to be stupid alongside being smart. It understood that great comedy needs both registers.
The Champagne Edition DVD collects the best of the series. Six hours. It is, frankly, essential.
Best Bits of the Late Show Champagne Edition 1992
Pre-loved DVD – Tested and cleaned – Ready to ship
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