Melrose Place

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Melrose Place
Image:Melrose Place S1.jpg Melrose Place 1st season DVD cover
Format	Soap opera
Created by	Darren Star
Starring	See cast and characters below
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	226
Production
Running time	44 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX
Original run	July 8, 1992 – May 24, 1999
External links
IMDb profile

Melrose Place is an American primetime soap opera that ran between 1992 and 1999, created by Darren Star for the FOX network and executive produced by Aaron Spelling. A spinoff from Beverly Hills 90210, though not featuring any permanent cast members crossing over, Melrose Place is set in a small apartment courtyard complex in the West Hollywood district of Los Angeles, where several young individuals reside, each with their own dreams and drives. The show's popularity led to a rash of similar nighttime serials about sexy, powerful women, such as Models, Inc., Savannah, Pacific Palisades, and Central Park West, all of which were short-lived.

The show struggled in its first season with low ratings, unlike its predecessor, which was at its height of fame at the time. However, with the arrival of more interesting characters and over-the-top storylines, ratings increased. The show was canceled after its seventh season. In 2004, the network SOAPnet began repeating the series. Seasons 1 through 3 are currently available on DVD, and the fourth season is set to arrive on April 15, 2008.

Contents 1 Season One (1992-93) 2 Season Two (1993-94) 3 Season Three (1994-95) 4 Season Four (1995-96) 5 Season Five (1996-97) 6 Season Six (1997-98) 7 Season Seven (1998-99) 8 Models, Inc. 9 Cast 10 Legacy 10.1 GALA Committee 11 Trivia 12 DVD releases

[edit] Season One (1992-93)

During the first season, the show was a relatively earnest serial drama with low-key storylines, and 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 sympathetic doctor at Wilshire Memorial and Jane a budding fashion designer. Their neighbors were flatmates Alison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Billy (Andrew Shue), who later began a love affair, and Matt Fielding (Doug Savant), a gay man who had no love life during the first season, and spent much of his storyline involved in one discrimination-related lawsuit after the next.

Other original cast members were Rhonda (Vanessa A. Williams), an African-American aerobics instructor, and her roommate, the blonde, budding starlet Sandy Harling (Amy Locane). Sandy was written out after 13 episodes when the powers that be decided they were not interested in having to continually address her acting pursuits. Rhonda was removed after the first season.

Early in the show's run, photographer Jo Reynolds (Daphne Zuniga) arrived from New York to escape her alcoholic ex-husband. The tough Jo was compatible with bad-boy biker Jake (Grant Show), and the two would enjoy an on-again, off-again romance, remaining close throughout whether they are romantically involved at the time or not.

Producers were faced with mediocre ratings and attempted to revamp the series during the first season. This revamp came in the form of the first-season arrival of former Dynasty vixen and T.J. Hooker alumna Heather Locklear as the opinionated and assertive Amanda Woodward. Initially intended as a high-profile guest, Amanda was retained on the series on a permanent basis, but Locklear kept her "Special Guest Star" billing throughout the show's run. Amanda soon vied with Alison for Billy's affections, bought the apartment building, became a vice-president for the company, D&D Advertising, where she and fellow resident Alison worked, and had affairs with several male residents. Amanda's crudity, catty one-liners, and sexy-but-tough wardrobe helped make Melrose a guilty pleasure for many millions of viewers around the world. Over the course of the show, Amanda hooks up with every male character (except the gay Matt Fielding) during the first five seasons. The show became less of an episodic series, and more of a soap opera with ongoing, interwoven stories, beginning with Michael Mancini's love affair with lonesome co-worker Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) and Alison's affair with a married man who eventually stalks her. The first season came to a close as Michael and Jane split up.

[edit] Season Two (1993-94)

As the second season starts to simmer, Michael divorces Jane and gets engaged to Kimberly, and then had a fling with Jane's irresponsible sister Sydney (Laura Leighton). Sydney was presented as somewhat a chaotic schemer, often outwitted and double-crossed by others, forcing her into ill-advised jobs such as a prostitute and later, a stripper. The storylines began to heat up when a drunken Michael crashed his car, sending him and Kimberly tumbling down a ravine. Kimberly's angry, grieving mother sent word that her critically injured daughter had died in a medical facility in Ohio. Michael eluded potential manslaughter charges when Matt faked Michael's blood alcohol test results at the hospital -- and Sydney used this information to blackmail Michael into marrying her, despite sister Jane's protest which leads to a cat-fight in the Melrose Place pool when Jane arrives home to find Sydney stealing/wearing her wedding dress. Sydney's plan is foiled when Kimberly later re-appears, alive and well, revealing that her mother had lied to keep Michael away. Kimberly returned as a more ruthless, unstable individual, with her sanity negatively affected by brain surgery and her accident. She reclaims Michael as her own, and it is ultimately revealed that her motive is to take vengeance upon him by killing him, which she enlists Sydney's aid for when she is financially unable to hire an assassin. In one of the series' most famous moments, Kimberly removes her wig in front of a mirror to present a gruesome scar left from the drunken car accident. Jo became romantically involved with supposedly innocent ex-con and former high school flame Reed Carter, who works on boats upon which he secretly smuggles drugs. Jo's discovery of his stash leads to her kidnap on the Pacific Ocean. Jo kills Reed in self-defense, but learns later that she is pregnant with his child. Roommates before they were lovers, Alison and Billy break up several times, reconcile and plan a wedding set in the building's courtyard, but Alison flees through a window the day of their nuptials after she realizes that her recent nightmares are flashbacks to childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by her father who threatens her on her wedding day. The climax of season two sees Michael being run over by a car.

[edit] Season Three (1994-95)

As the high-octane third season gets underway, Jane first, and then Sydney, are blamed for a hit and run accident with Michael as the target -- leaving him with amnesia and Kimberly, the real culprit, scot-free. She and Michael ultimately reconcile in a Vegas shotgun wedding. In the meantime, a custody battle ensues between Jo and Reed's parents, the Carters -- but it grows more complicated when Kimberly, who originally conspires with Jo to fake the baby's death so that Jo can escape and live in anonymity with her child, actually steals the baby away from Jo. She and Michael claim the baby as their own until Jo seeks help from Peter. Faced with the possibility of losing their medical licenses, Michael returns the baby to Jo. Jo hires a nanny, but just as she and her baby prepare to leave for New York, the nanny speeds off with the infant. The Carters (whom the nanny was working for) go as far as to shoot Jo with a shotgun, and she survives to make the decision that the best thing for her child and his safety is to give him up for adoption, a course of action that she explains to her young infant during their very emotional departure. In contrast with the numerous and steamy love scenes of all the other characters, Matt's sole kissing scene with a man, Billy's secretly gay best friend and best man at his attempted wedding, was censored by FOX. Jake had numerous relationships with Melrose Place residents, including most of the female regulars (Sandy, Jo, Amanda, Sydney, Jane, Alison). He bought a bike shop, which burned down, and later bought Shooters, which endured as the Melrose gang's hangout from the quiet scenes of season one to the rollercoaster storylines of later seasons. Alison, in the meantime, descends deeper into alcoholism, and Billy, fed up, marries rich brat Brooke (Kristin Davis), Alison's co-worker, who deceptively pretends to be Alison's friend as she, Alison and Billy all are employed at D&D. In actuality, Amanda hires Brooke as her assistant and the two conspire against Alison in order to return Amanda to a position of power at D&D when Alison takes it away from her. The charismatic and corrupt Dr. Peter Burns joins the staff at Wilshire Memorial, who began a fling with Amanda, drugged her so that she'd lose her job to his old girlfriend, and also tried to kill her on the operating table. But for all his crimes, Peter was the first man to be the equal of ice queen Amanda. 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. Peter did depart for a time after his murder attempt on Amanda but, in a shocking twist, arrived back at Melrose Place to save Michael from prison in exchange for Michael's assistance in clearing him of all murder charges in order to save his medical license. Despite Amanda's threat to every staff member at Wilshire Memorial to sue each of them for reckless endangerment, Michael and Kimberly's testimonies prove to be enough to help Peter retain his license. Peter and Kimberly become romantically involved at the time; however, Kimberly finds that Peter is actually interested in rekindling a love affair with Amanda. This does not help matters as Kimberly's sanity begins to slip, spiraling into a more serious psychotic break as she undergoes survivalist camp training, making a collage of the Melrose residents with their eyes gouged out, kidnapping Sydney and planting four fire bombs in the apartment complex in a thrilling third-season cliffhanger. Due to the Oklahoma City bombing that same month (May 1995), the actual bombing did not take place until the beginning of season four.

[edit] Season Four (1995-96)

The four explosions destroy half the apartment complex, killing one person and maiming another in an incendiary fourth-season opener. Alison eventually marries Brooke's father Hayley (Perry King), and Brooke and Hayley interfere with each other's marriages. Hayley eventually discovers he is financially ruined and, during a trip with Alison, he drowns after falling from his yacht while drunk. Billy breaks up with Brooke, leading to her suicide attempt, followed by her accidental drowning in the building's swimming pool. Season Four saw the last of Jo Reynolds, as she dumped Jake, engaged in a relationship with Dominick and emigrated to Bosnia with him, which all happened in quick succession. In the meantime, Jane got involved with Richard, who proved to be dangerous as the fourth season came to a climax. Kimberly's sanity fluctuates in seriousness in Season four, as she suffers from multiple personality disorder and sets a couch aflame at the beach house, under the guise of 50's stereotype Betsy. To get her revenge on Michael and Peter for accusing her of being insane, she locked them up in an insane asylum, but Michael pulled her back from 'Betsy' and Kimberly soon drifted into a coma. Peter is arrested for the murder of Bobby, and Kimberly, his only alibi, is now in a coma. The fourth season ends with Alison and Jake rekindling their relationship, and Jane and Sydney burying Richard, although he is alive. The last scene of season four shows Richard's hand pop out of the ground just as Jane and Sydney speed off in their car.

[edit] Season Five (1996-97)

By the fifth 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 a season finale where Jo vacillated over leaving L.A. to join her new lover in Bosnia, the new season quickly explained that the now-absent Jo had indeed left town. Alison started a relationship with Jake, while Billy begins to pursue newcomer artist Samantha (Brooke Langton). A slate of other characters are introduced, such as hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Megan (Kelly Rutherford), restauranteur Kyle McBride(Rob Estes), his vengeful, lush-lipped wife (and Peter's sister-in-law) Taylor (Lisa Rinna), and Michael's bratty sister Jennifer (Alyssa Milano). After a brief tryst with Sydney, Kyle soon takes up with Amanda who is reluctant to do so considering Jennifer's constant involvement in Kyle's life now after it is revealed that he and Jennifer had a 5-month affair back in Boston many years ago during the early years of his marriage to Taylor. 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. Jane discovered she was adopted, and after an identity crisis, moves to Chicago. Alison, who has no interest in being a mother, despite having previously miscarried Jake's child, fools Jake into thinking she has fallen off the wagon so that he reunites with the mother of his long-lost child, and the two leave town separately. After dominating storylines for several seasons, Kimberly quietly died of a brain aneurysm. Her death is even more tragic as she passes away whilst trying to find Michael to tell him she has always loved him. Michael has a moment alone with Kimberly in her coffin, telling her he'll never forget her whilst fighting back tears. And at the end of the season, Samantha's jailbird father abducts his daughter and, in the process, kills Sydney by running her down in a car that Samantha is driving at her wedding to Craig (David Charvet).

[edit] Season Six (1997-98)

Sydney's death leads to animosity between Craig and ex-lover Samantha who attempts, at one point, to kill in retribution for the death of his wife. By the time Matt left Melrose Place at the beginning of the sixth season, he remarked that he wanted to say goodbye but "there's no one left." Indeed, more characters had to be introduced to revive the series, including violent Dr. Brett Cooper (Linden Ashby) and his seductive, rich Daddy's girl and ex-wife, Lexi Sterling (Jamie Luner). The focal point of the season was the troubled relationship between Kyle and Amanda, who returned to her nasty ways after creating her own advertising agency, Amanda Woodward Advertising. By the end of the season (the show's shortest), Craig attacks Jennifer who is aided by Billy in a fight for her life, but Craig escapes, steals Jennifer's car, and commits suicide, unable to live with the grief of his lost love Sydney. The characters of Billy, Sam, Taylor, Jennifer, and Coop depart with Taylor, who gives birth to Michael's child and agrees to share mothering duties with the returning Jane, leaves and keeps the baby for herself as Billy and Jennifer move to Italy. After Coop's failed murder attempt on Lexi's life, diverted with Megan's aid, he leaves to take up a job offer with a man who previously tried to con Megan into sex, knowing of her past as a prostitute. The show was renewed for a seventh season, which would also be its last.

[edit] Season Seven (1998-99)

As the seventh and final season began, residents learn that Matt, who had moved away a year earlier for career advancement provided by Michael, was killed in a car accident on the way to a reunion dinner at Kyle's restaurant. The residents also learned that Matt had kept a journal of all the secrets they shared with him and each of them schemed to get their hands on it. This was the driving force behind the stories for this season. The most notable story was that of the relationship between Amanda Woodward and Eve Cleary Burns. Bissett returned to the series as Jane in 1998 in a move to halt the series' downward spiral, and storylines centered on her early relationship with Michael, where it's revealed she slept with a current client of Amanda's the day before her wedding to Michael, leading to his distrust of her now as they decide to marry again. New characters were hurriedly drafted into the series: Kyle's younger brother Ryan McBride (John Haymes Newton), who secretly has a daughter living at a convent in New York, following the death of her mother, and Eve Cleary (Rena Sofer), had difficulty gaining a following during this period of cast instability. Overall, the series seemed unable to handle the high number of cast changes in such a short time, and its popularity never recovered. Amanda remained a leading character through the end of the series. Lexi Sterling (Jamie Luner) underwent a benevolent transformation from the rich, Daddy's girl to a scheming but popular super-bitch who succeeded in purchasing the Melrose Place building from Amanda and started a new agency, Sterling-Conway, which drives Amanda out of business. Meanwhile, the show paired the long-suffering Jane with Kyle (the actors were real-life spouses) and returned to the coupling of Amanda and Peter. By early 1999 FOX decided that the ratings erosion as well as the extremely high production costs spelled cancellation. In the end, the audiences were shocked by the deaths of Amanda and Peter, who were ultimately found to have faked their deaths after purchasing an island where they could live alone and bear children. Michael becomes the superior at Wilshire Memorial, becoming very close with a sexy new nurse, and Eve, who went crazy after Peter left her for Amanda, is locked up in jail after kidnapping Michael and Lexi, who she poured Peter's fake ashes on at their funeral.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Cast

• Thomas Calabro as Dr. Michael Mancini
• Josie Bissett as Jane Andrews Mancini (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)
• Marcia Cross as Dr. Kimberly Shaw (1992-1993, 1994-1997)
• Laura Leighton as Sydney Andrews (1993–1997)
• Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward (1993–1999)
• Jack Wagner as Dr. Peter Burns (1994–1999)
• Kristin Davis as Brooke Armstrong Campbell (1995–1996)
• Patrick Muldoon as Richard Hart (1995-1996)
• Brooke Langton as Samantha Reilly (1996–1998)
• Rob Estes as Kyle McBride (1996–1999)
• Lisa Rinna as Taylor McBride (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 Dr. Brett "Coop" Cooper (1997–1998)
• Jamie Luner as Lexi Sterling (1997–1999)
• John Haymes Newton as Ryan McBride (1998–1999)
• Rena Sofer as Eve Cleary (1998-1999)

[edit] 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 (most notably, Marcia Cross and Kristin Davis later landed starring roles on Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City, respectively), the show helped revive the careers of Doug Savant, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Heather Locklear and Alyssa Milano. Savant also now appears as a regular on Desperate Housewives.

The formula of sex and over-the-top storylines led Aaron Spelling to revamp 90210 as an over-the-top soap opera-style show when Melrose Place overshadowed 90210 in popularity in the mid-1990s. The show also has become the standard bearer for shocking storyline twists in the prime time drama genre, with classic moments such as Kimberly Shaw revealing that she had scars on her head from brain surgery.

[edit] 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 two opposing ideograms translated from Chinese as "Human Rights" and "Turmoil"; both terms were used by the Chinese government to justify a restriction on student protesters of June 4, 1989.
• Bottles behind the counter at Shooters bar are decorated with ads and documents chronicling the history of alcohol.
• As Alison quits D&D Advertising, a framed ad in the background features a bombed-out building. The damage to the structure is in the shape of a liquor bottle, and the words "Total Proof" appear on the poster.

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 "Uncommon Sense".

[edit] Trivia

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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Heather Locklear was credited as a "special guest star" for six seasons.

• Thomas Calabro (Michael Mancini) was the only original cast member to remain on Melrose Place throughout the entire run.

• Melrose Place is a so-called "branch" of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) since part of the Melrose Place story begins there. Grant Show had appeared on two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990)_ (as Jake Hanson), to introduce this spin-off, to viewers. Also in the pilot the cast of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) which included Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, and Tori Spelling. Garth appeared on the first three episodes of Melrose to continue their characters' story lines, with brief appearances by Ziering and Green in each show. Spelling appeared in only the first two shows because her character then left to study in France for the rest of the summer.

• Actress Hunter Tylo was originally cast in the role of Taylor McBride, but became pregnant soon after being hired, and was fired. Producers said the pregnancy violated the change-in-her-appearance clause in her contract, and she sued them. Tylo won the suit against Aaron Spelling and the other producers, and was rewarded $4.9 million.

• Stephen Fanning was originally cast in the role of Billy Campbell, but was fired when filming first began because he had gained too much weight. He was replaced by Andrew Shue, who re-shot the "Billy" scenes in the pilot two days after getting the role.

• The third season was originally going to end with Kimberly blowing up the apartment complex, but that was scrapped since the Oklahoma City bombing occurred a month earlier. Not wanting to be insensitive to the national tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing, the producers had the final shot of the season being Kimberly hitting the detonator, then showed the explosion in the season premiere in the fall of 1995.

• When the series ended, people who worked on the show sold bottles of the swimming pool water on eBay.^{[citation needed]}

• Courteney Cox, Dean Cain, Calista Flockhart, Julianna Margulies, Paul Rudd, Robert Sean Leonard, Sherry Stringfield, Pamela Anderson, Noah Wyle, and Kathy Ireland all auditioned for roles when the show was first being cast in 1992.

• Both Linden Ashby and Rob Estes had guest appearances in the first season and second season and then became prominent members in the cast later in the series as completely different characters. Ashby played Jo's ex-husband and then became Dr. Brett "Coop" Cooper and Estes played Sam and then became Kyle McBride.

• 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.

• In Season One, it's mentioned that both Alison Parker and Jane Mancini are 23; and Billy Campbell is 22.

• From the fifth season on, "St. George Industries" became a running gag in the show, popping up as a random company name as needed; it was named after Chris St. George, a writers’ assistant for the show.

• The Season 7 villain "Alex Bastian" was named partly after then Script Coordinator Jon Bastian.

• The character, Billy Campbell, was named after actor Bill Campbell.

[edit] DVD releases

CBS Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons of Melrose Place on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2 (Sweden) for the very first time. Season 4 will be released on April 15 2008. Season 3 has not yet been released in Region 4.[1]

DVD Name	Ep #	Region 1	Region 2 (Swedish Edition)	Region 2 (UK Edition)	Region 4	Additional features
The Complete First Season	32	November 7 2006	November 13 2006	November 13 2006	November 2 2006	Season 1 episode recaps, Mini Featurettes.
The Complete Second Season	32	May 1 2007	May 28 2007	May 14 2007	May 3 2007	Audio Commentary by Series Creator Darren Star, Melrose Place: Meet The Neighbours, Melrose Place: Complex Relationships, Melrose Place: The Best of the Worst
The Complete Third Season	32	November 13 2007	March 13 2008			Melrose Place: According to Jake, Melrose Place: Seven Minutes In Hell, Everything You Need To Know About Melrose Place Season 3
The Complete Fourth Season	34	April 15 2008			de:Melrose Place es:Melrose Place fr:Melrose Place it:Melrose Place he:מלרוז פלייס hu:Melrose Place nl:Melrose Place ja:メルローズ・プレイス pl:Melrose Place pt:Melrose Place ro:Melrose Place ru:Мелроуз-Плейс (телесериал) fi:Melrose Place sv:Melrose Place