Yet Another Thing to Thank Tony Martin For

Remember the “good old days” of Australian comedy DVD releases, where extra features were a joke instead of actually containing more jokes? But as everyone who scored a copy of series 3 of The Librarians for Christmas now knows, All That’s Changed: not only does this particular slice of Aussie comedy hilarity contain a descent chunk of extra features (inc all of the Sir Robert Franklin clips and a couple of table reads, which is really going above and beyond the call of duty), but there’s also an easily found and highly enjoyable selection of Easter Eggs as well. Hurrah! Especially as one of those EEs consists of Tony Martin singing “US Forces” in the style of the Federal Environment Minister.

The reason why Tony Martin’s getting all the thanks here – it’s a Gristmill production, after all – is down to a): his near-constant presence in those extras, and b): a scene where Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope basically say “is that going to be enough extras to keep Tony happy?” Yes, it seems that Tony’s love of DVD extras isn’t just part of his comedy persona, it’s reached out into the real world – and we’re all the better for it.

Of course, some may point to the amazing amount of extras available on Chris Lilley’s DVDs. And sure, hour upon hour of deleted scenes seems pretty impressive there. But let’s be honest: you’re not getting Lilley doing commentary on any of his shows, are you? All you’re getting are the plentiful offcuts from a filming process that generates deleted scenes at the same rate as a ACA “special report” on youth crime churns out cliches.

No, it’s Mr Martin who we (mostly) have to thank for the current golden age of DVD extras… or we do until we realise The Chaser aren’t too shabby with the DVD extras either. Ditto John Safran. And those Micallef P(r )ogram(me) DVDs… ah heck, just forget we said anything…

(The Librarians s3 DVD does have some excellent extras though)

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