Dion

Knowing Shortland Street it's certainly possible, but at this time I think it is just as likely that they took advantage of gaps opening up in the cast to introduce a new family unit (one that's easily expandable by introducing the ex-wife and eldest sister if necessary). The size of the cast is currently at the top end of its normal range though, so if any more new characters are added, I think that will be a sign that there will be some departures (not necessarily the Coopers).

You'd think so (did they mention him when she was briefly pregnant with Alec's baby?), but the show has always struggled with how to write long-lost or long-gone kids of main characters. Hilda and Stan's kids, Audrey's son, Elsie's kids and grandkids, any child of Ken's not named Peter, etc.

My memory is a bit hazy but many years ago (1997ish) I used to watch (or rather listen to as I was only able to recieve the audio signal for that particular channel - i'll explain if anyone's curious ) some reruns from the late 80s. I seem to recall that when Bet was pregnant she did in fact refer to her other child in a conversation with someone (probably Betty as Alec apparently didn't find out about Martin Downes until later but Betty was actually there when Bet found out that Martin had died and had been told about the later pregnancy that Bet miscarried).

You're right about the show never being able to write for all the long-lost children characters had. Heck I think the show even went more than eight years without a main character giving birth! (must be a soap record, I think only Neighbours has come close).

Lol, it didn't even occur to me that they were brother and sister until you pointed it out!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11431309

The above article got me a little concerned so I did a little more digging and found this article from two months ago in throng, who post a lot of NZTV ratings info:

http://www.throng.co.nz/2015/02/shortland-street-rating-days/

So ratings have definitely fallen after reaching a peak in 2012 - early 2013 with the show having some of its worst ratings in years (Even the episode screened on the day that Christchurch had its main earthquake in Feb 2011 rated higher than a lot of the episodes screened in the first few weeks of this year).

Part of this drop is probably to do with things such as time-shifting and on demand services (on these platforms Shortland Street is doing quite well) and of course the Cricket World Cup which went on and on for weeks (and of course we had some matches held here since we were joint hosts with Australia and our team was on a bit of a dream run until being beaten in the final by Australia). TV1's current affairs show Seven Sharp has also gotten its act together, though I suspect it probably eats into rival current affairs show Campbell live's audience rather than Shortland Street's. Storylines this year have also been somewhat low key.

Will be interesting to see how the show performs over the winter (specifically whether any of the big 'event' episodes can get to the.levels seen in previous years). Daylight Savings ended a week ago and with Shortland Street airing at 7pm it does tend to have a dramatic effect on the number of casual viewers.

I do recall 1996 having its fair share of problems, particularly because some of the characters (eg Deirdre, Gail) that had previously led successful stories for years all had a really quiet year at the same time or were stuck in banal storylines (eg Des and Claire involving Claire's late husband's army pension).

Departures also hurt the show, Post-marriage Curly and Raquel were stuck in a holding pattern until she left him, the Duckworths being in charge of the Rovers after Bet left got stale real quickly, Steve was in prison and Vicky left, Maureen and Maud floundered after Reg left, Ken was left holding the baby after Denise left and a lot of time had to be spent on developing all the new characters who were being introduced for the shows move to four episodes a week (many of whom were promptly axed by Brian Park when he took over, though those newer characters who did survive did eventually become classics themselves eg Fred, Maxine, Ashley, Roy).

Other storylines seemed to lack effective follow through (Jim beating Liz) or were merely set ups that wouldn't pay off until the following year (Don Brennan vs Mike Baldwin, Kevin taking over the garage)

I actually warmed to him post New Years when he was left holding the baby while everyone else was upset about Ronnie's coma.

But Chas is his cousin!

Oh wait...these are the Dingles we're talking about!

How far have Marlon and Chas gone in the past? (I know they kissed once but was there more?)

New Zealand does have national healthcare but it is not entirely free. There are charges for going to see a GP- (for under sixes this is free and this will be extended to under 13s in a few months time) though I would have thought Pixie's family would qualify for a community services card which would reduce the costs somewhat (though would require her parent to go to the doctor with her).

A visit to an ED is free though, hence why there was no problems with payment the week before. I think Pixie could have just gone back to ED for free treatment but she would have had to wait hours before seeing an ED doctor. Harry was trying to impress her by paying for the GPs appointment so she could be seen by a GP right away, but she didn't appreciate his charity.

I wonder how long Caleb will be around. Pania seems to have sub-consciously set her sights on TK and I suspect she up his relationship with Kylie to keep him occupied until such time that she's ready to be with him herself, perhaps thinking Kylie (who said she was just after some fun) would be less of a threat to her than Harper (too strong for Pania) or Lucy (too vulnerable, thus Pania may have thought TK would have stuck by her).

Bella and Jimmy - I think I have a fair idea where this is going. (I can't remember how to do spoiler tags! lol)

To be fair on 'Tor' she is still basically a student, so I'll cut her some slack for that. Though somebody needs to offer her some cheese to go with all that whine .

No Shortland Street tonight.

An extra episode already screened at the beginning of the year (the second part of the one hour season return back in January) to account for it.

she returned after a while with the current actress and did what most women on the show do - let Cain lay pipe in them

Lol...I think that's possibly the best euphemism I've ever heard!

Yes I was going to mention that Joel Tobeck is the uncle of Geordie Holibar (and son of Liddy Holloway who played Rachel's mum).

As for the language, yes its sometimes shocks me what they can say at 7pm lol. The show has come a long way since the first episode when they weren't allowed to say 'placenta' lol.

Yes, I think they ended T.K and Brooke's relationship a bit too soon.

Lol...but actually its true, she was a kleptomaniac. I don't think she was ever officially "cured", but the kleptomania was linked to her low sense of self-esteem, so as her self-esteem grew, her incidences of Kleptomania became less and less, and by the time you started watching she didn't feel the need to steal anymore.

The kleptomania itself wasn't common knowledge amongst the other characters. I think T.K found out some point during their relationship and tried to help her.

Speaking of kleptomania, were you watching when Brooke was a kleptomaniac?

Interesting documentary from the 10th anniversary twenty years ago.

Sarah Louise was written as a typical young heroine for Tina's first 5-6 years on the show. In her last few years they decided to make her "gobby" and materialistic and stupid, like Rosie. I can't say it did her any favors. Many fans were glad to see the back of her.

Yeah they dumbed her down a lot when she was with Scooter and then when she split Jason and Violet up it was all downhill from there.

I did start warming to them towards the end but still I find it weird that after so much time was spent building up Dallas and Bella and Garrett and Ula last year, within weeks Dallas and Ula are suddenly 'endgame' lol.

But then again I've been watching since day one and the show has always done things like that.

Hated Marj at first...she was merely nothing more than a bigoted vicious gossip at first and she treated Jaki Manu appallingly during Jaki's HIV scare (it was 1992 after all but even so Marj was a receptionist at a medical clinic and should have known better), Marj also played favourites with her sons, preferring dastardly Darryl over the more sensitive and artistic Stuart (Marj had two other sons who never visited and it was kind of implied that they didn't want anything to do with her!)

But of course she started to soften, and a series of tragedies befell her so you couldn't help but sympathize with her. (Darryl tried to rape Marj's fellow receptionist Kirsty, Marj's illegitimate daughter whom she'd given up for adoption turned up etc). The true turning point was when Marj's first husband Tom disappeared after having serious kidney problems and poor Marj was left struggling to cope on her own with Stuart. Typically just as it looked like Marj would find love with policeman Laurie Brasch, Tom turned up again and Marj felt she had to stick with him even though she loved Laurie (Marj was a staunch catholic). Tom then died after his kidney transplant and Marj eventually married Laurie even though he was Jewish and hadn't told her (he wasn't religious so didn't think it was important - which is probably code for the writers just decided to add that in for added conflict). Laurie's more religious daughter eventually came round to accepting the marriage and she and Marj became quite close.

Marj eventually had one more tragedy to face when her son Darryl supplied faulty medicines to the clinic which resulted in a spate of post-op infections, including one fatality. Darryl was murdered (ostensibly by his business associates but in actual fact it was Kirsty who was never caught out for the crime) and Marj was finally forced to face the fact that her favourite son had always been a bad man but she loved him anyway.

Marj and Laurie also fostered Lulu,who had been molested by her father. Marj eventually ran for city council in the local government elections and won, but quit after a few months and decided to run for Parliament instead and was elected.

Anyway, Marj ended a very enjoyable character because she was a stark contrast to the more 'glamourous' and youthful cast members who were all basically yuppies. She basically represented the generation of white New Zealanders who grew up immediately post world war II (a time when people had impeccable manners and were nice or at least did a really good job of faking it if you know what I mean) who were having trouble adapting to the social changes which occurred from the 1960s onwards. So her storylines often involved her encountering a more modern day issue (HIV, her own past teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, remarriage, mixed faith marriage, sexual abuse etc) and having her worldview turned upside down but also displaying a willingness to be more tolerant. Marj was also renowned for her home-baking and she also never lost her tendency for gossip. She also built up quite a rapport with the show's teenage characters, particularly Nick and Rachel as she decided to go back to high school at one stage and ended up taking classes with them (that.would never actually happen now as most High schools have separate adult education classes at night).

Oh by the way, I've heard that the access restrictions on international viewings have been removed on the feature length episode over at TVNZ On Demand and it is temporarily available (until midday Thursday NZ time and we are about 16 - 18 hours ahead of EST so wednesday in the US) worldwide because of requests from Kiwis abroad. The link is:

http://tvnz.co.nz/shortland-street/s21-ep4992-4993-4994-video-4896034

I don't know if this will actually work since it will obviously play for me regardless.

Oh and yes Gerald is only back briefly I think.

Just to add, most of the topics trending on Twitter last night (in New Zealand that is) were Shortland Street related so it seems the episode was a big hit. Must go hunting down the ratings figures.

I'm not that surprised that they brought Gerald back. He was a pretty popular character even though some of his stories didn't quite work (the surrogacy storyline in particular). His return will also hopefully bring some resolution to his marriage to Libby, as they both rushed into it and it is now clear that the arrangement isn't quite working. Bringing back the Jeffries en-masse for the anniversary was also a smart move as they were arguably the show's most stable and successful family unit (four years together which is an eternity on a show with such a quick cast turnover). It's nice that they are getting a bit of a final send-off as their individual departures were a bit rushed.

This week will also see the return of Marj Brasch, an original cast member who was on from 1992-1996. She's possibly the most iconic character ever to appear on the show and her exit in 1996, becoming an MP and meeting Jenny Shipley (who later became New Zealand's first woman prime minister in 1997) and Helen Clark (who later became New Zealand's second woman prime minister and the first woman to be elected prime minister in 1999) on the steps of the New Zealand Parliament, is also iconic.

As predicted, the feature length (well actually if you took out all the ad breaks it only comes to around 70 minutes lol) episode featured a helicopter crash. I've heard rumours that the crashed helicopter used in the scenes was apparently the one that had crashed on Auckland's viaduct basin last year while setting up Auckland's christmas tree (a crash in which noone was killed fortunately) but i've not been able to confirm this. Unfortunately the episode's airing coincided with reports of a missing helicopter in Canterbury, but the episode's airing still went ahead with a disclaimer.

The biggest plot occurance (other than the crash) is that Chris' stalker, Hayley was murdered by her ex boyfriend Drew. Drew also hit Chris over the head with a plank and has made it look like Chris did the murder. Chris was arrested when Drew proved to somehow have an alibi. While i'm not a fan of this storyline, it is good that the show's last remaining original character was so prominent in the anniversary episode.

The cooper family held a party to celebrate buying a new house. Bella Cooper had found a box of old nurses' uniforms (ones actually used in the show) so the hospital staff (the staff not at the crash site that is) put on an impromptu fashion parade of the old uniforms at the Cooper's party. Funnily enough nobody at the Cooper's party was notified about the helicopter crash, I would have thought that if a helicopter crashed at a hospital, the hospital would want all hands on deck. To be fair though there was only one doctor at the party (all the other doctors were on duty at the hospital) but it still seems to be a bit of a plothole that none of the off-duty nurses were called in to help out during the crisis. Oh well.

Anyway, Nicole had gone off in the helicopter to get Gerald's heart, but unfortunately, Bailey had returned to steal drugs from the hospital. Callum and T.K chased him up to the helipad just as the helicopter was approaching for landing and this caused the crash. Nicole was trapped. Fortunately Maia and Maxwell (Nicole's exes) found her in the wreckage and Nicole was taken to ED where Lana and Nicole reunited in front of Maia and Maxwell. Anyway, Libby and the new doctor found Gerald's new heart had safely landed (still in the freezer). Since it was still viable, the transplant can still go ahead.

Finally Ula couldn't carry on pretending to love Evan anymore and told him that at the Cooper's party. Evan got angry and ending up telling everyone that the baby wasn't his!

This week is Shortland Street's 20th anniversary (the show started on May 25, 1992) and tonight we will be having a special 90 minute episode - the show's third such episode.

At the moment storylines are steadily building to a climax:

Chris is still being hounded by Hayley and her latest action is to make everyone think that Chris gave her a black eye but at least Harry believes him. Rachel is starting to believe him too. Phoenix on the other hand still doesn't trust his dad, even though Hayley did the same to him.

The Jeffries Family have returned for a brief stint: Yvonne, Maia, Tania and Libby, along with Gerald (who of course is married to Libby) and Maia's son JJ. Gerald's father has now also returned as poor Gerald caught some kind of virus and now needs a heart transplant. Lucky for him that he's in a soap opera as a heart has become available for him just one episode after being told he needs a transplant! lol.

After recently breaking up with Maxwell, Nicole (who is Bi) has become attracted to her straight friend Lana. Lana has realised that she too is attracted to Nicole. Unfortunately before they could get together, Nicole's ex Maia returned which has led to some misunderstandings. At least Maia and Nicole will get some closure now after the way that Maia abruptly left when she cheated on Nicole with Jennifer.

16 year old Ula and her boyfriend Evan have been keeping the secret that Evan is not the father of Ula's unborn baby (Ula's ex Tom is) and Ula has become more and more uncomfortable with the lie, especially after discovering that her mother Vasa has been lying to her friend Sarah and sleeping with Sarah's boyfriend Zac. Evan's family, the Coopers have decided to buy a new house and want Ula to come and live with with Evan in an adjoining flat.

Callum has been missing his son Hunter who is off in rehab (last year's season finale saw Hunter and his 'friend' Bailey rob a drug store to feed their addiction and Daniel and Callum's girlfriend/Hunter's ex Jill try to stop them; Daniel got bludgeoned by Bailey and Jill ended up accidentally being fatally stabbed by a security guard) and has been upset by the return of a newly rehabilitated Paige Monroe, who got Hunter addicted to drugs in the first place. Daniel has been trying to help Paige, but his mother Sarah isn't too happy about it as Daniel has just spent months recovering from his brain injury.

Finally, the hospital's helipad has just been conveniently upgraded and staff have been told to expect more helicopter rescues. No prizes for guessing what the 90 minute special is going to be about lol

It's been an interesting year as the show gears up towards its 20th anniversary next month. So far they've brought back a few old characters, either permanently or for guest stints. The most significant being Kieren Hutchinson as Jonathan McKenna (probably most well-known in the US for his recurring role on One Tree Hill), brother of Rachel McKenna and one of the earliest gay characters on the show (Karl Urban was his love interest back in 1993 ). Jonathan was last seen in 1996 and returned last year for a six month stint. Although for his recent stint, Jonathan was now presented as being bisexual and spent most of his return in a relationship with a woman.

On the topic of Kathy, I was pleasantly surprised when Heather's death got Dot to remember Donna, and how she took her in and how she died in Dot's living room.

I haven't watched any of this lately but I'm glad to hear they mentioned Donna. I always wonder if any of those who went on and on about Ronnie/Danielle ever watched the Kathy/Donna story, which is one of the most emotionally devastating stories ever on a soap opera. One Ronnie/Danielle fan did put up the Kathy/Donna story, and surprise surprise, it was taken down

I remember last year Dot told Rainie about Donna, which was appropriate given Rainie's drug addiction, not to mention the actress' resemblance to the actress who played Donna.

(FYI NZ is a week behind Aus pace so things may have changed)

Michael's starting to get on my nerves they way he treated Summer...I like the intrigue surrounding Tash's mother but it's starting to get a wee bit annoying now. While Tash doesn't necessarily have to know yet, it has come to the point where the audience needs to be let in on the secret.

Matt had a brother Leo and they had a sister Emily who was about six or something. Emily was definitely Maggie and Evan's daughter, while I'm not sure whether Leo was Evan and Maggie's son or whether he was Evan's son from his first marriage. Matt was definitely a result of the first marriage though. There was another daughter too, but she had died sometime before the family had moved to Ramsay Street.