August 10, 2012
LONDON CALLING (DAY 17)
Chasing a Dream that might not ever appear again

By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor

LONDON -- I fear I am chasing The Dream and I will never find it again.

Not a dream, but The Dream, one of the greatest television shows ever done about the Olympics during the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.

I caught the Channel Seven show during the 2000 Sydney Summer Games at the end of each competition day. It offered up a great off-the-wall program in the late-night hours in front of a live audience: The Dream, an irreverent, sarcastic, no-one-is-sacred look at the day's events and highlights (and lowlights) by Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson, who have had a similar weekly show that satirizes Australian sport.

Whether they made fun of gymnastics with sexual innuendo ("she's dating the bar, dating the bar") or a bad or funny play by a soccer or basketball player or some other sport, they were bound to get some sort of reaction, whether it be a laugh, chuckle, wince or groan.

The show certainly wasn't for everybody; it seems you either loved it or hated it, especially if you are an American. (I do get it). Slaven and Nelson are an acquired taste. And with all the Australian sporting lingo and colloquialisms, it sometimes was a reach to understand the duo.

Their mascot was Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat, a stuffed toy that appeared on Roy and HG's desk. Fatso was a spoof of the official Olympic mascots, named Syd, Ollie and Millie, and actually became more popular as some Australian gold medalists were photographed with the mascot.

But alas, Slaven and Nelson did not do the show in China in 2008 and there is nothing in London.

I really, really miss the dream and I fear The Dream forever will be out of my grasp.