Shortland Street

TVNZ created Shortland Street in 1990 as a local equivalent to the Australian soap Neighbours after noticing a lack of New Zealand content following the cancellation of Gloss.

Greg McGee originally pitched the idea of a series based on new private clinics emerging under New Zealand's Labour government to scriptwriter Dean Parker, who declined it due to his dislike of private medicine.

TV2 and South Pacific Pictures purchased the show's format from Grundy Television, which continues to receive a royalty payment for every subsequent broadcast.

The hospital setting was suggested by TV2 programmer Bettina Hollings after she read an article listing ideal dramatic locations such as hospitals, police stations and schools.

The character of Stuart was originally planned to be gay, but the idea made TVNZ nervous and was scrapped before broadcast.

The show would have been cancelled after its first year due to falling ratings if TVNZ had not already ordered a full year's worth of episodes in advance.

The working title was 'The Shortland Street Project', named after a planned filming location in a TVNZ-owned studio at 74 Shortland Street in Auckland, though production later moved to a warehouse in Browns Bay because the studio was too small.

The show's title is a homage to the original Shortland Street studios in Auckland, which hosted New Zealand's first regular television broadcast in 1960.

Although named after a real street in Auckland's CBD, the only scenes actually filmed in the CBD are for the fictitious 'Q Road', which is really Karangahape Road (K' Rd).

In 2011, three All Blacks players (Keven Mealamu, Anthony Boric and Jerome Kaino) filmed a cameo scene that aired on the opening night of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, with short elevator scenes added to discuss the team's tournament results.

A 2017 cliffhanger scene in which Chris Warner confronts his son about a 'dick pic', including the line 'Please tell me that is not your penis!', went viral worldwide and was parodied by Jimmy Kimmel and Alec Baldwin on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, later being voted New Zealand Quote of the Year by Massey University.

The show received its first-ever Broadcasting Standards Authority warning in 2008 for an oral sex scene between two male characters, followed by further warnings that year for a graphic murder scene and in 2009 for a violent hammer attack.

In September 2011, Shortland Street was identified as one of the main influences on people who self-harm after airing two suicide attempt storylines.

A 2010 storyline about a stalking university lecturer was criticized for resembling the real-life murder of Sophie Elliott by her university tutor, though producer Steven Zanoski denied it was inspired by the real case.