KEY POINTS:
In 1976, tartan pop rockers The Bay City Rollers toured New Zealand. Were you there?
Were you in the front row for '70s heart throb David Cassidy's voyage downunder?
Those who can claim a "once-in-a-lifetime meeting with a big star", or were screaming from the front row of a significant cultural event in our nation's history, will be the stars of TVNZ's latest light-entertainment offering.
The show, Whatever happened to ... ?, hits screens on September 11.
In the early 2000s, New Zealand breakfast radio host and television current affairs personality Paul Holmes travelled the country hawking his self-titled album featuring covers of middle of the road classics, including Wichita Lineman and Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?
Where is he now?
Well, after a stint on Prime Television, the broadcasting legend has returned to TVNZ to host the show, and claims it will be "just the thing for a cold Tuesday night".
"It's not a Paul Holmes comedy talk show," but, rather, "a very interesting concept", he told the Weekend Herald.
It's a show about the big events, and how they affected the people dragged into them, and where those people are now.
Highlights will include meetings with "some formerly very famous musicians" both from New Zealand and abroad, Holmes says.
One episode will re-unite a man with the baby he saved from the Wahine disaster, in 1968.
Holmes - who admits it feels "very comfortable" to be back in the fold at TVNZ - says the show will run archival footage of a news event, then interviews with the participants.
A TVNZ statement says that although content "has yet to be confirmed", Whatever happened to ... ? aims to "revitalise our cultural history for a modern, contemporary audience" by using footage from the television archive.
"In the studio, Paul Holmes interviews the people who were there at key moments and events, to winnow out the human Kiwi experience of national and international events,and finds out what those people are doing now."
Herald columnist John Drinnan yesterday revealed more than $1 million in taxpayer funding had been allocated to the show.
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards made no apologies. "We hope that it will be [money] well spent, and people will love it. These programmes don't have to be academic - entertainment programmes that tick all the boxes about shared experience, national identity, our place in the world, they're totally legitimate."
Whatever Happened to ... ? premieres TV One, Tuesday, September 11, 8.30pm.
