I was wondering if any of you watched this show. It aired on CBS in 1994, and is available on DVD.
Second Chances was created by Lynn Marie Latham and Bernard Lechowick, who wrote and produced Knots Landing during most of the Paige years, and most recently had an infamous run on Y&R. The show was about Connie Selleca, a lawyer running for a judgeship and whose personal life was complicated by a murder mystery and the return of her old flame (Matt Salinger). Megan Follows, of Anne of Green Gables fame, played her kooky sister (you could tell she was kooky because she wore weird hats), who struggled to trust men because her fiance dumped her. Also in the mix was the always entertaining Michelle Phillips, a secretary having an affair with Connie's husband. There was a GREAT scene between Connie and Michelle in an elevator where Connie said something to the effect of, "Is this where we're supposed to have a catfight?" and Michelle says, "You mean roll around in the mud, like Alexis and...?" and then Connie says, "Krystal."
The secondary lead was Jennifer Lopez, a few years before Selena made her a big star. She played a waitress who was raised by her widowed father, and was planning a wedding to her WASPy fiance, whose parents were so terrified by the thought of their son marrying a Latina that they had her investigated just to make sure she wasn't "illegal". On their wedding day, Jennifer found photos of him shirtless with a stripper, so she dumped him at the altar. Megan pledged solidarity...at least until the cute WASP asked her out on a date.
Ray Wise, of Twin Peaks fame, was good evil fun as the judge Connie Selleca was running against. He had a finger in every rotten pie, even to the point of trying to rig a beauty contest for Jennifer Lopez to lose after she turned down his advances. There was an amusing sequence where he realized that his uncle had been keeping the family matriarch hidden and had faked her death to get her money. When the uncle suddenly died, Ray found out about the scam and hurried to the nursing home to get her to sign everything over to him. As he tried to push her to write the note, Megan, the WASP, the aunt's cute nephew (played by the guy who later went on to be Paris on Star Trek: Voyager) all ran up to him, as the aunt's dog had managed to track her down. He then said, "I was just about to call the police, I found her just in time!" The aunt went on to be the rapping granny in The Wedding Singer.
As the series wound down the first season, Matt Salinger's character was suddenly becoming too obsessed with Connie, who was or was not pregnant depending on the episode, and who she began a Tracy/Hepburn relationship with a chauvinist played by John Schneider. Megan was torn between Paris and the WASP. There was also the question of whether Ray Wise's evil deeds would be uncovered.
And then...
The big earthquake damaged the sets so much that the show was completely retooled; the final episode aired in early 1994 and the new show started in August 1994, as a summer replacement. Everyone but Jennifer Lopez (and her father) was let go. Most of the stories were dropped, most of them they didn't bother to wrap up. Those they did they probably shouldn't have bothered with. For instance, we learned that, even though the beginning of the new show started only a few days after the old one had ended, Megan had married John Schneider, even though they had not shared ANY scenes up to that point, and they were both interested in other people! Meanwhile, Connie picked up and moved to a new life because Matt Salinger's character had, in the space of 2 episodes, become a crazy stalker and she was afraid for her safety, but hey, she left a letter saying she was happy about the whole thing! It's one of the craziest or lamest wrapups ever.
Jennifer then decided she was sick of slaving away while young blondes got jobs for nothing, so she drove to Malibu in her pink Cadillac (the only leftover from the old show besides her and the father) and went to work at a hotel.
This show had Joanna Cassidy, and in a somewhat villainous role, John Dye, who went on to be the good angel on Touched by an Angel. Hurrah for him escaping typecasting, I guess. I haven't seen much of Hotel Malibu, it only ran a few episodes. It was written by the people who wrote Savannah.
The theme song was one of my favorite tunes, "Save the Last Dance for Me".