This collection celebrates Kiwi comedy on TV: the caricatures, piss-takes, and sitcoms that have cracked us up, and pulled the wool over our eyes for over five decades. From turkeys in gumboots and Fred Dagg, to Billy T, bro'Town and Jaquie Brown. As Diana Wichtel reflects, watching the evolution of native telly laughs is, "a rich and ridiculous, if often painful, pleasure." 

Marking New Zealand television’s 50th birthday, this TVNZ Heartland series looked back at the medium's history, decade by decade. Each episode featured an interview with a prominent TV figure from the era. In this excerpt from the 1970s survey, host Andrew Shaw interviews broadcaster Brian Edwards, who reflects on changes in TV political interviewing from veneration to confrontation, and the impact of Muldoon; his key role in brokering a Post Office dispute, live on screen; and the birth of consumer affairs show Fair Go, and why it has lasted so long.

In 1996 Tony Sutorius got his hands on a new digital video camera, days before the start of an election campaign in Wellington Central. Made on the proverbial shoestring, this feature-length documentary chronicles five of those battling for the crown as a new political age  — MMP — dawns. Richard Prebble joins a new party called Act, the National candidate joins United New Zealand… and one of the five will be sacrificed by their own party. Sutorius sat through 55 hours of footage to forge the result, which won enthused, sellout audiences at the 1999 NZ Film Festival.

Seven Sharp debuted in 2013 on TV One's weeknight 7pm slot. It replaced long-running current affairs show Close Up. As TVNZ’s primetime post-news show, it has hosted major events like the general election leaders’ debate. Original presenters Alison Mau, Jesse Mulligan and Greg Boyed were replaced in the second series by two hosts: Toni Street and Mike Hosking. In 2018 Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells took over. Seven Sharp's debut marked a television journalism shift from one-on-one interviews, to a more conversational engagement with events of the day.

Instrumental track ‘White Rabbit’ made Peter Posa a household name in the 60s — the success of the two minute guitar solo led to US recordings and meetings with Frank Sinatra and Chet Atkins. In 2012 a best of compilation debuted atop the NZ album chart, and later became the year’s biggest selling release. This May 2015 Seven Sharp piece sees Hadyn Jones head to Waikato Hospital to interview “New Zealand’s greatest guitar player”. Jones discovers that a stroke appears to have ended the 74-year-old pensioner's guitar playing; but it has also liberated him from depression. 

Close Up was an award-winning current affairs programme on TVNZ, running from 2004 to 2012; it screened for half an hour at 7pm, following the nightly primetime news. Roving reporters filed stories presented in the studio, initially by Susan Wood. Mark Sainsbury was host from 2006 until the show went off air in November 2012 (with Mike Hosking and Paul Henry as back-up). Replacing the Holmes show and originally launched as Close Up at 7, it was rebranded in 2005, and in turn was replaced by Seven Sharp. Close Up is not to be confused with the 80s show of the same name.

Screening each weekend after TV One's primetime news, Sunday mixes New Zealand stories with reports from overseas. The local contributions have ranged from celebrity interviews, to reports that took months to put together (including award-winning pieces on the 2008 Chinese poisoned milk scandal, and how patients were treated at Porirua Hospital). Over the years, Sunday's roster of journalists has included veterans John Hudson, Janet McIntyre, Ian Sinclair, and current presenter Miriama Kamo. The show has played in both hour and half-hour formats.   

Breakfast first aired in August 1997 on TV One. Screening five mornings a week over a three hour time slot, the programme mixes news and entertainment interviews with updates of news, sport and weather. The format of one male and one female presenter began with original hosts Mike Hosking and Susan Wood, and has included Pippa Wetzell and Paul Henry (who won controversy for Breakfast comments about an Indian politician), and Brit Rawdon Christie and Alison Pugh. A Saturday version of Breakfast was trialled in 2011, but abandoned the next year.