In addition, he developed a humorous audience greeting which became his catch-cry, "Howdy-doody, boys and girls and mums and dads and bald-headed babies".
[2] Ellen also played the naughty schoolboy role of "Conkers" in the slapstick series Take That (1957-59) for Crawford Productions, which reputedly could have been Australia's first TV sitcom.
[4] In one of his last comedy bits, after shoving Kennedy a little too hard during horseplay, he quipped, "I'm retired now [so] don't need the money."
In Graham Kennedy's last television interview for his 60th birthday, he told Ray Martin that in the first few years of IMT, the comedy sketches were mainly devised by Ellen recreating old Tivoli and vaudeville shtick, rather than using new writers.
Kennedy credited learning a great deal of his physical and visual comedy from Ellen, whom he respected.