25 Years of Television - Part One

“It’s hard to imagine our way of life before the box turned up in our living rooms.” Newsreader Dougal Stevenson presents this condensed history of New Zealand television’s first 15 years: from 60s current affairs and commercials, to music shows and early attempts at drama. The first part of a two-part special, this charts the single channel days of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation from its birth in 1960 until puberty in 1975, when it was split into two separate channels. Includes recollections from many of NZ TV’s formative reporters and presenters.

It’s hard to imagine our way of life before the box turned up in our living rooms 25 years ago. There’ve been enormous changes since then, one of them the fact that we now watch an average of 23 hours of a week of television. Television has influenced and reflected the changes of the past 25 years ... Tonight I’d like to take you back to 60s and early 70s, to the single channel NZBC days. They began officially on June 1st 1960 in Auckland.

– Presenter Dougal Stevenson

Key Cast & Crew

Malcolm Kemp

Director

Bill Saunders

Writer, Producer

Dean Cato

Designer

Shirley Maddock

Subject

Hamish Keith

Subject

Ian Cross

Subject