While its latest show Thank God You’re Here is enjoying great commercial success, the Working Dog production team is still often best-loved for its classic ABC comedy sketch program The Late Show. And now the dubbed serials Bargearse and The Olden Days from The Late Show are available on DVD.
To jog your memory, Bargearse and the Olden Days were short segments that featured in the Late Show programs. In Bargearse, the team of comedians including the likes of Santo Cilauro and Tony Martin dubbed the 1976 black and white police drama “Bluey” to create a whole new story line.
In The Olden Days, the team dubbed the old timey ABC series “Rush” which was set against the sub-par backdrop of the Victorian mud-fields. The contrast between the melodramatic action in the serial and the dubbing made for more than a few guilty laughs – with the humour ranging between satire and wit to slapstick and toilet.
In the new DVD, all the clips of the two serials have been put back together to produce two uncut features.
While there are more than a few references that might be lost on those who didn’t watch it at the time, there are a bunch of features included in the DVD release to explain them. Watching the shows again, though, has certainly highlighted the passing of time – with some of the humour a little bit dated. But of course, slapstick and fart jokes are pretty much eternal.
Nevertheless, this DVD will probably really only appeal to old-school Late Show fans – and there are plenty of them who have been waiting for six years since the last Late Show Champagne Edition release.
Other features include commentary tracks with Santo Cilauro and Tony Martin, Olden Days Coda, Pete Smith sings Aerosmith and Italian Bargarse.
THE PICTURE: 
THE SOUND: 
THE EXTRAS:
THE SHOW:
