Melrose Place
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Melrose Place is a TV series that ran between 1992 and 1999, created by Darren Star for the FOX network. In late 2004 the network SOAPnet began repeating the show.
Show history and description
A spinoff from Beverly Hills 90210 (though not featuring any permanent cast members crossing over), Melrose Place is small apartment block in the West Hollywood district of Los Angeles where several young singles and the occasional couple reside. In the story, 90210 teenager Kelly (Jennie Garth) pursues one resident, the hunky, brooding carpenter Jake Hanson (Grant Show), but she returns to her zip code when she realizes they are from different worlds.During the first season, the show was a relatively earnest serial drama focused on how young people come to Los Angeles to realize their dreams. Michael (Thomas Calabro) and Jane Mancini (Josie Bissett) were originally the stable couple in the apartment building, with Michael a good guy and Jane a budding fashion designer. Their neighbors were flatmates Alison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Billy (Andrew Shue) who later began a love affair.
Other original cast members were the African-American Rhonda (Vanessa A. Williams) and budding actor Sandy Harling (Amy Locane). Both characters were written out after the first season. Early in the show's run photographer Jo Reynolds (Daphne Zuniga) arrived. She had an on-again, off-again romance with Jake and later gave birth to a son after killing the baby's father, Reed, in self-defense. Another early arrival was the gay Matt Fielding (Doug Savant), who had the fewest love affairs of any character in the series. In contrast with the numerous and steamy love scenes of all the other characters, Matt's sole kissing scene with a man was censored by FOX.
The ratings were poor, and producers attempted to revamp the series. The real turning point in the show was the late first season arrival of former Dynasty vixen Heather Locklear as the scheming and assertive Amanda Woodward. The show took a soapish turn as Amanda bought the apartment building, took over the company where she and fellow Melrose Place resident Alison worked, and had affairs with many of the male characters.
Amanda's first major sin upon arriving in Melrose was to seduce the dim-witted Billy. Meanwhile Michael started cheating on Jane with the unstable Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross). He later divorced Jane, married Kimberly, then slept around with Jane's sarcastic, trashy prostitute/stripper sister Sydney (Laura Leighton). This established Michael as the goofy, wisecracking slut and con artist he would remain until the end of the show. Ultimately Michael was the only original character to appear through the show's entire run; Jane took a brief hiatus but returned for the final season.
Alison and Billy broke up and then reconciled, but Alison fled their wedding after flashing back to childhood sexual abuse. Billy later married rich brat Brooke (Kristin Davis) while Alison married Brooke's father (Perry King), both of whom tried to control Alison and Billy's lives. Brooke and her father drowned in separate incidents and Alison became an alcoholic, then took up with Jake, while Billy turned to the dark side before marrying simpering Samantha (Brooke Langton).
In 1995, Jack Wagner, known for his role as Frisco Jones on General Hospital, delighted viewers with his portrayal of the charismatic but very corrupt Dr. Peter Burns. Peter tormented Amanda, nearly killing her on the operating table before he was arrested, but for all his crimes Peter was also the first man to be the equal of ice queen Amanda (her previous lovers had been chosen more for their jeans than their genes). Sensing the chemistry, producers quickly made Wagner a contract player, and Amanda-Peter would remain a popular on-again off-again couple for the remainder of the series.
These storylines along with Amanda's catty one-liners, sexy-but-tough wardrobe and man-stealing helped make Melrose a guilty pleasure for many millions of viewers around the world. Within a few seasons Locklear had slept with or made out with every male character except the gay Matt Fielding. Many highly dramatic cliffhanger situations were also included in the series. The show's popularity led to a rash of similar nighttime serials about sexy, powerful women, such as Models, Inc., Savannah, Pacific Palisades, Central Park West and Sex and the City.
Kimberly Shaw endured as the love/hate of Michael's life and a formidable villain for several seaons. Her antics provided many jolts to the audience, such as her pulling off her wig to study her shaved, scarred head in the bathroom mirror; having her wig torn off in view of hospital staff by Matt Fielding; struggling to contain multiple personalities; learning fighting techniques at a survivalist camp; and blowing up the apartment complex in an incendiary fourth-season opener.
By the 1996–1997 season the series seemed to have peaked, with Amanda softening and Kimberly's long-running reign of terror finally running out of steam, and there was a growing consensus that the show could no longer shock or entertain viewers as it once had. Producers promised the fifth season would include more character development and less convoluted plot twists. After an end-of-season cliffhanger ending where Jo vacillated over leaving LA to join her new lover in Kosovo, the new season quickly explained that the now-absent Jo had indeed left town. A slate of new characters was introduced, such as hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Megan (Kelly Rutherford), restaurateur Kyle (Rob Estes), his vengeful lush-lipped wife Taylor (Lisa Rinna), and Michael's bratty sister Jennifer (Alyssa Milano). Kyle soon took up with Amanda and, as ratings began to falter, Amanda morphed from vixen to victim, being rescued or assaulted or teary-eyed on a frequent basis.
This season also saw many enduring characters leave the series. Allison fooled Jake into thinking she had fallen off the wagon so that he would go reunite with the mother of his long-lost child, and the two left town separately. After dominating storylines for several seasons Kimberly quietly died of cancer. At the end of the season Samantha's jailbird father accidentally killed Sydney by running her down in a car right after her wedding to Craig (David Charvet). As the following season began Matt left town to take a new job in San Francisco. Craig, Billy and Sam all left town in 1998.
The losses of Marcia Cross (Kimberly), Grant Show (Jake), Laura Leighton (Sydney), Doug Savant (Matt), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison), and Josie Bissett (Jane) all within a few episodes stunned the show's devoted cult of fans and lead to the program's downward spiral. (Bissett would later return to the series in 1998.) The new characters hurriedly drafted into the series had difficulty gaining a following during this period of cast instability. Overall the series seemed unable to withstand the high number of cast changes in such a short time and its popularity never recovered.
The final seasons featured high turnover of various new characters. Amanda remained a leading character through all this with the last year returning her to her bitchy roots. Meanwhile the show paired the long-suffering Jane with Kyle (their portrayers were real-life spouses). By early 1999 FOX decided that the ratings erosion as well as the extremely high production costs—it was said that they could have filmed an entire pilot just on Heather Locklear's salary—warranted cancellation.
Models, Inc.
In early 1994, former Dallas star Linda Gray guest-starred as Amanda's frosty mother, Hillary Michaels. Hillary ran a modeling agency, and viewers were invited to follow Hillary to her own series, Models, Inc.. In spite of the presence of Gray and other names such as Emma Samms, poor ratings caused FOX to pull the plug in spring 1995.
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Cast
- Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward (1993–1999)
- Thomas Calabro as Michael Mancini (1992–1999)
- Courtney Thorne-Smith as Alison Parker (1992–1997)
- Marcia Cross as Kimberly Shaw (1992–1997)
- Laura Leighton as Sydney Andrews (1993–1997)
- Josie Bissett as Jane Andrews (1992–1997, 1998–1999)
- Andrew Shue as Billy Campbell (1992–1998)
- Grant Show as Jake Hanson (1992–1997)
- Jack Wagner as Peter Burns (1994–1999)
- Doug Savant as Matt Fielding (1992–1997)
- Daphne Zuniga as Jo Reynolds (1992–1996)
- Rob Estes as Kyle McBride (1996–1999)
- Lisa Rinna as Taylor McBride (1996–1998)
- Jamie Luner as Lexi Sterling (1997–1999)
- Kristin Davis as Brooke Armstrong (1995–1996)
- Kelly Rutherford as Megan Lewis (1996–1999)
- Brooke Langton as Samantha Reilly (1996–1998)
- David Charvet as Craig Field (1996–1998)
- Alyssa Milano as Jennifer Mancini (1997–1998)
- Linden Ashby as Brett "Coop" Cooper (1997–1998)
- Vanessa Williams as Rhonda Blair (1992–1993)
- Amy Locane as Sandy Harling (1992–1993)
- John Haymes Newton as Ryan McBride (1998–1999)
- Patrick Muldoon as Richard Hart (1995–1996)
- Antonio Sabato, Jr. as Jack Parezi (1995)
- Rena Sofer as Eve Cleary Burns (1998–1999)
- Loni Anderson as Teri Carson (1996)
- Denise Richards as Brandi Carson (1996)
- John Enos III as Bobby Parezi (1995–1996)
- Perry King as Hayley Armstrong (1995)
- Andrew Williams as Chris Marchette (1994)
- Jasmine Guy as Caitlin (1995)
Characters
- Michael Mancini:
- Jane Andrews:
- Billy Campbell:
- Alison Parker:
- Jake Hanson:
- Jo Reynolds:
- Matt Fielding:
- Rhonda Blair:
- Sandy Harling:
- Amanda Woodward:
- Sydney Andrews:
- Kimberly Shaw:
- Peter Burns:
- Brooke Armstrong:
- Kyle McBride:
- Taylor McBride:
- Samantha Reilly:
- Megan Lewis:
- Craig Field:
- Jennifer Mancini:
- Brett "Coop" Cooper:
- Lexi Sterling:
- Ryan McBride:
Legacy
Melrose Place's blend of melodrama, black humor, unapologetic sexuality, and shocking moments have helped the show remain relevant in the years since the show went off the air. Besides launching numerous careers (Marcia Cross, Kristin Davis and Courtney Thorne-Smith being the most notable actors to go on to greater fame as a result of their time on Melrose Place), the show helped revive the careers of Heather Locklear and Alyssa Milano, with Milano herself reinventing herself from tomboyish child star to adult sex symbol.The formula of sex and over-the-top storylines led to an ironic twist as the success of Melrose Place led to Aaron Spelling revamping 90210 as an over-the-top soap opera-style show when Melrose Place overshadowed 90210 in popularity in mid-1990s. The show also has become the standard bearer for shocking storyline twists in the prime time drama genre, with classic "shock" moments such as the villain Kimberly Shaw revealing that she wore a wig and had scars on her head from where she had brain surgery performed on her, raised the bar in terms of shocking plot twists in the prime-time soap genre.
GALA Committee
A group of artists and Melrose Place producers formed the GALA Committee, headed by artist Mel Chin, in order to bring artworks out of galleries and into nighttime television. GALA artists designed artworks that were used as props by Melrose Place characters in the fourth and fifth seasons, often with hidden political messages:- When Alison is pregnant, her quilt is decorated with the molecular structure of RU-486.
- A bag of Chinese take-out food is emblazoned with the ideogram for "Human Rights in China!"
- Bottles behind the counter at Shooters bar are decorated with ads and documents chronicling the history of alcohol.
- Womanizing Dr. Peter Burns uses bedsheets decorated with stripes that, upon closer inspection, are clearly unrolled condoms.
Chin compared the works to viruses, symbiotic and invisible. Almost fifty of these artworks were auctioned off for charity; the actual charity show appears in a fifth-season art gallery scene. The project was also dubbed "In the Name of the Place," as well as "Unnecessary Sense."
International
- In Australia, the show was shown on Network Ten.
- In Brazil, the show can be seen on Sony Entertainment Television.
- In France, the show was shown on TF1.
- In Finland, the show can be seen on MTV3 and SubTV.
- In Germany, the show was shown on RTL.
- In The Netherlands, the show was shown on Veronica, currently called RTL 7
- In United Kingdom, the show was shown on Sky One.
- In Italy, the show was shown on Italia 1.
- In Estonia, the show was shown on TV3 Estonia.
- In Hungary, the show was shown on HBO.
- In Ireland, the show was shown on RTÉ.
- In Denmark, the show can be seen on TV 2.
- In Latin America, the show can be seen on Sony Entertainment Television.
- In Chile, the show can be seen on Mega
DVD release
Due to the popularity of the show, bootleg DVD sets collecting all seven seasons (227 episodes) of the show have circulated around the internet, mainly on Ebay.During the summer of 2005, Paramount Home Entertainment announced their plans to release the first season of Melrose Place on DVD sometime in 2006. No word on extras or how Paramount would deal with acquiring music rights for the show's DVD release.
The first season of the show will be available in Australia on 5 October 2006 when the Region 4 release is available along with sister show Beverly Hills 90210.
External links
- [SOAPnet MP Page]
- [E! True Hollywood Story: Everything You Wanna Know About Melrose Place]
- ["In the Name of the Place"]
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