Originally a Melbourne-only production hosted for two hours on weekday mornings in the late 70s by Marie Van Maaren and local personality Mike McCarthy, The Early Bird Show was revived in 1985 with ex-Zoot singer Darryl Cotton brought on board as the main host.
Now broadcast for five hours on Saturday mornings in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide as well, the show often attracted enormous ratings.
Broadcast live from a studio at Nunawading, there was always a sense of the unexpected – such as when a six-foot grey kangaroo took offence at Marty Monster and punched the daylights out of him.
Marty went down for the count, host Darryl Cotton collapsed in fits of laugher, the old roo went back to the fauna park, and the clip is still frequently played on TV “goof” programmes.
Darryl Cotton
Marie Van Maaren
Marty Monster
Mr & Mrs Timms
