Cartoonist Sam Harvey, creator of the Goodnight Kiwi, has died.
Harvey’s minute-long animation was broadcast for almost 20 years until 24-hour transmission began in the 1990s.
The plucky Goodnight Kiwi, with his companion the cat, said goodnight to New Zealand viewers in the days when TV broadcasts shut down overnight.
For generations of younger viewers, Goodnight Kiwi became a much-loved symbol of staying up past bedtime. The fact that kiwis are nocturnal, not to mention endangered by cats, was irrelevant.
The accompanying tune was an arrangement of a Māori lullaby, Hine e Hine.
Harvey was 91.
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– Stuff
