The Big Breakfast

I have a feeling the cartoons were dropped earlier than that, maybe as early as 1994. I haven't seen it for a while but I'm 90% certain there were no cartoons on The Big Red Nose Breakfast in early 95. I'll have to dig out my copy.

The cartoons were still there well into 97. They were part of Zig & Zag's slot when it was branded 'Alien Alarm' and took up a large chunk of the 1st hour. A different cartoon was aired each day, Hong Kong Phooey, and 2 Stupid Dogs I remember were 2 of the 5 shows. I don't know why I remember all this...I just do.

They did go for a period though - definately before Zoe Ball started, and only returned in Jan 1997 when Alien Alarm began. Not sure how long that lasted - I think by the time The Bigger Breakfast began in May (with cartoons in the first half hour from 9am) Alien Alarm had been scaled back down a bit. Indeed I've a feeling "Zig & Zag Gold" first appeared during The Bigger Breakfast that summer.

Back to the hosts and I think one of the reasons it feels like Johnny and Denise hosted longer than they did is that they almost always hosted together, taking the same weeks off (usually coinciding with The Bigger Breakfast) and in that period at least only hosting with others for days rather than weeks. I think Denise might have had an extra week off in the summer of 1998 which Liza Tarbuck stood in for but that was it.

P.S. Did Liza Tarbuck have an official on-air final show, and if so was it with Johnny as I recall he was off for much of that summer due to the birth of his child.

During the Chris and Gaby era they were pretty much never off at the same time. Indeed it's one of those useless things I remember but their holidays were almost always in the 3rd week of the 4 week cycle of competitions - Chris one month, Gaby the next - and back then it was generally guest hosts rather than regular stand ins used, though the likes of Dani Behr and Mandy Smith did appear a few times IIRC.

Liza had several co-hosts while Johnny was off while his wife was in Labour. Liza has guest hosts such as Patrick Keilty and Richard Bacon and that was around Euro 2000 (June) as i have some episodes from this era on tape and they have Euro 2000 logos plastered everywhere in the living room. This was also around the time Liza made the infamous "who wants to blow a millionaire" blooper in the paper review!

Liza left in on the 4th August 2000 - the same day as the Queen Mother's 100th birthday. Although most of that show was dedicated to the Queen Mother, the last 15 minutes was dedicated to Liza. She got a best of montage and the final verse of the Friday song dedicated to her.

The Queen Mum's 100th birthday show was brilliant. Did they have an outside crowd, or some games outside?
I do remember that they had the queen mum's image bobbing out above the clock every so often.

Haha I remember that Queen Mum cutout bobbing up and down. Also it was agreed with Liza that there would be no fuss... a promise that they kept until the last 15 minutes of the show. And yes Johnny did co-host.

I remember there was a time that Chris and Gaby didn't host together for something like 2 months due to rotas not matching up.

I never saw Liza's final show. I'd like to, if it ever surfaces on YouTube...

I think Chris and Gaby weren't on screen together for 3 weeks, just before Chris left. I think one of those weeks was "Australia Week", with Mark Little and Dannii Minogue presenting.

Yeah, I think that's right. Chris and Gaby weren't on together a lot in the summer of 1994 but there weren't massive gaps between their appearances. I do know that the first time neither Chris nor Gaby presented the show was in March 1994, when Gaby was on holiday and Chris was on his three day week, so Danny Baker and Carol Smillie presented on the Monday and Friday and Chris and Carol Smillie the rest of the week. I think the summer of 1994 was the first time neither was on for an entire week. I do remember initially that when Chris was on holiday, Gaby sat on his chair on the left to emphasise her seniority.

Mandy Smith only presented for a week, she was really awful, probably the worst guest host they used. It wasn't really until Danny Baker and Mark Little arrived at the beginning of 1994 that they had regular stand-ins appearing on more than one occasion. Dani Behr more or less became Gaby's regular stand-in after Evans left, she did most of the summer of 1995 with Cheggers and was on quite frequently that year in fact. Think she also stood in for Zoe Ball as well.

The two presenters who presented together the least were Mark Little and Zoe Ball because they hated each other, and they ended up scheduling their holidays so they were barely on at the same time. Think they went a good six weeks without working together.

Monday 7th March 1994 was the first show not to feature Chris or Gaby, and Chris then had most of the summer off including all the events based around Housey Housey, then Gaby took some time off and they didn't present together until the week leading up to Chris leaving.

As promised in the mock thread, a selection of break bumpers from 1999 (Johnny & Liza era)

They were played in reverse going out to a break and the correct way coming back in from a break. I've thrown in the titles too for good measure.

I don't recall Chris having most of that summer off. I remember him doing the competition in the swimming pool, Get Your Knobbly Nuts Out, a fair bit. He had 2 and a half weeks off in the May though.

He definately was around for a bit of Housey Housey too as there are clips up on Youtube.

And thanks for those break stings - they really showed off the theme with them, though the visuals arguably not quite as fun as those that had come before.