Casting calls have begun for a milestone, marathon episode of New Zealand's longest-running TV drama.
Twenty years after a young Temuera Morrison and Michael Galvin first appeared in local living rooms, Shortland Street makers are gearing up to screen a 90-minute episode.
The boy-band hairdo Galvin's character, Dr Chris Warner, sported might have gone, but corny quotes from the first season of "Shorty", as the hospital drama is known, are etched into Kiwi popular culture.
"You're not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata" was unlikely to be repeated in this year's special.
Morrison was ruled out for the reunion, his agent Gabriella Larkin said.
The special show's script would probably be written around which old faces decided to reappear, South Pacific Pictures' publicist Rachael Keereweer said.
The Shortland Street birthday is on May 25 but TVNZ was yet to confirm the broadcast date.
Only seven shows have been on local screens longer than Shortland Street.
With a 46-year anniversary approaching next month, rural farming show Country Calendar is the oldest.
