"Say hi to your mum for me."
To a certain generation, that catchphrase is iconic. It speaks to how closely Rove McManus is woven into Australia's cultural fabric.
He's a three-time Gold Logie-winning media personality who came to fame hosting the eponymous Rove, where he rubbed shoulders with Hollywood elite and Australian celebrities alike.
Capitalising on US TV's deathless late-night talk show format and in the lineage of Hey Hey It's Saturday and Graham Kennedy, Rove (aka Rove Live) embraced the chaotic potential of live television with a distinctly homegrown larrikin spin, making its titular host the king of appointment television during the 00s.
"That was the peak," McManus recalls. "We started in 1999 – that was a fun, off-Broadway production – but it properly kicked in at Channel 10 in 2000.
"By 2003 was when I felt like we were part of the fabric. [It felt like] 'I'm here, I've planted my flag,'" he says.
The comedian and presenter was born John McManus, in Perth. He adopted his family nickname "Rove" as a stage name, hoping it would stop his friends from coming to see his early stand-up sets.
Given all those years trading anecdotes with celebrities and forging himself as a familiar screen icon, you'd imagine McManus possesses a wealth of great yarns. And you'd be absolutely right.
Here's what we learned when McManus sat down with Zan Rowe for Double J's Take 5.
Oh, and be sure to say hi to your mum for him.
He counts Ben Folds as a close friend
"I can't imagine my life without Ben Folds in it. He's been part of some very significant moments [in my life]," McManus says, of the American-born piano man and honorary Australian. (Folds lived in Adelaide for seven years while married to his third wife, Frally Hynes).
McManus fondly remembers seeing Ben Folds Five on tour in Australia in the late 90s ("just extraordinary") after discovering the band's 1997 Australian hit One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces.
"Then obviously Ben went solo," says McManus. "We've become very good friends over the years. When I think back to when I was first listening to this song, to think of the connection we would have all these years later is a wonderful thought."
How close? "Nobody knows this…" McManus begins.
Folds composed an original song for McManus's wife, actor Tasma Walton, with a little help from their daughter, Ruby, for her birthday last year.
"It was a significant year," says McManus. "I thought, 'What can we do?' [Ruby] had written a poem for Mother's Day, and I was like, 'How we do top that? Let's write a song!'
"So, she and Ben collaborated on writing this song for my wife's birthday called One Love, and it's beautiful and he was touring at the time and still very helpful doing it."
That's quite the celebrity flex. "I've set the bar very high," he jokes.
"I had my birthday [in January] and I'm like, 'What have we got? Got Bono on the phone?'"
P!nk is another dear friend
McManus and P!nk hit it off when the pop sensation first appeared on Rove Live in the early 00s — and they've been mates ever since.
"She had come through from her previous album where she had broken into the Australian market. [She's] one of those artists where every time she came back into the country, she was a little bit more famous. And I was a little bit more famous," he explains.
"It was this wonderful synchronicity of, as big as she got, she would always come and be part of the show.
"It helped elevate us as well because she always was grateful that when she was starting out, not only we let her perform but let her speak, which not every music act gets to do."
That gratitude developed into something far more meaningful – Alecia "P!nk" Moore has shared several social media posts featuring McManus over the years, including a 2018 tribute calling his family "one of a kinders. These people that I love with my whole heart".
"She's got a great sense of humour, she's clever, wicked, funny and has a real similar sensibility to Australia, which is why this is one of the biggest markets she's ever had," says McManus.
McManus's favourite P!nk song is her 2008 chart-topper So What. "I have so many fond memories connected with this time and this song," he says.
"I mean, the best hook in music history? That is not for us to argue about now … I think this may have been the first song lyric my daughter ever knew. That 'Ba-da-da-da, da-da' part."
He's also got a warm and fuzzy memory of P!nk's performance at the 2008 ARIA Awards, where she arrived on stage on a ride-on mower, in a nod to the track's music video.
"In fact, I think this was the first year that an American act was allowed to perform at the ARIAs, which was a big, big deal. Testament to her and the love that Australia has for her," says McManus.
Indeed, when McManus and Rowe speak, P!nk is on another blockbuster tour of the country.
P!nk holds the record for the most sold-out shows at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena, the highest ticket sales ever at the entertainment centres in Sydney (surpassing Kylie Minogue) and Brisbane, and the most performances by an artist at Perth Arena.
"She's such a very dear friend … One of those people who deserves all the fame and popularity … especially here in Australia," says McManus.
The slow death of TV is greatly exaggerated
At its mid-00s height, before internet culture had truly taken hold, it felt like nobody dared miss Rove's weekly variety platter of celebrity interviews, comedy and live music.
Its popularity jump-started the careers of cast members including Peter Helliar, Corrine Grant, Hamish & Andy, and Dave Callan.
Beloved segment What the…? turned strange oddities sent in by the audience into laughs, long before memes served the same purpose on social media.
"People forget, we were never a ratings juggernaut," says McManus.
Maybe so, but you can find traces of the show's colossal impact on Australian pop culture to this day.
Few ideas better demonstrated how Rove harnessed the interactive power of live television than Flick Your Switch, where viewers turned their lights on and off to show they were watching along.
The concept began with a bid to get then-Prime Minister John Howard involved in the program, McManus explains. They had a crew filming on a ferry passing by Kirribilli House and asked any staff to flick their lights on and off to demonstrate the PM was tuning in at home.
"No one did but behind the harbour, you could see all these apartment building lights are going on and off … So we went, let's make this a [regular] bit," he says.
The weekly segment was a hit but started to get a bit "dangerous" after McManus encouraged one house to put their furniture out on the front lawn.
Cutting back from the commercial break, he realised he had incited a debaucherous street party.
"Everyone's going, 'I know where that place is!' All these people have turned up and the street is full of people who do not live on this street. Cars are coming tearing down the street, flashing their lights and honking their horns," he says.
"That's when we went, 'This has to stop or there's going to be a lawsuit.' But it was that great zeitgeist connection that you just don't get anymore."
These days, television is regarded as an antiquated medium, particularly by younger generations raised on social media.
Why wait for a weekly broadcast when a bevy of streaming platforms provide content in just a few clicks?
However, McManus argues that television still has an edge over other formats.
"I will say it until I'm blue in the face, the one ace up the sleeve that free-to-air, network, terrestrial television has is live. Ask The Matildas, ask the Australian Open," he says.
"People will watch live TV if you do something that doesn't talk down to people. If you acknowledge, yes there's other things on, you can go back to bingeing whatever you want on your streaming service. But just come back and watch me for an hour, let's commune…
"It's a lost art and it was great to have that while we did. It was so much fun."
That time Powderfinger provided a perfect end to hosting Rove
In November 2009, after a decade on air, McManus took to the airwaves for what was to be his final episode. And he couldn't think of a better musical guest to wrap things up with than his favourite band, Powderfinger.
"I hadn't told anyone I was finishing. I'd told our staff, but I hadn't announced it," he explains. "I didn't want a bunch of fuss."
Pre-show, he broke the news backstage to Powderfinger, who were booked to perform All of the Dreamers from their seventh (and what turned out to be final) album, Golden Rule.
McManus recalls telling the band: "Look, I'm announcing it [on air]. I need you guys to know this is going to be my last show. Love the album, it's great, so happy you're on. But my favourite song is Burn Your Name, just so you know.
"They did the song, we finished the show, I said not only goodnight but goodbye. The boys called me up, they did an encore where they sang Burn Your Name and they got me up and I got to sing with them.
"Playing tambourine, singing with Bernard [Fanning], it was one of the greatest moments I've ever had. What a way to finish my run doing the show in Australia.
"To be with my favourite band, singing my favourite song with them, on a stage in a car park out the front of what was the ABC Studios in Melbourne.
"A beautiful moment, and this song always takes me back to that, what could've been a real sad moment for me was so joyous thanks to the boys from Powderfinger."
Rove cherishes the small things … even ants
A children's author, radio host, and beloved screen personality turned media mogul (McManus's production company Roving Enterprises produces long-running panel show The Project as well as the ARIA Awards), McManus has always taken a playful attitude to his work.
Now at age 50, he intends to keep it that way for many years to come.
"At some point I'll step aside and let anyone go past, absolutely. But in the meantime, if they'll let me hang out and play with them, I'm more than happy to do so," he says.
"I'm not that old dog grumbling on the front verandah at all the new puppies coming by. I want to be the one that's running around as best I can until my knees give out."
It speaks to McManus's enduring positivity. On stage and screen, he always looks like he's having the time of his life. You can't fake that over so many decades.
So, is it hard to stay positive?
"There are times when it can be difficult, when you think about the state of the planet and the people who should be helping with that are not. That sort of stuff is bleak and makes me sad," he admits.
"But my wife describes me as 'annoyingly glass half-full'.
"I do try to find the positive where I can, whether that's 'Do what you can while you can' or 'Appreciate what you've got while you've got it.'"
It's an attitude that's all the more resonant coming from someone who has certainly known difficult times.
Most notably, McManus's first wife Belinda Emmett died of breast cancer in 2006, a tragedy that led McManus to take indefinite leave from his show.
"The people in your life that mean something to you? Just let them know!" McManus says.
It's the wholesome mantra of a man who believes in his heart "the world is just an incredible place, it's hard not to just find the joy in the everyday around you".
"I was looking at a group of ants the other day, just going about their business. Ants are incredible!
"There's a lot more joy in the world than I think we're told there is.
"So, if you go and find it and then pass it on, I think it's hard not to then just feel better about things on a day-to-day basis."
Hear Rove's full interview with Zan Rowe on the Take 5 podcast and ABC Listen app.