David French
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Over the past four weeks or so I've been researching the original NZ air dates for TMS. This has been a pet-project of mine for some time only I've never been able to nail down the exact dates due to lack of access of resources. That changed when I stumbled across Papers Past, a web site from the National Library of New Zealand that has scanned copies of various newspapers, magazines, periodicals and books.
In terms of NZ television, the only publication that the National Library has that covers the years 1960 onwards is the Christchurch Press. Fortunately, they list the guest stars in their TV listings. So without further ado...
TMS came to New Zealand in 1977. Back then there were only two TV channels - Television One, the state broadcaster, and South Pacific Television (SPTV), which was independent.
The first mention of TMS comes from this article - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19770210.2.108 - which suggests that the show must have been purchased by TV-1 in late 1976. The series begins in June 1977 with Juliet Prowse. Yes, surprisingly TV-1 followed the "proper" order and not the UK or US orders. One of the other things they did was to show the series in "batches". The first batch consists of the first 12 episodes of season one - all screened in consecutive weeks from Saturday 18 June 1977 to Saturday 3 September 1977, all at 7pm.
These 12 episodes are then repeated over the New Zealand summer - two nights a week (Thursdays and Fridays at 6pm) from 29 December 1977 to 3 February 1978.
In terms of NZ television, the only publication that the National Library has that covers the years 1960 onwards is the Christchurch Press. Fortunately, they list the guest stars in their TV listings. So without further ado...
TMS came to New Zealand in 1977. Back then there were only two TV channels - Television One, the state broadcaster, and South Pacific Television (SPTV), which was independent.
The first mention of TMS comes from this article - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19770210.2.108 - which suggests that the show must have been purchased by TV-1 in late 1976. The series begins in June 1977 with Juliet Prowse. Yes, surprisingly TV-1 followed the "proper" order and not the UK or US orders. One of the other things they did was to show the series in "batches". The first batch consists of the first 12 episodes of season one - all screened in consecutive weeks from Saturday 18 June 1977 to Saturday 3 September 1977, all at 7pm.
These 12 episodes are then repeated over the New Zealand summer - two nights a week (Thursdays and Fridays at 6pm) from 29 December 1977 to 3 February 1978.