NZ On Screen’s Top 10 most viewed titles of 2015 features two mourned All Blacks, two animated favourites, the first episode of our most beloved TV drama, and a 1972 documentary about moko.
Our number one most watched title this past year was the video for Hello Sailor classic 'Gutter Black'. Always a popular title on the site, it got an extra boost this year when it was embedded in a story on website Stuff looking back at Outrageous Fortune, as prequel series Westside was about to premiere.
Our 10 minute excerpt from 1970s cult film Angel Mine also got a boost from Stuff, when it featured in a story about a season of films by cult director David Blyth held at Ngā Taonga in Wellington. It comes in at number two in our Top 10.
The number three most watched show is a 2002 episode of arts series The Living Room about the Flight of the Conchords going to the Edinburgh Festival. The story features a chance meeting at the airport with All Black legend Jonah Lomu. After Lomu’s sad passing in November, this clip was widely shared.
Our number four also features an All Black great — a 2007 Sky Sport profile of Jerry Collins, who was killed in a car accident in France in June last year. This clip was embedded in news websites both here and around the world.
Number five in our countdown is an eternal favourite with New Zealanders — the animated Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial from the mid-1970s which features the delightfully hungry Hugo and Holly. It took us a while to clear and source the ad so we only managed to get in on the site this past year; nostalgia-lovers have been viewing it in droves.
The earlier mentioned Outrageous Fortune feature story on Stuff also generated many views for the first episode of the series, which has become our most fondly remembered TV drama. That debut episode is number six in our countdown.
The trailer for Toa Fraser’s hit 2014 feature The Dead Lands has been heavily watched all through 2015 as the movie played in different territories around the world. Many of the views for this one are international. It’s at number seven.
Coming in at number eight is the second animated title in our countdown — the late Euan Frizzell’s animation of Lynley Dodd’s much loved children’s tale Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. This always has a solid following as parents track it down to show it to their kids.
Number nine in our countdown is a surprise entry — a beautiful 1972 documentary featuring interviews with female Māori elders with tattooed chins. Into Antiquity - A Memory of the Māori Moko has been discovered by a number of Māori culture and heritage groups, and shared widely on their Facebook pages and websites. It’s well worth a watch.
Rounding out our Top 10 is Loose Enz - The Venus Touch, a one-off TV play from 1982 that is very popular on our site. I’d like to say that this is because of New Zealand screen fans’ deep interest in historic TV plays, but maybe its popularity has just a little to do with the fact that veteran newsreader and sometime actress Angela D’Audney bares her breasts for a scene in the show — maybe.
So that is our Top 10 most viewed shows for 2015. Thanks for all your support. There wouldn’t be any point in NZ On Screen existing if people didn’t visit the site. Keep watching in 2016!
- Irene Gardiner is Content Director for NZ On Screen.
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