Muuuuuud!



Men come from Cooper's Crossing¹, And Darwin in the South²

From the dusty plains of Innisfail³,
To the Murrumbidgee's Mouth⁴


Through bush fires, snakes, tinea⁵,
Drizzle, drought and flood

None of those will hold them back, When someone cries out 'Mud!'



(Oh) Mud, boys, mud; We'll give our sweat and blood

Though our backs may break, Our beards are fake

We'll all pretend the sets don't shake...



Mud, boys, mud; We'll deck them with a thud,

The fires may burn, the floods may drench

But we'll still have a buxom wench

And keep on shouting 'Mud!'



Mud!

Before Frontbottom

The Olden Days started life as the 1974 - 1976 Australian Broadcasting Commission produced historical drama series Rush. The ABC original created Rush to fill a gap in historical drama, as no series had ever before concentrated on the drama of the Victorian gold rush. Some 18 years later, it was re-discovered by Australian comedy writing team The D-Generation, who used it as the basis for a series of shorts on the first season of the The Late Show.

While the original series focussed on gold, the comedy take in The Olden Days concentrated on the trials and tribulations of honest Australian mud miners⁶.

Olden Opportunity

Released in 1992, The Olden Days was the first attempt by the D-Generation at an overdubbed comedy series for The Late Show. Relying more on wit and wordplay than the fart gags of the later Bargearse, The Olden Days almost enjoyed the same degree of success as its successor.

Overdubbing provides a simple course to extracting a laugh, by superimposing a humourous script over the original, often staid and painfully serious, film. Scripting generally overlays conversations and commentary over entirely ordinary activities, but hones in on specific details for humourous effect - like odd costumes, make-up, background details and interactions between characters. Generally the principle works best when the original source material was meant to be serious - especially when even the serious version was hard to take seriously.

The humour in The Olden Days is somehow more boyish, schoolboy humour with a touch of social awareness. Essentially it's about big false moustaches, outrageous hats, ludicrous sideburns and mud.

The Main Cast

Credits for the series show a fake actor playing a renamed character, based on the original actor playing a character in the series Rush (shown in brackets, below). In all cases, a member of the D-Generation then provided a voice for the various characters. The key credits for The Olden Days include:

• Jeremy Shreeves (John Waters) as Seargent Luke Olden (Seargent Robert McKellar), voiced by Mick Molloy
• Alastair Happencross (Brendon Lunney) as Gov. Marmaduke Frontbottom (Commissioner Edmund Fitzalan), voiced by Tony Martin
• That Cranky Guy from "Homicide" (Alwyn Kurts) as Judge Muttonchops (Landsdowne), also voiced by Tony Martin

Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner provide additional voice talent. The first episode (as seen on video and DVD) includes further humourous credits for the series:

• Noeline Donaher as Ma Olden - Noeline was a reality star of 1992 ABC Sylvania Waters series, who recorded a diabolical cover version of the Tom Rush song 'No Regrets'.
• Les Gock as The Young Confucious - Australian with Chinese heritage. Writer, music producer and musician with the Australian band Hush.
• The Cobb & Co., Precision Driving Team - Australian outback stagecoach company, prominent in the 19th century until the car superseded it in the early 20th.
• The Captain & Tennille as Themselves - American pop singers who had their own show on TV in America, on ABC (the American Broadcasting Company), in the mid-70s.

Who's Looking Through the Round Window Now?

John Waters appeared as a stalwart presenter for the Australian childrens' series Play School ⁷
for an astonishing 20 years, making it his most memorable role for many Australian adults. The Olden Days suggests that both John Waters and Brendon Lunney auditioned for roles on the show.

These (supposed) real world events associated with the actors' auditions become a source of ongoing rivalry between Frontbottom and Olden, taking a healthy jab at the fourth wall between fiction and reality.

Episode Guide

The titles of the episodes below are based upon those provided on later release on DVD (presumably drawn from the original scripts). The episodes, on broadcast, did not include any specific episode title.

Episodes of The Olden Days featured as brief interludes in the running order of The Late Show. In most cases, episodes stretch to little more than a minute, in some cases shorter, with the exception of 'Missing Moustaches', which sets the scene for the series and runs to a little over two minutes.

1. Missing Moustaches - Stolen false moustaches result in the assignment of Governor Frontbottom as the new (poncy) man in charge of the mud fields.
   
   
2. Maltreated Millinery - Conflict arises between Frontbottom and Olden over their past competition for the role of presenter in Play School. Frontbottom's horse proves a problem pooper. Rumour reveals Frontbottom to be something of a hat-basher⁸.
   
   
3. Frontbottom's Iron Fist - Dinner with Muttonchops reveals problems in the mud fields requiring Frontbottom to exert greater authority.
   
   
4. Stupid Hat Day - Frontbottom requires all mud diggers wear stupid hats under threat of painful wedgies (and Benny Hill-style chase sequences).
   
   
5. Incident at Frontbottom's - Frontbottom hosts a night club (false beards only on Saturdays).
   
   
6. Frontbottom Gets the Shaft - Muttonchops questions Frontbottom's authority on the mud fields. Queen Victoria intervenes and assigns Governor Funbags to replace him⁹.
   
   
7. I'd Kill for a Coffee - The mud diggers seek an explanation for Olden's scarred cheek, leading to a questionable (and unauthorised) flashback. Frontbottom demands decent coffee.
   
   
8. No Singing Allowed - The mud diggers demand a better theme tune. Many 'mud'-influenced pun song names follow, resulting in threat of death by hanging.
   
   
9. We Want Muttonchops - Frontbottom relishes in his success, only to discover Muttonchops has usurped him. Frontbottom blames Olden and the simplistic scripts.
   
   
10. Frontbottom La Stupendo - Frontbottom does a one-man performance of South Pacific to a deserted mud field.
    
    
11. I Can Feel a Frontbottom Coming On - The taste of 'Arsy Cola' comes to the mud fields. Frontbottom relabels it, but appears to have gone mad.
    
    
12. Internal Investigation - Inspectors scrutinize the diggers' Mud Licences, while Frontbottom's contribution to the series comes under question. Frontbottom's riding crop goes missing, leading to invasive search procedures.
    
    
13. Frontbottom Gets The Sack - Inappropriate sound effects and poor continuity come under scrutiny. The winner of the Reg Gorman Look-a-Like contest¹⁰ arrives for his prize, then heads out with Olden to find the missing Camera 3.
    
    
14. Frontbottom's New Image - Frontbottom decides to become a drunk to enhance his image with the mud diggers. Muttonchops visits Frontbottom's mother to seek a solution.
    
    
15. Frontbottom Without a Cause - Frontbottom goes wild. Olden fights back (with a big doobie¹¹). Frontbottom's mother comes to visit. Olden keeps going out of focus.
    
    
16. The Bad Acting Epidemic of 1852 - Bar room brawls and sleep inducing speeches abound. Frontbottom counters with some modern street lingo.
    
    
17. The Ballad of Frontbottom and Yoko - Frontbottom falls in love... and this time it's with a woman! Yoko urges Frontbottom to revive his singing career... with his Rolf Harris impression. Frontbottom gets one over and decides to publish his own sex book.
    
    
18. Madame Frontbottom, Fortune Teller - Frontbottom tries to see the future with his questionable psychic powers; but, ends up singing honky-tonk with disastrous results.
    
    
19. The Man With the Olden Gun - Olden rebels against scene-chewing Frontbottom and demands his own theme song.
    
    
20. Goodbye, Farewell and Amen - ABC axe The Olden Days. Muttonchops struggles to remember the good times. Olden and Frontbottom drink to the good times, the big laughs and the silly nicknames.