"Shortland Street" (1992) TV series 1992-????

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Directors:

Helen Gaynor
Brian Lennane

Writers:

Barbara Angell (writer)
Lois Booton (head writer)

Seasons:

3 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | unknown

Release Date:

25 May 1992 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Shortland Street, a five-night-a-week soap set in an Auckland City hospital, follows the complicated personal and professional lives of its staff, family and friends.

Plot Keywords:

Medical

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Faye Smythe	...	Tania Jeffries / ... (399 episodes, 2003-2009)
Michael Galvin	...	Chris Warner / ... (377 episodes, 2003-2009)
Fleur Saville	...	Libby Jeffries / ... (376 episodes, 1996-2009)
Peter Mochrie	...	Callum McKay / ... (352 episodes, 2006-2009)
Toni Potter	...	Alice Piper (341 episodes, 2007-2009)
Ben Mitchell	...	TK Samuels (332 episodes, 2007-2009)
Adam Rickitt	...	Kieran Mitchell (330 episodes, 2007-2009)
Amanda Billing	...	Sarah Potts / ... (316 episodes, 2004-2009)
Alison Quigan	...	Yvonne Jeffries / ... (308 episodes, 2003-2009)
Kiel McNaughton	...	James Scott / ... (308 episodes, 2007-2009)
Nisha Madhan	...	Shanti Kumari / ... (289 episodes, 2007-2009)
Lee Donoghue	...	Hunter McKay (287 episodes, 2007-2009)
Will Hall	...	Kip Denton (286 episodes, 2007-2009)
Anna Jullienne	...	Maia Jeffries (279 episodes, 2007-2009)
Harry McNaughton	...	Gerald Tippett (263 episodes, 2007-2009)
Lucy Wigmore	...	Justine Jones / ... (235 episodes, 2007-2008)
Kimberley Crossman	...	Sophie McKay (230 episodes, 2007-2009)
Renato Bartolomei	...	Craig Valentine / ... (213 episodes, 2004-2008)
Sarah Thomson	...	Tracey Morrison (166 episodes, 2007-2009)
Bonnie Soper	...	Morgan Braithwaite / ... (164 episodes, 2008-2009)
Laura Hill	...	Toni Warner / ... (163 episodes, 2001-2008)

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Auckland, New Zealand

Company:

Grundy Television Productions

Trivia:

Shortland Street was filmed at South Pacific Pictures Browns Bay studios in the North Shore, Auckland from 1992 until 2000. After that purpose built studios were constructed in Henderson, West Auckland. This is also where Outrageous Fortune (2005-present) is filmed.

Goofs:

Continuity: Dr Li Mei Chen (2003 - 2006) arrived to New Zealand on a study program from China. After arriving with very poor spoken English skills and weak pronunciation of the English language, approximately one year after her coming to New Zealand she had a flawless English accent as if she was a New Zealand born Chinese citizen.

Quotes:

Rachel McKenna: I'm gonna end up with nothing, which is precisely what I deserve.
Jenny Harrison: Come one Rachel, there's got to be a bright side to all of this.
Rachel McKenna: Where?
Jenny Harrison: What about all you've learnt from running your own business?
Rachel McKenna: How to screw it up, you mean.
Rachel McKenna: Thanks. I shall now go home and ponder my future.
Jenny Harrison: Do you want a job at the clinic? While you're thinking about things?
Rachel McKenna: My brain surgery's a little rusty.
Jenny Harrison: As P.A. for me and David.
Rachel McKenna: Thanks but I can't really see myself in a crumpling suit kissing butt in an utterly poorly-paid and meaningless form of wage slavery.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Asylum: (#1.2)" (1996)

Not bad... but not great either

Shortland Street is New Zealand's most successful television "drama". Market saturation (it runs at every weekday) and determination by TVNZ has seen the show a steady rater. But despite all the hype (critics and academics who once drubbed it now fall over each other in praise), it's hard to see what's so great about it. Sure, compared to Neighbours, Brookside, Days of Our Lives, it comes off well, but Shortland Street is hardly great drama. In fact, technically, it ain't drama at all but melodrama. The plotlines are thin and pointless, largely consisting of the standard soap love triangles of who is sleeping with whom this week, and the show's much vaunted "humour" is about as amusing as jamming your fingers in a door. I think that Shortland Street's success has, in the long run, crippled NZ TV drama. It seems that, having one success, broadcasters and production companies are now unwilling to branch out and try new things. There is no stratification of primetime drama, there's just Shortland Street and nothing else.

At the end of the day, Shortland Street is a finely put together little soap. But that's all it is, and until we learn to grow up and create proper TV dramas, this silly show will be all we're ever capable of.