Melrose Place- The Original

It was fun at the time.

so terrible but so good

My friend actually learned English by watching the reruns!

but they hired Doug Savant to play a GAY guy! and after four or five seasons they ALMOST showed a gay kiss!

Me too. I stumbled upon the fire rerun on YouTube a while back and can't believe I cleared my schedule to be home 15 minutes before it started every week.

I also lived in West Hollywood at the time and would relish in being able to drive by the real, yet uneventful, Melrose Place.

It was fun back in the day.

Courtney Thorne-Smith was a terrible actress, but next to Andrew Shue she was Glenda Jackson.

The first season wasn't very good at all. A lot of the actors were very limited. The additions of Amanda, Kimberly and Sydney helped greatly improve the show. Making Michael a villain (although usually a likable one) was a good idea also.

Melrose Place was the best show ever. It was like watching 90s opera. It was so awful it came back around to incredible.

To this day I am a giant Heather Locklear stan because she was such a stone cold bitch in her power mini skirt suits.

Wait til Sydney arrives .

[quote]To this day I am a giant Heather Locklear stan because she was such a stone cold bitch in her power mini skirt suits.

When she'd lead board meetings in sundresses I would guffaw at home. Loved it.

Two words. Thomas Calabro.

I guess he stays busy, but he really never did any work of note after, but he hung in there!

Melrose Place was nothing until Heather Locklear showed up.

Amanda and Sydney saved that show. Amanda for the bitchiness and Sydney for the comic relief.

I don't think Courtney Thorne-Smith is a bad actress but Allison was a horrible character. She was so whiny and obnoxious. I loved how the show changed in its second season. Allison turned from good girl to drunk. Michael turned from a doting husband to a man-ho.

I haven't seen it in years. I don't think it will hold up too well. For me the show was kind of like Empire. It got hot quickly in its second season but it ran out of steam fast. It plodded along for a number of seasons.

Kimberley in the wheelchair!

Allison and Billy were just so fucking immature. If they'd just had one real conversation, we could have done without two seasons worth of their drippy, pathetic storyline.

I was a big fan way back when, but I can't remember when I started watching it. I do know I didn't watch the first season outside of one early episode which I didn't like, so I was surprised to find that Locklear was basically a regular for about the last 10 episodes of Season 1 and Sydney was also in a multi-episode arc in Season 1. I thought Locklear showed up lock, stock and barrel in the first episode of Season 2.

I'm glad they dumped Amy Locane, but Zuniga was not a worthwhile replacement. And the less said about Rhonda and her fucking two left feet dance routines, the better. Kimberly should have given her the wheelchair.

Good looking people and goofy plots - of course it was a hit

Does it hold up? It doesn’t matter. It is what it is, which is a soap opera. It holds up as well as Dynasty which is to say it isn’t amazing, but it’s big campy fun. And yea, Season 1 doesn’t count. Nobody had real problems and everyone ended in the pool in every episode. Heather Locear changes everything just as the addition of Joan Collins totally changed Dynasty after it’s equally lackluster first season. Personally, I still love both shows.

Just as Stephanie Beacham elevated Dynasty toward the end, Jamie Luner gave Melrose a little shot of oomph in its last seasons, but too little too late.

I was so happy when Jamie Lunar joined Melrose Place. I loved her in Just The Ten of Us, so it was nice to see her get more work.

Jamie's Lexie almost made up for them killing off Sydney and Kimberly (although Kimberly had kind of been written into a corner).

Most of the cast additions in the later seasons left a lot to be desired.

Melrose Mondays were my and my friends' jam. Good times.

I once got a ticket for racing home to watch “Melrose”

🤦‍♀️

WHET Josie Bissett?

I think it’s so funny to watch Kristin Davis play a bitch because Charlotte on Sex and the City wasn’t.

Worst actors on the show

1- Andrew Shue

2- Kathy Ireland

3- Kristin Davis (but she redeemed herself on SATC)

4- David Charvet

5- Rena Sofer

6- Alyssa Milano

7- Amy Locane

8- Courtney Thorne-Smith

9- Daphne Zuniga

10- Lisa Rinna

Was this Lisa Rinna's only "real" show outside of DAYTIME soap operas? (I'm just assuming she was on them.)

I can't figure out why else she's somewhat famous now and on RHOBH.

It was seeing Lisa and her plumped up lips for the first time.

I loved when Allison would call someone “pathetic.”

Lisa Rinna sucked.

Taylor was originally supposed to be played by Hunter Tylo, who like Rinna, wasn't much of an actress, but she was quite beautiful at that time. She got pregnant and they recast with Rinna and she sued Aaron Spelling and won.

R25 Number one and four on your list need to have sex please

(r 7) hit it on the head. Thomas Calabro was so damn likeable in the role. Every scene he was in was just so fun to watch.

Laura Leighton was just the same as Sydney. It's like you have a constant smile on your face when ever they were on.

So, is it still on Prime?

Rena was awful. Her eyebrows kill me. Lisa R was just as bad, horrible writing, but I never missed an episode.

Rinna's story arc sucked too.

I learned English watching Melrose Place and Beverly Hills as a gayling. I also recall feeling tingly all over whenever Jake came on screen. So his and Daphne Zuniga's relationship was obviously my favourite.

OP: You forgot Thomas Calabro's community theater acting.

Remember during the show's heyday when Fox promoted MP's move to Monday nights by creating ads with the words "Mondays are a bitch" over a closeup of Heather's face? Good times.

"Bod Squad"

Look at all these beautiful white faces...

1994 WAS Melrose Place. Starting w/ Kimberly coming back from the dead up until Alison checks into rehab. The show was ultimate water cooler talk. Unfortunately it jumped the shark right after.

Alison's table cloth trick was awesome...

Heather Locklear was pregnant during filming and producers accommodated her when "Amanda" had to be pushed down a flight of stairs. A stunt double did the fall but the production cut a hole in the floor for Heather to lie in to get the final shot. Heather LOVED the hole in the floor because it allowed her to lie on her stomach for the first time in months. The crew had to practically beg her to get up off the floor since she was so comfortable down there.

I stopped watching around the time that Jo was searching for her stolen baby. I was long gone by the time Rinna showed up.

Fun Story - Hunter Tylo left Bold and Beautiful for the role of Taylor on Melrose Place. When she told the show she was pregnant, they fired her. Guess who was on the phone that same day?? Rinna's agent pitching her. Turns out word travels fast in the soap world. The best part was Tylo had Rinna testify in the wrongful termination suit. Spelling and co asserted Tylo could not be sexy while pregnant. Tylo stunned the jury when she revealed she was pregnant again during testimony, wearing a very sexy outfit in court.

The best reveal ever on TV was Kimberly pulling off the wig to reveal that 12 inch head scar.

Iconic moment.

[quote] OP: You forgot Thomas Calabro's community theater acting.

Nah, Calabro may not have been Olivier, but he got the character and played it to the hilt. Locklear certainly isn't a great actress but she sure played the hell out of Amanda. Shue would have trouble playing a corpse. I swear to christ he always looks like he's about to moo.

Yeah, Calabro was ok an actor compared to most of the cast. He actually had some good acting training and did a lot of theater in NY before MP. I think he knew the show was campy and not to taken too seriously, so why play it straight.

The top 10 worst actors list was pretty accurate but Antonio Sabato and Traci Lords stunk it up pretty bad as well.

Loved it the first few seasons, but for the life of me I can't remember many of the storylines. All I remember is that Billy/Allison got together in the beginning. If I watched it as an adult now, I'd probably hate it. I didn't like it when it got campy. They said Heather Locklear saved it, but I think that's when I started disliking it, it was all about her.

R46 Kimberly was the best psycho! Also when she blew up the building! Good times.

Arrgh! Kimberly's scar scene. I still remember putting my seatbelt on religiously as a result of that. (As if...).

I had just turned 18, living in LA, and was so beautiful the thought of being scarred like that, well, scarred me.

Good times indeed!

Wait, wait, wait! It's not what it looks like....it's worse.

The early seasons had so many one liners. The show still holds up, except maybe the D&D computers.

I always thought Laura Leighton would catapult to being a big TV star for her turn as Sydney - alas who would have thunk it would be Kristin Davis who really was horrid as Brooke.

Funny to think that out of all of them, Courtney was the one who stayed a TV star for the next 25 years. She went right from Melrose to Ally McBeal to According to Jim to Two and a 1/2 Men without a break.

Andrew Shue was pretty though!

Vanessa Williams must be so bitter. She didn't even get a proper send off episode.

I thought Vanessa was a great dancer!

[quote] Andrew Shue was pretty though!

Grant Show was pretty. Andrew Shue looked like a male Michele Lee.

Vanessa turned up on Days of our Lives recently as a love interest for Abe Carver. Sydney was great. The 90s seems like yesterday.

Oh my god I wanted Jake inside me so bad! I must have shot a hundred loads thinking of him in all my holes.

Jake was good on Devious Maids and Swingers.

Best MP storylines:

Amanda and Alison fighting over Billy. Amanda yelling at Alison for being drunk at a business dinner.

Sydney as a hooker then Sydney in the cult.

Marcia Cross trying to blow everyone up because she had a scar on her head and was embittered..

"Andrew Shue looked like a male Michele Lee."

I always thought he bore a strange resemblance to Salinger:

I loved the whole Alison was molested turns into a drunk storyline. Sydney hooking was great too. As was the initial tug and war with Alison and Amanda over Billy.

Daphne Zuniga WAS THE WORST actress.

Andrew Shue was THE WORST ACTOR

Runner up is definitely Ms. Thorne Smith

I cheered when they killed off Brooke. She was always a terrible actress.

Not one person on this thread has mentioned the other Vanessa Williams!

Kristian Alfonso is another contender for the top ten/twenty worst actors.

Did you miss R58, R68? As usual the self absorbed of DL chime in.

CTS was well cast to play the corn fed Midwestern tyro, but nailed drunk Alison.

I recall Kristin Davis gave flat line delivery coupled with weird coy smiles. My friend made me laugh with his imitation.

Jake=Hot!

Rob Estes added some later season eye candy.

Why did all those people continue to live in that building after being betrayed, back-stabbed, or left for dead by their neighbors? LOL, good times....

[quote]Yeah, Calabro was ok an actor compared to most of the cast. He actually had some good acting training and did a lot of theater in NY before MP. I think he knew the show was campy and not to taken too seriously, so why play it straight.

I mentioned this on another Melrose thread way back when, but I met a member of his family who said Calabro was a newlywed in real life when he got the part and really got into the hilarity of it when they turned Michael bad.

Someone else on that thread had gone to school with him and said he was a lovely guy, 100% straight.

Melrose Place was prime time cheese. As silly as the daytime soaps, but with a bigger budget. I viewed it as an unintentional comedy. It got tiresome pretty quickly, especially after they kept replacing characters.

You ask how, OP? I thought the same thing about the original 90210. It spawned Melrose Place and the acting wasn't better. Only 2 cute guys: Jason Priestley & Luke Perry, facially-challenged girls: the unfortunate Tori Spelling & the asymmetrical troublemaker Shannen Doherty, 2 dorks who couldn't act: Ian Ziering & Brian Austin Green, and an actress too old to convincingly play a teenager: Gabrielle Carteris.

It was overrated. I don't get the nostalgia people have for it. Maybe I would've liked it had I been an impressionable kid when it premiered. The 2008 reboot was forgettable. I won't be checking out the 90210 revival coming this August. RIP Luke Perry.

Did they ever film the original last scene of the series finale? After Rena Sofer goes crazy and we find out her mandated shrink is Kimberly?

R74 = Amy Locane/Douglas Emerson

Allison and Billy didn't have a functioning brain cell between the two of them. They were only good at one thing- taking a perfectly innocuous situation and blowing it completely out of proportion. I don't know how Amanda didn't beat the living shit out of both of them.

R75, I don't think they actually filmed it but I have loved that rumor for years and would love to see that reveal if they did.

[quote]Courtney Thorne-Smith was a terrible actress, but next to Andrew Shue she was Glenda Jackson

She was terrible on this, but better on "Ally McBeal" and much better on "Two and a Half Men."

What was the story with Doug Savant? Didn't he quit right before shooting started on one of the later seasons?

The last seasons aren't available on Prime. Melrose Place isn't worth paying for CBS All Access.

The show was on for seven seasons but I barely recognized the cast in its last season. It deteriorated pretty quickly.

But I do like that ending with Kimberly. It would have been a great way to end the series.

I loved MP, I even got into 90210 when Darren Starr and Aaron Spelling decided to make 90210 more Melrose Placey , more scandalous, by the time Valerie Malone arrived in Beverly Hills

[quote] The last seasons aren't available on Prime. Melrose Place isn't worth paying for CBS All Access.

Meh. Watch 1-5 on Prime, then join CBS All Access for free for a week and marathon the last two seasons, then cancel.

R79- She was good on MP. I liked her on Ally too.

I've always read that Doug didn't like being on the show because they didn't give his character much to work with. You accept a groundbreaking role and you're given crappy or minimal storylines that don't even include your character's sexuality. It's disappointing to the actor and the audience.

To call Andrew Shue wooden would be an insult to wood.

I remember being shocked when it turned out Doug Savant and Laura Leighton were a real-life couple. Of all the actors on that show I would never have paired them up together but they're still married all these years later so good for them.

Why the hell did they kill off Sydney anyway? That's the show's jump the shark moment for me. It was never as good after she was gone.

Doug Savant very loudly criticized the network for its treatment of his gay kiss scene which was admirable of him. He could've remained silent about it but he chose not to be which is nice.

Doug fans should check out the movie Masquerade that he did with Rob Lowe.

It was so bad it was good! Thanks for the memories and laughs!

R88, LL wanted more money. Spelling shows paid shit, especially with initial contracts.

You'd think with all his money, Spelling wouldn't be so stingy with his actors!

With around 8 regular cast members, you're probably working maybe 2 whole days for an entire episode if all your scenes were shot back to back. No need for $100K an episode for that.

They Shot like 33 episodes a season. When did they ever have time off?

R91 a year later Spelling offered Laura the $100,000 an episode she wanted to stay on Melrose to come back, Sydney was gonna come back from the dead, but Laura decided to do a six episode stint in BH 90210 instead playing a Sydney type character/schemer/ bed hopper called Sophie Burns, she two timed Steve Sanders with David Silver

R94, I remember one of the cast members, maybe DL fave Daphne Zuniga, say they shot two episodes at a time because of the unusual high episode order.

I am watching and I find Sydney really fucking irritating. I wish Michael would have killed her early on when he had the chance.

Also, why is Billy such a fucking childish asshole? He actually acts like a spoiled 10 year old in every scene and never gets called on his shit.

I hated Billy, especially after he and Alison didn't make it to the altar. He dates their assistant, then Alison's best friend, whom he moves in with. In the same apartment building? What a dick.

Sydney looked nothing like Jane. Wasn't there a storyline where she invested in the "MOVIES" and it turned out she funded pornos but made a ton of money.

Yes, r100. That was a great scene. LL was very funny and had great comedic timing.

LL was perfect for Sydney. Did they have an idea of how good she would be when they cast her?

I loved that Amada was just a co-worker with Billy and Allison at the Ad agency then suddenly had enough money to buy an apartment complex on Melrose which easily was worth 10 million dollars in real estate alone.

Sydney was only supposed to be around for two episodes, but Laura Leighton impressed them and they brought her back the next season. She had little acting experience prior to MP. Her biggest credit prior to that was a national Pizza Hut commercial.

Sydney made Jane interesting.

It's a shame Leighton didn't get a bigger career post-Melrose. She really was one of the best actors on the show. She could make Syndey such a troublemaker yet make you feel sorry for her.

And r105 is right. Jane was dull as dishwater, but Syndey made her more interesting.

Amanda was at a higher position than Billy and Alison in D&D. Plus, she had other money.

This is funny.

Who was the actor that was originally cast as Billy but who got fat and had to be replaced by Andrew Shue?

Are there really that few people who are attractive AND can actually act? It seems like so many people want to be actors, it shouldn’t be that hard to pluck 10 genuinely talented, decent looking people out of 10,000 wannabes.

Didn’t Laura Leighton fuck Grant Shoe in real life? Or did I dream/ make that up?

She did, R111. Then she moved on to Doug Savant.

Were Andrew Shue and Grant Shoe related or did I dream/make that up?

R112 - LOL thanks for a laugh.... damn spellcheck!

Leighton did date Show before she got together with Savant. They wanted them to pair Sydney and Jake but producers nixed it. Probably a good thing since they broke up in real life soon after.

I like Daphne Zuniga as an actress but Jo was so annoying.

She went from tough New Yorker with spunk and street smarts to a constantly victimized shrieking wench.

Joe was supposed to be Jake's match except Jake was a wooden plank painted to look like a hot dude and Daphne had talent, just not enough to make him interesting.

Joe?

Oh dear!

“Courtney Cox was up for the role of Allison Parker, which went to Courtney Thorne-Smith. She might have met her future Friends husband on set, as Matthew Perry almost snagged the role of Billy Campbell. Paul Rudd and Jason Bateman were also considered for that role. Andrew Shue wasn’t initially cast, either. An actor named Stephen Dale got the part, but he was fired a few days before production started because he had gained a few pounds and no longer had washboard abs.”

The credits never got enough, well, credit.

Big title sequences and theme songs were on their way out, but MP updated the genre with moody jazz over shots of Melrose Avenue at dusk, then broke out the big synths as each actor got a chance to pivot, smirk, laugh or pout their way through their two-shot title cards. (Note that Andrew Shue couldn't even come up with one facial expression, much less two.)

Kelly Rutherford's pivot far outshone Daphne Zuniga's, while Jamie Luner probably had the best classic nighttime soap two-shot.

And both Amy Locane and Vanessa Williams were two of the most gorgeous on the show, which has been forgotten since they were off so quickly.

I forgot to add: Jamie Luner's aggressive, imperious poolside pivot ruled them all!

I like Jamie Luner, but Melrose had jumped the shark long before she came. Even before that grouper joined the cast.

Allison was the original heroine of MP and CTS got saddled with tons of story. The creator - Darren Starr? - saw her that way and resisted when Spelling wanted Locklear on the show as the antagonist. We were supposed to root for Billy/Allison. Ha ha. It was Shue who was laconic to the point of not being there who blew that. I did love when crazy Keith (yummy Billy Moses who was Shue like on Falcon Crest) came into her life.

Laura shouldn't have let Doug leave the house dressed like this

R120 - That was AWESOME!

CTS and Heather worked well together.

I loved it when Amanda would sabotage Allison's proposals.

I loved Sydney and Jane's Aussie boyfriend.

Watching Season 3 right now and I really want to pummel Billy. He treats Allison like shit, finds out she's been molested by her father and whines for her to get over it because it's inconvenient to him, and pisses and moans like a petulant child, and we're supposed to like him?

Season one was horrible. It started picking up the second season.

I hated Jane so much. So boring.

I remember an SNL parody of the show. David Spade played one character, Jane, simply by sitting in a beach chair by the pool crying softly. It was pretty funny.

Drunk Allison was the best.

People weren't watching for the fabulous acting skills.

The show was boringly earnest in S1. Then, Ms. Amanda Woodward showed up and the rest is camp history.

Even before Amanda came in, adding Jo added drama.

OP, i had the same reaction years ago when I revisited it. Upon the first go round when it was originally airing I enjoyed a lot of it - some fun, camp value. But, it just didn't hold up. Granted, I didn't get very far into it before ditching it.

As with daytime soaps, MP had so much wackiness that it went beyond suspension of disbelief. Take the clip at R132, Allison is drinking AND drunk at work but everyone acts as if it's perfectly normal. Or how doctors can do the most horrendous, often criminal, acts but still be retained on staff at the local hospital. It seemed like the writers kept pushing and pushing the absurd story lines, getting worse toward the final seasons.

I was 11 or 12 and Billy and Allison were the first TV couple I rooted for. Heartbroken when she didn’t turn up at their wedding due to memories of her father molesting her!

It has nothing The LA Complex.

I totally forgot about Alyssa Milano as Dr Mancini's troublemaker sister.!

It was trashy escapist fun. Unfortunately the "trashy" lives on in reality shows like Real Housewives and the Kardashians. I loved MP because it so ridiculous and people like that couldn't possibly exist in real life. So sad to be so wrong.

First, Kimberly bombs the complex. The she’s let out of prison and the insane asylum a few months later, she’s allowed to be a psychiatrist, and Sydney agrees to be her patient.

For me, it was always about Kimberly and Sydney. Prior to their storyline, I had watched the show but only he ayse it was on and I related to it, having just graduated college and living in a courtyard apartment overlooking a pool. But when Sydney and Kimberly started getting more screen time, I was in. I hated how Kimberly eventually died (the second time) ; the writers really had fucked it all up by then and there were villains everywhere you looked. And having Syd killed in an accident caused by Samantha (one of the worst of the MP tenants) was just cruel to viewers. (And then they brought Syd back to life for the unsuccessful MP reboot a few years ago--only to kill her within five minutes. AGAIN.)

No love for Grant Show and beautiful curved cock?

r144 has it right. To answer the OP's question, it was worth watching for Grant Show alone. This adolescent jerked-off to him once a week.

Jennifer Young, daughter of Gig, told Howard Stern that she once spent a weekend shacked up in a NYC hotel with Grant Show.

She said his cock was perfectly curved and hit her in all the right spots.

Alyssa was good as Michael’s sister.

And I've heard Jennifer Young's vagina wall is curved like a Road Curves Ahead sign so that must be one slinky of a penis.

More drunk Allison

R6 I agree, Shue was shit.

Andrew Shue was a last minute replacement. The other guy turned up a little chunky and they fired him.

Melrose Place had one perfect year - 1994. Starting with Jo and Reed, then Sydney marrying Michael, Alison's nightmares, Ted the creepy handyman, Kimberly returning from the dead and running over Michael, Linda Gray as mother Woodward, drunk Alison, Jane's Aussie boyfriend, Amanda and Peter take down Bruce. It went to shit immediately after and took a long while to ramp up before.

Seasons 2 and 3 are really good.

Does Andrew Shue have any other acting credit?

He has a handful, r154. Many are extra parts in sister Elisabeth's projects (Karate Kid, Cocktail, Adventures in Babysitting.) Probably his biggest profile, non-MP role was as Claire Danes abusive ex in The Rainmaker, a John Grisham adaptation starring Matt Damon.

Aside from Heather, who of the season 1 cast had the most experience? Courtney?

Doug Savant had done quite a few things as well. Nothing super high profile but lots of episodic TV work and recognizable movies. He had a short run on Knots Landing.

Season 5 is better than I remembered, that old school Melrose mixed with the new cast, it actually worked well

And then came the cast exodus and season 6 and it all went to hell...

Amanda really did Eve dirty. I’m rewatching season 7 now,

Who is Eve?

What was the season where the whole cast had really bad haircuts? 3 or 4?

CTS got a short one in 3, I think.

Alison had that schoolteacher hairdo in the second season.

R163- Yes. I was wrong about which season. It was 2.

D and D was the most dysfunctional ad agency ever.