Director Santo Cilauro, Tony Martin, Mick Molloy
Staring Tony Martin, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy
With Ideas and Interference from Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Rob Sitch & Jason Stephens
Rated M
Score 5.5/6
The Australian goldfields period drama Rush (1974) was given The Late Show treatment with a slick re-editing and re-voicing which produced absurd plotlines, strange characters and ‘Stupid Hat Day’ on the goldfields.
Okay I promised it, now here it is, a review of The Late Show’s The Olden Days, which was the first overdubbed series that received the attention of The Late Show.
Unlike Bargearse which had 10 episodes, The Olden Days had 20. The reason for this was that the writers lost the permission (As explained by Santo Cilauro and Tony Martin, in the commentary track for Bargearse) they had to use The ABC series Truckies which they had intended to title Truck Wits. It should also be noted that before Bluey was chosen for the second series the soap opera The Young Doctors, with title Medical Hospital was also considered.
The Olden Days is another one of those pieces of Australian comedy that you have to see at least once, that being said I can’t say for certain if I have the same amount of affection for it as I do for Bargearse, maybe the reason why could be because that The Olden Days was the first overdubbed series that The Late Show did. Though I do love the level of self-awareness that, both series had. There was also some brilliant comedic moments in The Olden Days such as Naughty Hat, the search for Frontbottom’s riding crop and the series social statement about soft drink.