In 2000, Fur Patrol dominated the New Zealand singles chart with ‘Lydia’, a song that merely a year later would be voted the 19th best New Zealand song of all time. And finally, 18 years later, ‘Lydia’ is streaming on Spotify. Tom Augustine pays tribute to a New Zealand classic. Some of the songs that … Read more
What was the best ’90s pop compilation: Kickin’ or The Rhythm? And which volume? Craig Major think it’s time to settle this debate once and for all. For me, and an entire generation of New Zealanders coming of age in the mid-90s, the music of my youth only came in the following forms: the radio, … Read more
Bringing back an awesome show from 20 or 30 years ago may seem like the answer to all our modern TV problems, but is it really? Today, Calum Henderson examines the case for bringing back a true crime masterclass. Mike Bungay QC was a New Zealand lawyer so famous they gave him his own TV … Read more
Bringing back an awesome show from 20 or 30 years ago may seem like the answer to all our modern TV problems, but is it really? We begin by exploring the case for bringing back Heroes with Philip Alpers. The 1990s was a boom decade for New Zealand actors specialising in dramatic reenactments of real … Read more
A vast YouTube archive reveals the weird, wonderful and sometimes genius parallel universe of TopPop – the Netherlands’ anything-goes answer to Top of the Pops. Think of a band, any band, so long as they had an international chart hit in the 1970s or 80s. There is a pretty good chance that band lip-synced that … 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
Now one of the most lauded television producers in the world, Ryan Murphy didn’t start well. Sam Brooks was there in the 90s to witness the hot mess that is Popular. It’s strange to sit in 2017 and see Ryan Murphy be a critically acclaimed, if still messy, maker of television. I look at the … Read more
One day last year Sam Brooks started re-watching The Nanny and didn’t stop. Six seasons later, this is what he learned. “Did The Nanny ever actually play in primetime in New Zealand?” This is something I often wondered as I made my way through all the show’s six seasons last year. My main memory of … Read more
For years Lucy Zee thought maybe she had dreamed a hot and steamy TV series set in Auckland’s boy-racer underworld. But it was very real, and there hasn’t been anything quite like it since. In the middle of the 00s, New Zealand was struck with boy-racer fever. You couldn’t step outside your house without hearing … Read more
Please enjoy the second episode of our new online series Repressed Memories, wherein James Mustapic revisits weird local shows from his childhood (click here to watch episode one on Sensing Murder). As far as I was concerned, Sticky TV was the best show on TV when I was a kid. Drew Neemia, Erin Simpson, and … Read more
The history of New Zealand television features plenty of lowlights, but few as low as the drunken and chaotic 1987 Listener Gofta Awards. Comedian Michele A’Court was there. First published January 14, 2016 It is possible that I am one of the few people who has fond memories of the 1987 Gofta Awards. It’s also … Read more
Patrick Hunn fondly remembers shambolic local young adult series The Tribe. The things you read, watch, play or listen to when you’re a kid stick with you, because kids are dumb and have brains made of a pliable grey paste. These squawking, colourful things leave marks that are baked into your memory by the general, … Read more
For this, the final Throwback Thursday in our partnership with NZ on Screen, Joseph Harper looks back at the first ever televised Lotto draw, and unaccountably fantasises about eating a Lotto ball at length. My mum used to buy a lotto ticket every week. Discussions on the repercussions of winning the jackpot were commonplace at … Read more
Tara Ward revisits the high fashion of the 1986 Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards, complete with wool, leather, and bold shoulders. The Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards was to fashion what The Dog Show was to farmers: the premier showcase of what made our country great. Which was mostly leather and wool, apparently. … Read more
Sarah Robson reminisces with National MP Nikki Kaye about her time on Fish Out of Water, the reality show that was dumping people on an island years before Survivor. In 1996, before the term “reality TV” entered our everyday lexicon, TV3 decided to strand six Auckland teenagers on Rakitu Island in the Hauraki Gulf. They were … Read more
Before there was Flying Nun, there was the NZ punk scene. To celebrate NZ Music Month, Gareth Shute looks back at a 1978 snapshot of the birth of our local indie scene. It was June 1978 when promoter Derek King made a plan for half-a-dozen bands from Auckland to drive south for a Punk Spectacular … Read more
One of New Zealand television’s longest running series Praise Be hits three decades on our screens on April 10. José Barbosa relives a lifetime of Sunday morning worship as archived on NZ On Screen. There are many things I find reassuring: ironed clothes, community libraries, that falsetto “eeeh?” sound John Key makes when he’s trying … Read more
More than just a glimpse of what dating was like in bumbling, awkward, pre-internet New Zealand, this 1989 episode of Blind Date on NZ On Screen unwittingly introduced the nation to the woman who would go on to become our greatest ever TV saleswoman. Before she had dropped a single bowling ball onto a bamboo fiber … Read more
In 2016, to celebrate Country Calendar turning the big 5-0, Calum Henderson took a look at five of the show’s famous spoofs on NZ On Screen – and one which seemed like a spoof but was totally real. You don’t see a lot of spoofs these days. We’ve got parodies galore, we’re up to our … Read more
Earlier this year Alex Casey watched Putting Our Town on the Map, a 1995 documentary on NZ On Screen that unearthed the bizarre origins and rituals around Paeroa’s L&P bottle and Ohakune’s giant carrot. Our host Miranda Harcourt is taking us around New Zealand, looking at what different small towns have done to put themselves on … Read more