Comedy, drama and drugs feature in TV3's new season, reports LOUISA CLEAVE.
Panel discussions, a black comedy on a New Zealand drug bust, and Temuera Morrison give TV3 its largest-ever quota of local television this year.
The Canadian-owned network hailed its lineup of local documentaries, drama series, comedy and features in a preview of the year ahead, announced to advertisers yesterday.
Kristin Marlow, director of programming, said she was confident TV3 would have a strong year with the lineup .
Managing director Rick Friesen said the channel was "embracing the concept of appointment television" by "introducing strong, regular-series television and movies to ensure a consistent and loyal audience."
Shows already announced include the kidault drama, Being Eve, a 26-part series titled Love Bites based on the feature film Hopeless, and new series of Hot Property and Ground Force.
The Strip, set in the red-light district, is promoted as a racy new drama about a woman who abandons her safe world for an unusual lifestyle.
Expanding on last year's great Kiwi comedy debate is The Panel, a series featuring Pam Corkery, Robert Rakete, Lynette Forday, James Coleman and Oscar Kightley.
Temuera Morrison is the star of the feature film Crooked Earth and also hosts Mataku, "a series of modern tales of the unexpected, in which ordinary characters encounter mysterious phenomena of Maori mythology."
Money for Jam stars Joel Tobeck, Dean O'Gorman and Sophia Hawthorne in a black comedy based on the true story of New Zealand's largest drug bust.
The interestingly titled Gooey Duck is a Kevin Smith-fronted documentary about the town of Ureroa, where you will find the shellfish gooey duck.
Childbirth has been the subject of a series on TV One, and TV3 is delivering its own production in a series called Babies, said to be a wider exploration of New Zealanders having babies in diverse circumstances.
Suzy Cato gets a grown-up show in Family Confidential, a series which looks at family issues and parenting.
The child-raising theme flows into the channel's international offerings in Yes, Dear, an American comedy about first-time parents Greg and Kim.
Other new international shows include the X-Files spin-off Lone Gunmen, starring the computer-hacking conspiracy theorists from Chris Carter's long-running show.
American success stories Boston Public, a high-school drama by David E. Kelley, and Gideon's Crossing, set in a medical school, are also in the international lineup.
Bette Midler's self-titled sitcom received a lukewarm reception at home, as did The Geena Davis Show, in which the actress plays a single New Yorker whose life is changed by the man of her dreams.
Following the New York theme is Manhattan On The Beach, a series which "lifts the lid" on the Long Island summer playground of the super rich, known as the Hamptons.
Relic Hunter, starring Tia Carrere, who bares a spooky resemblance to Dark Angel's Jessica Alba, is an action adventure series about a history professor who scans the globe for fabled lost treasures.
Sex and the City returns, as does Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle and the Australian seaside drama SeaChange.
One-offs include the Oscars, the Grammy Awards, MTV Movie Awards and MTV Music Video Awards.
Local faces to fore in TV3 lineup
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