Play School (New Zealand TV series)
| Play School | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | New Zealand |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-Camera |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TVNZ |
| Picture format | PAL |
| Original run | 1975 – 1990[1] |
Play School was a New Zealand educational television show for children. It was based on the British Play School show.
Program Synopsis
It was first broadcast in New Zealand during the 1975 originally screened twice a day at around 10am and then 2:30pm. Playschool was filmed from what was then TVNZ's Dunedin Studio. The last series screened on television in 1990.
The show was provided by the BBC in "kitset" form. They supplied scripts and also short filmed items for showing "through the windows".
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 dark skin and hair
- Jemima: A rag doll with orange woollen hair
- Humpty: A round green fabric toy resembling Humpty Dumpty.
Today, Big Ted, Manu, Jemima and Humpty are part of a collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand. The museum also has a large collection of clothing and props from the show.[2] The whereabouts of the original Little Ted is unknown. One of the rehearsal Little Ted toys was blown up by the film crew after the completion of the final series and can be seen at the Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin.[3] The original clock from the series was discovered at a library in Invercargill in August 2009.[4]
In 2006, TV2 started to screen the Australian version of Play School. It features New Zealand presenter Jay Laga'aia who has been on the show since 2000, though the Australian version is significantly different from the New Zealand version, which was similar to the British format of the seventies and eighties.
Cast
Presenters included :
- Timothy Bartlett
- Jeremy Brownbrook (née Brookes)
- Barry Dorking
- Kristen Gillespie
- Theresa Healey
- Jacqui Dean (née Hay)
- John Mann
- Jayashree Panjabi
- Kathryn (sp?) Rawlings
- Ian Taylor[5]
- Pauline Nitis
- Rawiri Paratene
- Tania Robbins
- Laughan Stockham (sp?)
- Russell Smith
- Ray Woolf
Mike Rehu
Musicians
- Russell Sheppard
- Eli Grey-Smith
- Neville Copeland
- Graeme Perkins
See also
References
- ↑ "Shocking Truth Behind Te Papa Play School's Little...". stuff.co.nz. 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
Play School, an adaptation from a British show by the same name, kept thousands of New Zealand children entertained when it aired from 1975 to 1990.
- ↑ Play School items in the collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- ↑ "Remembering a childhood favourite". One News. 25 June 2005. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
- ↑ Morgan, Jared (7 August 2009). "TV treasure unearthed at city library". The Southland Times. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
- ↑
External links
- Play School on IMDB
- Play School at TV2
- ONE News (2005-06-25). "Remembering a childhood favourite".