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." 

He Toki Huna sets out to provide an independent overview of New Zealand’s involvement in Afghanistan (the longest overseas war in which NZ has played a role). The documentary follows writer Jon Stephenson conducting eyewitness interviews in Afghanistan, and poses tough questions about the involvement of Kiwi troops in a conflict that co-director Kay Ellmers calls an “ill-defined war against an unclear” enemy. Ellmers and Annie Goldson made the Moa Award-winning film for Māori Television. An extended cut played at the 2013 NZ International Film Festival.

This 1970s talent show was a popular light entertainment programme for new channel TV2. It followed in the television footsteps of New Faces and Studio One, with wannabe stars mostly covering popular classics. The buzzers and tough judges of X Factor are decades away. This final from the 1975 season, filmed at Christchurch’s Civic Theatre, sees contestants cover everything from country and western to cabaret. Promoter Trevor Spitz awards record contracts, and talent co-ordinator Ray Columbus joins host Rhys Jones to announce the winner.

Presenter Keith Bracey picks out the highlights from 1966 for the northern edition of magazine show Town and Around. 'Kiwi gent' Barry Crump, sharp-shooting country singer Tex Morton, singer Lee Grant and axeman Sonny Bolstad feature, alongside visitors including US comedian Shelley Berman, actor Chips Rafferty and English TV presenter (Pavlova Paradise author) Austin Mitchell, who criticises the state of local media. Keith's picks gravitate to the light-hearted, with probing coverage of gardening with gnomes and a man who uses a carrot as a musical instrument.

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.

In 1978 Eyewitness evolved out of TV2’s After Ten as a twice weekly current affairs show broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday nights. With Philip Sherry as studio anchor, it set out to investigate a single issue from a number of perspectives in each episode. Other foundation staff members included journalists Karen Sims, David Beatson, Dairne Shanahan, Rhys Jones and Neil Roberts. By 1981 it was presented by Karen Sims and had become NZ television’s longest running current affairs show — but it morphed into the nightly Eyewitness News the following year. 

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.