Franchise: Breakfast Television
Companies: TV-AM
Provides examples of:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Timmy Mallett's contribution to Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini is likened to "your dad down the disco."
- Cast Full of Writers: The original "Famous Five" presenters weren't just the onscreen talent but shareholders and executive directors in the TV-AM company.
- Channel Hop (In-Universe):
- Cutting Corners:
- After the channel gave up on hard news, they scraped by with an extremely reduced news service consisting of not much more than a presenter reading out headlines against a single chromakey backdrop. They mostly managed with this until they got caught out by the 1984 bombing of the Brighton Grand Hotel, where they couldn't do much more to cover the event than shout questions at an on-location reporter calling from a phonebox in Brighton.
- Bruce Gyngell was known for being as tightfisted as he could possibly get away with. While this was able to keep the channel afloat when it had been anticipated that it would fail, this backfired when the cost-cutting resulted in 220 technical staff declaring a 24-hour strike. Gyngell responded by firing the strikers and stepping in to direct Good Morning Britain himself while drafting in the station's auxiliary staff such as receptionists and canteen workers to fill in the gaps in the crew.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Harris acknowledges in the narration that he finds Anna Ford very attractive.
- Excited Kids' Show Host: Timmy Mallett’s a type 2 on Wacaday.
- The '80s: The network serves as a tale of excess that typified the decade. A summing-up on this theme is delivered in a Montage soundtracked by the theme from Requiem for a Dream.
- Forgot to Pay the Bill: Within seven weeks of going on air, the company was so strapped for cash that they received a final notice from the London Electricity Board. At another time, they ended up in debt to their local newsagent.
- He Also Did (In-Universe): Prior to taking over from Peter Jay, Jonathan Aitken had worked for ITV before as a presenter on Yorkshire Television's Calendar.
- Nepotism: As an MP, Jonathan Aitken was actually legally prohibited from running a TV station, so he was quickly replaced by his cousin, Timothy.
- Network Decay: TV-AM started out under David Frost with Good Morning Britain serving up hard news and discussion. In a little under a decade, it gradually became a vehicle for cheap celebrity gossip and low-effort kids' programming.
- Pop-Star Composer (In-Universe): The theme to Good Morning Britain was composed by Jeff Wayne.
- Recycled In Space: The original expectation for BBC's Breakfast Time was that it was going to be "Newsnight with cornflakes."
- Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Roland Rat was added to the lineup of presenters since Greg Dyke and Anne Wood realised that kids were potential demographic the show could attract, particularly during the summer holidays.
- Textual Celebrity Resemblance: Supposedly part of Breakfast Time's draw for audiences was Selina Scott's resemblance to Princess Diana.
- The Rival: TV-AM was forever in competition with The BBC for ratings after the Beeb managed to pip them at the post by getting Breakfast Time on the air several months before TV-Am was originally due to start broadcasting.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor (In-Universe): At one point the narration alludes to the Hookers and Blow scandal that ended Breakfast Time presenter Frank Bough's career at The BBC.
- Vacation Episode: Greg Dyke pioneered the "summer roadshow" format that would become popular with many British TV shows out of a need to for a relatively inexpensive gimmick to boost ratings.
- Shout-Out:
- Frost was the onscreen frontman in the first incarnation of Good Morning Britain, with other faces of the programme being described as "the Pips to his Gladys Knight."
- Offscreen executive Peter Jay is described as TV-AM's equivalent of Jeremy Dyson, save for the fact that Michael Sheen hasn't played him in a movie yet.
- TV-AM's "mission to explain" is described as having been "accomplished only in the George W. Bush sense of the word."
- Greg Dyke left the company for TVS when they were about to enter their "Tony Montana in Act Three phase" of their lifespan as a company.
- A clip from Wacaday shows Timmy Mallett starting the show by singing the theme from Goldfinger.
- "Industrial action - have you forgotten how good it tastes?" is based on a Tagline from an Angel Delight advertising campaign.
- Flipper and Batman are mentioned as some of the old shows Gyngell used to fill the dead air during the strike.
- Denver the Last Dinosaur is mentioned as one of the shows in the Cartoon World slot.
- The Stinger: A shot of the TV-AM vanity plate with one of the hosts with their mic evidently still on saying "Well, I'm glad that's over."
- Young Future Famous People:
- Greg Dyke, future director-general of the BBC, worked for a time as the Director of Programmes for TV-AM.
- Mike Myers had a brief stint as a host on Wide Awake Club.
