Chances (TV series)

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Chances
Chances Australian DVD release from 2004 which collected later episodes of the series.
Genre	Drama, Erotica
Created by	Lynn Bayonas
Developed by	David Phillips Helen Steel Ted Roberts Debra Oswald
Written by	Lynn Bayonas Alan Hopgood David Phillips Peter Hepworth Patricia Johnson Linden Wilkinson Helen Steel Judith Colquhoun Shane Brennan Paul Leadon Ysabelle Dean Leon Saunders Bill Garner Everett Deroche Margaret Kelly Andrew Kennedy
Directed by	Kendal Flanagan Mark Horpinich Mark DeFriest Peter Dodds Gary Conway Helen Gaynor Chris Adshead Mark Piper Richard Sarrell Julie Bates Karl Steinberg Steve Mann
Starring	Jeremy Sims Michael Caton Mercia Deane-Johns Patsy Stephen John Sheerin Tim Robertson Cathy Godbold Natalie McCurry Rhys Muldoon Deborah Kennedy Mark Kounnas Simon Grey Leverne McDonnell Yvonne Lawley Anne Grigg Kimberley Davenport Molly Brumm Abigail Stephen Whittaker Gerard Sont Karen Richards Annie Jones Jon Atkinson
Opening theme	"Chances Theme" performed by Greg Hind
Ending theme	"Chances Theme" (Extended Version) performed by Greg Hind
Composer	Peter Sullivan
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	126 + pilot
Production
Executive producers	Lynn Bayonas Brendon Lunney
Producer
Production company	Beyond Productions
Release
Original network	Nine Network
Original release	29 January 1991 (1991-01-29) – 30 December 1992 (1992-12-30)

Chances is an Australian evening soap opera, originally aired from 29 January 1991 to 30 December 1992,^[1] and 126 one hour episodes were produced for Nine Network by Beyond International. It initially told the story of the average, middle-class Taylor family whose lives are transformed by winning $3 million in the lottery - later episodes however diverged considerably away from the series original premise.^[2] Chances was also broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sky One.

Pilot[]

A two-hour pilot was made in 1988 but it wasn't broadcast at the time. This pilot includes the original cast and was made available in August 2021 when it was included as an extra on the DVD release, Chances: Collection One, released by . After the original pilot episode was shelved in 1989, Nine launched another soap opera called Family and Friends in February 1990. When that series was cancelled after just eight months, Nine Network finally gave Chances the green light in late 1990, and it went into production as a two-hour a week series. The original cast members were recalled, and production moved from Sydney to Melbourne, but most of the original pilot had to be re-shot due to the recast of several characters, and this became episode one and two of the TV series. Notably, Marcus Graham played Alex Taylor in the pilot before he went onto to star in another new serial, E Street, on Network Ten intermittently from 1989 to 1992.

TV series[]

The 1991 TV series went into production with a mix of original and recast characters, and starred principal cast members John Sheerin and Brenda Addie (replacing Diane Craig) as lead characters Dan and Barbara, the heads of the central Taylor family, and newcomer Jeremy Sims took over the role of their mischievous son, Alex. Tim Robertson played Dan's shady former detective brother, Jack; Anne Grigg was his bored and frustrated second wife, Sarah, who worked, somewhat ironically, as a marriage guidance therapist; Deborah Kennedy was Dan and Jack's divorcee nursing sister, Connie Reynolds; Mercia Deane-Johns was Sharon Taylor, a flirty, fun-loving hairdresser and Dan and Jack's younger sister, nicknamed 'Bub'; and Michael Caton was the neighbourhood larrikin and family friend, Bill Anderson. There were also many other members of the extended Taylor family making up the large ensemble contract cast including; Natalie McCurry and Cathy Godbold as Dan and Barbara's vivacious daughters, Rebecca and Nicki; Mark Kounnas and Simon Grey as Connie's young sons, Chris and Sam Reynolds; Rhys Muldoon and Leverne McDonnell played Jack's elder children, Ben, a free-spirited hairdresser, and Philippa, a police officer, respectively; and Yvonne Lawley was imported from New Zealand to play Barbara's Mother, Heather McGlashen.

Originally, creator and writer Lynn Bayonas pitched the show as a family-oriented drama. The pilot episode dealt with the build up to Rebecca Taylor's wedding to David Young (Rodney Bell) and ended with his shocking death in a car crash. As the family dealt with the fallout, they are interrupted with the announcement that Dan and Barbara had won the lottery - the focal storyline to introduce the sprawling family to viewers. In a contentious bid to try to help ensure the program's success, Nine Network executives requested sex scenes and risqué elements to also be included in the series, which creator Lynn Bayonas was initially opposed to.^[3] Speaking to The Age in 2002, Bayonas commented; "We had sold Nine the story of a family that won the lotto [...] just what happened to them. But then they suddenly decided they wanted a late show and to bring back in sex." The raunchier premise went ahead, and the initial publicity for the new serial focused explicitly on the sex angle, and it was for this that Chances was chiefly known.

The week Chances launched on Nine in January 1991, Bayonas described the new serial in the Australian TV listings magazine, TV Week; “We'll leave the issues to A Country Practice and The Flying Doctors. We have personal issues. We’ve got older women and younger men, marriage breakups, affairs with secretaries, and women desperate for love and racing off with everybody. It has a different look. It doesn't look like a serial.” ^[4]

Reception[]

Chances originally aired on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 20:30-21:30, and after a modest success on its premiere night when the first two episodes aired as a two-hour special, subsequent early ratings proved disappointing. Initial storylines covered the Taylor family's windfall and the ups and downs of such a life changing event, as well as the fall-out from David Young's death. Further Taylor family angst was provided with the return of Eddie Reynolds (Dennis Miller), Connie's estranged con-man husband and Chris and Sam's father. A bit of blackmail ensues, resulting in Eddie's murder, and six suspects. Jack and Sarah's tempestuous marriage broke down, leading to Sarah seducing her sexually confused nephew, Chris, which causes a huge family scandal with tragic consequences. Meanwhile, police constable Philippa Taylor was featured heavily in early storylines, including her illicit relationship with bent cop Geoff Bradbury (Gary Day), dealing with his murder, and the antics of her new house mate, eco-warrior, Charlie Gibson (Kimberley Davenport). Charlie's arrival gave way to a long running story arc where she becomes pregnant to either Alex or Ben, with the real father of baby Fiona not being revealed until much later in the series.

These were all fairly straight forward, standard soap storylines - among which, randomly inserted seduction scenes appeared, usually involving Alex, which ensured the required quota of nudity and sex. Jeremy Sims candidly described Chances's early episodes as, "... Home and Away with the odd cut away dropped in of some tits, sometimes even without a head attached!"

As the "adult soap" format floundered, the writers ramped up the drama with the revelation that Alex's father was Jack, not Dan. As the repercussions of that bombshell settled, an explosion on The Sail Away yacht sees Dan and Bill lost at sea, but after Bill is found and tells Connie that he thinks Dan is dead, Barbara overhears. Shell-shocked, she wonders into the grounds of the hospital car park, and Jack runs outside after her - but they are both hit by a speeding car, and they end up in hospital with serious injuries as well. Dan, as it turned out, was found alive and well, washed up on a beach.

This dramatic attempt to save the soap format didn't work, and after six months of continued poor ratings, in July 1991, it was announced that Chances budget had been cut and production halved to one hour a week on Tuesdays, along with a timeslot change to 21:30-22:30, starting at episode 61, which aired 27 August 1991.^[5] To facilitate this change on-screen, writers implemented a mysterious time jump of twelve months, and subsequent episodes (61 to 77) explored Alex's "missing" year with help from Paris (Annie Jones), a mysterious beautician who takes "Dan Mitchell" under her wing and helps him uncover the truth about his real identity. Immediately after the time jump, episodes became self contained and now had individual titles, whilst most of the original seventeen characters were written out as producers started to steer Chances in another direction entirely. First to go were the peripheral characters, Heather McGlashen (Yvonne Lawley) and Phillipa Taylor (Leverne McDonnell), both written out before the cutback and given exit storylines; Sarah (Anne Grigg) and Charlie Gibson (Kimberley Davenport) simply disappeared immediately after. Connie Reynolds (Deborah Kennedy) and her troubled family (Mark Kounnas, Simon Grey) were demoted to supporting cast. Towards the end of the first year, more characters were culled: the Reynolds family moved to an Italian skiing resort after Chris, still determined to keep it in the family, fell in love with his step-mother, Cheryl (Kristen Lyons); Rebecca Taylor married politician Steve Harland (Peter Kowitz) and they left together after a lavish wedding ceremony; In the following episode, Nicki Taylor (Cathy Godbold) left for modelling school. It was announced that stories would focus on well known "guest" actors who were hired to star in short, provocative story arcs, and these included; Lynda Stoner (to episode 59), Annie Jones (from episode 61), Kate Fitzpatrick (65), Christine Harris (66), Tiffany Lamb (72), Liz Burch (73), (75) and Briony Behets (episodes 76–77),^[6] and this was all part of a more aggressive attempt to boost the ratings further, with storylines now involving bondage and lesbianism.^[7] These additional sexual elements, often portrayed in a mystical or fantastical setting, immediately differentiated the revamped Chances from its soap opera roots, as well as provoke considerable controversy among more Conservative viewers. Some TV watchdogs began attacking Chances as "teleporn".^[7]

When Chances returned for its second season on 26 February 1992 at episode 79, only six of the original core cast remained. Although original leads, Barbara and Dan Taylor ( and ), were initially retained, as were the characters Jack Taylor (Tim Robertson), Bill Anderson (Michael Caton) and Sharon Taylor (Mercia Deane-Johns), the tone of the series had dramatically changed, and the new top-billed 'star' of the show was firmly Alex Taylor, played by Jeremy Sims. The focus of Chances completely revolved around Alex and the intrigues of his new advertising agency, Inspirations. His partner at the agency, sultry and sarcastic Angela Sullivan (Patsy Stephen), who'd appeared from the second episode and become a regular after the time-jump, was promoted to second lead.

Several new actors were brought into the regular cast, including Molly Brumm as the devious Stephanie Ryan (from episode 70), Gerard Sont as Cal Lawrence (80), Ciri Thompson as Imogen Lander (87), Karen Richards as photographer Madeline Wolf (88), Abigail as TV host Bambi Chute (89), Stephen Whittaker (92), Katherine Li (93), Laurence Mah (93), Danielle Fairclough (97) and all of these were credited in a new, raunchier opening title sequence complete with a slightly remixed theme song. Storylines in Chances by this stage were straddling a fine line between reality and fantasy, but not for long. Once Dan and Barbara Taylor both departed in episodes 110–111, the program's storylines became increasingly bizarre and fantasy-oriented, with new stories involving the Asian Triads, ghosts, an angel on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, Madeline turning into an Egyptian Sun Goddess, laser-wielding vampires, man-eating plants, and neo-Nazis hunting valuable Third Reich artifacts - in Melbourne, bizarrely.^[8] The Age noted that Chances became "notorious" because of these elements.^[3] The radical changes provoked much discussion and comment within the press and the public; however, they did not lead to a strong increase in ratings, and because of its "camp" elements, Chances gained a small but devoted audience.^[8]

Eventually, low ratings saw the show moved to a late-night 23:00-00:00 slot and the size of the cast was further reduced, and by the later episodes, all but Sharon Taylor and Bill Anderson of the original cast had departed, and Alex Taylor was the focal point of the final storylines.^[8] In "the final episode, God made an appearance, speaking to Alex in the Melbourne library".^[8] The series ended in 1992, and has never been repeated on Australian television. Selected episodes from the surreal era of Chances towards the end of season 2 were released on DVD in Australia in 2004, and the full series, plus the unaired pilot, were released in 2021 in two collections.

Awards[]

At the APRA Music Awards of 1991, the theme song for Chances, performed by Greg Hind, won Television or Film Theme of the Year.^[9]

At the 1992 Logie Awards, actor Jeremy Sims was nominated for Most Popular New Talent for his role in Chances, but lost out to Kym Wilson for her roles in both A Country Practice and the mini-series, Brides of Christ. At the time, both Sims and Wilson were in a highly publicised relationship which lasted several years.^[10]

International broadcasts[]

In the United Kingdom, Chances launched 4 March 1992 on Sky One, a year after its Australian debut and was initially screened 21:00-22:00 on Wednesdays and Thursdays.^[11] Like in Australia, Sky's promotion of the show centred heavily on the sexual aspects of the show. This failed to achieve high ratings. The Sunday Times media correspondent noted that Chances, along with Sky One's other heavily promoted imports, Studs and E Street, "all did poorly with UK viewers".^[11] Eventually, as the series moved on and dropped to one episode a week, from episode 61, Chances was then screened on Thursday nights 22:00-23:00, until mid-1993. A late-night repeat was screened during the early hours of the morning during 1995. Notably, the last block of 19 episodes of Chances were never purchased by Sky One, possibly due to the controversial content of these episodes. Both the original and repeat run ended at episode 107.

Chances was also shown on Russian television. However, the series ceased being broadcast there after members of the Russian Orthodox Church objected to a scene showing a naked woman saluting a swastika.^[12]

In New Zealand, the show was screened on Channel 2 for around 12 months, but was dropped due to low ratings.

Bayonas also tried to sell Chances to US broadcasters. However, the only interested network was the Playboy Channel, which made several offers for the show; Bayonas declined, stating the channel would be an inappropriate broadcaster for the show.^[8]

Cast[]

1991 TV series, cast order:

In the unaired 1989 pilot episode, the characters Heather McGlashen, Sam Reynolds, and Charlie Gibson do not appear. When Chances was made into a TV series two years later, some roles were recast due to the unavailabily of the original actors. The pilot includes:

Later additions to the main cast:

• as Angela Sullivan (pilot; support cast from episode 2; listed as Angela Segal until episode 26; main cast from episode 61 to 127)
• as Stephanie Ryan (from episode 70 to 90)
• as Cal Lawrence #1 (from episode 79 to 114)
• as Madeline Wolf (from episode 88 to 127)
• as Sean Beckett (from episode 92 to 127); also played Sven Loader (episode 63)
• Abigail as Bambi Chute (from episode 89 to 113)
• as Lilli Lo (support cast from episode 90; main cast from episode 115 to 127)
• as Bogart Lo (support cast from episode 89; main cast from episode 115 to 127); also played "Japanese Man" (episode 64)
• John Atkinson as Cal Lawrence #2 (recast from episode 115 to 127)
• as Wanda Starcross (support cast from episode 97; main cast from episode 115 to 127)

Other supporting cast, listed alphabetically:

Guest appearances include:

Home Media[]

Chances has been released on DVD. In 2004, Umbrella Entertainment released three volumes, The Best of Chances. However, these focused entirely on the latter, more fantastical era, picking up from episode 97. In 2021, ViaVision Entertainment released the first 59 episodes as well as the unaired pilot as Chances: Collection One. The second collection, continuing from episode 60, was released in November 2021.

Episode discrepancy[]

Even though there were 126 episodes of Chances made, there wasn't an "episode 78" - the number is thought to have been accidentally skipped because it was at the end of the original 1991 production block - but due to all of the subsequent episodes being numbered from episode 79 onwards (i.e. the 78th episode made is identified as episode 79 in the production schedule), the final 126th episode is identified as "episode 127" due to the mistake in the sequence.^[13]

See also[]

Number 96, The Box and Skyways - earlier examples of Australian adult soap operas from the 70s.

E Street - an Australian soap opera which aired from 1989 to 1993 on Ten, and on Sky One in Britain. This series similarly started as a serious drama before transitioning to a more fantasy oriented format. Diane Craig and Marcus Graham, both in the pilot of Chances, had regular roles in this, along with Vince Martin, who played serial killer, "Mr Bad".

Pacific Drive - a similar, but less fantastical, melodramatic cult TV series produced by Village Roadshow in association with Nine Network, which ran 1996–97, and in Britain on Sky Two during 1997. Olivia Hamnett, Peter Kowitz and Mouche Phillips also appeared in this.

References[]

External links[]

• Chances at IMDb
• Aussie Soap Archive: Chances
• Chances at the National Film and Sound Archive