History Series / ShortlandStreet

* FaceHeelTurn: Josh Gallagher once his Hero Syndrome kicked in and he started putting people's lives in danger. Isaac Worthington pulled this once he went drunk on riches in 2011. Zac Smith did this upon his third appearance in 2012.

Having been on TV since 1992, ''Shortland Street'' has been New Zealand's premier soap opera for over 30 years. ''Shortland Street'' has produced numerous stars both domestically and internationally with the likes of Creator/MartinHenderson, Creator/MartonCsokas, Joel Tobeck, Creator/TemueraMorrison, Antony Starr, Creator/KarlUrban, KJ Apa and many more having come from or appeared on ''Shortland Street'' at one point or another.

Having been on TV since 1992, ''Shortland Street'' has been New Zealand's premier soap opera for over 30 years. ''Shortland Street'' has produced numerous stars both domestically and internationally with the likes of Martin Henderson, Creator/MartonCsokas, Joel Tobeck, Creator/TemueraMorrison, Antony Starr, Creator/KarlUrban, KJ Apa and many more having come from or appeared on ''Shortland Street'' at one point or another.

Having been on TV since 1992, ''Shortland Street'' has been New Zealand's premier soap opera for over 30 years. ''Shortland Street'" has produced numerous stars both domestically and internationally with the likes of Martin Henderson, Creator/MartonCsokas, Joel Tobeck, Creator/TemueraMorrison, Antony Starr, Creator/KarlUrban, KJ Apa and many more having come from or appeared on ''Shortland Street'' at one point or another.

Having been on TV since 1992, Shortland Street has been New Zealand's premier soap opera for over 30 years. Shortland Street has produced numerous stars both domestically and internationally with the likes of Martin Henderson, Marton Csokas, Joel Tobeck, Temuera Morrison, Antony Starr, Karl Urban, KJ Apa and many more having come from or appeared on Shortland Street at one point or another.

* EightiesHair: Nick and Kirsty for about the first year of the show's run had hair which wouldn't have been out of place in the 80s. Given that New Zealand took a wee while to join the rest of the world in the 90s, a lot of early fashion and hair on the show looks like an 80s throwback in 1992.

* AbortedArc: TK had a past as a meth cook and meth user when he was younger. This was touched on during his storyline with former friend Mackie Bowen... and has not been brought up once since in the 16 plus years he's been on the show.

* ActorAllusion: During Stuart Neilson's return for the 25th anniversary special, it was mentioned he is now a doctor practicing in Seattle - a reference to Creator/MartinHenderson's role on [[Series/GreysAnatomy Grey's Anatomy]].

** Minnie Crozier's list of boyfriends included a street-kid, a neo-nazi, a womanizer and a control freak.

* AnyoneCanDie: The show used to keep long-term characters reasonably safe. After 2008, even they haven't been off-limits. Long-time characters Toni Warner and Sarah Potts were both killed off after 7 and 10 years on the show respectively as prime examples.
** Most recently, this was Subverted at the *last* possible second with TK Samuels – one of the show's longest-running characters, second only to Chris Warner. TK was taken off life support after being injured in the 2023 shooting and it really appeared that he was going to be killed off after 14 years on the show.

* ArrangedMarriage: Dr. Vani Naran went through with her arranged marriage, while Dr. Li Mei Chen and Nurse. Shanti Kumari did not go through with theirs.

* AudienceSurrogate: Whenever the show had an Aesop to deliver in the very early days of the show be it teen pregnancy, contraception or AIDS, Marj would be the one to be misinformed or voice ignorant opinions before being corrected, usually by Meredith Fleming.

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Lionel Skeggins]] makes a brief cameo appearance in the 25th anniversary special, 18 years after he supposedly died.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Has evolved rather interestingly over the years. In the early days of Shortland Street, standards and practices at TVNZ were so strict a racist ambulance officer couldn't use any major slurs so came across as quite cheesy, and writers were concerned the word "placenta" was too risque for a 7pm timeslot. Starting from 2018, the word "shit" is allowed to be used infrequently.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Nicole (blonde), Maeve (brunette), and Harper (reddish light brown). Alternatively, Nicole, Maeve, and Cassie (actually redhead) when Cassie lives with them.

* TrickedtoDeath: Scott got Wilder into the pool to drown him under the guise of baptizing him.

* TheVamp: Aleesha Cook seduced Nick and had him wrapped around her finger while trying to be the second woman to defraud the clinic the same year Mackenzie tried. Rachel's last action before she left for New York was exposing Aleesha and saving Nick from a broken heart.

** "Anchor Me" by the Muttonbirds was one for Hunter Mckay and Tess Adamson's MayDecemberRomance. Hunter requested it to a radio station as their song and it played again later that episode after they slept together for the first time. It popped up again once the two were exposed by Tess's son Nate and Hunter moved in with Tess. Finally, it was used after Tess abandoned Hunter and broke his heart at the end of the year, while Hunter cried in her driveway being comforted by his father.

* ExcessiveMourning: Nicole treating everyone in the hospital (all of whom also went through a traumatic experience) like crap because Quinn died.

* SelfHarm: Blue Nathan started doing this to himself while grieving the death of his girlfriend Ashley Whitley.

** Maeve Mullens ought to be at *least* in her late 30s, but more likely early 40s, given that she had a 16-year-old son (it was mentioned that she was partnered with her ex-girlfriend Saskia when Wilder was conceived and that Wilder was planned; there is no mention of them being teen parents). Maeve is played by Jess Sayer, who news articles put at 32-33 as of 2023. The gap is noticeable.

* WhamShot: One particularly notable example was the episode which started off the Ferndale Strangler storyline. TK threw a basketball too hard at Mark Weston, the ball landed in the dumpster behind Mark, after which TK jumped up to retrieve the ball before landing and looking horrified at whatever he saw. Mark mocked TK, jumped in himself, looked disturbed as well before we cut into the dumpster to see a dead Claire Solomon buried beneath the trash.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Lucy Wigmore was only 6 years older than her on-screen son, Lee Donaghue. Ido Drent was only 24 when he left the show but looked early-30s. Laura Thompson was, surprisingly the same age as her on-screen stepson Curtis Hannah, who was supposed to be a teenager. Then there's the curious case of Li Ming Hu, supposedly only 16 when she was cast as Li Mei Chen. DR Li Mei Chen, that is.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rachel Mckenna's default setting. Monique Strutter is pretty good for a large helping of this too, as is Maeve Mullens.

** As of 2023, Addie Lynch. Though she's rightfully devastated by her brother's death, the show has all but glossed over the fact that she killed her own father to protect her family's wealth.

** Drew McCaskill is arguably going through this as of October 2023. He first quit Shortland Street due to the co-op plan, which would cap his already-well-over-six-figure salary and which he repeatedly called "socialist" and "communist," making him look immensely greedy and out of touch given that the plan was designed to fairly compensate nurses. While declaring his departure from Shortland Street as a surgeon, he fell off a chair and ended up a patient at the hospital for several days. After getting a contract with Randerson's, a private clinic renting a Shortland Street OR, Drew wanted to return to Shortland Street but couldn't terminate his contract due to a $50,000 break fee. He got Randerson's to fire him by playing incompetent, which led them to pull their lease from Shortland Street entirely, depriving the hospital of a necessary income stream. When Esther came to confront Drew about this, she found him fist-deep in a butt-shaped cake celebrating his return to Shortland Street. This was also witnessed by a furious Addie Lynch, who found the celebration insensitive in the wake of the recent death of her brother Max at Drew's home; Drew couldn't help but agree that the cake made him look like... well, an ass.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Te Rongopai Rameka, DHB appointed 2IC of the hospital came in while Chris was on holiday, accused Chris of nepotism by giving his children and girlfriend jobs, while getting her nephew a job on hospital grounds. Te Rongopai claimed to be a feminist, all while slut-shaming Chris' pregnant girlfriend Zoe. Te Rongopai also used her anti-Warner agenda to try and prevent Finn Warner from being reinstated under the guise of "looking out for his wife" and abuse victim Esther. When Esther told Te Rongopai where to stick it, Te Rongopai tried exposing Finn and Zoe's affair as a plan B.

** Drew, when he yelled at Justine Lloyd (and to a lesser extent Leanne) for saying repeatedly that it was prayer that saved her daughter Cassie after her skating accident. A doctor lashing out at a mother who almost lost her daughter does cross a clear professional line, and it was revealed that Drew only got as emotional as he did due to stress from Harper's postpartum depression. But even though Drew shouldn't have lost his cool, the sentiment itself was justified: Justine and Leanne were being pretty dismissive of (and even ungrateful for) the hard work and ingenuity of the Shortland Street staff by chalking the success of Cassie's multiple treatments up to the power of prayer.

* BadInfluencer: Max Lynch is a well-known influencer going by Monique and Selina's reactions to him being in the hospital is anything to go by. He forced his family's pilot Jay to let him fly the helicopter he crashed, let the pilot take the blame for the crash which injured Max and paralysed Jay and then had his father pay Jay off not to go to the papers and sink Max.

** Arguably Wilder's drowning storyline for Maeve. Maeve had serious issues with religion and was intolerant to Brightshine even before it was revealed to be a CorruptChurch. She had also been accused of "playing God" when on ambulance duty, almost leading to the breakup of her and Nicole. Ironic, then, that her son got sucked into the church via his relationship with Cassie–the daughter of one of its leading members–and ended up being drowned when he got too much dirt on Brightshine's financials via his work on the app.

** Jack Hannah's friend Stanley is a flamboyant old gay man with personality in spades.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rachel Mckenna's default setting. Monique Strutter is pretty good for a large helping of this too.

** This has been a problem throughout 2023. Characters will switch personalities from one episode to the next.

* InheritanceMurder: In a sense. Addie Lynch gave her father Eli a fatal dose of a new anti-cancer drug forcing a heart attack in the process to protect her investment in the family's pharmaceutical company. Eli was planning on making the drug which saved him as well as the drug helping Motor Neuron sufferer Teina free, which Addie claimed would bankrupt their company, along with Eli planning on signing Power of Attorney to his fiance Monique.

** While pranking Drew, Harper, Nicole and Maeve were put on blast by Marty, telling them it was a workplace and that Harper wouldn't have put up with that type of behaviour as HOD. No matter how surly he put it, he was right.
* JerkJock: Parker Dawson has shades of this. Parker has the classic rugby player build, along with the arrogant attitude and narcissism to go with it. As full of himself as humanly possible, Parker has managed to show off his jealousy and hidden insecurity by trying to sabotage Harry's relationship with fellow newbie Stella Reihana and drugged Quinn Cox (herself not the nicest human being) and left her unable to perform a surgery.

* LightIsNotGood: Brightshine "Church" (read: Cult), especially their leader Rebekah and their youth pastor, Scott. Scott would drown Wilder Mullens after he deflowered a daughter of one of their members and attempted to suffocate Logan to death after Dawn fell in love with him after Dawn and Scott had sex outside of wedlock. Rebekah would find Scott beaten up by Maeve and then cave his skull in with a nearby fire extinguisher for "shaming the church."

* MistakenForGay: Before coming out as Asexual, Libby Jeffries thought her childhood friend Gerald was CampGay. It's the flamboyance, you see.

** Talia, the mother of Drew and Harper's adopted son Marley, overhearing Drew demanding she take a toxicology report to prove she's on drugs while she was attempting to take Marley back. Talia would walk in as soon as Drew was ranting to newbie doctor Stella Reihana and go off at Drew.

* SanitySlippage: Maeve, after losing Wilder, especially when she starts having visual and auditory hallucinations of him. Things get better for her, but only after she attempts SuicideBySea in the river at Marty and Esther's wedding, though she's thankfully found and pulled from the river by Monique and Vili.

** Leanne and Rosalyn for the first bit of their relationship–first because of the unfortunate timing wherein Leanne's partner Graham had a fatal heart attack immediately upon witnessing Leanne and Rosalyn's first kiss, and then because they don't want to tell their daughters that their mothers are dating.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: After Wilder's premature death, it's established that his girlfriend Cassie is pregnant with his unborn child. Cassie initially wanted an abortion, and after flipflopping from her, Maeve and her mother Justine, Cassie decided to keep the baby after all.

** At the same time as Maeve, we also have Monique Strutter. Monique spouts feminist rhetoric, but doesn't do it particularly well, and happens to be a hypocrite nine times out of ten.

* SympatheticAdulterer: Harper's adultery is treated as wrong but her mental breakdown at the same time is often evoked as an excuse. Her adultery is also frequently compared to Drew sleeping with her best friend, Nicole at the same time, which is not a flattering comparison for Drew.

* TheGenericGuy: Noah Forrester is proving to be this as far as the registrar team in 2023 goes. Harry Warner is obviously Chris's first-born son with a few new traits due to being played differently, Stella Reihana is the NiceGirl genius, Quinn Cox is a lesbian with some predatory personality traits and in spite of no real focus, Parker Dawson spends his time being the cocky jock of the crew. Noah's only real distinction is an attraction to Cece King and... that's it. He's the quiet one of the bunch.

** TK's temper shows up occasionally, but he's mellowed out into more of a PapaWolf than a rage-fuelled Alpha male wannabe.

* WhamShot: One particularly notable example was the episode which started off the Ferndale Strangler storyline. TK threw a basketball too hard at Mark Weston, the ball landed in the dumpster behind Mark, after which TK jumped up to retrieve the ball before landing and looking mortified at whatever he saw. Mark mocked TK, jumped in himself, looked disturbed as well before we cut into the dumpster to see a dead Claire Solomon buried beneath the trash.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Angela Bloomfield looked the same age as Karl Burnett when she was younger despite being 4 years older. Tyler Read was an extremely convincing 15 year old for a 22 year old man. It helped that they invoked TeensAreShort.

* TeensAreShort: Shorty's favourite method of using people in their 20s as teenagers is finding short 20 somethings, specifically Tyler Read as Evan Cooper and his Expy Louis King as played by Henry Rolleston.

* DisneyDeath: TK after the shooting.

* AcceptableTargets: In-universe, Nick Harrison was this for nearly everybody in the early years of the show. Everybody from Steve Mills to local priest Father Rigby seemed to have very little time for the troublemaking loudmouthed teenager. Steve referred to Nick as "the family dog," and Father Rigby called Nick "a little twerp" Stuart was too good to be wasting his time on.

* BastardBastard: Finn Warner/Connelly/Burton was the sperm donor son of Chris Warner and Carrie Burton who grew up to be an arrogant rich doctor who looked down on anyone below him in terms of wealth and ended up beating his wife Esther. He also wound up sleeping with Chris's girlfriend at one point and burnt bridges. While not being evil, Finn was certainly a douchebag regardless.

* NewOldFlame: Dean Cochrane was Moira Crombie's. It didn't end well, but the two reconciled and eventually got married.

** Out of the Lynch family, daughter Addy seems unable to keep hers up most of the time. While the entire family have shifty accents which vary in region between the three, Addy is the worst offender because hers barely *stays* American.