Arthur Hailey’s Hotel : The First Season

Review by David Woodward

One of my favourite movies from the 1960s was Hotel (1967), a film adaptation of the novel written by Arthur Hailey. An indication of its success was the fact that it was actually given a re-release in Australian theatres in the 1970s.

The film version took place in the St Gregory's Hotel in New Orleans owned by Warren Trent (Melvyn Douglas) and managed by Peter McDermott (Rod Taylor). It dealt with a number of inter-connecting stories about the guests at the hotel.

In 1983, Aaron Spelling resurrected the concept and successfully produced a TV series version that lasted five seasons. In doing so, he retained some of basic plot (although changing the hotel owner to a female - Anne Baxter – and the location of the hotel to San Francisco) and pulled out all the stops to ensure a succession of high quality guest star names each week.

Former Marcus Welby star James Brolin took over the role of Peter McDermott and was joined by a new female Assistant Manager Connie Sellecca.

The first season in 1983/84 kicked off with a feature-length pilot (which included an ageing Bette Davis who was forced through ill health to withdraw from the series itself) followed by 21 entertaining episodes that could only be described as : The Love Boat in dry dock. 

Each week, Brolin and Sellecca had to deal with three alternating subplots about the personal activities of their hotel guests. 

There were some minor continuing plotlines in this first season, primarily revolving around the personal lives of the hotel staff including a newly married couple who (coincidently) worked together in the hotel lobby.

During the first season, there were some standout episodes due to the quality of the guest stars (either then-modern day 1980s actors, or past movie or TV stars) and the storylines.

I particularly enjoyed seeing then-popular stars like Erin Moran (in the pilot), Scott Baio (in "Faith, Hope & Charity") and a very young Tori Spelling (in "Christmas").  Heather Locklear even popped up in "Choices"!

But the real enjoyment comes from seeing the bigger name stars from the past – Shirley Jones (in the pilot), Stewart Granger (in “Blackout”), Robert Vaughn (in “Charades”), Hope Lange (in “Relative Losses”), Eleanor Parker, Donald O’Connor and Margaret O’Brien (in “The Offer”), Steve Forrest, Robert Stack and Vera Miles (in “The Wedding”), and Shelley Winters and Lew Ayres (in "Trials").

My personal favourite was the "Memories" episode with former Invaders star Roy Thinnes.

It is very easy to be dismissive of these 'Guest of the Week' TV series, but they were reliably entertaining. The quality of the sets, guest stars and storylines (dealing with the sexual liaisons between young, old and even same sex couples) in Hotel was outstanding for its time.

For TV and movie enthusiasts like me, watching a long ago TV series like this is heaven!

DVD Special Features

Unfortunately, this DVD release of the Hotel TV series contains no Special Features per se, but there has been a lot of thought given to the theming of the 6 discs, cover art and packaging to highlight the hotel-orientation of the series.

Conclusion: Episodes 75% Extras: N/A