| Paradise Café | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's comedy-drama |
| Developed by | BBC |
| Written by | Paul Gerstenberger |
| Directed by | Danny Mulheron |
| Starring | Holly Bodimeade Pax Baldwin Halaifonua Finau Lara Custance Georgia Fabish |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom New Zealand |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Dave Gibson Rachel Davis |
| Location(s) | Cook Islands, Rarotonga |
| Running time | 22-25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBBC TV2 |
| First shown in | United Kingdom New Zealand |
| Original run | 6 January 2009 – 7 February 2011 |
Paradise Café is a teen television series that premiered on 6 January 2009 on CBBC and TV2. It was a co-production between New Zealand's Gibson Group and UK company Initial, a division of Endemol. The first series started on 6 January 2009 and ended on 31 March 2009. The second series premiered in the United Kingdom and New Zealand on 17 January 2011 and the final episode aired on 7 February 2011.[1]
Contents |
In March 2008, the BBC announced a new 13-part drama series set in New Zealand. The series was filmed in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in mid-2008 and was directed by Danny Mulheron.
The BBC announced in May 2010 that they were currently filming the second series.[2][3] The character Chloe, played by Amelia Reynolds was written out in the first episode of the second series and a new character, Natasha played by Georgia Fabbish was subsequently introduced. Georgia Fabish had previously played a minor character in the first series. The second series started airing on 17 January 2011 in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand.[4]
In the ancient times, on Paradise Island, an ancient hero named the Sea Born imprisoned an evil sea ghost called Ragnar in an underwater coral prison along with many other sea ghosts. Ragnar swore revenge against the Sea Born.
Centuries later, Megan and Robbo move to Paradise Island along with their father to open up a café there. Robbo quickly befriends Tai, a kind but very clumsy character whilst Megan eventually gets along with a spoilt, rich girl named Abi. A strange girl named Chloe is eager to get to know everyone on the island and it later discovered by the audience that she is a sea ghost spy working for Ragnar. The five kids discover that either Robbo, Tai or Megan is the reincarnation of the Sea Born and Ragnar is looking for them since he needs the Sea Born to escape from the coral prison. Eventually Megan finds out that Chloe is a sea ghost and this infuriates Chloe so she attempts to kill Megan. However, Megan promises not to tell the others (Megan still doesn't know that she is a spy) and they become best friends making Abi jealous. When Robbo is kidnapped by Ragnar, Chloe is forced to tell everyone that she has been spying for Ragnar all this time. The gang lose all trust in her and it soon transpires that Tai is the reincarnation of the Sea Born. The gang along with Chloe defeat Ragnar.
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Grand Opening" | Danny Mulheron | Paul Gerstenberger | 6 January 2009 | 1.1 |
| Robbo, Megan and their father move onto Paradise Island, Megan sets up a Café on the Island, Robbo befriends the clumsy Tai, meanwhile Megan meets the spoilt Abi, Megan and Abi do not get along. Megan, Robbo and Tai go diving and see a strange mark on a rock, they all touch it and it lets out some strange black sea weed that grips onto them and is quite vicious. Later Megan, Tai, Robbo and Abi meet Chloe and strange girl who seems to know a lot about the 90s. The five discover that either Robbo, Tai or Megan is a reincarnation of the sea born, an ancient hero who imprisoned Ragnar and the sea ghosts (people who died at sea) in the sea bed, Ragnar is still imprisoned in a coral prison but needs the seaborn's body to escape and that sea ghosts look normal until you look at them through water. The five stop the ghosts ruining the Cafes grand opening and decide to all help running the Cafe. It is revealed to the audience that Chloe is a sea ghost and a spy for Ragnar! Victoria (Abi's rich mother) employs Robbo and Megan's dad to do something about the black waters. | |||||
| 2 | "Café Under Siege" | Danny Mulheron | Paul Gerstenberger | 13 January 2009 | 1.2 |
| Robbo and Tai see a girl in the Cafe, they both fall in love with her and get in a competition with each other to see who can a kiss from her first. Tai and Robbo soon fall out but what they don't know is that the girl is actually a sea ghost. She mistakes Robbo for her ex-lover who abandoned her and her clan and left them to sink. Robbo and Tai are locked in the Cafe that night and make up, the girl and her clan attack the Cafe but they realise Robbo isn't the one they are looking for because of his strong friendship with Tai and leave. Megan and Abi become friends. | |||||
| 3 | "Reflections" | Danny Mulheron | 20 January 2009 | 1.3 | |
| A sea ghost hired by Ragnar sells a mirror to Abi, Abi is sucked into the mirror and the sea ghost changes to look like Abi. Meanwhile Robbo bets his sister she can't not work at the Cafe for a whole day. "Abi" shows up and is attracted to Robbo, which creeps everyone out. Chloe doesn't like the idea of Ragnar hiring another ghost. While Megan is trying to sneak back into the Cafe she sees that the Abi is an impostor! Tai, Robbo and Megan free Abi and the impostor makes a run for it, Chloe tells Ragnar what happened and Ragnar destroys the Abi impostor. | |||||
| 4 | "Stage Fright" | Danny Mulheron | 27 January 2009 | 1.4 | |
| When the café is overrun by a crowd of bored sea ghosts waiting to be entertained, Robbo decides there is no business like show business. Paradise Cafe's Got Talent is born. Despite Megan's disapproval, Robbo hires a sea ghost from 1930s Berlin called Doctor Herzog, a stage hypnotist and true showman, who is bound to delight the audience. But Tai doubts that the hypnotist's act is as innocent as it seems. Even after talent night is over, after the hypnotist had hypnotised Abi and Megan, Abi just can't stop herself singing and dancing, and Megan is irresistibly drawn to the hypnotist's lair. Herzog has a wicked plan to discover the true identity of the Sea Born and deliver them to Ragnar, hypnotising Megan to see if she is the Sea Born | |||||
| 5 | "For the Love of Money" | Danny Mulheron | 3 February 2009 | 1.5 | |
| Tai decides to help the Cafe become more popular by befriending a sea ghost business man named Marcus. Chloe picks three of the devil's fruit, Ragnar says that if the sea born digests the Devil's fruit they will be sick, then they will know who the sea born is. Tai makes the Cafe more popular by buying a disco ball, a pinball machine, a Juke box and a smoothie maker. Abi wants to attend a party her mother is having that will have the no.1 boyband there, but Victoria says she can only go if she gets a friend to come too. All the money that the Cafe earns is actually ghost money that disappears (because the only customers are ghosts) so they don't have enough to pay for all the fancy stuff Tai got. Marcus eats all of the Devil's fruit to Chloe's annoyance. They all meet the boyband and Marcus goes to Victoria's party only to get a cake in the face, while the boyband play at the Paradise Café. | |||||
| 6 | "Trilbies and Tribulations" | Danny Mulheron | 10 February 2009 | 1.6 | |
| Megan's determined to improve the menu at the café, but Robbo won't let her have their mum's recipe for yummy banana brownies. Which leaves Megan with only one alternative: steal it! But when a sea ghost steals it from Megan and Robbo finds out, she's in major trouble. Desperate Megan asks for help from hopeless New York private investigator Eddie Chisel, who pins the crime on his arch enemy, the gangster Joe Quartz. But it seems like bully boy Joe's not going to stop at the recipe, and he steals the café as well! Megan and Eddie cook up a plan to outwit the gangsters and with a little help from Tai's latest crazy ghost-sucking invention, they try to trap Joe and get back the café and the recipe. With all this ghost busting going on, Chloe has to do some quick thinking to avoid her ghostly identity being discovered but Megan soon discovers Chloe's true identity. | |||||
| 7 | "Secrets" | Danny Mulheron | 17 February 2009 | 1.7 | |
| Megan, still reeling from the discovery that Chloe is a sea ghost, is definitely not in the mood to deal with grumpy ghost Matu. An old Pacific Island priest, Matu wants to dig for buried treasure under the café and he won't take no for an answer. But Megan has bigger things than treasure on her mind when Chloe begs her not to tell the others about her ghostly identity. Abi, Tai and Robbo are all desperate for cash, so they agree to help Matu dig at night. But none of them realise that Matu's treasure is an ancient staff that could identify the Sea Born - or that the evil ghost Ragnar wants it more than any of them. | |||||
| 8 | "The Rival Café" | Danny Mulheron | Paul Gerstenberger | 24 February 2009 | 1.8 |
| Victoria sets up a rival Cafe called Happiness Cafe just oppisite the Paradise Cafe. Megan tells Abi this, but Abi doesn't care (she is still annoyed that Megan is best friends with Chloe) and is actually help run it! Megan and Abi go all out to get customers and to steal customers from each other. Megan gets her new ghost friend to get his older brothers to ruin the Happiness Cafe. The ghost boy agrees on the condition they become friends, Megan agrees. Then his brothers agree on the condition that she does whatever they ask, Megan agrees. The Happiness Cafe is damaged, but then the brothers tell Megan to give them the Paradise Cafe! The ghost boy apologises to Megan and convinces his brothers to leave, they decide to go on a trip to America (where they were going before their boat sank). The Happiness Cafe closes down since Victoria couldn't keep on paying for the rental float it was on. | |||||
| 9 | "The Competition" | Danny Mulheron | Paul Gerstenberger | 3 March 2009 | 1.9 |
| Chloe comes up with a great way to make some money for the cash strapped cafe. If the best swimmer enters the island's dive competition, they will win big prize money and save the cafe. And Chloe will be one step closer to discovering the identity of the Sea Born, who is sure to be a whizz in the water. But Chloe is surprised to find that the best at breath holding is actually Megan. However, Megan is kidnapped by an Italian sea ghost prince and is injured in the escape so Tai has to take her place. Chloe soon suspects that Tai is the Sea Born. | |||||
| 10 | "Tai's New Friend" | Danny Mulheron | Paul Gerstenberger | 10 March 2009 | 1.10 |
| Tai is left in charge of the cafe while Megan and Robbo are helping Peter prepare a big coral presentation for Victoria, but a gorgeous bad girl called Rose arrives and tempts Tai to leave the cafe and hang out with her. Meanwhile, despite being grounded, Abi has shown up to serve the queue of waiting customers at the closed cafe. But it seems she has been swindled by a sea ghost - It is down to Robbo, Megan and Chloe to try and rescue Abi and clear up the mess at the cafe before Victoria arrives to hear Peter's big pitch. The gang and Tai eventually defeat the sea ghost, Rose. | |||||
| 11 | "Bring It On" | Danny Mulheron | 17 March 2009 | 1.11 | |
| It is the Festival of the Sea on Paradise Island and Abi and Megan are both desperate to win the smoothie-making competition and the accompanying big cash prize. Marty, a surf dude sea ghost who lost a leg in a shark attack, hops up to find his missing limb. He is very competitive and manages to bring out the worst in Megan and Abi, who will stop at nothing to beat each other. Marty thinks he has a secret ingredient guaranteed to make the best smoothie ever, but he will only reveal it to the one who finds his leg. The trouble is, it is still stuck on the shark's fin. Tai revisits a place from his dreams and comes face to face with Ragnar who tells him he is the Sea Born, with some extra-special powers. | |||||
| 12 | "A Map of Stars" | Danny Mulheron | 24 March 2009 | 1.12 | |
| A Maori navigator and her crew arrive at the Cafe saying only the sea born can find the black pearl, the sea born needs to find the black pearl so they can finally have it. Tai and Robbo go diving for it, the sharks lead them to it, they return the pearl to the crew and Robbo takes all the credit, this makes everyone think Robbo is the sea born. Tai is given a coin that allows him whatever he wants when he flips it. Chloe reveals to the gang that Ragnar is corrupting Tai with the coin she also reveals that she is a sea ghost working for Ragnar. This cuts off any trust the others had for Chloe. The navigator reveals that because Robbo acted big-headed when he was the sea born it means he isn't the sea born, but Tai is! | |||||
| 13 | "The Final Showdown" | Danny Mulheron | Paul Gerstenberger | 31 March 2009 | 1.13 |
| Robbo is kidnapped by Ragnar, Tai agrees to be Ragnar's host body if he lets Robbo go, Robbo gathers the others, Chloe betrays Ragnar, they all defeat Ragnar, re-imprisoning him but keeping the ghosts out, the gang make up with Chloe. Robbo and Megan's dad blocks off the black sea weed, he says that they can live on the island to the relief of Robbo and Megan who didn't want to leave their friends behind. Later, the gang all celebrates! | |||||
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Being Natasha" | Danny Mulheron | 17 January 2011 | 2.1 | |
| With the coral seal in place, the kids are safe from Ragnar and party hard. Tai enjoys his Seaborn status but is rocked when his powers fail. New girl Natasha arrives to work with Peter in the lab but driven by curiosity she accidentally breaks the seal and the pollution is released, as well as the sea ghosts. Meanwhile, Chloe's ghost form returns and despite Tai's attempt to help her, she is forced to leave the island and return to the sea. | |||||
| 2 | "Edison Tesla" | Danny Mulheron | 18 January 2011 | 2.2 | |
| When a strange inventor called Edison Tesla shows up, Robbo realises the ghosts are back. But as he's on cafe clean up duty, he thinks that maybe this time they could be helpful. Tesla makes Robbo's vacuum cleaner mighty powerful but when Abi borrows the machine, it causes mayhem for Victoria. Meanwhile, Tesla's made a great invention that is wrecking the café....and with only minutes to go before the inspector arrives! | |||||
| 3 | "Tigerlily" | Danny Mulheron | 19 January 2011 | 2.3 | |
| Ghost Pirate Tigerlily has been rejected as a crewmember on the Black Star for the last three hundred years. She thinks it's because she's a girl, but Megan, Robbo and Tai have another theory - her attitude. While Victoria threatens Abi with compulsory water aerobics duty, the boys try to teach Tigerlily to be more cooperative. It takes a crisis before she'll admit she has an attitude problem. In the meantime, she threatens to spend the next three years showing the boys just how feisty she really is! | |||||
| 4 | "Angel Power" | Danny Mulheron | 20 January 2011 | 2.4 | |
| Angel the ghost glam rock pro-wrestler turns up with one thing on her mind: to prove she's the greatest wrestler of all time. While Natasha struggles with a terrible allergy, Tai confidently agrees to take Angel on. Then Abi and Megan experience Angel's training session and they fear for Tai's life. They want Angel to win quickly and get out of there. Tai rescues Robbo from near death. Tai then has his fight with Angel, and loses. | |||||
| 5 | "The Entertainer" | 24 January 2011 | 2.5 | ||
| The ghost of an Entertainer arrives at the café, determined to prove he's the funniest joker ever. He plays cruel gags and gets mad when no one laughs. Fearing someone will be hurt if he carries on, the kids try to teach him that humiliating people isn't funny. At the same time, Abi and Megan compete for the attention of Max the surfer. Abi's surprised when Megan wins -- but not as surprised as Natasha who, after sabotaging the coral seal, sees the Entertainer vanish before her very eyes... | |||||
| 6 | "The Cat Burglar" | 25 January 2011 | 2.6 | ||
| The ghost of a Cat Burglar wants Natasha's locket as a love gift for his girlfriend. But he soon finds out that being a ghost and trying to steal something real has its problems. Meanwhile, Robbo tries to impress the journalist from 'Street' magazine, mistaking the Cat Burglar for the magazine's photographer. He's got some competition from Victoria who's found a unique take on being 'cool'. | |||||
Episodes 5-12 = 5. The Entertainer, 6. The Cat Burglar,7. Two Men One Boat, 8. The Aviatrix, 9. Treasure Hunt, 10. Miss Paradise Island,11. Alonzo's Quest, 12. Moment of Truth and 13. Ghost Trapper