50 years of NZ television
At 7.30 pm tonight, it will be 50 years since the first TV programme in NZ. Some selected milestones from 18 pages TVNZ sent to me:
- 1936 – BBC began television broadcasts
- 1939 – NBC (US) began
- 1956 – TV begins in Australia
- 1960 – 1st transmission from Shortland Street studios at 7.30 pm 1/6/60, shows included Robin Hood and Howard Morrison
- Aug 60 – Alma Johnson (photo below) becomes 1st female TV presenter
- 1960 – a TV set cost the equivalent in 2010$ of $5,935
- 1963 – first televised election coverage and Close Up debuts with Ian Johnstone
- 1965 – over 50% of households now have TV
- 1969 – first network news bulletin with Philip Sherry and Dougal Stevenson
- 1972 – 1st live All Black test
- 1973 – introduction of colour TV
- 1975 – 1st Telethon
- 1976 -Nice One Stu with Stu Dennison and Roger Gascoigne
- 1977 – Fair Go starts and “A week of it” political satire
- 1979 – 95% of homes have a TVand Bill Ralston joins TV2
- 1984 – Karyn Hay fronts Radio with Pictures
- 1989 – Holmes starts and TV3 starts
- 1997 – start of Breakfast TV
TVNZ have also provided some of the shows on in each decade. Ones I recall watching are:
- 1960s – Lassie, Bonanza, Mr Ed, Dr Who, Get Smart, The Avengers, Man from Uncle, Bewitched, Mission Impossible, Ironside
- 1970s – Dad’s Army, Monty Python, Two Ronnies, Alias Smith and Jones, M*A*S*H, Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, Basil Brush, It’s in the Bag, Top Town, Starsky & Hutch, A Week of it, Are you being served, I Claudius, The Professionals, Happy Days, Soap
- 1980s – Mork & Mindy, Fawlty Towers, Minder, Dukes of Hazzard, Dallas, To the Manor Born, Benson, Billy T James, Gliding On, University Challenge, Hill Street Blues, Battlestar Galactica, Ready to Roll, After School with Olly Olsen, Brideshead Revisited Love Boat, Hogan’s Heroes, A Team, Night Rider, Blind Date,
- 1990s – Holmes, Sale of the Century, Frontline, On The Mat, Counterpoint, Eyewitness, Assigment, Ralston Live, Flying Doctors, LA Law, Cheers, Young Ones, The Bill, Simpsons, Married with Children, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Thunderbirds, Dastardly & Mutley, Family Ties, Magnum PI, Star Trek, Doogie Houser, Macguvyer, Cosby Show, Beverly Hills 90210, 21 Jump Street, Casualty, Roseanne, American Gladiators, Seinfeld, The Nanny, Friends, Ally McBeal
- 2000s – Brothers & Sisters, Go Girls, Shortland Street, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, The Apprentice, American Idol, Two & a half men, Unauthorised History of NZ, Eating Media Lunch, Big Brother
That’s a lot of shows, but I guess its has been a lot of years!
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Tags: TVNZ
June 1st, 2010 at 9:18 am
Anyone else remember the “Ooky Spooky Club” on Saturday mornings CHTV3?
DPF : Hogans Heroes – 1980s? Thought it was shown here in the mid 70s although it was actually made mid 60s
June 1st, 2010 at 9:25 am
Should also have been:
1955 – ITV commences in UK breaking BBC monopoly.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:37 am
Wasn’t it “ALAS Smith and Jones”?
June 1st, 2010 at 9:55 am
50 years of unadulterated shite.
June 1st, 2010 at 10:02 am
who was watching tv in the 70′s/80′s..?
..they were the decades the world partied hard…
..only weird-losers/social misfits went anywhere near what television had to offer…
..which then..as now…was in the main total-crap…
any/many more crime forensic shows to go..?
whoar..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 1st, 2010 at 10:04 am
You’ve noted Karyn Hay as host of RWP but for me, RWP was Barry Jenkins aka Dr Rock. If any NZ DJ could be compared with the incomparable John Peel, then it would be Barry Jenkins. Considering how pervasive music vids are, I don’t think my daughter for example could grasp how liberating and compelling one TV programme could be. I must be getting old and boring
June 1st, 2010 at 10:10 am
Was going to comment to similar effect. It surprised me somewhat when I realised how old Hogan’s Heroes was (compared to say, Dad’s Army – which started in Black and White.
I’m not sure to which one DPF is referring, but it was both. Alias Smith and Jones was a US western series, Alas Smith and Jones was a British sketch comedy show (the name being a take-off of the other).
June 1st, 2010 at 10:19 am
wot daveski said at 10.04…
..jenkins was totally ‘the man’…
..there was nobody else came near..
possibly/probably new zealands’ ‘best-ever’..
..esp in that he ignored the mainstream crap…
..and..on his radio shows esp..
..opened up new worlds of music..
..for many many people..
and..(aside from 95bfm..and other student-stations..)..
..such dj-independance didn’t happen then..
..and dosen’t happen now…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 1st, 2010 at 10:27 am
Too busy doing armed robbery eh phool ?
June 1st, 2010 at 10:27 am
Shortland street started in the 90′s, not the 2000′s.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:19 am
We we’re the first family in our neighbourhood to get colour tele……
What a pain in the bum it was….. All the neighbour’s kept coming over to watch and we actually sat and watched the ad’s for about 2 weeks. Not sure when dear old mum got the dinner ready
June 1st, 2010 at 11:46 am
Z Cars, The Power Game Danny Kaye AND Crusader Rabbit and Roger Ramjet!!!!!!!!!
June 1st, 2010 at 11:57 am
Lets not forget Pukemanu… I think it was TVNZ first Soap in the late 60s.
Dame Pat Evison starred in it.
June 1st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
# RKBee (706) Says:
June 1st, 2010 at 11:57 am
Lets not forget Pukemanu… I think it was TVNZ first Soap in the late 60s.
Dame Pat Evison starred in it.
No. Let’s forget it.
Was looking at the list for 2,000.
Haven’t viewed a single one on the list.
June 1st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I remember when the first colour telly in the street arrived and I become best friends with the son so I could watch the Thunderbirds in colour….THUNDERBIRDS in COLOUR…rocked my world.
June 1st, 2010 at 12:19 pm
The Sweeney, Minder, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Boys from the Blackstuff, Miami Vice, UFO,
June 1st, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Loved UFO. I think they are making a movie based on UFO aren’t they?
June 1st, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Hollywood
That makes you an old bastard as well….:)
Even though I was quite young I do remember how cool the interceptors were…..and the uniforms the chicks had to wear….
June 1st, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Where the photo of Alma Johnson, I can’t remember her. I can recall Relda Familton being head chick I thought she might get a mention.
June 1st, 2010 at 1:11 pm
BB – I think you mean Captain Scarlet ?
The interceptors flown by the Angels !
Gerry Anderson made some great series – who cared if you could see the strings
June 1st, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Anyone remember Hiram Holiday? For some reason it stuck in my mind as one of the funnier early programmes. Disney used to produce nature programmes which were compulsory Sunday viewing.
June 1st, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I have not watched “shows” since the 1980s looking at that list, and certainly none since the 2000′s.
June 1st, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Voice
Nope, it was UFO, the interceptors had one big missile at the front.
Come to think of it, the interceptors looked a lot like the recently retired space shuttle.
Edit:…just checked on google, they look NOTHING like the space shuttle…..lol
June 1st, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Voice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_%28TV_series%29
June 1st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister, Faulty Towers, Open all hours, Porridge,
June 1st, 2010 at 2:31 pm
BB – this is what I Thought you were referring to
http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/angel_interceptor.html
I recall UFO now – the fabulous Gabrielle Drake was in it
June 1st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
The selected milestones of NZ television broadcasts … shows the dumbing down of New Zealand and when it started.
June 1st, 2010 at 2:43 pm
You may notice how few local programmes they can show from the 60s and 70s.
This is because to save money they taped over the existing programmes and so there are none in the archives.
This touches a personal nerve because my wife Jenny was the first singer to have her own show. She was then Jenny Parkinson and the show was called “I only want to know”. It was essentially fifteen minutes of Folk Songs. (She had just returned from playing a lead in Hair in Sydney.
We asked for a copy and learned there were none.
She was also a regular on C’Mon, Happen Inn, and Sing.
All over taped – all gone.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:23 pm
BB, I’m only as old as the chick I’m banging……oh wait…damn!
June 1st, 2010 at 3:40 pm
I’m pretty sure Karyn Hay got RWP circa 1981 – at least I can remember sitting in front of the TV with the rest of a loud bunch chuckling at her style, and in true Kiwi Kultural Kringe mode – mocking her accent.
Nowadays I’m filled with admiration for what the girl did. She was/is an icon.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Qwen
While it is a shame that many of the old Kiwi TV shows have been taped over the truth of the matter is that very few of them will be missed.
Let’s face it, 90% of the stuff produced in NZ over the years has been crap.
Sadly that piss poor quality continues to this day, Shortland Street and that horrendous show about low life Westies being just two of the worst examples.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Tom hunter
Come on now!
Hay was worthy of every single bit of cultural cringe that you could muster up, I well remember her at that time, she spent the entire show trying her hardest to be sophisticated and “cool”, of course it failed miserably, she came across as nothing more than a try hard.
Not sure how you can be filled with admiration for her now.
June 1st, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Couldn’t stand Hunter and RWP, although my mates raved about it.
I was a fan of the Thunderbirds, UFO, captain scarlet and oddly Joe 90.
For some odd reason I liked Mission Impossible as well…
June 1st, 2010 at 4:35 pm
“..Faulty Towers,..”(sic..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 1st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Wasn’t it “ALAS Smith and Jones”?
..from memory Alas S & J was the english programme with Griff Rhys Jones and another…Alias S & J was american with Ben Murphy and ?.
The Profesionals . Hawaii five O ..” book ‘em Danno “…all good stuff !
June 1st, 2010 at 5:13 pm
aw yeah..Hudson and Halls…coupla big mincers…but good to watch..
June 1st, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Big Bruv
I am not worried about them being missed.
It’s just that they should have been archived for future music historians. These shows launched careers like Ray Wolfe, Tina Cross, Dinah Less, Ray Columbus, the … Sisters, Beaver, Carl Doy, Tim Finn, Crombie Murdoch, Peter Sinclair, and and – for ever.
That’s what we wanted one of the Sing Shows for – Jenny’s Marlene Dietrich show was brilliant. Top Hat and tails and all.
Bernie Allan got the arrangements dead right.
June 1st, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Notice how the best shows seem to date in the 1970s and get progressively worse going forward. (With a notable exception Brideshead but that was early 1980s).
Today’s mainstream television is just so much drivel.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Heavy note to bring up… but relevant
Pat Evison just died.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:39 pm
what a crap show….!
a lame-arse quiz show…
compered by jason gunn..?
woop..!…woop…!
pull up…!
pull up..!..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 1st, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Being born in May 1960 I remember Ooky Spooky and joining the club when i had german measles. Whenever TVNZ celebrates childrens television or someother New Zealand television milestone, it NEVER gets mentioned. The last celebration seemed to focus on Ray Columbus and people of his generation. So far the TVNZ seems to be focusing on the late seventies onwards. It seems to be self serving celebrations of those within the industry. I wonder how many people my age were influenced by Thunderbirds, The Night Sky, In The Nature Of Things and the Space race ending in the moon landings. And did those programs give those born from 1960 to 1969 a “moral” frame that allowed us to become Nuclear free, and live and let live ?
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:20 am
I wouldn’t say that’s the worst show that TVNZ has ever produced, but I have to agree with Phil (who must have dashed down to the library to post his thoughts at 9.39pm) – it was crap!
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 am
Yeah, I find myself in agreement with Phil (scary). That was a pile of dog turds, a fucking game show! Is it just me or is Jason Gunn an annoying prick. I think on the outta on this one as he seems to have a large fan base.
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Gotta question the inclusion of Holmes in the 1990′s, if you lived anywhere outside of Auckland it was of little interest to anyone … to me he was a contriving, repetitive scene set, opinionated little man.
June 4th, 2010 at 9:30 am
OMG!!! I thought I was the only one who actually remembered “The Ooky Spooky Show”!!!!!!!
It was a ’60s NZ-made kids show in B&W: Ooky Spooky was a ghost (in a white sheet, no less!), there was a Dracula-like character called Count Down (loooooooooong before Seasame Street’s character of the same name), Cracker Jack (a clown) and The Big Wheel – he looked like a paint can with feet, his lid was a spinning spiral pattern with which he would hypnotise people. I joined the Ooky Spooky Fan Club and remember getting several newsletters featuring alot of Cracker Jack’s bad jokes!
TV started at 3.30pm and the preceding test pattern heralded so much magic to come! “Kimba The White Lion”, “Gigantor The Space Age Robot”, “Daktari”, “Speed Racer”, “Fireball XL5″, “Thunderbirds” (I always played Virgil in T/Bird 2 – I was soooooooooooooo cool!! My older sis was Scott in T/Bird 1, and lil’ sis was Alan – we always relegated her to the space station out of sight, out of mind!), “Stingray” (the sexy myserious Marina!), the very early old whitehaired “Doctor Who” in B&W, and later “UFO”, “Captain Scarlett” battling the Mysterons etc etc…
Also if you grew up in that time, you may have listened to the Children’s Holiday Programme with Philip Liner. It aired for an hour every weekday in the August school hols, it had a trombone-played intro theme, there was always an episode of a thriller played daily, quizzes and competitions to enter…and back in the days of true ‘theatre of the mind’, we were given instructions on how to build a games board in week 1, then daily in weeks 2 and 3 of the hols we’d actually play the board game against Philip Liner on the radio! We’d hear his dice rattle and him move his counter…click-click-click…”and now it’s your turn…”
Ahhhhhhhhh, nostalgia: it ain’t what it used to be!
December 4th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
@ david on June 1st, 2010 at 9:37 am, it was both. The first was a depressing western, the second a brilliant comedy/sketch show.
December 4th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
@ Hugh_Cook June 1st, 2010 at 11:02 pm, I do remember Ooky Spooky but not the club option. Was it ever available in Wellington to WNTV1 viewers? The music was really great though – Perry & Kingsleys arrangement of “Strangers In The Night” as the the theme tune & there were two chaps who ran around a lot – I think they were called Talley & Ho & known as “The Savers”. The Perry & Kingsley music track used for them shared that title.
December 4th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
@ Philbee June 4th, 2010 at 9:30 am, not Philip Liner, it was Gavin Yates.