Eric and Ernie at The BBC: 1968–78

The first series of The Morecambe and Wise Show was a success before Morecambe's heart attack. Though now a popular television star, Morecambe felt himself to be placed under a great deal of pressure. As Wise was, at that stage, very much a basic straight man, Morecambe felt the job of making Hills' and Green's writing sparkle was firmly on his shoulders.

While Morecambe was recuperating, Hills and Green, who believed that Morecambe would probably never work again, quit as writers. Morecambe and Wise were in Barbados at the time and learned of their writers' departure only from the steward on the plane. John Ammonds, the show's producer, replaced Hills and Green with Eddie Braben, who had just parted from Ken Dodd.

With Braben as chief writer, Morecambe and Wise became the most successful comedy duo the country had ever seen. The humour had always been largely derived from their on-stage relationship, but whereas Hills and Green had cast Morecambe as the comic and Wise as the straight man, Braben inverted the relationship; as theatre critic Kenneth Tynan noted, Braben made Wise's character a comic who wasn't funny, while Morecambe became a straight man who was funny. Braben made them less hostile to one another, even depicting them as sharing a bed. Originally Morecambe and Wise objected to sharing a bed (which would become one of their most popular and fondly remembered character traits), but Braben countered that if it was good enough for Laurel and Hardy it was surely good enough for Morecambe and Wise. Morecambe was appeased and congratulated Braben, saying, "It stays!"

Morecambe and Wise became so popular that their annual BBC Christmas shows were almost mandatory viewing in the United Kingdom from 1968 to 1977. Despite his heart condition, he and Ernie still managed energetic song and dance routines and superbly timed visual comedy. So much effort was placed into their 1977 Christmas show that Eric and Ernie did not even do a television series that year. An estimated 28,385,000 viewers watched it. Des O'Connor was frequently the butt of their humour, often because of his allegedly awful singing.

If you want me to be a goner, get me an LP by Des O'Connor

O'Connor once asked Morecambe and Wise whilst appearing as a guest, if he could sing on their show. Morecambe replied, "Sing on our show? You can't even sing on your own show!". In reality, O'Connor was a close friend of both Morecambe and Wise and would meet them in later years to devise jokes about himself.