Play School (New Zealand TV series)

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Play School
Format	Childrens
Country of origin	New Zealand
Production
Camera setup	Multi-Camera
Broadcast
Original channel	TVNZ
Picture format	PAL
Original run	1970s – 1993
External links
IMDb profile

Play School was a New Zealand educational television show for children. It was based on the British Play School show.

It was first broadcast in New Zealand during the 1970's originally screened twice a day at around 10am and then 2:30pm. Playschool was filmed from the TVNZ studio that was in Dunedin. 1990 was the last year the the New Zealand made series screened on Television.

The show starred five toys, which are famously nostalgic for New Zealanders who watched the program as children. They are:

Big Ted: A traditional-style golden coloured teddy bear
Little Ted: Identical to Big Ted, but much smaller
Manu: A very-human looking plastic doll with Māori features, such as skin and hair
Jemima: A rag doll with orange woollen hair
Humpty: A round green fabric toy resembling Humpty Dumpty.

Big Ted, Manu, Jemima and Humpty are in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand. Little Ted was blown up by the film crew after the completion of the final series and he is now looking worse for wear. [1]

In 2006, TV2 started to screen the Australian version of Play School. It features kiwi presenter Jay Laga'aia who has been on the show since 2000.