Shortland Street

This article is about the New Zealand soap opera. For the fictional hospital in which the series is based, see Shortland Street Hospital.

Shortland Street
Shortland Street Logo, introduced May 2007
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Bettina Hollings Caterina De Nave Jason Daniel
Directed by	Sam Scott Angela Bloomfield Caroline Bell-Booth Britta Johnstone Anna Marbrook Geoffrey Cawthorn Wayne Tourell Jonathan Alvern Renato Barlotomei Katherine McRae
Starring	(Ensemble)
Country of origin	New Zealand
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	20
No. of episodes	4928 as of 22 February 2012 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Simon Bennett John Barnett
Producer(s)	Caterina De Nave (1992) Brian Lennane (1992-1993) Tony Holden (1994-1995) Gavin Srawhan (1995-1996) Simon Bennett (1997-2000) Harriet Crampton (2001-2005) Katie Wolfe (2005) Jason Daniel (2005-2008) Steven Zanoski (2009-present)
Editor(s)	Rowen Mackay
Location(s)	8 Tolich Pl, Lincoln North 0610, New Zealand
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes (including advertisements- 24 minutes excluding)
Broadcast
Original channel	TVNZ
Picture format	576i (1992 - 2011) 1080i (2011 - present)
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	25 May 1992 (1992-05-25) – present
External links
Website

Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centering around the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital, first broadcast on Television New Zealand's TV2 on 25 May 1992. It is the country's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 4500 episodes and 19 years, and is one of the most watched television programs in New Zealand.

The show was originally screened as five half-hour episodes each week and initially receiving mixed reviews on its premiere. After its launch it dropped in ratings and would have been cancelled if TVNZ had not ordered a year's worth of episodes in advance. By early 1993, the show's rating picked up and TVNZ renewed the production. Today, it is one of New Zealand's highest-rated shows - frequently making AGB Nielsen Media Research's top 5 programmes of the week.

History

After the cancellation of Gloss, Television New Zealand noticed the lack of New Zealand content on their show and in 1990 set about creating a local equvilanet of Australian soap - Neighbours. $10 million was given for an initial 230 episodes. Caterina De Nave was hired as the show's producer and subsequently travelled to Australia to work with Grundy Television to work out an idea for the five times a week soap. TV2 programmer - Bettina Hollings suggested the setting of a hospital after reading an article detailing ideal locations of a drama which included - a hospital, a police station and a school. De Nave worked with several storyliners including Jason Daniel and they worked out an outline of the show. De Nave noticed Neighbours and Home and Away had a generally straight forward Australian cast and wished for the cast of her show to be culturally diverse to reflect New Zealand. She also wanted the cast to have strong female characters to attract the necessary female audience. Daniel created the character of Kirsty while De Nave created Meredith and Ken Catran created Hone. The character of Stuart was originally planned to be gay but the plans made TVNZ nervous and were scrapped. De Nave also wished to counter-stereotype races and made Polynesian Sam Aleni a paramedic as there was only one paramedic of Polynesian descent throughout New Zealand. De Nave decided to make the setting that of a private hospital as it reflected New Zealand medicine at the time. The working title was The Shortland Street Project after its planned filming location in a TVNZ-owned studio at 74 Shortland Street in Auckland Central. However, the studio was found to be too small for the required sets, and the production studio was moved to a warehouse in Browns Bay. After running through many name options, the original working title was chosen and subsequently truncated to simply Shortland Street. The name subsequently is a homage to the Shortland Street studios, which were home to New Zealand's first regular television broadcast in 1960, and were home to TVNZ and its predecessors Auckland operations until TVNZ moved to its new purpose-built television centre on Victoria Street West in 1990. Ratings were originally high after a successful marketing campaign but fell steadily throughout the year until 1993 when they rose dramatically. The show would have been cancelled in the first year if it was not for the fact TVNZ ordered a years worth of episodes.

With high public interest in the show and a viewing figure of a constant 600,000, Shortland Street received more sets and the nursing uniform which was considered outdated was redone. In 2000 an Australian consultant drastically changed the show so that it would suit the 21st century tone of New Zealand. This included transitioning the hospital to a public hospital, bringing in low income families and writing off 14 characters. Michael Galvin and Angela Bloomfield were brought back as their characters Chris Warner and Rachel McKenna and the show received a new producer.

The longest running characters Chris and Rachel as they were in 1993 and 16 years later in 2009

The show reached huge ratings in 2007 when a serial killer storyline was introduced, with five characters meeting their demise. Episode 4000 saw the return of series original Dr. Hone Ropata for a six week stint in 2008.

Shortland Street aired its first ever 90 minute episode on 2 August 2010. The episode featured Chris discovering he had a son with series original Alison Raynor in 1996. It also featured the conclusion to the 3 year Kieran Mitchell storyline which saw the shows second highest ever ratings.

In July 2011 Shortland Street achieved a New Zealand first when it made its 2011 feature length episode available to purchase via Facebook, becoming the second ever TV show in the world to utilize this technology. In August 2011 All Blacks Keven Mealamu, Anthony Boric and Jerome Kaino filmed a scene that aired on the opening night of the 2011 Rugby World Cup on 9 September. The show would also have reshoots to incorporate the wins or loses the All Blacks endure during the tournament.

Characters

See also: Current Shortland Street Characters, and List of Shortland Street characters, and List of original Shortland Street characters

Shortland Street stars an ensemble cast. Most of the characters are either employees of Shortland Street Hospital, or relations to employees of the hospital.

Since 1992, many notable faces have appeared on the soap with the only still remaining character from the original cast being that of Chris Warner. Though taking a 4 year break, Chris has been on the show the longest of the current cast and outstayed all of his family who either died or left. Rachel McKenna is another current long standing character, arriving to the soap in 1993 and making regular appearances since. Nick Harrison was also a long running character being on the show till 2005.

Characters on the show attribute and portray numerous different demographics found in New Zealand. These range from the rich and well off (such as Chris Warner) to the struggling and poor (Wendy Cooper). Other areas that are covered are groups such as ethnicities with Asian, Polynesian, Romanian and even Zimbabwean characters appearing on the show. In the first year of the show, it was decided CEO Michael McKenna's personal assistant Jenny, should be a solo mother to help draw in that demographic who statistically would be watching TV at 7pm. The show has also had a long string of families, such as the Warners, McKennas, Harrisons, Hudsons, Jeffries, and currently the Coopers, teenagers, helping young audiences and families relate to the show.

Several past cast members have made a name for themselves on the international scale with the likes of Temuera Morrison who portrayed Dr. Hone Ropata from 1992–1995 and a guest appearance in 2008, being cast in several Hollywood films and being recognized as Jango Fett in Star Wars. Martin Henderson who portrayed Stuart Neilson from 1992–1995 went on to star in The Ring and starred alongside James Franco in Flyboys and Cate Blanchett in Little Fish. Karl Urban who portrayed the recurring role of gay paramedic Jamie Forrest went on to play Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 Star Trek remake and is set to star as Judge Dredd in the upcoming superhero blockbuster Dredd. Marton Csokas who played Leonard Rossi-Dodds from 1993 to 1994, then again from late 1994 to 1995, went on to star in films such as The Bourne Supremacy alongside the previously mentioned Karl Urban and Alice in Wonderland. Besides these breakout stars, Shortland Street has also produced a number of successful actors who participate in successful homegrown material.

Production

Shortland Street is produced by South Pacific Pictures, with assistance from FremantleMedia and Television New Zealand. In the first few years, the production was also assisted by New Zealand on Air.

Today, most of the filming for Shortland Street occurs at South Pacific Pictures Waitakere City studios, with Ferndale High School scenes being filmed at the nearby Waitakere College.^{[citation needed]} The exterior shots of the Hospital are filmed on location at the Waitakere Studios at an existing section of a building dressed up to appear as the facade of a hospital entrance. Location scenes are filmed in Auckland, but other locations, including Fiji, Mt Ruapehu, Rotorua and Rarotonga have been used.

Originally, Shortland Street was filmed in North Shore City at South Pacific Pictures Browns Bay studios until their relocation to purpose built studios in Waitakere City in 2000. The original Ferndale High School was played by a North Shore college until the studio relocated. When cast members are hired their contracts are either 4 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 6 months or a year.

High Definition production of Shortland Street started in early 2011, with the first HD episode broadcast on 18 April 2011 on the Freeveiw HD and Sky platforms.

Controversy

The show has always retained the appeal of being raunchy and controversial with the very first episode of the show featuring a sex scene between resident "Dr. Love" Chris Warner and his aerobics instructor. Another early controversy was that of a lesbian kiss between Meredith Fleming and Annie Flynn with several complaints laid to the Broadcasting Standards Authority but it went no further. It was not until 2008 that the show received its first ever BSA warning, when it featured an oral sex scene in mid 2008 between sexually confused Gerald and a fellow man. A few months later, the show received a second warning for an episode in August 2008 depicting the brutal murder of Craig Valentine, who was beaten unconscious, then set alight in his car. Again, a few months later, the show received yet another warning about a scene in January 2009 where Tania Jeffries hit a gang leader in the head with a hammer.

Scenes aired in April 2010 sparked criticism when Leanne Miller and her daughter Nicole stated that the city of Tauranga was not "gay friendly".

The show caused controversy in August 2010 when the character of Sophie McKay was shown to be being stalked by her university lecturer who she had been dating. This upset the family of murdered girl Sophie Elliott who was killed by her university lecturer, Clayton Weatherston, who she had been dating. The similarities upset the families with producer Steven Zanoski saying: "the storyline was a classic and not inspired by real events."

The shows production department received several complaints following the lesbian love storyline involving Maia Jeffries and Jennifer Mason.

A storyline aired in April 2011 which featured the Cooper Family try to go to the beach, but they get confronted by a group of Maori who demand money. This sparked criticism with some saying it was discrimination against Maori people. Maori adviser Ngamaru Raerino stated that viewers shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and should have let the storyline completely unfold which reveals the group of Maori are protesting against a corrupt camp owner who had been polluting the beach.

In September 2011, Shortland Street was identified as one of the main influences to people who self harm, airing two storylines involving suicide attempts.

International screenings

Shortland Street has been shown in Ireland on RTE One since 1996. It is broadcast in a morning slot usually around 11:45-12noon and repeated late-night at around 2:30am.

In the UK, Living began airing two episodes a day from the 2007 season with Episodes 3736/3737 which originally aired in New Zealand on 21/22 May 2007 beginning on 23 August 2010 at 15.00-16.00 (and repeated at 10.00 the following morning). However four weeks into its run, the morning repeats were dropped by Living, and as of Monday 20 September moving from 15.00-16.00 and 12.00-13.00. As from Monday 27 September 2010, it is to be shown on Living Loves from 18.00-19.00 Monday to Friday with five repeat episodes shown on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It has been confirmed that Living Loves will axe Shortland Street with the final episode shown on 29 October 2010.

Shortland Street was, however, originally screened on various regions of the ITV network from 1993 to 2003.

From 29 March 1993, Central Television were the first ITV region to screen the soap, beginning in an afternoon timeslot, 1520-1550. From 1994 to 2000, it was shown in an early evening timeslot, at either 1710-1740 and, later at 1730-1800.

Other ITV regions also screened Shortland Street at their own pace, usually during daytime although some (HTV and Granada) followed Central's early-evening example for a short time. Scottish Television have never shown Shortland Street. Central eventually moved the serial to a lunchtime slot, 1300-1330 from September 2000 and it remained here for over two years.

From January 2003, the Carlton-owned ITV regions including Central, Westcountry, HTV and Carlton-London networked Shortland Street in an afternoon slot, 1430–1500, Monday to Wednesday, with a Thursday episode added a few months later. A special programme was aired (presented by Michael Galvin and Angela Bloomfield) introducing new viewers to the show whilst viewers in other regions had to endure a massive jump in storylines to join up with Central who were considerably ahead (up to 5 years in some cases). Meanwhile, the Granada-owned regions, such as Yorkshire Television and Meridian dropped the series entirely, opting for local programming instead. However, Shortland Street failed to attract a significant audience in its new afternoon slot and it was axed completely by ITV and was last shown on 28 August 2003, finishing at episode 2367.[1] Central had shown the serial consecutively for over 10 years, leaving many fans in the Midlands very disappointed. Almost 7 years later, it was announced on 5 August 2010, that Shortland Street would return to British television on 23 August 2010 on Living TV.

The show is also viewed on Cook Island Television 8-8.30pm weekdays and is one of the most popular shows in the Cook Islands.

In Australia, the show was briefly screened by SBS TV between 1994-1995. Subscription channel UKTV screened the series from 1997-2000. It was airing at 2pm weekdays on digital station 7TWO, but now with the new lineup is shown at 9.30am every weekday (including Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Easter) showing episodes that are exactly 1 year and 10 months (22 months) behind those shown in New Zealand. Australian audiences saw the 2008 season finale from 2 November 2010 and the episodes from January 2009 were from 3 November 2010.

In addition, repeats of episodes originally aired in 2007 were broadcast on the free-to-air station ABC1 at 4.30am weekday mornings. These episodes were 3 years and 1 month (37 months) behind New Zealand. These episodes have now ceased as ABC1 had caught up to the end of the 2007 season, where 7TWO, had begun back in late 2009 when the new multichannel launched.

In previous years, South Pacific Pictures publicity has claimed the show was sold to Bophuthatswana, which journalists have used to demonstrate Shortland Street's interracial appeal.

External links

• Official website
• Shortland Street - TVNZ ondemand (only available to New Zealand due to copyright reasons)
• Shortland Street at the Internet Movie Database
• Shortland Street at TV.com
• Image Archive '94 to '95
• The whole first episode from 1992 and 15-year promo to view on NZ On Screen