Morrell-Gunn lives and breathes her job - holy heck (one of her favourite exclamations), her double-barrelled name even comes courtesy of her marriage to Jason Gunn, the face of kids' TV during the 80s and 90s, now Whitebait co-owner.
Morrell-Gunn hadn't aimed to become one of the country's most experienced children's television producers, though. When she left Canterbury University with a degree in political science and sociology, she had her eyes set on current affairs. "I wanted to change the world," she laughs, "then I realised, no, it doesn't actually work like that, does it?"
She ended up doing kids' current affairs for TVNZ series such as Spot On and Viewfinder. By the time she produced her first show, 1990's Life in the Fridge Exists, she was hooked.
She hasn't looked back; instead, she's much more interested in looking to the future of the television medium in general and kids' telly in particular. Just returned from the annual Kidscreen Summit in New York, Morrell-Gunn's brain is "well fed" and crammed with ideas and demographic info.
Nickelodeon, for example, presented a "massive" study of the post-millennium cohort of children, who are well socialised and behaved, skilled at mediation and compromise, and risk averse, thanks to their often over-protective Gen X mums and dads. "We aren't constantly hovering helicopter parents any more," laughs Morrell-Gunn, whose four kids are aged 24, 19, 15 and 10. "We're Velcro, we're so bloody stuck to them!"
Although she is still in the process of mining all the data for opportunities, there's one
take-home from the conference she is implementing immediately. "What the research says is kids prefer wins over fails, and they will watch kids doing something successfully for ages. That's really cool and as a result, I think, of this being an anti-bullying generation - they've learned about it and they're generally not into meanness like that. So now we're on the look-out for those great wins instead of epic fails, and encouraging kids to bring them to us."
Morrell-Gunn is the first to admit the magazine formats of What Now and The 4.30 Show are "cheap and cheerful". That's a necessity when your budget per half hour is $15,000, versus the US$200,000 her overseas counterparts have at their disposal, but there's also the benefit of a flexibility that "means we can cover a lot of bases".
She'd love to see kid-centric documentary strands and drama series and game shows made in New Zealand but reckons that "for a small country we do pretty well". That doesn't mean Morrell-Gunn is complacent. She and her young staff draw on focus groups, ratings and regular debriefings in their effort to improve, and Morrell-Gunn makes external commissions to provide a greater diversity of content.
Her business plans include a push into the Australian market, but Morrell-Gunn is adamant Whitebait-TV's base of operations will remain in its purpose-built facility in Christchurch, come earthquakes, hell or recent high waters. Her and Gunn's families come from the city, so the location is non-negotiable.
Another thing you can count on: thanks to her advocacy for age-appropriate content and antipathy for premature "adultification", Morrell-Gunn's shows won't corrupt your children, just entertain and even - shock - educate them.
The 4.30 Show screens weekdays on TV2 and is aimed at tweens; What Now screens Sundays, 8-10am, TV2, and is pitched at 5-12-year-olds.