Every now and then here at NZ On Screen, we like to stick our necks out and choose a Top 10. And our collective opinion is that these are the funniest New Zealand television series to date: from bro' Town to Billy T, from Gliding On to the tag team hijinks of 7 Days. Plus 10 runners-up that we couldn't agree on. Read on to find out more. 

This collection shows the screen icons from the decade of Springboks, sax and the sharemarket crash. The world champ All Blacks' jersey was loose, socks were red and shoulders were padded. On screens big and small Kiwis were reflected ... mullets n'all: from Bruno and the yellow mini, to Billy T's yellow towel, Karyn Hay's vowels, Poi-E, Gloss, Dog and more dogs showing off.

November 2014 marks 25 years since New Zealand TV’s third channel began broadcasting. This 25th birthday sampler pack looks back at iconic drama (Outrageous Fortune), upstart news shows (Nightline), fresh youth programming (Ice TV, Being Eve) and comedy high watermarks (bro’Town, Jaquie Brown, 7 Days). As the launch slogan said "come home to the feeling!"

This collection of 40 classic Kiwi TV series offers up images spanning 50 years. The titles range from Gloss to Gliding On, from Olly Ohlson to Nice One Stu, from Ready to Roll to wrestlers. In this special backgrounder, Stuff's James Croot writes about favourite moments of Kiwi TV. The list is in rough chronological order of when each series debuted.

After turning “Jeez Wayne” into a national catchphrase with their hit series A Week of It, comedy duo David McPhail and Jon Gadsby continued their TV dream run with the sketch comedy show McPhail and Gadsby. This 'Best of' from the Feltex Award-winning fifth season includes these highlights: 'pronouncing things proper with Jim Knox'; 'This Is Your Life with Robert Muldoon' (featuring McPhail’s infamous caricature of the then Prime Minister); Lynn Waldegrave’s popular impersonation of music show host Karyn Hay; and a Goodnight Kiwi take-off in 'Goodnight from the Beehive'.

Ovine raconteurs Robert and Sheepy made their short film debut in 2001, thanks to the stop motion magic of Guy Capper. Capper and Jemaine (Flight of the Conchords) Clement's comical duo — one loquacious, one laconic — stood out from the flock amidst 100s of entries in the trans-Tasman Nescafe Short Film Awards, sharing first prize in 2001. Further occasional installments of The Pen were made over the next decade and shown online, and in 2010 Robert and Sheepy’s woolly wisdom was brought to TV audiences as a segment in sketch show Radiradirah.  

Showcasing the droll dialogue between Conchord Jemaine Clement and animator Guy Capper, Schedule is one of a series of shorts in which two sheep — Robert and Sheepy — ruminate on the ovine issues that really matter eg. tyre humping and ghost sheep. Here the daily schedule is discussed, including the menu selection (grass). After Capper animated the first Robert and Sheepy short in 2001, an Australasian Nescafe Short Film Award helped spur occasional further entries in the woolly yarn canon, culminating with these appearances on 2010 sketch show Radiradirah.

Described by co-creator Jamaine Ross as a sketch show "told from a brown perspective", this Māori Television series pokes the taiaha into life in Aotearoa. Hosted by improv trio Frickin Dangerous Bro – Ross (Māori), Pax Assadi (Persian) and James Roque (Filipino) – the show adds a multicultural 21st Century update to the skit traditions of Billy T James and Pete and Pio. This first episode mines comedy from white people, brown mums, hangi, sports reporting, subtitles, service station staff, and sat nav. NZ Herald’s Gracie Taylor called it "smart, funny, relevant and insanely relatable".

The debut episode of McPhail and Gadsby plunged into religion as the object of satire, and the result spawned death threats and annoyed letters to the editor. The pair dress up as angels, devils, monks, nuns, priests and Moses, and also make the first of many appearances as the smug Denny (McPhail) and not so clever Ron (Gadsby). McPhail argued later that a simple sketch involving an Anglican vicar dispensing communion unexpectedly caused the most offence. The thematic approach was soon abandoned in favour of shorter episodes, and a more familiar style of topical satire. 

Showcasing the droll dialogue between Conchord Jemaine Clement and animator Guy Capper, this is one of a series of comedic shorts in which two sheep drink beer at the baa and spin yarns about the issues that really matter eg. how to express your ire when a bovine companion compares your face to a talking pie. Capper and Clement's Robert and Sheepy duo first debuted in short film The Pen in 2001. An Australasian Nescafe Short Film Award helped spur further episodes, then regular appearances on 2010 comedy show Radiradirah, from which this sketch is drawn.