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Home » Blogs » snicks's blog » After picking "90210" clean, the CW moves on to the carcass of "Melrose Place"

After picking "90210" clean, the CW moves on to the carcass of "Melrose Place"

by
snicks

After achieving semi-success with their 90210 "re-imagining", the CW may be ready to regurgitate another iconic show from the 90's.

That's right, we may see a new version of Melrose Place coming to the small screen, albeit without the help of the original's out creator, Darren Star.

Melrose Place helped revive the career of Heather Locklear, who until this show was stuck making Lifetime movies and ...The Return of Swamp Thing.

It also gave us the infamously "barely there" gay character of Matt (Doug Savant), who occasionally had a storyline, but was mostly there to act as a sort of greek gay chorus for the other characters. One of the most controversial moments of the show occurred in 1994 when FOX (boo!) ordered that a gay kiss between Matt and another character be edited out of an episode.

If they do revive it, I don't see how they can not include another gay character (um ... it's West Hollywood), and it'll be interesting to see how they handle it this time around.

As a special treat, I've included what in my opinion is the show's greatest moment (others insist this is when the show jumped the shark, but they're wrong). It features the whackadoodle character of Kimberley, played by Marcia Cross before she was a desperate housewife, as she gets revenge on ... well, everyone (and best of all ... the clip's in French!).

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    • Submitted by
    snicks
    on Wed, 2008-10-29 10:33.
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    Dave Doty's picture

    Melrose Revival

    Submitted by
    Dave Doty (5139 points) (1120 posts)
    on Wed, 2008-10-29 23:56.
    Man, I loved this show.  And the good news is, it wasn't actually a very well-written show, which will help over one hurdle to making the new version work.  They just have to be willing to be just as over-the-top as the best years of the original, and, maybe harder, find actors who can pull it off.

    I never watched either 90210 much, but it sounds like the new characters map pretty directly over the old ones.  This would be a TERRIBLE mistake with Melrose.  Most of their best characters either snuck in the back door as minor characters who catapulted into popularity (Sydney and Kimberly), or became totally transformed from their early, less interesting versions (Michael and, in the last season, Lexi).  Amanda was really the only fan-favorite character who was brought in and worked as intended.  The show worked because they were open to following what worked instead of sticking with a preplanned formula.  You can't plan a Kimberly, you have to let it happen.

    I'm cautiously optimistic.  Of course, just expecting their to still be a CW to air it next year is already cautiously optimistic.
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