Good Morning is coming to an end after 19 years spent entertaining mums, house pets and the temporarily infirm. Chris Schulz takes a look at some of the show's highs - or are they lows?
1. That time Yulia reinvented herself (2007)
It's hard to fathom now, but back in 2007 Yulia MacLean was something of a minor sensation. The Russian singer had a stunning voice, a super sad back story, and gave totally cray interviews, meaning her marriage to Glyn MacLean became a tabloidsplash. Shortly after returning from their honeymoon, Yulia headed straight to Good Morning for a performance that still beggars belief.
Yulia Townsend provided Good Morning with a surprise.
I can't put it better than Rose Hoare in the Sunday Star-Times: "She sang much of the song on her knees, apparently agonised with emotion. She banged her head back and forth, with her mouth hanging open, the way David Lee Roth used to. She moseyed over to the guitarist, plucked from his chest a long silver chain and insouciantly dropped it on the ground, the cold-blooded minx.
"After a searing three minutes or so, the song ended. Yulia, on her knees to deliver the final note, flopped over onto her side, as though collapsing from exhaustion ... It was like nothing seen before or since on morning television."
2. Brendon Pongia farts during a crafts segment (2007)
I love the way Pongia is obviously trying - and failing - to keep his putrid stench in. I love how they both try to waft it away, giggle about it like school kids then pretend like Pongia's farts - there are at least two of them - don't stink like a dead skunk stuck in a drainpipe. And I love Jeremy Wells' voiceover for his Eating Media Lunch segment in which he labels the incident a "Pongia parp". But the thing I love about this clip more than anything else is that, at the time of his clenched buttock fail, Pongia and his guest were showing viewers how to turn pine cones into buzzy bees using stickers, pipe cleaners and tulle. Why wasn't Sally Ridge invited?
3. When a dwarf met a Good Morning host (2005)
John Rhys-Davies has starred in Indiana Jones and was dwarf warrior Gimli in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. But he met his match when he fell for Lisa Manning during a Good Morning interview in 2005.
Lisa Manning and John Rhys-Davies. The pair met during an interview on Good Morning.
Let's let the Western Mail pick up the story: "There was immediate chemistry between the pair and later that day he sent her a text saying that he needed to find 'the right woman: smart, passionate, wise, grown-up and still capable of romance and, dare I say it, love. Blindness on her part essential'. They met up the following day for tea and Rhys-Davies asked her out for dinner and they were soon enjoying a relationship." They now have a daughter and a Hobbit hole they share together on a 30-acre block in Huntly. Ace.
4. Good Morning hosts get hypnotised (2008)
I can't find the footage but I remember this like it was yesterday. It was April Fool's Day 2008 and expert hypnotist and facial hair cultivator Peter Powers was invited onto Good Morning to hypnotise the hosts, all for the lols. But Powers didn't do the usual hypnotist trickery. There was no, 'snap, now you're a chicken' shenanigans.
Sarah Bradley and Brendon Pongia, the hosts of Good Morning in 2007.
Instead, Powers made Brendon Pongia and Sarah Bradley engage in a pretend love triangle and fight over the chef. The poor chef. He was, from memory, simply trying to show viewers how to cook an omelette. Instead, he had Pongia chat him up while Bradley tossed her hair and stroked his arm, showing off her insane jealousy at the pair's chemistry. Why can't more TV hosts do this?
5. Every time Steve Gray did jazzercise (1998-2010)
Steve Gray was a contributer to Good Morning for 12 years.
At some point during his 12 years on the show, Steve Gray became the guy who did weird exercises to loud music. Watching Gray in his oversized tracksuits work out with his bad teeth, pained expressions, terrible co-ordination and awful one-liners became cult viewing, a guilty pleasure that made you glad you weren't doing whatever it is he was attempting.
When Gray left in 2010, it was the end of an era. "I don't want to sound like a dick, but I'm a great interviewer ... I never once stuffed up an interview, swore or got caught out on the job," he told Woman's Day at the time. Wherever he is now, I hope Gray's still wearing his terrible tracksuits, still working out and still smiling his crooked smile.
