Reminiscing The Big Breakfast

There's a video here showing a decent chunk of an October 1996 episode:



Few observations:

1. They're still using the homemade titles with the run up to the house well into October.
2. How great Rick is as a presenter, particularly when he's interviewing kids. He was so hard done by with the fall out of the relaunch.
3. Sharron is hopeless.
4. They seem to be using the milk jug that was added to the stairs in 1994, at the back of the house, which is apparently the performance area, rendering the bandstand obsolete.
5. I forgot how much I like this version of the theme, particularly the key changes in the credits.

I had the closing theme of this version stuck in my head after watching the longer version of the flyout credits that were introduced later on.

That theme has aged so well. Agree the credits are great, though don't like how it just cuts off. The house looks great in them though - still amazes me how they transformed it.

He'd have done a lot of the same with his experience on kids' TV - I remember him from Nickelodeon where there was a lot of viewer interaction on the phone and in the studio.

Makes you wonder what the problem with his pilot for Live and Kicking with Zoe Ball was. Apparently he had the job in the bag but the pilot was a disaster.

Can only assume it was either a lack of chemistry or a personality/ego clash rather than an issue with his presenting skill.

Could just have been a bad day at the office.

Do we know who else was screen tested for The Big Breakfast roles in 1996? We know Johnny auditioned when Gaby was still there so presumably was on their radar.

That 96 theme was a great evolution of the original.

I just wish they'd updated the visuals as well, but kept the original style. Eventually the second half of the titles were completely new but switching out some scenes in the first half would have freshened it up nicely.

Didn't they interview the builders/architect in Zoe's final couple of weeks too? I may be completely making this up 24 years on but a "How's the House?" feature rings a bell.

Yeah, I always found it a shame they put so much effort into new (very creative) break bumpers but the first 15 seconds of the "new look" show was exactly the same as we'd seen for the last 4 years visually. Even a montage of sorts of the new bumpers would have worked.

Am I right in thinking the current exterior rendering is essentially the same exterior as the 1996 revamp, with bricks painted on the side? It certainly appeared to be when I last walked past - amazing something that naff is commanding such a price tag.

It's interesting looking at the titles that between the white house and the yellow house they decided they needed to reinstate the door on the right hand side by the staircase. It ruins the symmetry somewhat but it was presumably necessary for some reason.

There were some pictures of the house on A Load of Bow Locks during the yellow paint job which showed some purple streaks of paint around the new front door area.