Goodnight Kiwi
Whilst cleaning out the AIESEC office (again) I started reminiscing about the past... the 80s to be exact. We found these badges of a kiwi and it reminded me of the nights my sister and I used to stay up super late (11pm:)) just to watch the close down from TVNZ. I got really excited about the thought, but my balloon was soon burst when I realised that out of the 8 or so people there, NONE of them grew up in NZ. They just didn't understand the historical importance of Goodnight Kiwi. Then bless him, James the most "kiwi" of us all walked in, and had actually been having a highly intellectual conversation, of the same variety, a few days previously with some friends:)
You see, back in the good old days television never used to run 24/7. It would shut down about midnight and Goodnight Kiwi would come on. Goodnight Kiwi and The Cat are television broadcasting icons in NZ history, and TVNZ hasn't been the same without them. Now there is no signal for little kiddies to be going to bed or for people to think that now the mind-draining television is turned off... hell, we'll have to talk to each other now! No no no, we can happily spend weeks ignoring our loved-ones, in a hypnotised daze of advertisements and colours. No wonder James said that our society has been going down the toilet since the end of Goodnight Kiwi in 1994.
Here is the cartoon sequence from Wikipedia:
"The one minute long animation begins with Goodnight Kiwi and the Cat in the master control room. Kiwi shuts down the screens, and starts an audio cassette playing a
n instrumental arrangement of traditional Māori song, Hine e Hine. Kiwi walks through the studio while Cat jumps and pulls faces into a camera. Kiwi turns out the lights, puts a milk bottle on the porch and locks the door. The two climb steps to the roof, and ride an elevator to the top of a transmission mast. At the top, Kiwi goes to sleep in a satellite dish with the Cat sitting on his stomach. The short closes with the words: "Goodnight from TELEVISION NEW ZEALAND."
I miss my Goodnight Kiwi fix!
You see, back in the good old days television never used to run 24/7. It would shut down about midnight and Goodnight Kiwi would come on. Goodnight Kiwi and The Cat are television broadcasting icons in NZ history, and TVNZ hasn't been the same without them. Now there is no signal for little kiddies to be going to bed or for people to think that now the mind-draining television is turned off... hell, we'll have to talk to each other now! No no no, we can happily spend weeks ignoring our loved-ones, in a hypnotised daze of advertisements and colours. No wonder James said that our society has been going down the toilet since the end of Goodnight Kiwi in 1994.
Here is the cartoon sequence from Wikipedia:
"The one minute long animation begins with Goodnight Kiwi and the Cat in the master control room. Kiwi shuts down the screens, and starts an audio cassette playing a
n instrumental arrangement of traditional Māori song, Hine e Hine. Kiwi walks through the studio while Cat jumps and pulls faces into a camera. Kiwi turns out the lights, puts a milk bottle on the porch and locks the door. The two climb steps to the roof, and ride an elevator to the top of a transmission mast. At the top, Kiwi goes to sleep in a satellite dish with the Cat sitting on his stomach. The short closes with the words: "Goodnight from TELEVISION NEW ZEALAND."I miss my Goodnight Kiwi fix!
8 Comments:
alright... sorry i'm not kiwi enuff >< we used to have something like that in SG too =) but i'm getting old, so can't remember what it was.
PS NOW I KNOW WHY UR NET A/C RUN OUT OF CREDITS SO FAST!!!
hehehehe
OMG GOODNIGHT KIWI!!!
I'm so excited that someone actually put up a wikipedia article about it hehe. <3 Wiki!
OMG! I just noticed Kiwi and Wiki are the same except you switch the K and the W!
OMG OMG OMG!
(David calms down)
BBB
...you stayed up late enough to watch the Goodnight Kiwi =P naughty naughty.
I used to watch it myself...was a little sad...i didn't want to go to bed!
hey Amy, nice blog! ;)
It just occurred to me how incongruous/unrealistic it is for a Kiwi to have a pet cat.
I recognise the first slide but the second one I dont recall. Can anyone help with that second one?
I can remember staying up until it was finished then I went to bed. I just heard the song on the radio for the video. So i went looking for the video clip. http://austvhistorynz.tripod.com/tvonevideos.htm
Though I know I'm TERRIBLY late in commenting on this, I just wanted to state my two US cents on this!
Being an American, but growing up along the same lines as most of you, I kinda wish we had something like this on our sets back in the 80's! I just saw this video not too long ago (from a Yahoo! group devoted to international TV sign-offs), and thought of how rather clever and effective it is to use this over what had been the typical sign-offs we Americans have grown up with, usually technical babble followed by the National Anthem. We never had anything really intriguing like this bit of animation, and I can understand how it must've felt to stay up til midnight and savor that moment!
At least here's one American whose impressed by it!
I agree all the way about the iconic nature of this wonderful animation.
I emigrated from Britain in 1984, and until they took this off (in 1991?) I sat up so many nights until the music stopped. The, and only then, was the day complete,
I just found a downloadable copy and played it, several times, for the olden days.....
Incidentally, there were at least two versions. In one the cat sits up on Kiwi's stomach in the dish, and in a second he curls up and lies down.
Great memories....
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