Melrose Place 2.0

I used to love this show back in the 90s so I am delighted to hear that Melrose Place is back, better and bigger. Melrose Place was one of the most successful show of it’s era as well being as a pop culture phenomenon it received tremendous media kudos. The show was so hip it made the cover of Rolling Stone but sadly it came to an end in 1999. Now ten years later it is back with a new look and a new cast. The focus is on the lives of cool and stylish twenty-somethings from a wide variety of backgrounds who live in a trendy apartment complex in Melrose which is a hip area in LA.

There is Ella Simms played by Katie Cassidy who is a smart, savvy, up-and-coming publicist who is determined to get where she wants at any costs. She persuades Jonah Miller, a struggling filmmaker who is played by Michael Rady to let her manage him much to the dismay of his live in fiancée Riley Richmond played by Jessica Lucas who is a school teacher. Riley confides her reservations to medical student, Lauren Yung played by Stephanie Jacobsen but Lauren has problems of her own; she is in a lot of debt and must come up with a creative way to pay her tuition. Then there is Auggie Kirkpatrick a sensitive sous chef with a dark past played by Colin Egglesfield. The new kid on the block is Violet Foster played by Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, a small town girl who moves to LA and has a deep secret. Last but not least is the rebellious David Breck played by Shaun Sipos who is the estranged son of Dr. Michael Mancini (who was in the original Melrose Place) played by Thomas Calabro. We can look forward to seeing him pop up in the show from time to time and doing battle with Sydney Andrews played by Laura Leighton – his former sparring partner. Sydney is now the landlady of the complex but is still as devious as ever and is a force in the lives of all the characters. The remake plans to attract fans of the old series while picking up new viewers for the new show.

"We were huge fans of the original but when we set out to do our version, we wanted to pay tribute to the old show but create our own show with our own characters," says Todd Slavkin, executive producer.

Check out a post I wrote about the stars of the original Melrose Place and where they are now.

Melrose Place airs on CWTV this autumn.

Melrose Place Reloaded

I think we can agree that the weather has been lousy this week so what better than to curl up on the sofa with a mug of tea and settle down watching a fun show on the TV. That is the saving grace of the winter; all the cool shows come back and it is like being reunited with a bunch of old friends. Right now I am spending quality time with Gossip Girl, The Hills, 90210, Lipstick Jungle and The Starter Wife and it is fantastic. Like having a ladies night out except it is at home in your living room. It looks like Melrose Place will be joining us this time next year. 90210 has proved so successful that the powers that be at CW Network have decided to spread the spin-off project to the popular 1990s drama. Premiering in 1992, Melrose Place featured the lives of sophisticated twenty-somethings who lived in an apartment complex and we saw them live, work and play together. As we can expect in a typical soap drama we had the usual emotional storylines such as infidelity, homophobia, divorce, prostitution, domestic abuse and many others. The show bowed out in 1999 after a period of low ratings and as well as making a star out of Heather Locklear who went onto Spin City and Scrubs, it will also be remembered for launching the careers of the stars below:

Kristin Davies
She played the scheming Brooke Armstrong and later found fame and many pairs of Jimmy Choos as Charlotte York in Sex and the City.

Marcia Cross
She played Dr Kimberly Shaw, the total nut job and is now famous as house proud Bree Van de Kamp Hodge in Desperate Housewives.

Doug Savant
He played Matt Fielding, the token gay guy and is now best known as Lynette's hubby, Tom Scavo in Desperate Housewives.

Courtney Thorne-Smith
She played the annoying Alison Parker who had a long relationship with Billy and became an alcoholic. She went on to star in Ally McBeal as Georgia Thomas, wife of Billy Thomas who was the ex love of Ally.

Kelly Rutherford
She played Megan Lewis a high class call girl who is hired by Dr Kimberly Shaw to seduce her partner. She is now in Gossip Girl playing the snooty Lily van der Woodsen, mother of lead character Serena van der Woodsen.

Rob Estes
He played restaurateur, Kyle McBride and can be currently seen in the all new 90210 as head of school Harry Wilson and father of Annie and Dixon.

Alyssa Milano
She played spoiled brat Jennifer Mancini and went on to play Phoebe Halliwell in the hit series, Charmed.

Wow what a load of talent that show produced. Roll on the remake.

Person Rob Estes

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