Flatmates - 1, First Episode

Hi Karyna - we'll be adding more episodes from the series up soon, and in the not too distant future the series will be available to view here online.

Hey there,

I would love to see the Flatmates series made in NZ in 1997. I still have the first episode but not the remaining episodes as my sister taped Notting Hill over the rest of the VCR. I see it on the list on your website (Flatmates (1997) [Reality TV]. Is there anyway to rent it to watch or to purchase a copy? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your help,

Karyna

Does anyone have this Flatmate Series? Only Episode one is available on line :( and does anyone have an episode guide?

This has been on Choice TV at the moment at 1:30AM for the past few weeks.

Trivia: the following year, flatmate Vanessa joined TV4's youth show The Drum for its second season, presenting alongside comedian Cal Wilson, Supergroove's Nick Atkinson and the wondrous Jennifer Weather-Centre.

Nice one! It still counts as the first local reality house type show on NZ telly, so I'm glad there's a whole episode to enjoy!

@Robyn - I think I've solved the pop culture conundrum. Here's the original Fiona Rae review that Russell refers to in the Public Address post: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=160132 . My guess is that Kiwiflatmates.com and Flatmates have become confused in the post and comments thread. Kiwiflatmates screened in 2000, so is definitely post-Big Brother. As you note the earlier (1997) Flatmates didn't involve any sort of BB style lock-down - I've amended the synopses (and "Richard Pearse of reality TV" claims accordingly)!

I think Flatmates is being mixed up with a similar show from the late '90s. Russell's comment of the "original lock-’em-in-a-house-with-hidden cameras (and an internet stream, courtesy Ihug) show" does not describe Flatmates. The flatmates were free to leave the house and the cameras weren't hidden, there was no internet stream, flatmates weren't voted out. Flatmates had way more in common with the observational The Real World (which started five years prior in 1992) than the subsequent reality game Big Brother.

My memories of the other show are sketchy. It involved young NZers being locked in a fancy house (in St Marys Bay?) with wall-mounted cameras (no cameramen) and live streams of different rooms. The housemates were allowed to leave for one hour per day and every week one housemate was voted out and replaced by a new one (and I think this was a low-budget reworking of the then new Big Brother).

But Flatmates was still a really important show. My favourite was the break-out star Vanessa. Cheerful, ballsy ("I don't like anyone with manufactured dreads") but with her shocking but calm recollection of her mother's physical abuse towards her.