Children's adventure series Gather Your Dreams follows Kitty, a teenager who dreams of stardom while travelling with her family's vaudeville troupe in Depression-era 1930s New Zealand. The troupe's impresario (and Kitty’s father) was played by Mortimer’s Patch star Terence Cooper. Mostly shot in the Coromandel, the half hour 13-part series was one of a run of kidult dramas made in the late 70s by South Pacific Television. Like its predecessor — colonial scamp saga Hunter's Gold — it had international sales success. Dreams was helmed by Hunter's Gold director Tom Parkinson.

This 2016 Māori Television reality series follows Te Urewera-bred, Cambridge-based bushman Owen Boynton as he travels Aotearoa – from the East coast to the Chathams – exploring traditional hunting techniques and the kaupapa behind them. The focus is on hunting as a way of life and to provide kai, rather than as a recreational pursuit or paleo diet fad. Eight 30 minute episodes of hunting, fishing and bushcraft screened in 2016. Produced by Julian Arahanga and Awa Films, the series sprung from bow-maker Boynton’s large following on Facebook. 

Iwi Ngāi Tahu turns filmmaker in this web series about mahinga kai (food gathering) in Te Waipounamu (the South Island). The 12 short episodes feature tangata whenua talking about all aspects of traditional food gathering practises, from storage (pōhā), transport (mōkihi) and making traditional medicine (rongoā), to the actual kai — such as īnaka (whitebait), kōura (crayfish), pāua and pātiki (flounder). Ngāi Tahu Mahinga Kai travels far and wide from the bush in Kaikōura to rivers in Murihiku (Southland), and moana on the east and west coasts.

Producer Ric Salizzo followed a series of All Black tour videos with this popular long-running live show. The Sky Sport (later TV2) series featured interviews and skits, and gathered a loyal following for its recipe of sports fandom mixed with schoolboy pratfalls (and tension between larrikin ex-All Black Marc Ellis and co-host Lana Coc-Kroft). Other members of the circus that Salizzo tried to wrangle included That Guy (Leigh Hart), Eva the Bulgarian (Eva Evguenieva), Graeme Hill, and the Human Canonball (Ben Hickey). The show made a brief comeback in 2008.

Campbell Live launched on 21 March 2005, in a slot following TV3’s primetime news bulletin. Over the next decade it gathered acclaim, awards (including Best News Investigation in its first year) and the odd controversy. Strongly identified with host John Campbell, the show mixed softer stories with a number of pieces of advocacy journalism, including stories on child poverty in low decile schools, and homeowners affected by the Christchurch quakes. News of Campbell Live’s end in 2015 won extensive media coverage, and an unsuccessful petition to keep the show on air. 

This classic kids’ adventure tale follows a 13-year-old boy on a quest to find his father, missing amidst the 1860s Otago gold rush. When it launched in September 1976, the 13 part series was the most expensive local TV drama yet made. Under the reins of director Tom Parkinson, the series brandished unprecedented production values, and panned the Central Otago vistas for all their worth. Its huge local popularity was matched abroad (BBC screened it multiple times); it showed that NZ-made kids’ drama could be exported, and helped establish the new second television channel.

Launched in 1992, Marae is the longest running Māori current affairs programme. It aims to keep its audience in touch with the issues — political or otherwise — that affect Māori, and explain kauapa Māori from a Māori perspective. The Marae Digipoll is seen as a respected barometer of matters Māori. Marae was relaunched briefly in October 2010 as Marae Investigates, presented by Scotty Morrison and Jodi Ihaka Marae (and later Miriama Kamo) . Screening on TV One, Marae is presented half in english and half in te reoi. It is now made by company Pango Productions.

Mortimer’s Patch was a popular drama series following Detective Sergeant Doug Mortimer (Terence Cooper) at work in the town of Cobham. Mortimer plays a city cop returning to his rural roots; Don Selwyn is Sergeant Bob Storey. The series was NZ’s first police drama, and a rare local drama to top ratings. Mortimer's Patch was made when the archetype of the ‘community cop’ everyone knew was still a powerful one, and it was a counterweight to the faceless riot policing of the Springbok Tour. Three series were made.

Gloss was a popular Kiwi television drama series made by TVNZ that screened in the late 80s; it combined a wealthy family, the Redferns, with a lucrative high-fashion magazine business. Yuppies, shoulder-pads and méthode champenoise abound in this cult "glamour soap". New Zealanders wanted to see themselves as less bottom of the world and more "here we come and we are sailing" (as the infamous Cup campaign song warbled), and Gloss was just what the era demanded.