Line #10 Trivia/ShortlandStreet


1	* ActingForTwo: Kate-Louise Elliott played murder victim Avril Lucich, followed by her twin sister Bernadette later that year.
2	* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: Blair Strang was one of the few long-time actors who weren't going to have their character written out in the cast cull of 2001, but quit in protest of his partner Creator/KatrinaDevine being fired. So the writers decided to kill Rangi off by having him living a double life and getting killed by the partner of his mistress and then being found days later.
3	** Subverted with Ben Mitchell - TK nearly died after the shooting and Chris did say that his heart stopped, leading fans to wonder if Shortland Street was actually about to kill off its second-longest-running character. At the very last second, TK made a miraculous but still partial recovery, which ended up being the exit plot for Mitchell and Nicole Whippy (who played TK's wife Cece).
4	* TheCastShowoff: Gabrielle's final scene in her first run has her speaking fluent French. Actress Virginie Le Brun is the daughter of NZ-based French vintner Daniel le Brun.
5	** In 2010, a play starring several characters is directed by receptionist Yvonne Jeffries. Actress Alison Quigan is a theater writer and director with over 20 years experience, including holding a Queen's Service Medal for her services to theater.
6	* CharacterOutlivesActor: Chic Littlewood passed away a few years ago, but his character, Laurie Brasch was referred to as still being alive when Marj showed up in 2017.
7	** Pua Magasiva died in 2019, his character Vinnie Kruse last known to be working in Singapore in 2018 with no mention of him having died.
8	* CowboyBeBopAtHisComputer: Shortland Street's online team used to do this themselves. While whoever runs Shortland Street's social media and writes their articles have gotten better and because of old episodes from 92-00 airing again from 2009-2015 allowing changes to long accepted incorrect trivia being able to be corrected, the overall "we can't be bothered" attitude of the show's writing from their early 10's AudienceAlienatingEra affected their online presence too. Their online team would even hijack incorrect information wholesale from The Other Wiki.
9	* CreatorBacklash: Danielle Cormack spoke out numerous times about her disdain for the show. Paolo Rotondo didn't rubbish the show entirely, but also stated that he disliked the character he played, Andrew Solomon and asked to leave because he felt he couldn't do anything to make Andrew interesting. Martyn Sanderson and Ken Blackburn both echoed the same sentiment about their characters Noel Sturgess and Sir Bruce Warner respectively, in that they found both characters toxic, abrasive and difficult to play.
10	** The writer responsible for the widely panned storyline in which Nicole married herself has admitted that it wasn't one of her finest ideas.
11	* CreatorsPest: Ellen Crozier was loved by fans. The writers on the other hand? They referred to her as "The slut in the cardigan."
12	* DawsonCasting: Averted with Karl Burnett who was 16 playing 16 year old Nick Harrison when the show started. Played straight with most other teenagers during the shows run, like Rachel Mckenna being 15 played by the then 21 year old Angela Bloomfield. Lee Donaghue was 23 when he was cast as 17 year old Hunter Mckay and looked it. Same with his 15 year old sister Sophie, played by the then 19 year old Kim Crossman. The worst offender may have been Ido Drent, then 22 (while looking older) playing the 16 year old Daniel Potts. Ido looked like what he was- a grown man in a school uniform.
13	** Ben Porter is 21 going on 22 playing the 16 year old Milo Cross. Especially evident when he stopped shaving to make Milo look more disheveled during his shooting rampage.
14	* DirectedByCastMember: Angela Bloomfield and Renato Bartolomei are notable examples over the years of directing while being cast members.
15	* EnforcedMethodActing: That wasn't make up which made Adam Rickett's face look a mess while Kieran tangling with Joey on top of Joey's lockup. Adam smacked his face on the concrete and grazed it.
16	* FakeNationality: Several characters over the years, usually Kiwis pretending to be other nationalities, such as Shanti Kumari (Indian), 3/4 of the Mckays (Australian), Li Mei Chen (Chinese), or Madonna Diaz (Filipina), portrayed by Kiwis Nisha Madhan, Lee Donoghue, Kim Crossman, Lucy Wigmore, Li Ming Hu and Marianne Infante, respectively.
17	* HideYourPregnancy: Rebekah Randell was leaving to have a baby, so the show would film her from the chest upward or conveniently cover her midsection with something. It got more and more blatant before she left.
18	* KilledByRequest: Renato Bartolomei got sick of starring on the show after one too many encounters with thirsty fans and a lack of privacy and asked for Craig to be killed off. He got his wish in September 2008.
19	* LifeImitatesArt: There have been a lot of coincidences between Shortland Street storylines and real life, that it has become known as the "Shortland Street Curse".
20	** In 2003, Shortland Street Hospital had its back-up generator fail during a power outage - less than two weeks later, the same thing happened at Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital.
21	** The feature length 20th anniversary show featured a helicopter crash, and by coincidence, the day the episode aired, there was a fatal helicopter crash in Canterbury. The show went to air with a last-minute ContentWarning since they couldn't pull the episode without breaking continuity.
22	** A mid-2014 storyline was around a mystery illness where precautions included wearing masks and using hand sanitiser.
23	** An early 2020 storyline involved another mystery illness, not long before the Covid-19 pandemic forced New Zealand into national lockdown.
24	* TheOtherDarrin: Justine Jones was recast with Lucy Wigmore in the role, who replaced Laurie Foell who had played Justine for the character's first two years on the soap.
25	** Chris Warner's son Harry Warner has been played by five different actors since his birth: Joshua Thompson (2002), Callum Campbell Ross (2002-2006), Henry Williams (2006-2009), Reid Walker (2009-2018) and finally Xavier Manktelow (2023-). Nearly every child character falls under this with very few exceptions.
26	** This was Lampshaded when Wilder was recast as Darby Mckessar, with Nicole telling Pele right before the new Wilder arrived that Wilder "is a teenager now, so he might be different."
27	** In addition to Harry, Lady Margot Warner was originally played by Glynis [=McNicholl=] in the 90's. For her death in 2003, she was replaced by Dinah Priestly, who had previously played Ian Seymour's mother.
28	** Daniel Potts was played for his first 3 years by Jarred Blakiston. When the character returned as a full member of the cast in 2009, he was turned into a "heartthrob" and so was recast with Ido Drent in the role instead.
29	* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Jess Sayer (who plays LipstickLesbian Maeve Mullens) is openly lesbian herself, as are Jennifer Ludlam (Leanne), Clementine Mills (Quinn Cox), and Amanda Tito (Saskia). Sayer and Tito, who played exes on the show, were dating as of 2022. Sara Wiseman, who played sapphic doctor Francesca Telford, identifies as part of the LGBTQ community.
30	* RecastAsARegular: Happens quite frequently. Notable examples include Pua Magasiva who played a bit part in 1999 before being cast as Vinnie Kruse, Johnny Barker who played one of Waverley's boyfriends in 2000 before being cast as Joey Henderson, and Katherine Mcrae played Marj's illegitimate daughter Jane in 1992 before coming back in 2006 as Brenda Holloway.
31	** Inverted with Theresa Healey, who played series regular Carmen Roberts in the '90s and was then recast for a guest arc as Maeve Mullens's mother Rosalyn in 2020.
32	** Natalie Dennis was cast as Shelley Crombie in 1997 after first appearing in 1992 as a school acquaintance of Nick's.
33	* TechnologyMarchesOn: Bound to happen for a long-runner, but there are have been some pretty interesting examples:
34	** In late 1992, the hospital introduces Acorn Computers, which itself dates the episodes. But Hone and Meredith complain about having to learn to use basic word processing software, which would be second nature to any doctor nowadays.
35	** In 1999, Shorty ran a storyline where a bunch of Apple Computers got infected with viruses. The computers in question were Apple's colourful, translucent computers which fell out of fashion early in the 00's.
36	** A lot of plots during the Ferndale Strangler era were based around things like pxting and text messaging, which aren't used as widely anymore with the rise of Facebook Messenger.
37	* ThoseTwoActors: Pua Magaiva (Vinnie Kruse) and Sally Martin (Nicole Miller) had previously worked together on ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm''.
38	* UnderAgeCasting: Some doctors and nurses are played by actors who are too young to hold such a job in real life. The minimum age in New Zealand (ignoring any child prodigies) is 20-21 for a nurse, and 23-24 for a junior doctor.
39	** Online records list Li Ming Hu as being born in 1987 which would mean she was playing Dr Li Mei Chen at the tender age of 16!
40	** Surgeon Victoria Anderton first appeared in early 2015, played by 22-year-old Laura Thompson.
41	** Nurse Lucy Rickman first appeared in mid-2014, played by 19-year-old Grace Palmer.
42	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
43	** Over the years, the show has been pretty good at keeping any aborted under ideas, but sometimes a few things get out from the early years of the show, such as the show originally wanting to call Chris Warner "Chris Perry," with his father being "Sir Bruce Perry." Old recaps of the show which can be found using the Wayback Machine also reference a "Shannon," which was apparently the original surname for Dr Mckenna.
44	** The producers were considering ending the show not long after the Warners left in 1996, but the ratings and funding they kept getting convinced them not to.
45	** Nick and Stuart were originally both intended to be heartthrobs heading towards different directions with Nick being thought of as a grungy, drug abusing, petty crime committing delinquent and Stuart being gay. After the first couple of months were filmed, producers realised Karl Burnett was too naturally goofy to be a bad boy and thus panicked over their only teen appeal character being gay and so pivoted with Nick becoming the dork he's best known for and Stuart being highly religious.
46	** Jonathon Mckenna was originally intended to be turned from gay to bisexual when he returned in 1997. Unfortunately, Kieran Hutchison didn't return until 2011, so the plot point had to be held off until then.
47	** TVNZ nixed a storyline where Rangi cheated on his girlfriend Ellen with her daughter Minnie believing it to be too shocking.
48	** Lionel Skeggins was penciled in to return in a cameo for the show's 20th anniversary. Producers decided not to but he returned in the 25th and 30th anniversaries instead.

Context Trivia / ShortlandStreet