Presenter Chris Nichol explored the spirituality of New Zealanders in this interview based documentary series. It ran for five years and was intended to broaden TV One’s religious programming to reflect a growing diversity of faiths and philosophical approaches to life (from conventional religions through to a Wiccan, a rationalist and an atheist). Each episode examined the life and beliefs of one person and subjects included Sir Ray Avery, Gareth Morgan, Wynton Rufer, Moana Maniapoto, Joy Cowley, Nandor Tanczos, Ahmed Zaoui and Ilona Rogers.

Screening in primetime at 6pm, People Like Us was built around exploring the spiritual and emotional aspects of people’s lives. Subjects ranged from interviews with leaders — religious and otherwise — to live events and the Red Cross. Mini seasons within the series were devoted to everything from menopause and breaking up, to cultural diversity (the latter fuelling a book as well). Producer Allison Webber managed to win funding from outside of state TV for some of these specials, and the show shared resources on occasion with RNZ’s former Continuing Education Unit.

This series of 25 half hour documentaries made for TVNZ uses individual stories to explore diversity in NZ in areas including ethnicity, age, gender and religion. Among the locations are earthquake ravaged Christchurch, the WOMAD festival in New Plymouth, a fire fighters’ competition in Port Macquarie and slums in Manila. Subjects include a Malaysian born plastic surgeon, Wellington grannies offering cooking and budgeting tips for council tenants, a prison choir, a Burmese expatriate waiting for heart surgery and a middle-aged male mid-wife.

After turning "Jeez Wayne" into a national catchphrase with the sketch show A Week of It, comedy duo David McPhail and Jon Gadsby (plus third writer AK Grant) followed with McPhail & Gadsby, which aired on TVNZ for seven seasons — plus a reprise in 1998 and  1999. After a sometimes controversial debut season in which each episode was devoted to a specific theme (religion, sex etc), the show settled into a steady diet of political satire, spoofs and impersonations of public figures — including McPhail's famous caricature of PM Robert 'Piggy' Muldoon.