What made Outrageous Fortune so outrageous?

"From now on, we play it straight," Cheryl West (Robyn Malcolm) tells her family in the first episode ofOutrageous Fortune -upending their proud tradition of lawbreaking after her husband Wolf (Grant Bowler) is sent to jail.

The TV3 comedy-drama about a West Auckland family struggling to become law-abiding people ran for six seasons and spanned 107 episodes.

By the time of its 2010 finale, Outrageous Fortune was a ratings juggernaut and appointment viewing during a period when broadcast television still reigned supreme.

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The West family and their associates jolted their way into cultural consciousness, got raucous and bottled a peculiar Kiwi universality - warts and all.

Twenty years on, some of the creative forces behind the show have reflected on those key ingredients whilst evaluating an important question; could Outrageous be made in 2025?

Earlier this week, RNZ headed out west to hear from the locals, their memories of the show and their definition of a "Westie".

One man revealed he had been an extra for pub scenes in the Rusty Nail for three of the six series, explaining, “everyone on set was equal”.

“There were some funny, funny moments.”

One woman told RNZ that two of her friends who met working in the show's sound tech team are now married with children.

Another man explained that the reputation of Westies had shifted since back in the day.

“People used to give Westies heaps, saying they were heavy metallers and speed around in their cars. That was the thing, it’s different these days.”

The original idea for the Wests - who were born of a combination of elements both fictional and non - came from veteran screenwriter and producer Rachel Lang.

Already boasting a proficient resume, Lang was one of the primary creators behind local drama Mercy Peak during its three-year run in the early-00s.

“It was a good show, but it didn’t have what you’d call cut-through,” Lang said.

“There was a white trash family on that which I really liked, and I thought they’d make a great show.”

Another pivotal seed was planted when Lang learned that the median income for women was a lowly $14,000.

“It made me think why don’t more women turn to crime,” she said.

Having worked together on Mercy Peak, fellow writer James Griffin joined Lang as the show's conception took shape.

By the time the third series came out in 2007,Outrageous was having not just cut-through, but significant cultural currency.

“It was weird things, hearing people were having Outrageous Fortune-themed parties,” Griffin said.

“Strange anecdotal things started creeping through. We thought, holy shoot, we kind of got under the skin of the nation somehow.”

The first episode of Outrageous Fortune's third series was watched by almost half a million people.

By the third episode, the writers had ruthlessly killed off Aurora Bay (Claire Chitham) - the fiancée of Van West (Antony Starr) - in a shock, dramatic move which sent thousands around the country into mourning.

It also sent Van into a full-throttle downward spiral, a gruelling assignment for Starr, who was already tasked with playing Van's markedly different twin brother Jethro.

Outrageous would be littered with other jaw-dropping narrative arcs and events, both hilarious and uncomfortable, or a mix of the two. (Spoiler alert)

Whether it was Van struggling to verbalise evidence in court after downing a hash cookie, Loretta West (Antonia Prebble) directing older sister Pascalle (Siobhan Marshall) in a low-budget erotic film, or Cheryl’s fatal bottling of dodgy cop Zane Gerrard (Charles Mesure), nothing was off limits.

Of course, there were other moments that the show went even further, particularly in the sixth and final series.

Fiery family matriarch Cheryl was brought to life courtesy of a memorable, career-altering lead turn by Robyn Malcolm.

During production on the first series, Malcolm paid little heed to the potential of the show, mostly because she had very little energy to contemplate anything else apart from her job and raising her young children.

Director Mark Beesley, who also helmed the 1999 film Savage Honeymoon about another West Auckland whānau, also had a knack for keeping the cast grounded, even when they were delivering great material.

A simple piece of direction also proved to be crucial early on.

“We were all poncy actors,” Malcolm said.

“[Beesly] knocked that out of us immediately. He said, ‘Don’t smile, stop trying to be liked, these people don’t need to be liked’."

"They laugh, they cry, they drink, they f**k, they steal, and they don’t care what people think of them."

Once the tone was set, the Outrageous Fortune cast and crew were unquestionably convinced of what they were creating.

Malcolm believes this labour of love and heart was one of the reasons why the public became invested in the characters.

“We all adored that show and we fought hard for them,” she said.

“We really really meant it, and we knew what we were making and what we wanted to achieve.

“At the heart of New Zealand is that hard-working battler, I think the Kiwi audience really got that.

“It was relatability. Everybody knew those characters, and we were given the room to discover them with the audience.”

Outrageous Fortune marked a sea change in realising the possibilities of New Zealand storytelling, said the show's executive producer, John Barnett.

“Because you’ve got several hundred thousand people watching, you can see the change in the type of content on screen, you can see people being more comfortable about taking risks with characters, you can also see it in the expansion of comedy and comedy clubs.

“It made people feel more confident.”

Efforts to recapture that same Outrageous spirit abroad were made with adapted series in both the United States and the UK, respectively known as Scoundrels and Honest.

“[They] weren’t as good,” Barnett said.

Antonia Prebble, who played the youngest West child, Loretta, also remembered the period fondly.

She told Afternoons that the show “transformed her life”.

“It was the most formative experience being part of that show, both professionally and personally for me,” she said.

“It felt really special at the time. There was this wonderful electricity on set for the whole stretch of the show. We did all try and cherish that.”

Prebble would return to the West world several years later.

As the series lead in the brilliant Outrageous Fortune prequel series Westside, where she played her former character’s grandmother Rita West.

Outrageous Fortune proved to be New Zealand TV’s local exemplar of success without creative sacrifice, but there are significant doubts as to whether it could be replicated in the current climate.

Some who were involved with Outrageous think the challenges would be insurmountable.

South Pacific Pictures' chief executive Kelly Martin was TV3's head programmer when Outrageous first went to air.

Amid funding constraints and changing audience habits, Martin said a show like Outrageous Fortune would not be able to be made in 2025.

“New Zealand On Air don’t have the resources to put into one series of 13 hours, for example, which would be a good amount to kick off with. They don’t even have enough to put into six or eight hours,” she said.

“To make it, I would need to go out into the marketplace and find 25 percent of the total budget offshore. To find someone in another part of the world who wants to spend another couple of million dollars on a New Zealand story. They’re just not there.

“There’s no way Outrageous Fortune could be made, or would last, or succeed right now.”

Outrageous Fortune's creators and lead star were similarly worried about the state of the sector, arguing that local television and storytelling were a “low priority”.

“It’s bleak at the moment,” Griffin said.

“The tyranny of us being a tiny country has come back to haunt us a lot.

“You couldn’t make [Outrageous Fortune] today, you couldn’t make that many episodes. The freedom of storytelling that we had to tell distinctly New Zealand stories.

“Everything’s shorter and needs to fit an overseas sales model.”

New Zealand soap Shortland Street is also facing an uncertain future with TVNZ yet to confirm whether it will return in 2026.

To mark Outrageous Fortune’s 20th anniversary, on Friday 18 July, Griffin and Lang will reflect on the show’s legacy at a New Zealand Writers Guild event at TePuna Creative Hub, Henderson.