Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy is just one of the great kids programmes NZ has produced.
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy is just one of the great kids programmes NZ has produced.
With the school holidays in full swing, NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner looks back at some classic New Zealand children’s television.
New Zealand has a good reputation for its children's television production, with many of our kidult dramas selling internationally, and winning festival screenings and awards.
A number of our classic kids TV shows feature on NZ On Screen. This is a selection of six programmes that have stood the test of time and would still be good school holiday fare.
Hairy Maclary
One of the most popular titles on NZ On Screen is this animated version of Lynley Dodd's much-loved children's book Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy, made in 1997.
The animator was the late Euan Frizzell and actor Miranda Harcourt narrates, beautifully capturing the rhythms of Dodd's words.
View Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy here:
Terry and the Gunrunners
Our next selection Terry and the Gunrunners also came from a children's book, the 1982 graphic novel by Stephen Ballantyne and Bob Kerr. The six-part TV series, made in 1985, honoured the comic's distinctive New Zealand landscapes, people and humour and gave them a cartoonish feel with larger-than-life acting, animated arcade-game-style sequences, bright costumes and oversized props. The full series is available on NZ On Screen, but you can start with episode one.
Under the Mountain
Adapted from a Maurice Gee novel, the 1981 sci-fi children's series Under the Mountain left its scary imprint on a generation of NZ kids, haunted by the evil transmogrifying Wilberforces, who changed from humans into giant slugs, slithering underneath Auckland's volcanoes.
You can see episode four of Under the Mountain here:
Also in the science fiction genre, is the 1990 six-part series
The Boy from Andromeda
, which was produced by South Pacific Pictures and screened around the world.
On a holiday to Mt Tarawera with her scientist parents, teenager Jenny (a young Katrina Hobbs) finds an odd shard of metal. By touching it she unwittingly awakens "Drom" - a survivor of an alien mission to deactivate a planet-annihilating space gun.
Hotshotz
Another New Zealand kidult drama that sold around the world was Hotshotz, made in 1989 and starring a teenaged Craig Parker. The story centred on a group of young teens fascinated by radio-controlled car racing, who set out to foil a criminal gang. The show was originally made as a series, but also compiled into this tele-feature.
It is I Count Homogenized
One of New Zealand TV viewers most loved children's series is It is I Count Homogenized, from 1982. Three years after debuting on A Haunting We Will Go, Count Homogenized made a memorable re-entrance in his own series. Actor Russell Smith played the white-afroed, milk-drinking vampire.
You can see episode one of It is I Count Homogenized here:
