The D-Generation started out as comedy revue shows at Melbourne University in the early-to-mid eighties. After watching one of their shows, an ABC talent scout offered them the chance to move their sketch comedy onto television.

The team consisted of Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Michael Veitch, Marg Downey, Magda Szubanski, and John Harrison. Other members included Tom Gleisner, Nick Bufalo (who left after the original 1985 pilot episode to do the role of Dr. Ben Green on Seven's A Country Practice), Jane Turner, and Tony Martin.

Many of Nick Bufalo's sketches from the pilot made into the first series including the infamous Thunderbirds parodies.

This series lead to many spin-off's including a long-running radio show on EON FM/Triple M which ran from May 19, 1986 - April 1992, several specials on the Seven Network including Degenocide (their controversial send-up of Seven's Homicide), and a live show called Midnight Shenanigans in April 1991 which was held at Melbourne's Le Joke.

In mid-1989 the original team broke up as John Harrison retired from comedy to become a lawyer and Michael Veitch, Marg Downey, and Magda Szubanski joined the cast of Steve Vizard's new sketch comedy show Fast Forward. By this time, new members Jane Kennedy, Mick Molloy, and Jason Stephens were already making their mark.

After a successful radio show the D-Generation returned to television with a brand-new comedy/variety show called The Late Show which ran from 18 July 1992 to 30 October 1993. In the second series Judith Lucy (who had worked with the team on the radio show) joined the cast.

In 2004, the ABC released a DVD called The Best (and Second Best) of the D-Generation which includes all the highlights previously released on VHS plus a extra thirty-five minutes of rarely-seen footage including Super 8 clips from the early eighties, both Five in a Row music videos, sketches from the unaired Channel Nine pilots for The Late, Late Show, and a highlights package of footage from their 1991 Midnight Sheningans show.