The 2001 house looked more like a home than the cold empty shell of a villa we saw in 1996.
The 1996 house was full of washed out pastels with very little soft furnishings which made the place very cold, empty and echoey. Whereas the 2001 house had much richer, deeper colours (that were actually not a million miles away from some of the colours used during the Johnny Vaughan era) that felt a lot warmer.
In fact I don't see how you can say 2001 was full of 'muted' colours. The kitchen was a deep purple and bright orange, which opened out onto the hallway which was slightly more neutral but still heavily orange and purple. The living room had rich red walls, electric blue carpet and lime green sofas. Hardly muted.
MA
mannewskev
I think 01 was really muted. The dark red of the living room, beige hallway, blue upstairs landing. Hated it.
When talking about the wall colours, the pastels of 96 and the deep colours of 01 could be, I guess classed as muted in different ways. However, what they tried to do both times was to supplement these with bright furniture/carpet/accessories. I think this worked best in 2001 because the lime green sofa/red carpet/orange kitchen cupboards stood out better against the dark walls than the orange sofa/blue carpets stood out against the 1996 washed out walls.
In 2001 they started with cold colours upstairs such as light blues and purples then as you got down stairs you went in to warmer colours with the reds and oranges.
I notice for the later version of the 2001 living room they were inspired by the 1995-1996 version of the living room with the breakfasty items painted around the walls.
MA
mannewskev
The living room was so much better when the red was gone. Never got why the kitchen/hall was left untouched though...
I had no issue with the decor in 2001 - it was far better than 1996, as was the revamp in general. It really should have been given more than two months - even if they still cut down to two hosts and still bought in Richard Bacon I think they should have stook with the style and most importantly pace of the revamp rather than just undoing it completely as unlike 1996 given chance it could have worked.
And I still think the big mistake of 1996 was not updating the titles - they went to the effort of some brilliant stings and a new version of the theme but other than the house shots (and later the end logo reveal) they'd left the images in which had been looking dated for sometime. I certainly remember being dissapointed the January before that they hadn't updated them when Zoe Ball started. The temporary 1997 titles showed how with stock footage they already had they could at least make the show feel a bit fresher without doing anything radical.
Also thought it was a shame with the 1997/98 titles they didn't bother doing a Christmas version and ultimately ended up reusing the out of place original Christmas titles instead. They'd done versions of the fly-in titles for the World Cup and the Oscars, so something for Christmas wouldn't have been too difficult.
Agree with you brekkie about the 2001 revamp.
I've said this before, but a week with Ed Hall hosting with Amanda Byram sticks in my mind of making the 2001 revamp a bit more big breakfast. Many items were kept, but they introduced a couple of new features & a new fun competition. Ed had comedy but a lot of warmth and understood the programme, and with the decor especially with the sofa it worked well, and was different.
As for the Christmas titles, the same could be said of 2000 & 2001.
On a Christmas note, did anybody used to get a little festive when they did the Christmas in October day - I.E. The day in which they recorded the Christmas pre records?
Also thought it was a shame with the 1997/98 titles they didn't bother doing a Christmas version and ultimately ended up reusing the out of place original Christmas titles instead. They'd done versions of the fly-in titles for the World Cup and the Oscars, so something for Christmas wouldn't have been too difficult.
There was a Christmas version of the 1997/98 titles. They only reused the original Christmas titles when the 2000 titles were introduced.
EDIT: I can't find a copy of the titles but here is the theme (courtesy A Load of Bowlocks)
The titles were essentially the same but with snow and some glittery snowflakes on the logo at the end. Here is a clip that shows a Christmassy break bumper along with the closing credits complete with snowfall:
On a Christmas note, did anybody used to get a little festive when they did the Christmas in October day - I.E. The day in which they recorded the Christmas pre records?
I remember watching a live show in Autumn 1999 and the house had decorations up everywhere. I wondered why they had decorations up so early and Johnny Vaughan made a comment that they were recording the Christmas shows later that day.
They only reused the original Christmas titles when the 2000 titles were introduced.
Yet the Bigger Breakfast strangely used the 2000 version of the Christmas titles on their shows!
There were Christmas 2000 titles? I remember the chicken flying through snow at the end of each show and have a vague memory of sleigh bells over the Artful Dodger theme, but assumed this was just from the credits?
In fact, was The Bigger Breakfast still going at that point? I really don't think it lasted past the summer.
They only reused the original Christmas titles when the 2000 titles were introduced.
Yet the Bigger Breakfast strangely used the 2000 version of the Christmas titles on their shows!
There were Christmas 2000 titles? I remember the chicken flying through snow at the end of each show and have a vague memory of sleigh bells over the Artful Dodger theme, but assumed this was just from the credits?
In fact, was The Bigger Breakfast still going at that point? I really don't think it lasted past the summer.
It went on until the end of December 2000 and there was a Christmas variant of the Artful Dodger remix with added bells and Christmassy effects to the theme.
I've got them on tape which i will get online tomorrow.