“I hear the roooolling thunder”. Sir Howard Morrison’s classic bilingual rendition of the popular hymn comes from an October 1981 Royal Variety Performance, in front of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Morrison's performance  at Auckland's St James Theatre of 'Whakaaria Mai' marked a comeback for the veteran entertainer, who had been out of the spotlight working in Māori youth development. Released as a single a couple of months later, it topped the charts for four weeks, and led to the commissioning of a televised Howard Morrison Special in 1982.

Globetrotting Wellington chef Joe McLeod (Ngāi Tūhoe) has cooked professionally in more than 30 countries over the course of a career that began in 1972. In this bilingual series made for Māori Television, he takes recipes, tastes and flavours that he has encountered on those travels, and combines them with local NZ ingredients (including some of the 70 varieties of native greens used in traditional Māori cuisine). In each episode, McLeod reminisces in English and te reo about his life and travels as he prepares a starter, a main and a dessert.

In this bilingual cooking series made for Māori Television, chef Joe McLeod calls on a career that has taken him to 36 countries to present international dishes combined with NZ ingredients and elements of traditional Māori cuisine. In this debut episode, he adapts one of his mother’s favourite dishes from his childhood as he substitutes salmon for her Taupō trout, and serves it with pūhā, dried kawakawa leaves and a simple Māori herb sauce. The programme’s main course is liver sautee with a tangy lemon herb sauce, and the dessert is a peach and plum trifle.

Drama and commercials director Peter Burger (Until Proven Innocent, Fish Skin Suit) is profiled in this episode from a bilingual Māori Television series about artists. In this extract, he traces the origins of his career to a “crazy little accident” in the form of drama lessons taken to correct a childhood lisp. His early aspirations to be an actor were soon eclipsed by a fascination with the process of directing. Making adverts provided him with a chance to develop and hone the storytelling skills he would apply to television and film.

Radio Wha Waho was a pioneering bilingual sitcom about a rural iwi radio station that is close to collapse. Among characters talking back in te reo and getting up to antics on this Māori-style WKRP in Cincinnati are a smoothtalking DJ with delusions of being a ladykiller (a pre-Mrs Semisi Hori Ahipene); a young fireball who wants to graduate to a big station in the city (Greg Mayor, future star of Stewart Main short Twilight of the Gods); and Aunty Doss (Kath Akuhata-Brown), the heart and soul of the whole operation. Produced by TVNZ's Māori department.

Beloved quiz show It's in the Bag was relaunched on Māori Television in a bilingual version, on 31 May 2009. Hosts Pio Terei and Stacey Daniels Morrison took the series to small towns across Aotearoa, from Waimamaku to Masterton. Over five seasons, the classic format remained largely the same, although the hosts were given more of an equal footing than had been the case in the past. Contestants from the audience answered three questions, before picking either the money or the bag — hopefully avoiding the booby prize, which might be a sack of kina or some bread.  

On this song from her debut EP, bilingual Wellington singer/songwriter Ria Hall marries her respect for tradition and her use of te reo and kapa haka to the very contemporary beats of producer Riki Gooch (Eru Dangerspiel, Trinity Roots). This mix of old and new is echoed in director Jessica Sanderson's video. It casts Hall as four characters drawn from mythology to ward off the evil of Babylon and is set against a strikingly modern dreamscape of video effects, imagery and lighting. It won Best Video by a Māori Artist at the 2012 Māori Music Awards.

In 2009 Māori Television rebooted the Selwyn Toogood-hosted 70s game show, with presenters Pio Terei and Stacey Daniels Morrison giving contestants the immortal choice: the money or the bag? In this episode — complete with web players — the road show comes to Ngāpuhi territory: the Northland town of Waimamaku. The series is bilingual; but how ever you say it be careful what you choose: as Stacey says, “Instead of a TV you might get a can of V!” The show ends with Pio leading a ‘Pokarekare Ana’ singalong. “Too much!”

Hip hop act Upper Hutt Posse is led by Dean Hapeta (aka Te Kupu and D Word), a poet and orator influenced by black American thinkers like Malcolm X. The group set out to fight racial injustice through music. Hapeta's radicalism quickly made him and the Posse into tabloid targets. Their bilingual single ‘E Tu’ became Aotearoa’s first local rap release in 1988. Acclaimed debut album Against the Flow was released on Southside the next year. Their music has incorporated elements of soul, funk and raggamuffin toasting. Members have included Darryl (DLT) Thompson, Teremoana Rapley and Emma Paki. 

Interactivity with viewers was at the heart of TVNZ bilingual youth series I AM TV. Launched at a time when social networking website Bebo was still king, I AM TV enhanced audience participation via online competitions, sharing amateur videos, and encouraging fans to send in questions during live interviews. Te reo and tikanga Māori featured heavily in the series, which showcased music videos, sports, pranks, interviews and travel around Aotearoa. Hosts over the five years the show was on air included Kimo Houltham, Candice Davis and Mai Time's Olly Coddington.