Television & Reality TV - Melrose Place #1: Because We're Getting DVDs. Finally!

BehindTheseHazelEyes · 05-28-2006, 10:06 AM

Welcome to the Melrose Place Thread

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 both written out after the first season. Early in the show's run photographer Jo Reynolds (Daphne Zuniga) arrived. She pined for Jake and later searched for the son she gave up at birth. Another early arrival was the gay Matt Fielding (Doug Savant), who had the fewest love affairs of any character in the series.

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 **** 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 Model's Inc, Savannah, Pacific Palisades, Sex and the City and Central Park West.

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.

Cast

Thomas Calabro as Michael Mancini (1992–1999)
Josie Bissett as Jane Andrews (1992–1997, 1998–1999)
Andrew Shue as Billy Campbell (1992–1998)
Courtney Thorne-Smith as Alison Parker (1992–1997)
Grant Show as Jake Hanson (1992–1997)
Doug Savant as Matt Fielding (1992–1997)
Daphne Zuniga as Jo Reynolds (1992–1996)
Vanessa Williams as Rhonda Blair (1992–1993)
Amy Locane as Sandy Harling (1992–1993)
Marcia Cross as Kimberly Shaw (1992–1997)
Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward (1993–1999)
Laura Leighton as Sydney Andrews (1993–1997)
Jack Wagneras Peter Burns (1994–1999)
Kristin Davis as Brooke Armstrong (1995–1996)
Rob Estes as Kyle McBride (1996–1999)
Lisa Rinna as Taylor McBride (1996–1998)
Brooke Langton as Samantha Reilly (1996–1998)
Kelly Rutherford as Megan Lewis (1996–1999)
David Charvet as Craig Field (1996–1998)
Alyssa Milano as Jennifer Mancini (1997–1998)
Linden Ashby as Brett "Coop" Cooper (1997–1998)
Jamie Luner as Lexi Sterling (1997–1999)
John Haymes Newton as Ryan McBride (1998–1999)

Melrose Residents

1. -Abdullah-
2. VU&NICO
3. McDreamy
4. Nasty Naughty Boy
5. Josephine Leery
6. northernstarchik

* Ask to be added to the list of fans.

Wildfire Girl · 05-28-2006, 02:54 PM

Thanks for getting the thread started. I'll add it into the thread guide.

VU&NICO · 05-29-2006, 03:36 PM

Thanks for the thread. Add me to the list, please! Melrose is one of my (very) guilty pleasures, a campy show that was sublime and ridiculous at the same time, with at least 3 unforgettable characters (Kimberly, Amanda and Sidney). I loved it!

Subject · 05-29-2006, 03:46 PM

I used to watch the show everyday after school when it was on E!. All I really remember is a lot of sex and switching partners.

When does the dvd come out?

BehindTheseHazelEyes · 05-30-2006, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Subject

I used to watch the show everyday after school when it was on E!. All I really remember is a lot of sex and switching partners.

When does the dvd come out?

From over at the Desperate Housewives board:

Quote:

After years of waiting, it finally looks like two of mega-producer Aaron Spelling's biggest 90s series are headed to DVD. While searching on Paramount Home Entertainment press website, we stumbled onto separate placeholders for Beverly Hills 90210: Season 1 and Beverly Hills 90210: Season 7 (yes, 7), as well as Melrose Place: Season 1 and Melrose Place: Season 2.

While we can reasonably speculate that the box sets will be out before year's end, no official street date or packaging artwork is available yet (except for the logo artwork seen above). Needless to say, my wife is now the happiest person on Earth. Stay tuned as more develops on this exciting news!

Yeah, the bed-hopping. You had to laugh everytime a character says, 'I love you.' It was amusing.

Thanks, Wildfire Girl!

Added you, VU&NICO!

VU&NICO · 05-30-2006, 11:16 AM

Thank you, Abdullah!
Yeas, it was hilarious. I'm not much into soap operas (maybe because I'm a guy), but Melrose Place was just too hilarious and its storylines were so over the top, I just couldn't resist. I remember my parents used to watch it religiously too.

Fortyseven · 05-30-2006, 11:37 AM

Add me!

I grew up with Melrose.

BehindTheseHazelEyes · 05-31-2006, 05:59 AM

Added you, McDreamy!

Quote:

Yeas, it was hilarious. I'm not much into soap operas (maybe because I'm a guy), but Melrose Place was just too hilarious and its storylines were so over the top, I just couldn't resist. I remember my parents used to watch it religiously too.

Where else on TV could you see a woman come back from the dead, rip off her wig, plan revenge on her husband twelve times during the course of five seasons? It was good televison. Something you could watch and just enjoy.

Dalz · 05-31-2006, 06:50 AM

Can I be added to the list? Me and my mom loveddd this show! We watched it every single week. I can't wait for the DVD!

~Unfaithful~ · 05-31-2006, 07:01 AM

Please add me....I loved when Brooke was haunting Alison. I am seriously going to have to buy this.

BehindTheseHazelEyes · 05-31-2006, 09:56 AM

Added you, guys!

northernstarchik · 05-31-2006, 07:59 PM

Monday nights were the shiznit because of this show!

Add me!

BehindTheseHazelEyes · 06-01-2006, 11:30 AM

Added you!

So, does anyone have any favorite moments?

VU&NICO · 06-01-2006, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Abdullah-

Added you!

So, does anyone have any favorite moments?

Too many! The season cliffhangers for sure (the bomb, the hand from the grave, the lobotomy....WOW). Actually I loved every moment with Kimberly or/and Sidney. In fact, after their departure, the show jumped the shark IMO, I watched it just because there was still Amanda.

BehindTheseHazelEyes · 06-04-2006, 10:12 AM

My favorite moment can be summed up in five words: She Ripped. Off. Her. Wig.

Oh, and Charlotte (Brooke, Kristen Davis) dying of a bump was too much.

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Fan Forum > General Discussion > Television & Reality TV > Melrose Place #1: Because We're Getting DVDs. Finally!