Aaron Spelling's "Melrose Place" concerned a group of young people in an LA apartment complex, and in its time, it was a highly popular show. Melrose really started to take off when Heather Locklear joined the cast at the end of season 1. She seemed to supply the missing ingredient, i.e., the resident bitch, and before long, Melrose was THE show to watch and discuss. It's not a coincidence that two of its stars, Marcia Cross and Doug Savant, appear on the very high-profile "Desperate Housewives." High profile shows seek stars of past high profile shows.
The show had a lot of nice, campy touches that made it famous, as well as some fascinating characters. One of my favorites were the ubiquitous establishing shots that seemed to be shown weekly: a young woman walking her dog, the jogger, and the pool boy cleaning the pool.
As for interesting characters, there was Michael, who started off as a devoted husband and became a rogue, slutty Sydney, and Kirsten Davis as the girl Billy (Andrew Shue) almost married, who lays across a bed and announces, "I'm ovulating," which I heard the next morning when it was played on a local radio station. But my favorite was Dr. Kimberly Shaw, star of Melrose's most startling moment. After she returned from the dead, she took her wig off at the end of one episode and took a look at that scar! A real shocker, and the kind of thing that made Melrose, in its prime, the best.
Most of the younger actors on Melrose became established because of the show and went on to other things afterwards, particularly Cross, Davis, Throne-Smith, and Savant. And let's not forget Locklear who, in my opinion, really set this show on its hit course.
