Olly Ohlson: keep cool till after school…

Interview – 2012

Olly Ohlson (Ngāti Whare) inspired a generation of kids on TV show After School. He is credited with introducing both te reo and sign language to children's television. His legendary catchphrase "Keep cool till after school" is still remembered by fans.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Ohlson talks about:

Having fun playing the guitar and singing songs on 1970s show Cgull
Enjoying performing on Woolly Hills and Woolly Manor
Becoming an older role model for kids on After School
Wanting the show to be a tool for education
The origin of the show’s famous "keep cool" catchphrase
Introducing sign language to television
Controversy over using te reo greetings
Enjoying returning to TV on puppet show Bumble
His belief that the "personableness" of TV presenting has disappeared

This video was first uploaded on 3 October 2012, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

I wanted a jingle to go with the language thing . . . When she said "Keep cool till after school dad!" I went ‘woah that's great!’ So I picked that up. And that took. And I decided to do the 'keep cool' in sign language.

– Olly Ohlson on the origins of the famous catchphrase from his daughter Jodie