Tuesday
Nights are still “a bitch”, but not for the same reason they were back
in the early 90s. Back in the Clinton era, there was actually something
to watch on TV on Tuesdays – and she was the meanest and most
deliciously likeable villain since well, Sammy Jo from Dynasty. She was, of course, Amanda – and she lived at a little place called Melrose. When
Heather Locklear decided to visit – her visit lasted about a decade,
mind you, even though she was always billed as ‘Special Guest Star’
– Melrose Place, then a struggling spin-off of TVs Beverly Hills 90210,
it breathed new life into a stiff corpse. Suddenly, the Darren
Starr-created show was transformed from a ‘topical’ and
‘issue-of-the-week’ series to the contemporary equivalent of a Dallas or Dynasty where bitching and backstabbing called home for the next umpteen years. The brainchild of producing great Aaron Spelling, Melrose
centred around the residents of an inner city apartment block in Los
Angeles – one where every renter knew each other, and they’re either
sleeping with each other, hating on each other or, in the very least,
privy to each other’s business. There was Taxi-driving
Billy (Andrew Shue) and his roommate, the clumsy Allison (Courtney
Thorne-Smith) – a couple which was seemingly destined for each other
but took their sweet arse time in admitting their true feelings to one
another (giving Amanda an opportunity to swoop in and snag Allison’s
man from her). There was hunky motor biker Jake (Grant Show), wily
divorcee Michael (Thomas Calabro) and ex-wife Jane (Josie Bissett),
Homosexual nice-guy Matt (Doug Savant), mysterious photographer Jo
(Daphne Zuniga) and in the first season, a budding actress (Amy Locane)
and the show’s first and only African American – suddenly removed from
the show after the first season – character, played by Vanessa
L.Williams. As the first season progressed, and producers
panicked to save the show, a couple of the characters were written out
and some new ‘bitches’ were invited to the party: Namely, Amanda
(Heather Locklear) who would immediately wedge a spear between the
budding Billy/Alison unit, and of course, Sydney (Laura Leighton),
Jane’s sinister sister and local tart about town. Watching the
first season of the show, we’re reminded just how noticeably the tone
of the series changed when the creators decided to overhaul it. The
first half of the season is rather uneventful, and seems like a fairly
‘nice’ show, but then, almost concurrently with the arrival of
Locklear’s character, the show takes a menacing turn into over-the-top
soap territory. In some respects, it turned into a ‘bad show’ – but one
I couldn’t help but watch every darn week (I use to finish my shift as
a radio announcer at about 8pm, and race home for the show – which
would start half an hour later). The performances were laughably
over-the-top and at times, even cartoonish, but this relatively unknown
bunch of actors went with it and as a consequence turned ‘Billy’,
‘Allison’, ‘Jake’, ‘Jane’, ‘Sidney’ – and so on, into household names.
One of the most pivotal scene-stealers over the series run -
besides the abovementioned Leighton and Locklear – was Calabro as the
devilishly wicked Michael Mancini. He created one of soap’s most
memorable and so-bad-he’s-good monsters. Truly memorable. It’s like this: Melrose Place was drugs. You knew it was bad, but boy, did it feel good at the time. Now, to two beefs with the DVD set: Firstly, the music. One of the best things about Melrose Place
was the pop music that was flittered throughout the series – most
notably, a track would be played in the first few minutes of each
episode to set the scene and help spice up a montage of Hollywood – and
well, the tunes are missing. Securing the rights to use the
original music in the DVD was just too costly an exercise apparently,
so nearly each and every song has been replaced with another. Such a
shame. Dare you to resist it, though. EXTRAS
The Zone 4 DVD set offers NONE of the extras that apparently feature on
the Zone 1 set (In the states, you get an abundance of extra features –
most notably, some interesting featurettes and interviews. Quite a few
featurettes, actually!) A real disappointment – especially since, I’m
guessing, a lot of folks would probably have rushed out to buy the set
for the extras alone – after all, we’ve seen the episodes a million
times before - and a chance to play ‘Whatever happened to.’
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 40%
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