1985: Robin of Sherwood

May 12, 2024

By AHNZ

Robin of Sherwood (1984-86) was a British action-adventure TV series that fit right in to New Zealand’s KZ7 Honour Culture of the same time period. The show first aired on our screens on 12 May, 1985.

Created by Richard Carpenter who was also the man responsible for popular show The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972-4.) Amazingly, that show lived again with a New Zealand production in the 1990s using the same characters. In The New Adventures of Black Beauty (1990). The characters had migrated to New Zealand! Ref. 1990: The New Adventures of Black Beauty

Well, what if the same treatment were done with Carpenter’s other creation? Now that would be a show! Robin Hood and his ensemble could sail to 1200AD New Zealand and hunt moa with bow and arrow. They could scratch runes into stone, bathe at the Pink and White Terraces. They could worship pagan gods in stone circles. They could execute successful trade negotiations with the natives. They would welcome Polynesian immigrants and teach them to farm sweet potatoes.

I’d watch that.

“The chivalrous outlaw and his merry band have been making the Sheriff of Nottingham’s life a misery on screen for 50 years, and they are not finished yet. The pilot of a new adventure series about the men who robbed the rich to help the poor, “Robin of Sherwood,” screens on Television Two on Sunday in the 7.25p.m. movie slot,…In spite of the 40 or more different interpretations of Robin Hood this is the first in colour.” – Press (1985,) Papers Past

“Television is still too violent in spite of programme changes, says the Mental Health Foundation. Television New Zealand says its programmes are popular with viewers. Three programmes in the new line-up which have come under fire from the foundation’s deputy director, Dr Hilary Haines, are “Street Hawk,” “Riptide,” and “Robin of Sherwood.” The new series, which all had substantial child audiences, presented heroes who did not hesitate to use violence. “Research on the effects of television violence has shown that portrayals of heroes using violence in a good cause are particularly harmful,” Dr Haines said.” – TV Still Too Violent, PA, Press (1986,) Papers Past 

However, not all New Zealanders were ready for the new KZ7 Honour Culture and the growing taste for new action TV shows. After all, nobody had seen a live action Robin Hood since the days of black and white.

By AHNZ reckoning it had been 20 years since New Zealanders were interested in fast-paced kinetic action on film. We had just come out of an era of Muldoonist Slave Culture and before that Join Together Victimhood Culture. The Old Conformity didn’t like seeing people getting punched or skewered with arrows. The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) flew through the air, crashed, and even shot arrows but nobody ever got hurt for real.

Of course, Old Guard certainly did not approve, either, of a show about an all-terrain attack motorcycle squashing bad guys Street Hawk (1985.)

Honour Culture was on the way just the same. The KZ7 HC was born in 1979 with the biggest incident in NZ gang history: The Moerewa Riot. In order to repress and ‘other’ that sort of behavior all expressions of violence had to be cancelled. The naive premise never dies that if those who feel a calling for action, adventure, and fighting never get to see it they will never be awakened. As if watching Robin Hood causes violence and the best way to deal with such spirits is to induce ignorance.

Leading this charge was Dr Hilary Haines of the Mental Health Foundation who called Robin of Sherwood “harmful” to children.

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Image ref. Show promo, ITV Studios
Image ref. Maori Robin Hood, AI generated by AHNZ (20023)

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