Town and Around was a nightly magazine show, covering everything from current affairs and studio interviews to slapstick to stunts; including a notorious spoof on a farmer who shod his turkeys in gumboots. A popular and wide-ranging regional series, it ran for five years from 1965, and was the training ground for a generation of industry professionals (Brian Edwards, David McPhail, and Des Monaghan amongst many others). Town and Around was made prior to a national network link, and editions came out of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Later retitled Arts Review, series Review debuted on New Zealand's only television channel in the early 70s. Among those who presented or reported for the arts based series were Max Cryer (Town Cryer) and onetime Town and Around reporter Barbara Magner.  

This Day debuted on Auckland screens in February, 1970. A regional news magazine programme, it went to air each weeknight at about 7:20pm - immediately after the recently introduced network news bulletin (in a controversial new 7pm timeslot). It provided coverage of local issues that had previously been covered by Town and Around. Viewers in Wellington saw Newsview and the South Island was served by The Mainland Touch. This Day staff included Rhys Jones, Craig Little, Karen Jackman, John Bowler, Ian Watkins and Hanafi Hayes. In 1974 it was retitled Look North.

This popular 1970s TV talent show screened on TV2. It was hosted initially by broadcaster Rhys Jones (Town and Around), then Brit import Robin Stewart (Bless This House). Singer Annie Crummer first won attention after competing as a nine-year-old. Opportunity Knocks had many similarities to a long-running English show of the same name (including a clap-o-meter), devised by Hughie Green. In 1989 Green (unsuccessfully) sued the Broadcasting Corporation of NZ over format infringement. After going to the Privy Council, it became a landmark copyright law case.

In 1969, the arrival of network television ushered in a new era of regional news to replace Town and Around, whose four editions had served local audiences in the 1960s. Christchurch and Dunedin now got different shows, both called The South Tonight. The DNTV-2 edition covered Otago/Southland; it was presented by Derek Payne and produced by Bruce Morrison. The show disappeared in 1975 but, following the amalgamation of TV1 and South Pacific Television, re-emerged in the early 1980s (initially as 7.30 South), this time with Jim Mora in the front seat.  

Created by Gavin Strawhan and Rachel Lang, Jackson’s Wharf was set in a fictional coastal town and revolved around a sibling rivalry between brothers Frank (the town cop) and Ben Jackson (a big smoke lawyer). Returning with his family, golden boy Ben has controversially inherited the local pub from his recently deceased father. Produced by South Pacific Pictures, the one hour popular drama screened for two seasons. Writer James Griffin and director Niki Caro worked on the show, alongside much of the talent who would later create Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune.

Homeward Bound was TV3’s bid for New Zealand on Air funding for a local soap opera. Set around the lives of the rural Johnson family, 22 episodes were produced for the then-nascent network (the series ultimately lost out to TVNZ’s Shortland Street). Created by Ross Jennings and written by Michael Noonan, it represented a move back to a small town way of life after the Gloss-y urban excesses of the 1980s; it also explored pressures facing country communities following the stock market crash. The cast included Liddy Holloway, Peter Elliott and a young Karl Urban.

Keith Aberdein devised Epidemic after being given the brief to write a drama about “disease coming into New Zealand”. Set in a small North Island town where race relations are strained to breaking point, this four part virus outbreak thriller revolves around Māori tāpū and an archaeological dig which locals are worried will disturb the graves of their ancestors. An accomplished cast (Martyn Sanderson, Don Selwyn, Cathy Downes) helped the series break bicultural-themed TV drama ground as European education and culture, and Māori tradition and spirituality collide.

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.

Duggan stars John Bach as brooding Detective Inspector Duggan, attempting to solve murders amid the tranquillity of the Marlborough Sounds. New Zealand's answer to Inspector Morse, the show was conceived by Marion McLeod, and scripted by Donna Malane and Ken Duncum. Eleven episodes of the Gibson Group series were made, following on from introductory tele-features Death in Paradise and Sins of the Father. The turquoise waters of The Sounds make for an evocative setting in this sharp, classy Kiwi whodunit. Rachel Davies writes here about Duggan's birth.