From The Simpsons to “The Simpsons of the South Pacific”: New Zealand’s First Primetime Animation, bro’Town

Abstract

New Zealand’s first primetime animated program, bro’Town, ran successfully for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. Described by its creators as a “modern-day non-PC satire,” bro’Town focuses on five New Zealand teenagers of Samoan and Maori ethnicities growing up in Auckland. While the program was promoted as “ The Simpsons of the South Pacific,” its audience, critics, and politicians have celebrated it as a twenty-first-century New Zealand creative success story. This article explores the historical, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped bro’Town in the context of the debates on media globalization using the framework of hybridity as “the cultural logic of globalization” as well as the framework of global television formats. The authors suggest that bro’Town represents a complex case of television program adaptation and provides a unique case study to examine the multilayered nature of contemporary hybrid cultural forms moving beyond the simplistic local—global dyad.

Performing Pasifika English in New Zealand

“…Local comedy does not have a good track record on New Zealand television (Lustyik and Smith 2010) and putting a minority and often marginalized ethnic group centre-stage challenged national expectations. Nevertheless, the show has been immensely popular in New Zealand and has become a local icon.…”

Black Television Travels

“…The initial idea came from a meeting between a Nickelodeon executive from the United States, who had come to New Zealand looking for programming from the region, and the producer Elizabeth Mitchell, which led Mitchell to begin thinking about internationally marketable television program ideas. Indeed, Mitchell claims to have been thinking of international distribution from the beginning of the development process, even though international sales didn't begin until the series' second season (Lustyik and Smith, 2010;Mitchell, 2009).…”

Persistent primitivisms: popular and academic discourses about Pacific and Māori cinema and television

“…These values are vital to commercial viability. Lustyik and Smith (2009) characterise bro'Town as a "hybrid media text" that exhibits culturally specific attributes while reflecting "the global synchronization of world markets" (Kraidy in Lustyik and Smith 2009: 335). For television producers, consumers and critics in commercially marginal markets such as New Zealand, hybridity can mean the proverbial glass is half empty or half full.…”