Dion

I've been meaning to mention that James from the above video has a regular Shortland street themed Youtube channel called Shortland Street scandal.

Unfortunately the account has been terminated.

speaking of that Sarah and Roimata both got mentioned tonight which was nice (was beginning to think TK had forgotten all about wife #2, particularly as he didn't mention her when he was listing off all the people he'd failed). I'm not too surprised Pixie died so close to Sarah's death anniversary (which was Tuesday just gone in fact). The end of the winter season has become the mid year version of the end of year cliffhanger (although sometimes they used to have that at the start of the winter season, like in 2012 with the 20th anniversary). BTW did you know that Boyd's mum is Pixie's mum in real life?

Regarding the format of the episode (told in flashback through Marilyn's call to Fisher) I remember the show did several episodes like this around this period (surf carnival episodes told from Vinnie and Tom Nash's points of view and another episode that I think was something like an article/journal/essay that Shannon was writing).

Yeah I know (I refrained from posting about it til I was sure you'd seen it).

I hope so, too. I was also hoping Kylie did blame TK and maybe someone like Wendy got hurt in the crossfire so others would blame him, too. I wanted him to suffer, all alone. Maybe that's coming. I had to laugh when Boyd and Harper announced plans to have their wedding near Christmas. These people never learn. I also forgot to ask before, but does New Zealand not have regulations about pregnant women flying. Surely Bella was far too gone to go to Fiji? Yes he didn't suffer enough IMO. Air New Zealand's policy on flying while pregnant is here: http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/special-assistance-travelling-when-pregnant As Fiji is only three hours away and Bella is less than 37 weeks and has had a relatively trouble free pregnancy (well physically trouble free) it's ok for her to fly.

The end to the Pania storyline last night was a bit anti-climatic. Hopefully it's not the end and she comes back to terrorise a bit more at the end of the year.

KJ Apa is also going to appear in a six part NZ sci fi family series The Cul de sac

I'm sure Connor and Whitney had a tryst in the Arches...

And we're back after a downtime lasting several days while they updated the forum. Well Thursday's cliffhanger with poor Clementine's hand certainly got people talking. I'm glad she turned out to be alive though. But now it looks like she may be permanently paralysed.

Part 3 in my ongoing series "From frontburner to footnote". This time we look at a relatively recent character, that being Nicole's long forgotten half-sister Morgan Braithwaite. Morgan was introduced in 2008, towards the end of the Ferndale strangler story as new nurse that also happened to be an old girlfriend of Joey Henderson. She popped up for a few episodes basically declared her love for Joey and then disappeared from the screen, returning several months later as the purchaser of Joey's drawings (interestingly it was implied that she'd been working at Shortland Street all along just off screen). Gerald bullied her for a while, but the two eventually became friends and slept together. Unfortunately for Morgan, soon afterwards Gerald discovered his asexuality and after trying celibacy for a while, Morgan slept with Hunter McKay. Gerald and Morgan broke up. After a brief flirtation with another guy who also happened to be asexual Morgan eventually took up with Hunter again. Morgan faced money problems and entered into a somewhat dubious surrogacy arrangement with her friends Trent and Cindy (Commercial surrogacy is forbidden in NZ and couples must also go through ECART - Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproduction Technology if they want a legal surrogacy arrangement - this explains the details http://www.smithpartners.co.nz/library/articles/family-law/what-is-surrogacy-understanding-the-process-and-law-in-new-zealand/). As ECART (or merely the ethics committee as it was referred to on the show) had turned down the surrogacy attempt due to Morgan never having given birth before, Morgan impersonated Cindy and had an IVF plantation and was soon pregnant with triplets. Hunter couldn't handle all this and soon split with Morgan. After Trent and CIndy suggested aborting one of the triplets so the other two would have a better chance, Morgan decided to keep them herself and married Gerald partly so as to be in a better position to keep the triplets (as surrogacy is pretty much treated like a normal adoption anyway, it was not strictly necessary for her to marry Gerald as Morgan had all the legal rights to keep them) and partly as they still had feelings for each other. In the end though, Morgan gave birth prematurely and give the triplets to Trent and Cindy anyway. Gerald and Morgan seperated, and Morgan soon found herself a new friend in the form of Nicole Miller (A character who of course would end up being totally insignifcant ). Both Gerald and Hunter were suspicious of Nicole and thought she may have had romantic feelings for her as Nicole's bisexuality was established early on. However, Nicole soon revealed she was in fact Morgan's half sister (Leanne's husband had cheated with Morgan's mother). Kieran Mitchell's brother Sean (posing as the other mitchell brother Sid for reasons that I forget) showed an interest in Morgan as Christmas approached. Meanwhile Nicole had wanted Morgan to join her family for christmas, but this was turned down by Leanne (then an offscreen character of course). And so Morgan wound up at the fateful 2009 Shortland Street Christmas party. Chasing after Tania who was upset that her ex boyfriend had hooked up with her mother, Morgan had the misfortune of being run over by Kieran Mitchell as he desperately raced to stop Sean from burning down the IV. Kieran, who had a passed out Rachel in the car with him, put Rachel in the drivers seat and took off. The last episode of 2009 then ended with the chilling close up of dead Morgan. While the storyline dealing with the aftermath of Morgan's death did occupy a fair chunk of 2010, once Kieran died it seemed that everyone else forgot all about her. Even Nicole does not mention her poor deceased half-sister all that often. I was hoping that Nicole might name her baby Morgan (it's even a gender neutral name), but alas that was not meant to be. The nature of her death (and that it was only five years ago) does mean that she does mean she has a place in some fans memories, but honestly that's more to do with the fact that Kieran killed her.

Clementine is following in the hallowed footsteps of Shortland Street's original young receptionist archetype Kirsty Knight, spreading the gossip when it suits but also having a switch that turns to detective/secret keeper mode. The incident with the thieves several months ago was classic Kirsty, as was her confrontation with Pania when Pania was bullying Bella.

Switching the bodies and having Caleb cremated was quite low for Pania (though obviously not as low as murder lol), taking into account traditional Maori cultural beliefs concerning burial. How long will it be before Margaret lands herself a job at Shortland Street....

I think she suffered post-natal depression after giving up her son Adam (which led to her running over Ringo which led to her prison sentence) then a breakdown whilst in prison, and upon her release stopped taking her medication, which led to a (somewhat poorly depicted) psychotic breakdown, resulting in her kidnapping Lucas and Vanessa's child.

Oh yes, lately I've been wishing Brooke was still around.

I don't recall the show ever dealing with SARS - possibly because the outbreak was contained pretty quickly (within a year). CJD is a different story as its been more of an ongoing thing. Yeah you are right about Frank. I didn't like Daniel much either - a bit too Chris lite for me. I guess Chris is Rachel's best romantic pairing, though part of that is due to longevity. However, Rachel's best pairing overall I think was with Nick Harrison, which was interesting because it was completely platonic except for a three week period after Rachel got struck by lightning (After being struck by lightning Rachel suddenly decided she was in love with Nick and pursued him, despite Nick trying all sorts of methods to turn her off. Nick finally caved and the two got into bed but Rachel got another electric shock and came back to her senses before they could do anything much to Nick's relief). I liked it when Rachel started mentoring Evan Cooper because Nick and Evan are a lot alike so it made sense to me. After Chris, Rachel's best romantic pairing was probably with Rangi Heremaia. I'd go so far as to say that it was also Rachel's most passionate pairing. They were on-off for over a year back in '96, constantly breaking up and getting back together. But ultimately they were too toxic for each other. After Rangi was temporarily paralysed in an accident, Rachel felt obligated to stay with him and began drinking heavily for the first time. Rangi eventually left Rachel and she spiralled out of control, eventually resulting in Nick intervening and calling her father (also an alcoholic) in to help.

Part 2 in my series of characters that went from frontburner to footnote, this time we look at Dr Frank Malone. While not as overly dominant in storylines as Anne was, Frank was on the frontburner for most of his time on the show, even though his storylines (besides his relationship with Rachel) ultimately had no long-term consequences. Frank joined the show in mid 1997 during an era of the show that can now be defined by the absence of one character (Chris Warner). Fulfilling the role of 'doctor with a social conscience' (a role filled by TK now) Frank was first seen running his own community clinic and was hesitant to join the private clinic that was Shortland Street then. A brief flirtation with Grace Kwan led nowhere as she soon departed (but not until after accidentally chopping her own finger off whilst on the phone with Frank - "FRAAANK I've chopped my finger off!" and having it stiched back on). We soon learned more of Frank's past when his ex lover Bridget Hastings arrived. They had split up after Frank's sister had died (I'm a bit hazy on the details, but IIRC Frank had caused his siter's death in a drink driving accident). Frank and Bridget eventually reconciled, but split soon after as Bridget was more interested in David Kearney. A one night stand with Donna Heka also went nowhere (beginning to sense a theme here!) but by early 1999 Frank was embroiled in a love triangle with Rachel and Daniel Buchanan. At this time, Shortland Street clinic had been defrauded of $1 million by Oscar Henry and Frank (acting CEO while David was away) brokered a deal with Central CEO John Harlan (Played by Matt Chamberlain who now plays Murray!) that almost made Shortland Street into a satellite of Central. Rachel and Frank clashed over this deal, but in the end David returned and put a stop to it meaning Shortland Street would remain a private clinic (for another two years anyway). Daniel eventually left town and Rachel and Frank got together. Like Rachel, Frank had a drinking problem, but whereas Rachel had already admitted this to herself and been sober for about two years at that point, Frank stubbornly refused to deal with it. Eventually Rachel received a job offer in the US and decided to take it, marking the first of her exits. Frank then drunkenly hooked up with Aleesha Cook. After learning Rachel had reconciled with Daniel and married him, Frank made plans to move to Antarctica, but these plans fell through when Aleesha turned up in the 1999 cliffhanger saying she was pregnant to him. Frank turned out not to be the father after all and a will they - won't they developed with new clinic boss Sofia Martinez, a former hotel manager who was now running the clinic on behalf of it's new owners. Frank was initially suspicious of Sofia, but was convinced she was working in the best interests of the clinic after she used her own money to buy new premises after the old clinic succumbed to liquefaction after the 2000 earthquake and had to be condemned. The two finally hooked up, but despite the writers spending months of building their relationship, they were over within weeks. During this time, Christopher Hobbs (who played Frank) was also joined on the show by his two sisters who were playing characters totally unrelated to Frank. Another attraction between Frank and Dr Cassie Moore then developed, but in the meantime, Frank had become involved with a married woman (I forget all these characters names so please bare with me). Cassie found the woman's husband bludgeoned and was briefly accused of the crime, but it was the wife who was guilty. However she quickly died of CJD (commonly referred to as mad cow disease). Cassie and Frank hooked up soon after that, but he was attacked by the son of a deceased patient and left for dead in the 2000 finale. Cassie tried to help Frank but he suffered from mood swings as a result of his brain injury and quickly cast her aside for Rachel when Rachel returned. Daniel then turned up wanting Rachel back and Rachel cast Frank aside. Frank then left town, telling Rachel never to bother her again if things didn't work out with Rachel. Rachel soon decided to dump Daniel and stayed in Ferndale, eventually growing closer to Chris...

I don't think it's a real show. It sounds like it's something along the lines of Scandal or Revenge. Maybe it'll become a recurring reference like 'Tides of the Heart' in the 90s

I'm guessing you're not counting Mo's court appearance as they didn't actually show him in court (only in the waiting room). But yes, the show has done several court scenes over the years: 1995 - Hone Ropata goes on trial for murder after punching his nephew's gang member friend, causing his death in the 1994 finale. He was acquitted. To be honest, Hone should have been charged with manslaughter and I think today would have definitely received a short prison term. 1997 - Caroline Buxton goes on trial for murder of her friend Annabel Lustwick. Caroline had helped MS sufferer Annabel kill herself in a euthanasia storyline, but was accused of murder and convicted in the 1997 season finale. Evidence later proved that Anabel had been planning on killing herself for some time, thus corroborating Caroline's story. She was released from prison. Like Hone, if Caroline had been charged with a lesser crime (Assisted suicide in this case), she'd have gotten approximately a year's sentence, but the crafty writers got her out of this situation by having her being accused of murder rather than euthanasia. 2004 - Victor Kahu faced his second murder charge in less than two years when accused of killing Geoff Greenlaw. Highlights of the trial included Judy Brownlee leaking his name to the press (in revenge for the way he'd treated the now dead Anne) and Li Mei Chen perjuring herself to give Victor an alibi. Victor was found guilty, but was released on CHristmas Day after it emerged Dominic had killed Geoff. 2009 - Maia had confessed to killing Ethan Pierce. However the judge decided that given Maia's recent mental instabilites, her confession was unreliable and threw it out of court. Thus the case against Maia collapsed. I don't think we saw any court scenes while Chris was in prison, we mainly saw him in prison on remand.

Yeah that bit with Anne and her dad was a bit icky. They didn't have a full on love scene or even a kiss but having them play out a situation where their characters looked poised to hook up was really weird. I didn't realise you were familiar with OLTL - that's what I was referring to at the top of the page when I said "though I know of at least one show that has" referring of course to when Blair lost her baby by Patrick in the car accident back in 1997 when Kassie DePaiva was pregnant in real life. Yes Li-Mei Chen was so stereotypical, she's actually disqualified from this series that I am doing as she is still infamous to this day! Yes it seems the Coppers are becoming more and more irrelevant. I said earlier that I would expect major changes in the cast if more people were added and as we know more people are being added, maybe Murray and Wendy will go. I think I shall do Frank Malone next.

I've been reading the 'frontburner to footnote' thread (that is when a character who once nearly dominated the show or at least was consistently on the frontburner for most of their run ends up merely being a footnote in the show's history - whether in the world of the show itself or in the minds of fans) in the 'Discuss the soaps' section and it got me thinking about times this has happened on Shortland Street. Of course, the show has had a high turnover over the years but I think many of the characters still remain fondly remembered by fans even if they were not mentioned all that much (Grace and Sam being the most recent obvious examples, and now that Grace is the mother of one of Chris' many children she'll be referenced more often). So to begin in what may end up being a recurring topic, I'm going to discuss the character of Anne Kahu (nee Greenlaw). Nurse Anne Greenlaw arrived in November 2001 along with her brother Geoff (who may have qualified for this topic himself had it not been for his memorable death) and within a few months half of the show seemed to centre around her (the other half centred around the much more interesting drama concerning Harry's paternity). For example, Anne's search for her biological mother resulted in (then) Director of Nursing Judy Brownlee finding out Anne was her daughter, Anne became besties with Waverley (a long-standing character and Rachel's cousin), Geoff and Anne's younger teenage sister Delphi entered the show and Anne had an (initially unrequited) crush on the much older Dr Victor Kahu which tied her into the Hudson-Kahu family - then the show's core family (Victor's sister Te Hana Hudson had also split with her husband and hooked up with Geoff at this time. Predictably, once Victor and Anne had gotten engaged, a rival love interest for Anne's affections had arrived on the scene in the form of Nelson Copeland Victor's estranged son. Nelson was closer to Anne's age and was attracted to her, but for the time being Anne was busy dealing with the revelation that Judy was her mother and needed a kidney. Shortly after Anne donated her kidney and grew close to her biological mother, she and Victor married in a lavish ceremony, but Victor was arrested under suspicion of murder. After Victor was cleared, he and Anne began their married life. She later consoled Waverley during her breast cancer scare and was shown to be jealous whenever Nelson had a new love interest. When Victor's teenage nephew Tama Hudson impregnated Shannon Te-Ngaru, Victor and Anne considered adopting the child. Sadly, the baby died shortly after birth and it was at this point that Anne began sleeping with Nelson. Upon, discovering the affair, Victor kicked Anne out, but later took her back to keep up appearances while he carried on an affair with Dr Li-Mei Chen. Anne, knowing full well that her marriage was now a sham, spent more and more time with Rex Traherne. The two were about to hook up when Judy and Victor put a stop to it - Judy explaining that Rex was her dad! (and to top it off, Rex was being played by the real life father of the actress who played Anne!). Anne mourned when her brother Geoff was murdered and was becoming increasingly isolated from her friends and family but became close with her new-found father. Anne attended the opening of one of Rex's new buildings but of course this was the season finale for 2003, so the building collapsed on top of her and half the cast. Nelson (who was now in the ambulance service) tried to save her, admitting he still loved her but happily err....sadly Anne died in the first episode of 2004. While her death was mourned for a time (and Waverley named her daughter Tina-Anne partly after her) most of the characters she associated with left not too long after including Anne's sister Delphi. Even Nelson had found a new love interest and left the show within six months of Anne's death. Judy mourned for a time herself but ended up leaving in early 2006. Since then Anne has not been mentioned since and probably barely registers in the memories of fans.

Popstar party.

Yes I think they were. They had a brief two week storyline about a month after the wedding where Doreen separated from Derek and Derek ended up parking his truck in the street refusing to move it until Doreen went back to him.

They'd actually already been introduced in 1999 during the lead up to Maxine and Ashley's wedding so bringing them back at this point was a nice touch.

Grant was actually understanding about the HIV and kept quiet about it for nearly a year after this when the rest of the square found out via other means. They did know Bill Treacher was leaving at this point (I recall an article in the NZ TV Guide approx Feb/March 1995 saying that Letitia Dean, Susan Tully and Bill Treacher would be leaving), though they may not have yet decided to kill him off. I think the original plan was just to leave Arthur in prison before realising that they needed a more final end for the character. IIRC, after his imprisonment at Christmas, Arthur did not make any appearances until his release in May 1996 whereupon he died.