At the height of their mid-90s fame, Jason Gunn and his sidekick Thingee made their own 60 minute movie, the Christchurch-set caper Jason and Thingee’s Big Adventure. Baz McDonald talks to team behind it, including Gunn himself. For New Zealand kids growing up in the early ’90s, weekday afternoons from 3:30 to 4pm meant one … Read more
Long-lost siblings? A high-stakes and seemingly pointless quest? A fake death? Sounds like a good time. Sam Brooks celebrates the forgotten Kiwi drama Seekers. Before Filthy Rich was even a glimmer in Gavin Strawhan’s eye, Seekers brought the unpredictable and improbable drama to New Zealand primetime television. Straight off the bat, Seekers is an extremely weird high-concept premise for … Read more
Buck House was an edgy sitcom from the 70s that manages to still be edgy and different now, though not for the right reasons. Sam Brooks muses upon the distinct pleasures of Buck House. When I think of the 70s, I think of Yakety Sax, Mary Tyler Moore and a show where a guy had to pretend … Read more
Wikipedia has it on its list of the worst sitcoms of all time. But how bad is it? Sam Brooks watched the first episode of Melody Rules to find out if the notorious Kiwi comedy has been unfairly maligned. The answer is yes, but also no. For those of you who are not in the know about … Read more
Sam Brooks continues his dig through the NZ on Screen archives and the history of New Zealand drama with 1978’s Radio Waves, a half-hour maybe-comedy about the travails of an Auckland radio station. After watching Close to Home, I was struck by three things. One, how indebted New Zealand drama (and this also extends to … Read more
Before there was Shortland Street, there was Close to Home. Sam Brooks dug through the NZ on Screen archives and found the first episode of New Zealand’s first soap opera. It’s 1975 in New Zealand. Imagine the climate. Robert Muldoon is about to become prime minister, the population has just cracked three million and television … Read more
What is the greatest New Zealand TV theme song ever written? Our search continues with a long forgotten Dave Dobbyn masterpiece from 1989. Previously in our search for New Zealand’s greatest TV theme song: Country Calendar Any major boomer will tell you: 1980s New Zealand was a different world. A world where you could smoke … Read more
Tickled co-creator Dylan Reeve goes back down the rabbithole, revisiting a childhood breakfast food betrayal in an attempt to settle the Weet-Bix score once and for all. One recent morning, while watching my kids enjoy their Weet-Bix* one of the many advertising jingles of my childhood popped into my head. “Kiwi kids… are Weet-Bix kids…” … Read more
With his death going viral, Nigel the Mana Island gannet joins a proud tradition of New Zealand celebrity animals. Calum Henderson pays tribute to the creatures we’ve loved and lost. This article was first published in February 2018. A dead gannet is the latest New Zealand animal to attain celebrity status. Nigel, of Mana Island, … Read more
Calum Henderson looks back at the best of Jeremy Wells and makes some predictions for what he will bring to the Seven Sharp desk. When Jeremy Wells takes his seat next to Hilary Barry at the Seven Sharp desk tomorrow, it will mean different things to different people. Many of Seven Sharp’s regular audience, for … Read more
The Spinoff continues its deep dive into the world of weird and wonderful fashion and asks: is luxury French fashion house Maison Margiela taking inspiration from a 90s Kiwi television icon? Since its start in 1981, What Now? has managed to accomplish a lot of things in its 37-year history. It’s become New Zealand’s longest-running … Read more
Calum Henderson is on a valiant quest to find New Zealand’s greatest TV theme. His search for answers begins with a look at the origins of the rollicking Country Calendar theme. Country Calendar is the greatest New Zealand television show. Even if you’ve never watched it, you know it’s true. It is the people’s show, … Read more
Tara Ward witnesses Suzanne Paul do something extraordinary — not for the first time and not for the last time. Someone alert the authorities because there’s a genius in my living room and her name is Suzanne Paul. I thought I’d seen it all when Suzanne Paul sold a clip that could jazz up your outfit … Read more
Allanah Faherty remembers Kiwi Kidsongs, a series of government-funded kids’ albums that were sung in primary schools all over the country for 20 years. As a kid, there was little honour greater than being in charge of the song lyrics at a school assembly. Whether it was holding up the giant sheet of paper in … Read more
News came today that Stage Challenge, the national dance competition for schools, is to close after 25 years. Kristin Hall pays tribute to the touchingly earnest extra-curricular. We are but two weeks into 2018 and already we have a definite sign that this cruel world is going to continue its speedy downward trajectory until there … Read more
A New Zealand man was charged this week with drink driving after a chicken nugget-inspired rampage in a Sydney McDonald’s. As a quick Google reveals, he wasn’t the first and he won’t be the last to lose his shit at the Golden Arches. McDonald’s is truly the great equaliser: no matter what car you take … Read more
‘You’ve seen what’s on his screen – imagine what’s on his mind’ warned the voiceover in a 1999 PSA about online paedophiles. The ad’s star Joseph Nunweek remembers its filming, and reflects on how our perception of internet safety has changed in the years since. Fame is fleeting, but it changes you. My television acting … Read more
Despite 30 years of relentless sales, the Briscoes Lady remains as energetic and positive as ever. Tara Ward tries to figure out why. New Zealanders can always be certain of three things – the prime minister cursing the All Blacks, Mike Hosking wearing ripped jeans and Briscoes having a sale. As we know, a Briscoes sale … Read more
Who had the clown cake? Who had the terrible duck with chips for a beak? Who had that bloody train cake? Georgia Munn revisits the book that defined the birthday parties of your childhood. If you grew up in New Zealand or Australia in the 80s or 90s, your household probably had a copy of … Read more
It’s a New Zealand stalwart, but does anybody have the guts to power rank the rides at Rainbow’s End? Fully grown man Sam Brooks does. Last Friday I decided to go to Rainbow’s End to belatedly celebrate my birthday with two friends, one of whom had never been to Rainbow’s End before, because his childhood … Read more
Tara Ward gazes back through time to remember TV One’s campaign dog Toby, the goodest boy to ever grace the small screen. Nothing says “watch this channel” more than a directionally-challenged dog trapped in a labyrinth of notable TV personalities. So it makes perfect sense that when 1991 TV One launched a promo campaign featuring … Read more
It contains one of the most memorable lines in New Zealand advertising, but what else went into making the iconic Vogel’s O.E. ad? Maha Albadrawi, with help from Lucy Zee, investigates. As a kid, I watched a lot of TV. I still do, really, only now we call it ‘consuming content’ and it can be done … Read more
Following last night’s love fest, Tara Ward walks back down a very long aisle of dramatic Shortland Street nuptials. Romance flowed like a punctured box of cask wine on last night’s episode of Shortland Street, spilling its emotional load over Ferndale in a sparkly celebration of all things love and motorbikey. With the groom’s eternal … Read more
New Zealand’s unlikeliest spokesmodel is at it again, fronting a strangely timely apocalypse-themed ad campaign for Arnotts. But what other products should Steve Hansen put his unique talents behind? Lucy Zee has some suggestions. Some of you might know Steve Hansen as the All Blacks coach who led us to victory at the last Rugby … Read more
Lucy Zee revisits the sensual Toffee Pops ad of the 90s starring Carlos Spencer and a whole lot of lust. The best factory produced, mid-range, supermarket shelf, chocolate coated cookie in New Zealand according to this statistically accurate twitter poll is: I am going to be honest here guys, I was expecting Toffee Pops to … Read more
Ever wondered what Cobb & Co’s menu looked like in the 80s? Thanks to an unearthed staff training video, Sam Brooks knows. Now he’s ready to share the unsettling results. I have been to Cobb & Co once in my life, in 2016. On the way back from Wellington, we stopped in Taupō. Now there … Read more
Lucy Zee remembers the iconic TV2 ad where a penguin drove a bus and Suzanne Paul had a garage sale. If you (still) watch a lot of TV, you might have noticed that channels air short branding ads in between TV shows called ‘brand identities’ – ‘idents’ for short. These can range from short simple … Read more
After watching an episode of the slightly weird teen-oriented show while on painkillers (legitimate medical reasons), Sam Brooks goes on an internet investigation to find out what the cast are doing now. Being Eve was a strange beast of a show, one of the rare New Zealand TV series aimed specifically at teens and preteens, … Read more
Everyone loves a nostalgia trip, remembering a time when the world wasn’t melting so fast. Join Lucy Zee as she looks back at the white guys who once were on New Zealand TV way too much. Imagine a world without white men. Well for starters, New Zealand would have hardly any television commercials. My parents … Read more