Shortland Street
Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital. The show was first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992 and is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 7,700 episodes and 31 years. It is one of the most watched television programmes in New Zealand.
For the street in central Auckland, see Shortland Street, Auckland.Shortland Street
Lauren Porteous
Mana Epiha
Emmett Skilton
Curtis Vowell
Mia Blake
Jacqueline Nairn
Ian Hughes
Ghazaleh Golbakhsh
Geoffrey Cawthorn[1]
(Ensemble)
Graham Bollard
Graham Bollard (1992–2019)
Sam Watson (2019–2023)
William Philipson (2023 – current)
New Zealand
English
33
7,953 (as of 28 June 2024)
- Don Reynolds
- Alan Coleman
- Tim Sanders
- Caterina De Nave
- Rachel Lang
- Tony Holden
- Simon Bennett
- John Barnett
- Caterina De Nave (1992)
- Brian Lennane (1992–1993)
- Tony Holden (1994–1995)
- Gavin Srawhan (1995–1996)
- Alan Coleman (1995)
- Judith Trye (1996–1997)
- Lisa Page (2000–2001)
- Harriet Crampton (2001–2005)
- Katie Wolfe (2005)
- Jason Daniel (2005–2008)
- Steven Zanoski (2009–2013)
- Simon Bennett (1997–2000, 2013–2016)
- Maxine Fleming (2016–2018, 2022–)
- Oliver Driver (2019–)
8 Tolich Pl, Lincoln North, Auckland 0610 New Zealand
Anna Benedikter
Matthew Allison
30 minutes (inc. adverts)
South Pacific Pictures
Grundy Television (1992–2006)
Fremantle Australia (2006–present)
25 May 1992 –
present
The show was originally screened as five half-hour episodes each week, and received mixed reviews on its premiere.[2] After its launch, the show suffered a drop in ratings and would have been cancelled if TVNZ had not ordered a year's worth of episodes in advance. TVNZ renewed the production in early 1993 after the show's ratings picked up, and the show has since garnered "long-term public enthusiasm".[3] Today, it is one of New Zealand's highest-rated shows, frequently making AGB Nielsen Media Research's top 5 programmes of the week, achieving an average linear daily reach of 345,000 viewers (in the year to June 2021) and is TVNZ's "most streamed show".[4]
Development[edit]
After the cancellation of Gloss, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) noticed the lack of New Zealand content on their channels and, in 1990, set about creating a local equivalent of the Australian soap Neighbours.[5] Greg McGee at South Pacific Pictures wanted to base a series on the new private clinics emerging under New Zealand's Labour government and suggested the idea to scriptwriter Dean Parker, who declined due to a dislike of private medicine, so TV2 and South Pacific Pictures purchased a formula from Grundy Television, who receive a royalty cheque for every subsequent broadcast.[6] A sum of $10 million was originally paid for an initial 230 episodes.[7] Caterina De Nave was hired as the show's producer and subsequently travelled to Australia to work with Grundy Television to work out the concept for the five times-a-week soap opera.[5] TV2 programmer Bettina Hollings suggested the setting of a hospital after reading an article detailing ideal locations of a drama, which included hospitals, police stations and schools.[5] De Nave worked with several storyliners including Jason Daniel to outline the show.
De Nave noticed Neighbours and Home and Away had a generally straightforward Australian cast and wanted the cast of the show to be culturally diverse to reflect New Zealand soceity.[5] She also wanted the cast to have strong female characters to attract a female audience.[5] Daniel created the character of Kirsty while De Nave created Meredith and Ken Catran created Hone.[5] The character of Stuart was originally planned to be gay but the plans made TVNZ nervous and were scrapped.[7] De Nave also wished to counter-stereotype races and made Polynesian Sam Aleni a paramedic as there was only one paramedic of Polynesian descent throughout New Zealand.[5] De Nave decided to make the setting that of a private hospital as it reflected New Zealand medicine at the time.[5]
Production[edit]
The working title was The Shortland Street Project after its planned filming location in a TVNZ-owned studio at 74 Shortland Street in Auckland Central. However, the studio was found to be too small for the required sets, and the production studio was moved to a warehouse in Browns Bay. After running through many name options, the original working-title was chosen and subsequently truncated to simply Shortland Street.[25] The name subsequently is a homage to the Shortland Street studios, which were home to New Zealand's first regular television broadcast in 1960, and were home to TVNZ and its predecessors' Auckland operations until TVNZ moved to its new purpose-built television centre on Victoria Street West in 1990.
Shortland Street is produced by South Pacific Pictures, with assistance from Fremantle and Television New Zealand. In the first few years, the production was also assisted by New Zealand On Air.
Today, most of the filming for Shortland Street occurs at South Pacific Pictures West Auckland studios, with Ferndale High School scenes being filmed at the nearby Waitākere College.[26] The exterior shots of the hospital are filmed on location at the Waitakere Studios at an existing section of a building dressed up to appear as the facade of a hospital entrance. Location scenes are filmed in Auckland, but other locations, including Fiji, Mt Ruapehu, Rotorua and Rarotonga have been used.
Originally, Shortland Street was filmed at Browns Bay on the North Shore until their relocation to purpose built studios in West Auckland in 2000. The original Ferndale High School was played by a North Shore college until the studio relocated.
When cast members are hired their contracts are either 4 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 6 months or a year.
While the name Shortland Street is based on an actual street in Auckland CBD, the only place where the scenes are actually filmed in Auckland CBD is the fictitious Q Road, which is the actual Karangahape Road, better known as K' Rd.
High definition production of Shortland Street started in early 2011, with the first HD episode broadcast on 18 April 2011 on the Freeview HD and Sky platforms.
On 24 July 2018 It was announced that the show will air six nights a week starting in September 2018.[27]
The show has had a reputation for being raunchy and controversial with the very first episode of the show featuring a sex scene between resident "Dr. Love" Chris Warner and his aerobics instructor. Another early controversy was that of a lesbian kiss between Meredith Fleming and Annie Flynn with several complaints made to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) but it went no further. It was not until 2008 that the show received its first ever BSA warning, when it featured an oral sex scene in mid-2008 between sexually confused Gerald and a fellow man.[28] A few months later, the show received a second warning for an episode in August 2008 depicting the brutal murder of Craig Valentine, who was beaten unconscious, then set alight in his car.[29] Again, a few months later, the show received yet another warning about a scene in January 2009 where Tania Jeffries hit a gang leader in the head with a hammer.[30]
Scenes aired in April 2010 sparked criticism when Leanne Miller and her daughter Nicole stated that the city of Tauranga was not "gay friendly".[31]
The show caused controversy in August 2010 when the character of Sophie McKay was shown to be being stalked by her university lecturer who she had been dating.[32] This upset the family of murdered girl Sophie Elliott who was killed by her university tutor, Clayton Weatherston, who she had been dating. The similarities upset the families with producer Steven Zanoski saying: "the storyline was a classic and not inspired by real events."[33]
The show's production department received several complaints following the lesbian love storyline involving Maia Jeffries and Jennifer Mason.[34]
A storyline aired in April 2011 which featured the Cooper Family try to go to the beach, but they get confronted by a group of Māori who demand money. This sparked criticism with some saying it was discrimination against Māori people.[35] Maori adviser Ngamaru Raerino stated that viewers shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and should have let the storyline completely unfold which reveals the group are protesting against a corrupt camp owner who had been polluting the beach.[36]
In September 2011, Shortland Street was identified as one of the main influences to people who self-harm, airing two storylines involving suicide attempts.[37]
During 2017, one episode ended with a cliffhanger featuring Chris Warner confronting his son Harry with a 'dick pic' he found on his tablet computer. A video clip of the scene, including the line "Please tell me that is not your penis!", went viral worldwide,[38] even to a point of parody on Jimmy Kimmel Live! recreated by said host and Alec Baldwin.[39] The line was voted the New Zealand Quote of the Year in a contest held by Massey University.[40]
In December 2023, the first season of Shortland Street from 1992 was uploaded to YouTube.[41]
