diff --git a/django/core/management/__init__.py b/django/core/management/__init__.py
index 1e8017e77f1c1..d689199bc8c5a 100644
--- a/django/core/management/__init__.py
+++ b/django/core/management/__init__.py
@@ -149,6 +149,21 @@ class LaxOptionParser(OptionParser):
     def error(self, msg):
         pass
     
+    def print_help(self):
+        """Output nothing.
+        
+        The lax options are included in the normal option parser, so under
+        normal usage, we don't need to print the lax options.
+        """
+        pass
+    
+    def print_lax_help(self):
+        """Output the basic options available to every command.
+        
+        This just redirects to the default print_help() behaviour.
+        """
+        OptionParser.print_help(self)
+        
     def _process_args(self, largs, rargs, values):
         """
         Overrides OptionParser._process_args to exclusively handle default
@@ -195,9 +210,7 @@ def main_help_text(self):
         """
         Returns the script's main help text, as a string.
         """
-        usage = ['%s <subcommand> [options] [args]' % self.prog_name]
-        usage.append('Django command line tool, version %s' % django.get_version())
-        usage.append("Type '%s help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand." % self.prog_name)
+        usage = ['',"Type '%s help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand." % self.prog_name,'']
         usage.append('Available subcommands:')
         commands = get_commands(self.user_commands, self.project_directory).keys()
         commands.sort()
@@ -232,7 +245,9 @@ def execute(self):
         # Preprocess options to extract --settings and --pythonpath.
         # These options could affect the commands that are available, so they
         # must be processed early.
-        parser = LaxOptionParser(version=get_version(), option_list=BaseCommand.option_list)
+        parser = LaxOptionParser(usage="%prog subcommand [options] [args]",
+                                 version=get_version(), 
+                                 option_list=BaseCommand.option_list)
         try:
             options, args = parser.parse_args(self.argv)
             handle_default_options(options)
@@ -249,6 +264,7 @@ def execute(self):
             if len(args) > 2:
                 self.fetch_command(args[2]).print_help(self.prog_name, args[2])
             else:
+                parser.print_lax_help()
                 sys.stderr.write(self.main_help_text() + '\n')
                 sys.exit(1)
         # Special-cases: We want 'django-admin.py --version' and
@@ -257,6 +273,7 @@ def execute(self):
             # LaxOptionParser already takes care of printing the version.
             pass
         elif self.argv[1:] == ['--help']:
+            parser.print_lax_help()
             sys.stderr.write(self.main_help_text() + '\n')
         else:
             self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
index 0c3fc1435ed4a..9061f28d1e183 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
@@ -894,9 +894,9 @@ def test_help(self):
         args = ['--help']
         out, err = self.run_manage(args)
         if sys.version_info < (2, 5):
-            self.assertOutput(out, "usage: manage.py [options]")
+            self.assertOutput(out, "usage: manage.py subcommand [options] [args]")
         else:
-            self.assertOutput(out, "Usage: manage.py [options]")
+            self.assertOutput(out, "Usage: manage.py subcommand [options] [args]")
         self.assertOutput(err, "Type 'manage.py help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.")
 
     def test_specific_help(self):