The South Tonight was a Dunedin-filmed regional news show. In these excerpts, Martin Phillipps and The Chills return home from London, and find album Submarine Bells is number one; legendary local band Sneaky Feelings play a last gig; Velvet Underground muse Nico plays Orientation Week; a ball is filmed at Larnach Castle for TV series Hanlon; rhododendron nuts ramble at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, and Jim Mora visits the Danseys Pass Hotel. Finally there’s a survey of dingy student digs circa 1985 (when rents went as low as $14 a week). 

Nature documentary A Flock of Students captures footage of a species rarely caught on camera: a colony of young human 'freshers' who have migrated south to Dunedin. Over footage of nesting, university pie-eating contests and social gatherings, narrator Sydney Jackson provides insights into student display rituals, social groupings and early, "somewhat unfocused" attempts at courtship. As winter bites, temperatures fall below zero, and the male of the species builds up resistance by exposing itself to all available germs. David Kilgour (The Clean) provides the music.

Matt Heath and Chris Stapp first launched grungy rockers Deja Voodoo as the fictional house band in brief segments of their TV show Back of the Y. The offer of a university orientation tour encouraged them to take their mock rock creation more seriously, and actually become a real band. In line with their Back of the Y antics, the concerts saw ten burning acoustic guitars were smashed over Stapp’s head. Deja Voodoo have released two albums celebrating alcohol, women and beer: Brown Sabbath and Back in Brown. They also featured extensively on the soundtrack to Heath and Stapp’s 2007 film The Devil Dared Me To.

Heroes followed a band trying to make it in the mid-80s music biz. Teen-orientated, the show marked a first major role for Jay Laga’aia (Star Wars), and an early gig for Michael Hurst (with blonde Billy Idol spikes). Band keyboardist John Gibson co-wrote the series music; he later became an award-winning film composer. Margaret Umbers (Shortland Street, Bridge to Nowhere) was a non-musician in the cast (with Hurst), but since has sung regularly in a jazz band. A second series follow in 1986.

Squeeze showcased New Zealand music. Alongside a steady diet of music videos, the show featured interviews with musicians, and reports on everything from new releases to music festivals to quotas. Launched on TV2 in a Sunday morning slot, the youth-orientated show was presented for its first four seasons by Francesca Rudkin. Around the time M2 presenter Jane Yee took over in 2001, the show began devoting the bulk of each episode to a single topic. Made by Satellite Pictures (now Satellite), Squeeze was also repeated in a mid-week evening slot.

This 80s TV series sees real estate agent Selwyn, TV producer Nardia (early turns from Temuera Morrison and Jennifer Ward-Lealand) and art student Ben (Kerry McKay) as a trio of young Wellingtonions drawn together by a mysterious invitation. At an antique shop dinner they discover they share a colourful birth mother, before becoming players in a game for a legacy of $250,000. Conceived by Brian Bell, Seekers was one of a series of teen-orientated dramas made in the mid-80s (along with Heroes and Peppermint Twist). The 16 episodes screened from February 1986.

The sixth episode of this Emmy Award-winning interactive web series begins with Beth (Beth Chote) returning from the party late and trying to confide in her mother about the spooky goings on around Reservoir Hill. Beth continues to find cul de sacs negotiating life in the eerie suburb: James Jay denies that he assaulted Matt, but Beth tricks him into telling the truth. And James' half-sister Lilli has just returned from hospital, disorientated, and confuses Beth with her missing sister Tara. The episode ends on a disturbing revelation.

National treasures The Topp Twins (aka twins Lynda and Jools Topp) have performed as a country-music singing and yodelling comedy duo for more than 25 years. In the late 90s they created their own TV series which ran for three seasons and showcased their iconic cast of Kiwi characters, including Camp Mother, the Bowling Ladies and cross-dressing Ken and Ken. The series, travelling from a Highland Games to a Tauranga triathlon, won the twins - out-and-proud lesbians - several gongs at the NZ Film and TV Awards and screened on the ABC and Foxtel in Australia.