Steam and Soap (But No Gay Kisses) on Melrose Place

According to Savant, “You can talk to Darren: He wrote it and the network said, ‘No! No! No!' And he said, ‘We're keeping it in,' and we shot it anyway. Of course he didn't tell me that [the network wouldn't air the kiss].”

Savant wasn't at all uncomfortable with filming the kiss. The publicity that resulted from Fox's refusal to air it, however, was a different story. “We shot it and it was one of those hot issues where I was upset because I had felt manipulated,” Savant recalled, “because when they edited it out, it brought more attention, more publicity to the show. So there was something disingenuous, I felt, about having done it.”

Misgivings about the Hollywood publicity machine aside, Savant has no regrets over playing the role. “I was naïve enough to really want that particular role on the show because it was exceptional — there were no other gay characters on network television,” Savant said. “I sort of naïvely thought, ‘This is great; this is who I am as an actor; I want to play these very diverse roles, and it should be an indication of the breadth of my talent.' But what it ultimately became — what people really focused on — was its exceptionality. Its singularity is what they really focused on and what the media focus was.”

Savant, who is straight, resisted media and network attempts at the time to “out” him as either straight or gay. “I was not willing to make my living playing a gay character, but then coming out saying, ‘Well, but I'm really straight,'” Savant recalled. “And so I said, ‘I'm not going to tell anybody; I will never reveal whether I am straight or gay' because it was tantamount … to the media asking Grant Show, ‘Oh, you're playing a straight character; does that mean you're straight?'

“I am still, to this day, proud to have played this character amongst the evolution of all gay characters in television. And what it has wrought … is a much more diverse representation of gays and lesbians within the media and network and cable television. And it's like warp speed now; it's well beyond what Matt was.”

Savant points to Desperate Housewives' portrayal of gay teen Andrew Van de Kamp, who was shown in bed with — and kissing — another boy, as a sign of changing times. “It has been an amazing evolution,” Savant said. “I'm part of that evolution, I'm proud to be a part of that evolution, and I just hope that all this mass representation [means] that we have greater understanding.”

Star is less convinced that network television has made strides in its portrayal of gay characters. “I would still say on network television, I don't think hardly anything's changed since Melrose Place aired,” Star said. “I don't know if they would show that same-sex kiss today.”

So, does Melrose Place deserve a spin in a gay viewer's DVD player? Hell, yes. Even without Matt, the tawdry, over-the-top, sordid story lines are as horribly good today as they were in the '90s. Everyone ends up dead or addicted to drugs or booze, or turns out to have a sociopathic, blackmailing sister. Bombs go off, cars crash, marriages implode, the good turn evil and the evil get even more evil. Other than Matt's absolutely dismal sex life, what's not to love?