After countless romances, breakups and revelations — plus the odd psycho and crashing helicopter — Shortland Street turned 25 in May 2017. Made on the run, sold round the globe, the Kiwi soap opera juggernaut has provided a launchpad for dozens of actors and behind the scenes talents. Alongside best of clips, the very first episode, musical moments and favourite memories from the cast, Shortland star turned director Angela Bloomfield writes about how the show has changed here, while Mihi Murray backgrounds how it began — and how it reflects New Zealand.

This documentary confronts attitudes to alcohol consumption in NZ. Interviews with those who see major problems (including police, ambulance, youth workers, Family Planning and Women's Refuge) and those who don't (brewers, advertising agencies, sports groups and publicans) are interspersed with often-graphic footage of excessive alcohol use. The challenging depiction of the culture piqued Lion Breweries, who complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority. The BSA rejected their assertion that the programme was salacious, but did agree it "lacked balance".

This fourth episode in Prime’s series on Kiwi television history series charts 50 years of sports on TV. Interviews with veteran broadcasters are mixed with clips of classic sporting moments. Changes in technology are surveyed: from live broadcasts and colour TV, to slo-mo replays and CGI graphics. Sports coverage is framed as a national campfire where Kiwis have been able to share in test match, Olympic, Commonwealth and World Cup triumphs and disasters — from emotional national anthems and inspirational Paralympians, to underarm deliveries, snapped masts and face-plants.

In this debut episode of Chris Stapp and Matt Heath's bawdy mock celebration of being bogan, we meet "New Zealand's most loved TV personality" Danny Parker and "New Zealand's greatest ever stuntman", Randy Campbell. Parker's interview with Campbell results in an all-in studio brawl (not for the last time) and Campbell's attempt to jump over an ape in a cage on a BMX bike goes "horribly wrong" (not for the last time). The Constables set up a self-serving checkpoint, and Bottlestore Galactica attempts to make the galaxy a safer place for drinkers everywhere.

In this episode of the "greatest TV show on earth", the ape set on fire in the show's first episode — when Randy Campbell's stunt went "horribly wrong" — has escaped, and the hairy one is after vengeance. Meanwhile the police show no sympathy for presenter Danny Parker and daredevil Campbell, for the way the show has portrayed them. And against all odds, Spanners Watson's rocket car 'The Spirit of Russell Crowe' might actually work ... but the ape and the police are closing in.

This episode of Chris Stapp and Matt Heath's bawdy, bad taste series promises "action packed action". The constables need the assistance of the Onehunga Armed Offenders Squad to deal to the threat posed by a small boy with a water pistol. Host Danny Parker interviews "retarded South Island mechanic" Spanners Watson about the increase in mechanical incompetence and hospitalisations since he joined stuntman Randy Campbell's crew. Campbell's stunt will only ever end one way. "NZ's number one porn detective" Smoodiver also debuts.

The final episode of Chris Stapp and Matt Heath's bawdy, bogan, BSA baiting TV variety series spoof opens with a tribute to "People's Presenter" Danny Parker who was a victim of the previous episode's carnage. Show regular Piers Graham looks behind the scenes at the show's imagined past (including 60s exploitation pic 'Datura Flowers of the Garden of Death') and the real injuries sustained by cast members in the show's stunts; and hapless mechanic Spanners Watson get his chance to assume daredevil stuntman Randy Campbell's hopeless mantle.

In this episode of Back of the Y, Chris Stapp and Matt Heath concentrate on drugs. Convinced that all students are on drugs, the constables travel to Dunedin to deal to the local scarfie population. Meanwhile a baggy-trousered, inner city pothead journeys into the backblocks in search of a cannabis mother lode in 'Te Puke Thunder'. A new feature introduces "extreme" cameraman Wally Simmonds (profiling a sight impaired skate team) and stuntman Randy Campbell has to cope with his team's incompetence as well as his own.

In this episode of Chris Stapp and Matt Heath's bawdy, wilfully dodgy series, studio band Deja Voodoo have been fired after the police raid in the previous episode. But replacements, The Warlocks of Firetop Mountain, lack the "sharp suits and sharp tunes" that presenter Danny Parker is looking for in a band. There's an extended episode of but the real focus is on stuntman Randy Campbell's last despairing attempt to succeed at even the simplest challenge. His inevitable failure extracts a terrifying toll.

This cult late-night TV2 series mixing sacrilege, beer-fuelled bogan hijinks and Jackass-like stunts. Created by Chris Stapp and Matt Heath, it centred around a mock live TV show, with music from house band Deja Voodoo. Characters like "retarded South Island mechanic" Spanners Watson featured in BSA-baiting segments like 'Randy Campbell's Extreme Stunts' (which would later inspire Stapp and Heath's 2007 movie The Devil Dared Me To). The first series also screened on MTV2 in Europe and Channel V in Australia. A second series screened on C4 in 2008.