I think the 2001 re-launch should have been given a few more months. I recently found a whole episode from the end of the first week, the items flowed nicely and they weren't reliant on the living room as much. In fact, i think they only were on that sofa at least six times for 7 - 8 minutes each time. There's even a shot of Paul Tonkinson walking down the staircase introducing a feature!
The house at the time looked great too, why did they undo the living room decor? I noticed a theme from this era too. The upstairs stated off with cold colours gradually getting warmer as we got to the living room!
I've been tempted to start a thread for more general discussion of the show for a while in the main forum rather than hijack the thread here. Let me know if it is welcome and i will do so.
I agree they undid the 2001 revamp far too quickly - think Paul Tonkinson was axed after just a couple of months and the revamp was pretty much undone after three. Personally I thought it could have worked well - it wasn't anywhere near the disaster the 1996 revamp was and in many ways was a return to the format of the early days with short featured rarely lasting longer than 5 minutes compared to the longer features which dominated the Johnny and Denise era.
The 2001 house was brilliant, although I'm not sure how well the living room colours would have worked in the Summer.
The hosts were awful. Paul Tonkinson was a poor man's Johnny Vaughan, and they really should have brought in younger hosts to reflect the change of the show.
What i did like after they un-did the relaunch was the montage of the different styles of the house on the end credits. I still would love to see the 1996 fly-out sequence.
I think the 2001 re-launch should have been given a few more months. I recently found a whole episode from the end of the first week, the items flowed nicely and they weren't reliant on the living room as much. In fact, i think they only were on that sofa at least six times for 7 - 8 minutes each time. There's even a shot of Paul Tonkinson walking down the staircase introducing a feature!
The house at the time looked great too, why did they undo the living room decor? I noticed a theme from this era too. The upstairs stated off with cold colours gradually getting warmer as we got to the living room!
I've been tempted to start a thread for more general discussion of the show for a while in the main forum rather than hijack the thread here. Let me know if it is welcome and i will do so.
I totally agree. The strange thing that I found was the week before Richard Bacon became main presenter & the sofas were thrown, Ed Hall presented with Amanda, it had a lot of old style big breakfast charm, had a mock game show competition in Woolseye (you can't beat a bit of wooly), but kept the sofa, quick features, graphics and titles, etc, and it worked very well. It's just a shame that he wasn't given any more time before Richard came along with the chairs.
I think the 2001 re-launch should have been given a few more months. I recently found a whole episode from the end of the first week, the items flowed nicely and they weren't reliant on the living room as much. In fact, i think they only were on that sofa at least six times for 7 - 8 minutes each time. There's even a shot of Paul Tonkinson walking down the staircase introducing a feature!
The house at the time looked great too, why did they undo the living room decor? I noticed a theme from this era too. The upstairs stated off with cold colours gradually getting warmer as we got to the living room!
I've been tempted to start a thread for more general discussion of the show for a while in the main forum rather than hijack the thread here. Let me know if it is welcome and i will do so.
I totally agree. The strange thing that I found was the week before Richard Bacon became main presenter & the sofas were thrown, Ed Hall presented with Amanda, it had a lot of old style big breakfast charm, had a mock game show competition in Woolseye (you can't beat a bit of wooly), but kept the sofa, quick features, graphics and titles, etc, and it worked very well. It's just a shame that he wasn't given any more time before Richard came along with the chairs.
I found a few more episodes from late 2001 this week and Ed Hall was still presenting but one episode is from October 2001 and it was Ed's last week. The Friday song is gone by this point, i'm guessing because of what happened the month before they decided to drop it though by the end of 2001 hardly anyone sang along with it any more!
Yes, although Richard and Amanda were officially the main hosts in those last few months two of Ed, Lisa Rogers and Mike McClean were often in the house too - not sure when Donna Air left.
Who knows - perhaps had they just simply dropped to two presenters and given them a chance they'd have done enough to avoid the axe. As much as ratings had fallen at the time I'm sure it was axed more due to C4 management not wanting that style of breakfast show at the time - and whether the viewers watched it or not the initial 2001 relaunch had the more modern take on an alternative breakfast show yet still had that BB charm. Always been intrigued to see what the pilot for the "new" Big Breakfast was like when they were fighting for their place on the channel.
Back to the mocks and as much of a RI:SE piss take it might be I do quite like that calmer version. Then again I had nothing against the RI:SE 2.0 and Daybreak 1.0 intros too - both were pretty damn good really.
One thing The Big Breakfast did in it's final year was a one-off spoof posher edition called "The Large Breakfast" which certainly had it's own music and I think it's own titles too. Anyone got that?
Yes, although Richard and Amanda were officially the main hosts in those last few months two of Ed, Lisa Rogers and Mike McClean were often in the house too - not sure when Donna Air left.
Who knows - perhaps had they just simply dropped to two presenters and given them a chance they'd have done enough to avoid the axe. As much as ratings had fallen at the time I'm sure it was axed more due to C4 management not wanting that style of breakfast show at the time - and whether the viewers watched it or not the initial 2001 relaunch had the more modern take on an alternative breakfast show yet still had that BB charm. Always been intrigued to see what the pilot for the "new" Big Breakfast was like when they were fighting for their place on the channel.
Back to the mocks and as much of a RI:SE p*** take it might be I do quite like that calmer version. Then again I had nothing against the RI:SE 2.0 and Daybreak 1.0 intros too - both were pretty damn good really.
One thing The Big Breakfast did in it's final year was a one-off spoof posher edition called "The Large Breakfast" which certainly had it's own music and I think it's own titles too. Anyone got that?
The Large Breakfast theme used to be on Bowlocks but it seems to have vanished. I have some trivia about that though. The theme tune that was used was actually intended to be the theme for the late 2001 titles (with the breakfast costumes), but it was ditched at the last minute. Having paid for the music, they created the concept of 'The Large Breakfast' to make use of them.
I'm guessing the concept for those final titles must have been on the table at the time of the initial relaunch too - they got them on to air very quickly so if it wasn't it was a very quick turn around from creation to air.
This thread is most interesting. Am I right in saying that the 2001 relaunch was reversed much more quickly than the 1996 one? That could be perception on my part.
My memory has been a bit faulty with this. I remembered Tomkinson just not being there (and being removed from the credits hastily - example on YouTube, although I can't find an example with him for comparison) and then literally the next week pretty much everything had gone - new titles/graphics, new version of the old logo... can anyone shed any light on how it actually unfolded?
This thread is most interesting. Am I right in saying that the 2001 relaunch was reversed much more quickly than the 1996 one? That could be perception on my part.
My memory has been a bit faulty with this. I remembered Tomkinson just not being there (and being removed from the credits hastily - example on YouTube, although I can't find an example with him for comparison) and then literally the next week pretty much everything had gone - new titles/graphics, new version of the old logo... can anyone shed any light on how it actually unfolded?
Both relaunches lasted about the same time really.
The 2001 relaunch was 22nd January, Paul Tonkinson was sacked on 6th April, and the sofa went on 16th April. The graphics didn't change until the summer (June at the earliest).
In contrast, the 1996 relaunch was on 2nd September, and they started making changes by October, making the walls more colourful, with a huge overhaul of the house in January 1997 (with Sharon Davies quitting and Rick Adams demoted to Down Your Doorstep) although the titles remained until April 1997, when the guitar theme made its debut, Snap Cackle & Pop became Snap (along with getting a weekly half hour evening show) and The Bigger Breakfast strand launched.
I'll take your word for the 2001 relaunch but a slight correction on the 1996/97 situation. Both Rick and Sharon pretty much lasted as the main presenters to April/May rather than January, although January was when the french window chairs returned and the house revamped. Sharon had so much time off that nobody really noticed when Denise officially replaced her in May. The Bigger Breakfast launched in the May half term, a couple of weeks after that they got the bloke of Moviewatch in to guest host for a week or two and the rest is history.