Underplayed Gems

The Late Show

The Late Show poster
Genre
variety show
Country
Australia
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More series like this

How it feels

This is an Australian variety show from the 1950s that mixed music and comedy. It had a rotating host and competed with a popular rival program.

lightheartedfriendlyold-timeylivelynostalgicwhimsicalunpretentiousgenial

What happens

The Late Show is an Australian television variety series which aired from 1957 to 1959 on Melbourne station HSV-7. Aired on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and competing in the time-slot with GTV-9's popular In Melbourne Tonight, the series included a mix of music and comedy. People who hosted the series during its run included John D'Arcy, Bert Newton and original host Noel Ferrier. The 22 August 1957 edition of The Age newspaper said of Bert Newton's debut on the series: Bert Newton, not yet 20 years of age, made a promising debut in the Late Show on Tuesday night. He has a friendly manner, and plays the role of compere much "straighter" than Graham Kennedy, of GTV-9's In Melbourne Tonight Although kinescope recording and later video-tape existed during the run of the series, the archival status of the show is unknown, although the Noel Ferrier episodes are reported to be lost, and it is possible the other episodes were also wiped, given the highly erratic survival rate of Australian television of the era (with Sydney-produced soap opera Autumn Affair surviving near-intact, while the Melbourne version of game show Tell the Truth being completely lost). The Late Show was replaced on HSV-7's schedule by Club Seven. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.