Weekend Rewind: NZ's greatest and grossest pashes

Jay and Maia get married on Shortland Street. Photo / NZ On Screen

NZ On Screen's Zara Potts takes a look back at some of the greatest and grossest kisses in our screen history.

Kisses. They can be the most welcome thing in the world, or the most unwanted. But what can be a wonderful moment between two people, can also be a cringe-worthy experience for onlookers.

Here at NZ On Screen, we've been looking through our archive to find some of the best (and worse) kisses in our screen history and we've come up with our top five – and you are welcome to disagree!

The first and, many would argue, the best kiss – is not of the lip variety. It's more your metal guitar, out-of-this-world glam-rock variety. The 1970s mega-popular band, KISS.

Surely this is hands down, the best kiss?

See KISS on Today Tonight here:

But while we may have started with the best first, there are other contenders. On Valentine's Day in 2006, our beloved soap, Shortland Street, was ahead of the times with its civil union ceremony between lesbians Jay and Maia. It wasn't the first time SS had broken mainstream ground for the LGBTQ community – the show also featured the first lesbian kiss on primetime television in 1994.

Watch Jay and Maia get married here:

Our next featured kiss wasn't quite so romantic, nor quite as long, but it certainly created a stir.

The late Kevin Smith fair smoulders in his role in 1996's City Life. The show was New Zealand's answer to Melrose Place and in this episode, Kevin Smith shares a brief, but notorious, kiss with co-star Charles Mesure.

Watch the late Kevin Smith in City Life here:

Back in 1988, Leeza Gibbons and Chris Quintin were two of showbiz's biggest names – she the golden girl of Entertainment Tonight and he the bad boy of Coronation Street. In a twist of fate, the two came together under Southern Cross skies and sealed their instant attraction with a deep kiss for a Telethon pledge. The kiss resulted in a decent case of pash rash and also a marriage proposal down the track.

Brace yourselves for a 80s-style pash here:

And our final best kiss is not a couple, or a glam-rock band, but a simple song. Ray Columbus and the Invaders made the Top 10 with 'Till We Kissed in 1965 – a much harder feat then that it is today. It's a perfect teen-angsty song, lush with the romance of young love and it certainly helped to cement Ray as a heartthrob for many young girls back in those heady days of the 60s.

Watch 'Till We Kissed here: