''Chances'' is an Australian

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

soap opera which aired from 29 January 1991 to 30 December 1992 on

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

. The show was initially pitched by production company Beyond International, as a straightforward drama revolving around a middle-class family whose lives are transformed when they win $3 million in the

lottery A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

. However, the network requested raunchier, more

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...

storylines in the vein of ''

Number 96 96 (ninety-six) is the natural number following 95 and preceding 97. It is a number that appears the same when turned upside down. In mathematics 96 is: * an octagonal number. * a refactorable number. * an untouchable number. * a semiperfect ...

'' and '' The Box'', with contractually-obligated nudity and sex scenes. Later episodes diverged considerably from the show's original premise, with increasingly bizarre plots involving man-eating plants, devil worshippers and

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

cults.Albert Moran, ''Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series'', AFTRS 1993 p 111 The show has developed a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

Series history

Development

''Chances'' was first made as a two-hour pilot in 1988, which remained unseen until the show's 2021 DVD release. With the exception of '' The Flying Doctors'' (1986-1993), the Nine Network had suffered a solid decade of soap opera flops that had failed to build an audience, including '' Taurus Rising'' (1982), '' Waterloo Station'' (1983), '' Starting Out'' (1983), ''

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...

'' (1983), '' Possession'' (1985) and ''

Prime Time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

'' (1986). As such, ''Chances'' was shelved in 1989, however after the network's latest soap attempt, '' Family and Friends'' (1990), was cancelled after just eight months, ''Chances'' was given the green light.

Production

The series was produced by Beyond International whose only previous successful works had been the program ''

Beyond 2000 ''Beyond Tomorrow'' is an Australian television series produced by Beyond Television Productions. It began airing in 1981 as ''Towards 2000'', then in 1985 was renamed ''Beyond 2000'', a name the show kept until its cancellation in 1999. It the ...

''. Production moved from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

to Melbourne, at the network studios Richmond, Victoria and some roles were recast due to the unavailability of the original actors. John Sheerin and Brenda Addie (replacing Diane Craig from the pilot) starred as Dan and Barbara Taylor, who win the lottery and begin sharing their wealth with their children, friends, parents and siblings. The series that cost $11,000.00 per episode to produce was recording losses, however the company, keen to get a stranglehold in the industry, continued producing the series despite their ill fortune. The cast includes Jeremy Sims as their mischievous son Alex (replacing Marcus Graham, who left to star in '' E Street'' on

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

), Natalie McCurry and

Cathy Godbold Catherine Malia Godbold (23 September 1974 – 4 May 2018) was an Australian actress. She was best known for her role as Deborah Hale Regnery on ''The Saddle Club'' and as Meg Bowman in ''Home and Away''. Following the cancellation of '' Newl ...

as their daughters Rebecca and Nicki (replacing Mouche Phillips), Tim Robertson as Dan's brother Jack (replacing Warwick Moss), Anne Grigg as his unhappy wife Sarah, Rhys Muldoon and Leverne McDonnell as their free-spirited hairdresser son Ben (replacing Christopher Stollery) and police officer daughter Philippa, Deborah Kennedy as Dan's divorced sister Connie (replacing Sandy Gore),

Mark Kounnas Mark Kounnas (born 1969) is an Australian actor and television presenter. Mark has had many acting roles on television and films and is probably best known for his role in ''Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'' as Gekko. He has also been a television ...

and Simon Grey as her sons, Chris and Sam Reynolds,

Mercia Deane-Johns Mercia Deane-Johns is an Australian actress of film, stage and television. She is also a writer, singer, and stand-up comedienne. She has played a wide array of characters since she was 12 years old and has appeared in many film roles and TV ser ...

as Dan's vivacious hairdresser sister Sharon, Yvonne Lawley as Barbara's mother Heather and Michael Caton as Bill Anderson, Dan's best friend who smokes marijuana to ease the pain of injuries sustained in the Vietnam war.

Early episodes

''Chances'' originally aired on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 8:30pm. The pilot episode dealt with the build up to Rebecca's wedding to David Young (Rodney Bell), which 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. In a contentious bid to try and help ensure the program's success, network executives requested sex scenes and other risqué elements to be added to the series, which creator Lynn Bayonas was initially opposed to."Taking the reins"
Brian Courtis, ''The Age'',20 June 2002. Retrieved 14 September 2013. The raunchier premise went ahead, which the initial publicity surrounding the series capitalised on. The show was a modest success on its premiere night (with the first two episodes aired a two-hour special), however subsequent ratings proved disappointing. Early storylines included the return of Eddie Reynolds ( Dennis Miller), Connie's estranged husband, which ends in his murder; the breakdown of Jack and Sarah's marriage, which leads to Sarah seducing her sexually confused nephew, Chris, causing a family scandal; police constable Philippa's illicit relationship with bent cop Geoff Bradbury ( Gary Day) and his subsequent murder; her new house mate, eco-warrior, Charlie Gibson (Kimberley Davenport), who becomes pregnant to either Alex or Ben. The standard soap storylines were interspersed with randomly inserted seduction sequences, usually involving Alex, which filled the network quota of nudity and sex. Actor Jeremy Sims described the show as "''

Home and Away ''Home and Away'' (often abbreviated as ''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip ...

'' with the odd cutaway of some tits". As the ratings 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. Bill is found but tells Connie he believes Dan is dead, which Barbara overhears. Shell-shocked, she wanders into the grounds of the hospital car park. Jack runs outside after her when both are hit by a speeding car. They end up in hospital with serious injuries, while Dan is found alive and well, washed up on a beach.

Revamp

This dramatic attempt to save the show didn't work, and after six months of poor ratings, the show's budget was cut and production halved to one hour a week on Tuesdays at 9:30pm. Starting with episode 61, which aired 27 August 1991, the show was jumped ahead by twelve months, and the next 16 episodes 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. Episodes became self-contained and had individual titles, while most of the original seventeen cast members were written out one by one. First to go were the peripheral characters, Heather and Phillipa were both written out before the cutback and given exit storylines, while Sarah and Charlie disappeared entirely. Connie and her sons were demoted to recurring characters, before moving to an Italian ski resort after Chris fell in love with his widowed stepmother Cheryl (Kristen Lyons); Rebecca married politician Steve Harland ( Peter Kowitz) and left after a lavish wedding ceremony, while Nicki left for modelling school. Guest actors were hired in short, provocative story arcs, including Lynda Stoner, Kate Fitzpatrick, Christine Harris, Tiffany Lamb, Liz Burch, Neill Gladwin and

Briony Behets Briony Behets (born 1951, London, United Kingdom) is an English-Australian actress who found fame acting in Australian soap operas of the 1970s and 1980s Early life Behets' father worked as a civil engineer, which took him around the world and ...

in an aggressive attempt to boost the ratings further. The sexual elements now involving

bondage Bondage may refer to: Restraints *Physical restraints **Bondage (BDSM), use of restraint for erotic stimulation ***Self-bondage, use of restraints on oneself for erotic pleasure Social and economic practices *Serfdom, feudal enslavement of peasan ...

and

lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...

"''Chances'' runs out of steam". '' The Courier-Mail'', 1 October 1992. often in a mystical or fantastical setting, provoked considerable controversy among conservative viewers, with some television watchdogs attacking the show as "teleporn".

Later episodes

When ''Chances'' returned for its second season on 26 February 1992 at episode 79, only six of the original cast members remained; Barbara, Dan, Jack, Bill, Sharon, and Alex, who became the show's top-billed star with most storylines revolving around him 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 party girl Stephanie Ryan, Gerard Sont as pool boy and jewel thief Cal Lawrence, Ciri Thompson as the manipulative Imogen Lander, Karen Richards as photographer Madeline Wolf, Abigail as television sex expert Bambi Chute, Laurence Mah as mobster Bogart Lo, Katherine Li as Lilly Lo, Stephen Whittaker as advertising agent Sean Beckett, Danielle Fairclough as the ditzy Wanda Starcross. By this stage, the storyline straddled a fine line between reality and fantasy, however with the departures of Dan and Barbara in episode 111, the show went completely off the rails with episodes involving man-eating plants, devil worshippers, Israeli secret agents, ghosts, laser-wielding vampires, Asian Triads, a scantily-clad angel on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and neo-Nazis hunting valuable Third Reich artifacts (in Melbourne). The aforementioned artifact, the " Eva Braun necklace", turns its wearer into an Egyptian Sun Goddess.Andrew Mercado, "The Secret Life of Soaps". '' The Daily Telegraph'', 1 December 2004 (p. T04). '' The Age'' noted that ''Chances'' became "notorious" because of these campy elements, and while the radical changes provoked publicity, ratings did not improve. Eventually the show was moved to a late-night 11pm slot and the cast was reduced even further before the show was cancelled. In the finale, God made an appearance, speaking to Alex in the Melbourne library.

Cast

Original cast members

* John Sheerin as Dan Taylor (episodes 1–110) * Tim Robertson as Jack Taylor (episodes 1–90) * Brenda Addie as Barbara Taylor (episodes 1–111) * Anne Grigg as Sarah Taylor (episodes 1–60) * Michael Caton as Bill Anderson * Jeremy Sims as Alex Taylor * Deborah Kennedy as Connie Reynolds (episodes 1–60, recurring episodes 61–68) * Yvonne Lawley as Heather "Hetty" McGlashen (episodes 1–52) * Natalie McCurry as Rebecca Taylor (episodes 1–70) *

as Sharon Taylor * Leverne McDonnell as Phillipa Taylor (episodes 1–60) * Rhys Muldoon as Ben Taylor (episodes 1–70) *

as Chris Reynolds (episodes 1–60, recurring episodes 61–68) *

as Nicki Taylor (episodes 1–71) * Simon Grey as Sam Reynolds (episodes 1–60, recurring episodes 61–68)

Later additions

* Kimberley Davenport as Charlie Gibson (episodes 4–60) * Patsy Stephen as Angela Sullivan (recurring episodes 2–60, main cast 61–127) * Molly Brumm as Stephanie Ryan (episodes 70–90) * Gerard Sont and John Atkinson as Cal Lawrence (episodes 79–127, recast from episode 115) * Karen Richards as Madeline Wolf (episodes 88–127) * Stephen Whittaker as Sven Loader (guest episode 63) and Sean Becker (episodes 92–127) * Abigail as Bambi Chute (episodes 89–113) * Katherine Li as Lilli Lo (recurring episodes 90–114, main cast 115–127) * Lawrence Mah as Japanese Man (guest episode 64) and Bogart Lo (recurring episodes 89–114, main cast 115–127) * Danielle Fairclough as Wanda Starcross (recurring episodes 97–114, main cast 115–127)

Impact and reception

Awards and nominations

At the APRA Music Awards of 1991, the theme song for ''Chances'', performed by Greg Hind, won Television or Film Theme of the Year. At the 1992

Logie Awards The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as the ...

, 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 ''A Country Practice'' is an Australian television soap opera which broadcast on the Seven Network from 18 November 1981 until 5 November 1993, airing at 7:30 pm on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Altogether, 14 seasons and 1,058 episodes were p ...

'' and the mini-series, '' Brides of Christ''. At the time, both Sims and Wilson were in a highly publicised relationship which lasted several years.

International broadcasts

A year after its Australian debut on 4 March 1992,''Chances'' began airing in the United Kingdom on

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

9pm Wednesdays and Thursdays.Jonathan Miller, "Behind the Screens", ''The Sunday Times'', 31 May 1992. Like in Australia, Sky's promotion of the show centred heavily on the sexual aspects of the show, although it failed to achieve high ratings as with '' Studs'' and '' E Street'' When the show reached episode 61, ''Chances'' moved to Thursday nights at 10pm until mid-1993. Both the original and 1995 late-night repeat run ended at episode 107, as Sky One never purchased the last block of 19 episodes, possibly due to their controversial content. ''Chances'' was also shown on Russian television. However, the series was taken off the air after members of the Russian Orthodox Church objected to a scene showing a naked woman saluting a swastika. The show was screened on Channel 2 in New Zealand for nearly a year, but was moved to a later timeslot, and eventually dropped due to low ratings. Bayonas also tried to sell ''Chances'' to American broadcasters, however the only interested network was the Playboy Channel, which Bayonas declined.

Home media

''Chances'' was first released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in three 2-disc volumes, which focused entirely on the show's later, more fantastical era. In 2021, ViaVision Entertainment released the entire series in two collections, the first across 16 discs, the second across 17. {, class="wikitable" style="width:100%; margin-right:auto; background:#fff;" , - ! style="background:#ccc; width:1%;", ! style="background:#ccc; width:15%;" , Release ! style="background:#ccc; width:3%;" , of
episodes ! style="background:#ccc; width:10%;" , Region 4 (Australia) ! style="background:#ccc; width:30%;" , Includes , - , bgcolor="#8a0303" width="15px", , ''Chances: Volume One'' , 7 , 23 June 2004 , {{Plainlist, *episodes 97–104 *extensive liner notes by Andrew Mercado *original episode previews *stills gallery , - , bgcolor="#301934" width="15px", , ''Chances: Volume Two'' , 7 , 23 June 2004 , {{Plainlist, *episodes 116–117, 121–126 *extensive liner notes by Andrew Mercado *original episode previews *stills gallery , - , bgcolor="#013220" width="15px", , ''Chances: Volume Three'' , 7 , 10 July 2006 , {{Plainlist, *episodes 109–114, 120, 127 *extensive liner notes by Andrew Mercado *original episode previews *stills gallery , - , bgcolor="#FF0000" width="15px", , ''Chances: Collection One'' , 59 , 18 August 2021 , {{Plainlist, *episodes 1–59 *the show's 1989 unaired pilot , - , bgcolor="#0047AB" width="15px", , ''Chances: Collection Two'' , 67 , 17 November 2021 , {{Plainlist, *episodes 60–127 , - , bgcolor="#8A2BE2" width="15px", , ''Chances: The Complete Collection'' , 126 , 23 November 2022{{cite web, url=https://www.sanity.com.au/products/2708457/Chances--Complete-Collection, website=sanity.com.au, access-date=11 October 2022 , {{Plainlist, *All episodes

Episode discrepancy

As detailed in ViaVision Entertainment's DVD release, there was no "episode 78" produced, thought to have been accidentally skipped over in error. The 77th episode marked the end of a production block, with the next block resuming from "episode 79". This led to all subsequent episodes to be numbered incorrectly, with the final 126th episode being listed as "episode 127".

References

{{reflist

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0101059
Aussie Soap Archive: ChancesChances at the National Film and Sound Archive
1991 Australian television series debuts 1992 Australian television series endings Australian television soap operas Erotic television series Nine Network original programming APRA Award winners English-language television shows Television series by Beyond Television Productions