Back in the beginning of time there was League Teams on late Thursday nights on Melbourne's Channel Seven television station.
At that time there would gather the Three Wise Men. Most vocal of course was one of the greatest footballers of the 1930s, the little magpie, Lou 'Louie the Lip' Richards from Collingwood, that club's diminutive champion rover and Captain.
Sitting nearby was another famed star of the 1930s, Richmond ruck and Captain, the feared 'Captain Blood', Jack Dyer. Keeping those two in check was panel chairman and Geelong coach, Bob Davis.
Each week those three would meet to discuss team selections for that weekend's Aussie Rules matches. With Lou Richards providing most of the killer one-liners, the panel developed and delivered a uniquely Australian style of humour -- this really was a great comedy program, delivered in the guise of a sports-show.
This double-DVD set is a great tribute to that pioneering show of decades ago. It is in fact a special reunion show, filmed just for video, in which the three wise men reunite to discuss each and every premiership match of the 1960s.
After some typical joking and sparring (Louie giving lip constantly, Jack Dyer just leaning back and smiling most of the time, and Bob Davis keeping the show on the tracks), Lou and Jack take a team from Grand Final, and discuss its makeup and changes from previous weeks. Then it's on to a generous film-segment of the actual match -- most of the final quarter, for example.
There were some great matches in that time, none more thrilling than the dust-up between St Kilda and Collingwood, with one side scraping in by just one point. Watch it for real tension.
But for me, the nostalgia comes not in the matches, but in revisiting Lou, Jack and Bob. This was Aussie humour at its simplest and most durable. It's very affecting, in its honest, knockabout way. This will last.
The studio segments with Jou, Jack and Bob are relatively ok video footage, with reasonable colour for the period for a video-production. Sound is clear and acceptable.
The filmed segments from the actual Grand Final matches range from barely-acceptable to mediocre, and the sound is muted, though the low-fidelity is ok once your ears adjust. But the DVD presentation is as good as we're ever going to see. And anyway, who really cares -- this is history. Well, Melbourne football history, which is after all the most important kind.
There are no extras -- but then, with the program running for more than five hours, do you really need any?