At 2pm every day this week, The Spinoff will be counting down 100 local television moments of the decade. Today, moments 100-81. 100) Kiwi Steve makes it through to Conan, 2017 Not strictly local television, but this moment had about a one in a bajillion chance of ever happening, and yet somehow… it did. In … Read more
It’s been a Sunday morning staple for Kiwi kids for decades, but What Now may be facing new challenges in the era of social media. New Zealand children’s show What Now has utilised many different ways of engaging with its young audience over the past 38 years. Whether it was getting kids to write in … Read more
Forget his problematic Instagram and his pet monkey, Justin Bieber made his most evocative piece of art during a whirlwind trip to New Zealand in 2010. Cast your mind back to 2010. Donald Trump was just a guy asking budding entrepreneurs to manage a doggy day care on his reality TV show. The Social Network … Read more
Alex Casey talks to the key players involved in one of the greatest moments in New Zealand television history. Erin Simpson is playing air guitar beneath guttural groans. A kid is doing enthusiastic devil horns. A death metal band is playing against a purple sequin background. It was 4.30 in the afternoon, 2010, when TV2 … Read more
Each week on The Spinoff TV’s Repressed Memories, James Mustapic delves into pop culture’s graveyard and digs up the bodies. This episode: it’s been going since 1981– but what was New Zealand’s favourite kids’ show like in the first decade of this century? The Spinoff TV, 9.45pm Fridays on THREE
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week we arrive on a cloud fluffier than Mike Hosking and Kate Hawkesby’s dog to talk about our favourite local news and celebs of the week. Mostly, the fact that Mike McRoberts took a … 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
Fifteen years after it entertained Kiwi kids during that neverending void between school and dinner, Maha Albadrawi and Lucy Zee remember the meta mayhem of WNTV. Every millennial Kiwi remembers What Now in the early 2000s. Everyone remembers Fiona Anderson giving away popcorn machines, everyone remembers Jason Fa’afoi in drag, everyone remembers Carolyn Taylor’s perky smile … Read more
Remember staying up extra late, one hand hovering nervously over the remote in case of footsteps, waiting to catch a tantalising glimpse of nudity on TV? You were not alone. An anonymous panel revisits the golden era of SKY 1 soft porn. In the years before broadband internet and personal devices, New Zealand teenagers had … Read more
It’s the eye-pop has been talked about more than just about any other TV segment in New Zealand history. But one crucial voice has stayed silent about it, until now. Hayden Donnell talks to Thingee about the on-screen medical nightmare that changed his life forever. It started out like any other Son of a Gunn segment. Jason was prattling … Read more
Claire Adamson is undoubtedly New Zealand’s premiere expert on the 90s What Now series This is Serial Stuff. This week she hit the jackpot after being sent over an hour of kiwi childhood nostalgia on Youtube. The Reddit envelope of doom blinked angrily from the corner of the page. “Read me!” it screamed, a tiny, triangle-filled precursor of terrible, hate-filled, … Read more
After 20 years, Josh Drummond checks in to see how the legendary kid’s show What Now is doing with less Simon Barnett and more Mexican stereotypes. I do believe you think what now you speak, But what we do determine oft we break. – Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 I’m not sure why I decided to watch What Now. In … Read more
Every Thursday we trawl the internet for golden nuggets of New Zealand nostalgia. This week we found rare footage of pop megastar Kimbra, giving it heaps on a children’s TV show. // What Now? ran a series of segments called “Do Your Thing” in the early 2000s, where a sassy kid host would investigate a particular … Read more