Debuting on 7 February 1990, this short-lived soap opera from the Australian Nine Network (originally titled A Family Matter) followed the relationships between the young members of the Italian-Australian Rossi family and the Anglo-Australian Chandler family, living in the (fictional) RAAF town of Kingsmead – where three generations before, a Chandler murdered a Rossi and escaped unpunished.
Antoinetta Rossi (Dinah Shearing) was the matriarch of the Rossi clan. Her son, Joe (Robert Forza) was married to Luciana (Lucy) (Anna Maria Monticelli) and they had three children: Marco (Adrian Lee), Claudia (Rachael Beck) and Robert (Renato Bartolomei).
Sean Myers headed up the imposing Chandler family as Greg Chandler.
Old family animosities were rekindled when Robert Rossi and Jennifer Chandler (Roxanne Wilson) – who was nearly engaged to Piers (Don Halbert) – became star-crossed lovers in modern-day Romeo & Juliet style. Robert and Jennifer met when the Rossi boys gatecrashed a Chandler party and unwittingly fell in love.
Auntie Dawn (Anne Phelan) – who ran the local cafe – was privy to the secret affair but Robert’s hot-headed brother Marco and Jennifer’s fly-boy brother Damien (Simon Westaway) were not impressed by the turn of events and locked horns with Marco ending up in hospital in a coma.
Gloria Stubbs (Maxine Klibingaitis) worked for Dawn at the cafe.
The series was peppered with antagonisms and had a complex web of characters spanning the spectrum of age and attitude.
Channel Nine quickly abandoned the original concept of two one-hour episodes per week for 30-minute episodes screened five times a week. But the series failed to catch on with viewers and the series was abruptly cancelled in April.
Robert Rossi
Renato Bartolomei Jennifer Chandler
Roxanne Wilson Marco Rossi Adrian Lee Brother Ignatius
Jonathan Hardy Damien Chandler
Simon Westaway Claudia Rossi
Rachael Beck Joe Rossi
Robert Forza Toby Chandler
Dominic McDonald Greg Chandler
Sean Myers Auntie Dawn
Anne Phelan Luciana (Lucy) Rossi
Anna Maria Monticelli Pamela Chandler
Diane Craig Thommo (Bartholomew Purvis)
Ross Newton Gloria Stubbs
Maxine Klibingaitis Doreen Stubbs
Abigail Piers
Don Halbert Cheryl Brooks
Justine Clarke Grandmother Antonietta Rossi
Dinah Shearing
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