Chances was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n evening
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
, produced from 1991 to 1992. It told the story of the average middle-class Taylor family whose lives are transformed by winning $3 million in the lottery. The series was broadcast by the
Nine NetworkThe Nine Network, or Channel Nine, is an Australian television network based in Willoughby, a suburb on the North Shore of Sydney. For nearly 40 years between 1956 and 2005, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
, initially as two one-hour episodes each week.
Principal cast members included John Sheerin and Brenda Addie as Dan and Barbara Taylor,
Jeremy SimsJeremy Sims is an actor.He was educated at Wesley College, Perth from 1977-83.His first appearance on the big screen was as 'boy on raft' in the 1980 movie 'Harlequin'....
as their mischievous son Alex,
Deborah KennedyDeborah Kennedy is an Australian actress recognised for several television and film roles, and for her appearance in a famous advertisement.Kennedy began her acting career on the stage, with the Marion Street Theatre, appearing in The Trojan Woman and Macbeth...
as Dan's sister Connie Reynolds, Tim Robertson as Dan's brother Jack, Anne Grigg as his wife Sarah, and
Michael CatonMichael Caton is an Australian actor best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series, The Sullivans, and also Darryl Kerrigan from 1997's low budget hit film The Castle. He is married to Helen Esakoff....
as neighbourhood friend Bill Anderson.
Chances was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n evening
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
, produced from 1991 to 1992. It told the story of the average middle-class Taylor family whose lives are transformed by winning $3 million in the lottery. The series was broadcast by the
Nine NetworkThe Nine Network, or Channel Nine, is an Australian television network based in Willoughby, a suburb on the North Shore of Sydney. For nearly 40 years between 1956 and 2005, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
, initially as two one-hour episodes each week.
Principal cast members included John Sheerin and Brenda Addie as Dan and Barbara Taylor,
Jeremy SimsJeremy Sims is an actor.He was educated at Wesley College, Perth from 1977-83.His first appearance on the big screen was as 'boy on raft' in the 1980 movie 'Harlequin'....
as their mischievous son Alex,
Deborah KennedyDeborah Kennedy is an Australian actress recognised for several television and film roles, and for her appearance in a famous advertisement.Kennedy began her acting career on the stage, with the Marion Street Theatre, appearing in The Trojan Woman and Macbeth...
as Dan's sister Connie Reynolds, Tim Robertson as Dan's brother Jack, Anne Grigg as his wife Sarah, and
Michael CatonMichael Caton is an Australian actor best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series, The Sullivans, and also Darryl Kerrigan from 1997's low budget hit film The Castle. He is married to Helen Esakoff....
as neighbourhood friend Bill Anderson. Though ostensibly a family-oriented drama, to help ensure the program's success, Channel Nine asked for nude scenes and risqué elements to also be included in the series. Initial publicity for the show focused on the sex angle, and it was for this that
Chances was chiefly known.
The show's early ratings proved disappointing, resulting in several cast re-shuffles that saw many of the original characters written out of the series, and new actors brought in, including
AbigailAbigail is an Australian based actress who was a sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s...
,
Lynda StonerLynda Stoner is an Australian actress and animal rights activist.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lynda maintained a reputation for being one of Australian television's most glamorous women, starting in the The Paul Hogan Show, and then in leading roles in the soap opera The Young Doctors and...
and Patsy Stephen. Attempts to boost the ratings saw an increase in sex and nudity, while storylines became increasingly bizarre and fantasy-oriented, with new stories involving ghosts, an angel on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, Oriental villains, an Egyptian Sun Goddess, man-eating plants, and neo-Nazis hunting valuable Third Reich artifacts. These changes provoked much discussion and comment within the press and the public; however, they did not lead to a strong increase in ratings.
Eventually, low ratings saw the show moved to a late-night slot, and the production rate reduced from two to one episode a week. With the reduced output, the size of the cast needed to be reduced, so further drastic cast purges occurred. In the later episodes, much of the Taylor clan had departed, and Alex Taylor became the focal point of many of the storylines. The series ended in 1992, and has never been repeated on Australian television. Selected episodes have subsequently been released on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
in Australia.
In the UK,
Chances launched in February 1992 on
Sky TelevisionThe name Sky Television may refer to:*British Sky Broadcasting in the United Kingdom as Sky Digital. Formed in 1990 by the 50:50 financial merger of Sky Television plc and British Satellite Broadcasting....
, a year after its Australian debut. It began during the same week as
E StreetE Street is an Australian television soap opera created by Forrest Redlich and produced by the Ten Network from 1989 to 1993.Whereas Neighbours is set in a middle-class suburb, Home and Away in a seaside town, and Richmond Hill a semi-rural ordinary community, E Street was set in a tough inner-city...
and was initially screened at 9 p.m on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Like in Australia, Sky's promotion of the show centred heavily on the sexual and nude aspects of storylines but this failed to achieve high ratings. Eventually, as the series moved on and dropped to one episode a week,
Chances was then screened on Thursday nights at 10pm and ended in early 1993. A late-night repeat was enjoyed by few during the early hours of the morning during 1995.
External links