[Brekkie]

Even though it was undone quicker I'd say it was more successful than the 1996 revamp - it did modernise it and also saw a return to the 1992 style short 5 minute features. The talent and having three main hosts didn't work, and personally would say Amanda was the worse of the trio. I quite liked Paul personally, but it just never quite clicked.


P.S. Sad circumstances but a bit of a full circle moment having Gaby sit in for Zoe on her breakfast show the last couple of days.

[Nobby]

On the subject of Richard Bacon fronted items with now controversial figures, I'm reminded that Piers Corbyn did a regular weather feature for a bit.

[James2001]

This clip's been posted before on the blue place, but it's Carol Barnes playing the drums on her final BB bulletin- after the 2001 revamp had been reversed on the show itself, but the news still using the revamp look:

www.youtube.com 

Also you can see this bulletin comes from the Channel 4 news studio. Seen photos from earlier eras where it was the ITV newsroom studio with a chromakey curtain behind the presenter (obviously that studio was gone and in use by the ITN News Channel by this point).

Carol obviously no stranger to Channel 4 breakfasts, as she was the original lead presenter of the Channel 4 Daily.

[Brekkie]

I knew Carol stood in during the Peter Smith years but didn't realise she was still covering towards the end too.

[James2001]

Also noticed you can see Mike holding a card with the revamp logo on- upside down! I guess all a sign of how quickly the revamp was undone.

[James2001]

Digging up some videos to try and work out the unwinding of the 2001 revamp

17th April we have Richard Bacon in the presenter's chair, but still the revamp look (but the sofa and TV have gone) though Paul and Donna are gone from the credits (even though Donna's presenting here):

www.youtube.com 

9th May and we most of the revamp house look is gone, but still has the revamp titles, graphics and clock (though the DOG's gone):

www.youtube.com 

Not sure when the Carol Barnes clip is from, but it's probably not long after this.

Can't find any clips from June or July... there's some from August though (albeit posted by someone who had a habit of replacing thumbnails when his videos where posted on the blue and purple places, so I won't post it here), and the news had got rid of the revamp look by then.

This screenocean upload of an episode from the final week in March 2002 has a date of 24/6/01 on the VT clocks, is that when the final set of titles were introduced?

licensing.screenocean.com 

Big Breakfast | Screenocean
Search and license clips from Screenocean's archive of video footage from C…
  Source: licensing.screenocean.com

[JasonB]

I deep dived through the archive at the blue place and found this thread dated 25th June 2001 which mentions the first appearance of the updated graphics and titles with people dressed as breakfast items:
www.tvforum.co.uk 

Big Breakfast idents - TV Forum
TV Forum Light Dark System Default Homepage TV Home The Newsroom Media & Tec…
  Source: www.tvforum.co.uk

[Flux]

Even though it was undone quicker I'd say it was more successful than the 1996 revamp - it did modernise it and also saw a return to the 1992 style short 5 minute features. The talent and having three main hosts didn't work, and personally would say Amanda was the worse of the trio. I quite liked Paul personally, but it just never quite clicked.

Agreed completely, though I personally feel Amanda didn't shine in the trio simply because she was overpowered by Donna Air trying desperately to cling on to the old style BB! The presenting trio was a bad call (I've always suspected having three presenters was a compromise between C4's preferred Amanda Byram and Planet 24's preference for keeping Donna Air) but like you say a lot of the 2001 revamp was right. Even the look of the show wasn't too far off. In fact, the clip posted by James2001 of Richard Bacon and Donna Air in a green-sofa-less living room is where I thought they'd pulled back the exact right amount from a presentation standpoint. The lighting was brighter, the look of the show was familiar but more modern and sleek, and the graphics looked nice. Had they stuck with a more finessed version of this look and allowed Paul and Amanda to front as a duo for a while I think they could have struck a groove. However it only lasted a week before they went too far with a return to 1990s inspired gaudy interiors which were quickly and cheaply thrown together.

The show needed to evolve to survive, but the production team of the time panicked and stilted any growth it could have had.

[James2001]

I've seen people describe the 2001 Big Breakfast titles as more like Hollyoaks titles, which it does seem hard to disagree with (though Hollyoaks weren't using those style of titles at the time).

[Brekkie]

I liked they were different but still fitted the show. Only thing I didn't like was the logo - think the original logo could have been worked into it.

Was refreshing though to have titles, theme, presenters and house all change on one day. Still baffles me they didn't refresh the titles in 1996 beyond the theme tune and the new style titles in 1997 arrived a few weeks after Johnny.

Agree that final interior was horrid- nowhere near as nice as the three looks during the JV era, or indeed the emergency revamp in early 1997 either. I think the living room had seven different looks from September 1996 onwards. Think it only changed once or twice in the first era of the show.