Seasons of Melrose Place

During its first season, Melrose Place was an earnest serial drama with low-key storylines focusing on young people who come to Los Angeles to realize their dreams.[1] The series was introduced with a crossover story from Beverly Hills, 90210 in which Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) pursues Melrose Place resident Jake Hanson (Grant Show), a laborer and bad-boy biker. Jake appeared in the last two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210's the second season, and Kelly appeared in the first three episodes of Melrose Place; Jake breaks off the romance because of their age difference and his inability to commit to her. Tori Spelling appears in the first two episodes as her Beverly Hills, 90210 character Donna Martin; Brian Austin Green appears in the first three as David Silver, and Ian Ziering appears as Steve Sanders.

Michael (Thomas Calabro) and Jane Mancini (Josie Bissett) are the building's stable couple. Michael (the building superintendent) is a physician at Wilshire Memorial Hospital, and Jane is a budding fashion designer. Their neighbors are roommates Alison Parker[1] (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Billy Campbell (Andrew Shue). Alison is a receptionist at a local advertising firm, and Billy is a struggling writer who makes ends meet as a dance teacher, a taxi driver, a local newspaper reporter and a furniture salesman before finding a job at Escapade magazine near the end of the season. Alison and Billy later began an affair. Gay social worker Matt Fielding (Doug Savant) files a sexual-discrimination lawsuit against the halfway house at which he volunteers.

Other original cast members are aerobics instructor Rhonda Blair (Vanessa A. Williams) and her roommate, Sandy Louise Harling (Amy Locane), who moonlights as a waitress at Shooters (the group's hangout). Sandy was written out of the series after 13 episodes and Rhonda left after the first season, when she becomes engaged to wealthy restaurateur Terrence Haggard (John Marshall Jones).

Early in the series, photographer Jo Reynolds (Daphne Zuniga) arrives from New York to escape her alcoholic ex-husband. Jo and Jake become friends and enjoy an on-again, off-again romance.

Faced with mediocre ratings, its producers attempted to revamp the series during this season. Heather Locklear appeared as Amanda Woodward, the art director at D & D Advertising who became Alison's confidante. Intended as a guest star, Locklear remained on the series throughout its run. Amanda became vice-president, having affairs with several Melrose Place residents and vying with Alison for Billy's affections. The series evolved from an episodic format to a soap opera with ongoing, interwoven stories, beginning with Michael Mancini's affair with co-worker Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) and Alison's affair with a married man who begins stalking her in the season finale after she ends the relationship. The season ends with Alison and Billy becoming a couple, Michael and Jane splitting up when Jane discovers his affair with Kimberly, and Amanda's miscarriage of Billy's baby and her purchase of the building because of the love triangle made up of her, Billy and Alison.

As the second season began Jane divorced Michael, who would become engaged to Kimberly and have a fling with Jane's younger sister Sydney (Laura Leighton), a prostitute and stripper. While waitressing at Shooters Sydney is introduced by a co-worker to Lauren Ethridge (Kristian Alfonso), a Hollywood madam who recruited Sydney into her call girl ring. Although Sydney quits, she is arrested for solicitation. Michael bails her out of jail, blackmailing her to break up Jane and her latest love interest: her divorce lawyer, Robert Wilson (Steven Eckholdt).

A drunken Michael crashes his car (apparently fatally injuring Kimberly), but escapes manslaughter charges when Matt alters his blood-alcohol test results at the hospital. Sydney uses this knowledge to blackmail Michael into marrying her, despite Jane's objections. Her plans are foiled when Kimberly reappears alive and well, saying that her mother lied about her death to keep Michael away. Kimberly is more ruthless and unstable as a result of brain surgery and the accident. She reclaims Michael, revealing her desire to kill him; removing her wig in front of a mirror, a gruesome scar from the accident is seen.

Sydney takes over Lauren Ethridge's call-girl ring while Lauren is in jail. When Lauren is released, she demands the profits from her escort service while she was incarcerated. Sydney works as a stripper and a prostitute to raise the money. She is attacked on the street by other prostitutes; in the hospital, Kimberly recruits her for her scheme to kill Michael.

Early in the season Matt loses his job when the halfway house closes, and Michael finds him a job in the social-services department of Wilshire Memorial. He befriends a Russian doctor, Katya Petrova (Beata Pozniak). Katya is attracted to Matt, who tells her he is gay. When she is in danger of deportation, he offers to marry her so her five-year-old daughter Nikki (Mara Wilson) can remain in the U.S. However, Matt's "marriage" now hampers his love life. When Katya returns to Russia to visit her family she decides to stay and sends for her daughter, freeing an emotional Matt from their arrangement. He becomes romantically involved with Jeffrey Lindley (Jason Beghe), a closeted U.S. Navy officer, although he disagrees with Jeffrey's secrecy. Although Matt persuades Jeffrey to come out, he regrets it when Jeffrey is discharged from the service and leaves town.

Jake buys a struggling motorcycle-repair shop, which soon burns down in a fire accidentally started by Amanda. Jake never discovers that Amanda is indirectly responsible for the fire, and ends his romance with Jo. Jake becomes romantically involved with Amanda, whose father Palmer Woodward (Wayne Tippit) offers him a job as a mechanic. He learns that Palmer is involved in a scheme to sell reproduced cars as originals, and is forced by the FBI to help it arrest Palmer.

Jo becomes romantically involved with her former high-school flame, ex-convict Reed Carter (James Wilder), who smuggles drugs on boats he works on. When she discovers his stash, he kidnaps and tortures her on the boat in the Pacific Ocean. Jo kills Reed in self-defense, later learning that she is pregnant with his child.

Alison and Billy's romance has its ups and downs. She has a relationship with Steve McMillian (Parker Stevenson), a new client at D & D Advertising after Amanda becomes senior vice-president. Although Alison tries to set up Jo with Steve, Steve leaves to work in Europe and Alison and Billy reconcile. Billy rises through the ranks at Escapade, moving to New York to work. This strains his relationship with Alison, and he returns to Los Angeles to propose to her.

Struggling in her romance with Jake and running D & D Advertising, Amanda has an uncomfortable reunion with her estranged mother Hilary Michaels (Linda Gray). Hilary is CEO of Models Inc., which would spawn a spinoff series. Jo meets Sarah Owens (Cassidy Rae), a model at Hilary’s agency, whom she helps end an abusive relationship. Hilary asks Amanda to employ her fiancé, Chas (Jeff Kaake), at D & D and Amanda fires him after he harasses her sexually. However, Chas files a sexual-harassment lawsuit against Amanda and her company. Hilary learns the truth about Chas, testifying against him and ending the case in Amanda's favor. However, Amanda cannot forgive her mother and Hilary returns to the modeling agency.

Alison and Billy become engaged, and plan a wedding in the building's courtyard. On her wedding day, when her father hugs her she experiences flashbacks of his molesting her as a child. Alison flees through a window and goes to San Francisco to see her sister, Meredith, who was also abused by their father. The season ends with Kimberly (in a short blonde wig) running Michael down in Jane's car, followed by Jane's arrest.

Notes:

• The scene in which Matt and Rob kissed in the season finale was edited in the wake of a possible advertiser boycott.[2] Darren Star says to Variety: "We filmed it. The network had the final cut. It was a kiss too far from their point of view. It was a place they didn’t want to go. Twenty years ago, it was verboten. When you watch "I Love Lucy," two married characters were not allowed to share a bed. Network TV has always been archaic and frightened about showing sexuality. That’s always been their biggest taboo. They’ve caught up a lot. It has to stay somewhat relevant to the audience that watches it".[3]
• Linda Gray (Hillary) and Cassidy Rae (Sarah) were cast members on the Melrose Place spin-off Models Inc. They appeared in five episodes of Melrose Place to introduce their characters to the public.[4]
• Second season finale on May 18, 1994 was ranked #18. This is the best rating performance in the show's history.
• Darren Star and Aaron Spelling's favorite Melrose moment is "The Bitch is Back"'s ending scene (2.28), when Kimberly removes her wig to reveal a nasty scar on the side of her head. They introduce the clip on the documentary "Love Thy Neighbor: The Baddest and the Best of Melrose Place" (1995).

Jane and Sydney are blamed for Michael's hit-and-run accident, which leaves him with amnesia. Although he regains his memory (and realizes that Kimberly is his attempted murderer), they reconcile and marry in Las Vegas.

Jo is embroiled in a custody battle with the Carters (Reed's parents), who want to take their (yet unborn) grandchild away from the woman who "murdered" their son. Although Kimberly seems to help Jo by faking the baby's death so Jo can escape with her son, she steals the baby because she cannot have children of her own. When Jo reports Kimberly and Michael to Wilshire Hospital chief of staff Peter Burns (Jack Wagner), Michael returns the child. Kimberly tells the Carters that Jo's baby is alive, and they hire a nanny to steal the baby. After Jo is shot in the back while tracking them down, she decides to surrender her son for adoption.

Matt briefly reunites with Jeffrey, who tells him that he was discharged from the Navy when he tested HIV-positive. Matt is uncomfortable with Jeffrey's lust for life, and they break up. He becomes involved with married, closeted plastic surgeon Paul Graham (David Beecroft), who murders his wife in the season finale and frames Matt.

Unable to exonerate herself for Michael's attempted murder, Sydney became an outcast from this point onward for the rest of the series. After her imprisonment, Jane had her committed to a mental hospital before employing her in a work-release program. Sydney is sexually harassed by Chris Marchette, Jane's sociopathic Australian business associate. After embezzling most of the funds from Jane's business, Chris fled the country after losing the stolen money gambling in Las Vegas (with Sydney his hostage).

Sydney returns to waitressing at Shooters and grows closer to Jake. However, their relationship disintegrates when Jake learns that Sydney slept with Chris to protect him from an attack by an associate. When Sydney advertises for a roommate to help pay the rent, Rikki (Traci Lords) moves in. A conniving sociopath, Rikki convinces the Melrose residents that Sydney is destroying their possessions and encourages her to join a cult led by Martin Abbott (Remy Zada). When Sydney tries to leave the cult, she is kidnapped and Jane and Jake free her. Jealous of their romance, Sydney reverts to her devious self and breaks them up and avenges herself on Michael and Kimberly by extortion (using the money to control Jane's design business). Although Jane fights back, her business goes into foreclosure and she joins MacKenzie Hart Designs—where she becomes involved with co-owner Richard Hart (Patrick Muldoon).

Jake buys Reed Carter's boat but it is destroyed when Amanda's fugitive father (Palmer) returns and hired a contract killer, named Brittany (Kathy Ireland), to murder Jake for making him lose his business. Brittany, however, plans to kill Palmer and escape with his money and Jake. When Jake refuses to go along Brittany blows up the boat, apparently killing him. However, Jake jumped overboard and is rescued. He buys Shooters with a $50,000 FBI reward for his help in the Palmer Woodward case (leading to the off-screen arrest of Brittany and the recovery of Palmer's money).

Jake reconciles with Jo and reunites with his auto-mechanic half-brother, Jess (Dan Cortese), when their mother dies in their hometown. Jess follows Jake to Los Angeles, getting involved with Jo and arranging for Jake to be shot in an armed robbery at Shooters so Jess could take over Jake's business. Although Jo did not believe Jake that Jess arranged the shooting, when she asks Jess how he could afford an engagement ring when he proposes to her he attacks her. When Jake learns about the attack in the season finale he and Jess fight, falling off the edge of a high platform at a construction site.

Alison's reluctance to marry Billy after the revelation about her father leads to Billy ending the relationship as Alison becomes an alcoholic. Since he still cares for her, Billy arranges for Alison to enter rehab and begins working at D & D copywriter. Amanda becomes involved with Wilshire Memorial's chief of staff Peter Burns, who helps her take over D & D by buying stock. When D & D president Bruce Teller (Stanley Kamel) is ousted he commits suicide, and Amanda replaces him. Peter conspires to remove Amanda in favor of his old girlfriend, Caitlin (Jasmine Guy); he engineers a fake appendicitis attack and tries to kill Amanda on the operating table, when Michael rescues her and he is arrested.

Amanda discovers that she has lymphoma, and is replaced at D & D by Alison. However, Alison could not cope with the sudden responsibility and workload and she quickly became aggressive, ruthless, heartless, and assertive just like Amanda. While treating her, Michael begins to fall for Amanda and they have a brief affair (enraging Kimberly). Amanda ends the affair when she recovers, teaming up with the conniving intern Brooke Armstrong (Kristin Davis) to reclaim D & D. Brooke becomes involved with Billy and sends Alison to Hong Kong on business. After helping Amanda force Alison from D & D, Brooke begins plotting to take over the company. She marries Billy in the season finale when Alison interrupts the ceremony to beg Billy for another chance.

After she is sued for divorce, Kimberly frames Michael for assaulting her. He is bailed out by Peter Burns (who got out of prison for Amanda's attempted murder), who needs his and Kimberly's help to retain his medical license. Peter seduces Kimberly so she will testify in his favor, but his appeal is unsuccessful. Realizing that Peter used her, and hallucinating, Kimberly plants four firebombs in the apartment complex.

Notes:

• Melrose Place moves from Wednesday night to Monday night on FOX. There was a memorable ad campaign: the words "Mondays are a bitch" on Amanda's face (photo here:).
• Former porn star Traci Lords appeared in a five episodes arc. Darren Star remembers: "Mostly, she looked like someone who actually lived in L.A. at that age... She had that quality. Like she could recruit you into a cult."[1]
• Showrunners regret giving Amanda cancer. Darren Star says: "I remember having to tread carefully. Hodgkin’s is a serious illness. It wasn’t much fun.""[1]

• Third season finale on May 22, 1995 was ranked #10.

Kimberly sets off a series of explosions which destroy half the Melrose apartment complex. Surprisingly, only Jane's potential new boss (Richard Hart's ex-wife Mackenzie Hart) is killed, and Alison is temporarily blinded. Peter and Michael join in a private practice, Mancini-Burns, at Wilshire Hospital.

Jess' death in the fall at the construction site leaves Jake plagued by guilt. He sleeps with Shelly Hanson (Hudson Leick), Jess' ex-wife (in town for his funeral), and hires her at Shooters. She plans to ruin Jake financially as revenge for what she sees as Jake killing her ex-husband. Jake sees the light after she tries to murder him, and she is arrested.

Matt is exonerated of Paul's wife's murder when Paul makes a deathbed confession after he is shot by the police. But Matt's boss, Calvin Hobbs (Francis McCarthy)—the Wilshire chief-of-staff who replaced Peter—fires him anyway for his inappropriate relationship with Paul. Matt wins another sexual discrimination lawsuit after his attorney goads Hobbs into making homophobic statements in court. Matt uses the settlement to enroll in medical school, and works at Wilshire Hospital as an intern.

Kimberly is declared legally insane after the bombing and institutionalized. Peter cares for her, telling Sydney that his concern stems from the memory of his late sister (who had similar mental problems). Kimberly says she was encouraged in violence by a man named Henry; her mother recalls Henry, the family gardener whom Kimberly stabbed to death as a child when he tried to rape her mother. Kimberly is released to Peter, but is lonely when he begins to rekindle his romance with Amanda.

Her eyesight regained, Alison returns to D & D Advertising and marries Brooke's father, Hayley (Perry King); Brooke and Hayley interfere with each other's marriages. Discovering he is financially ruined, during a trip with Alison, Hayley drowns in a drunken fall from his yacht. Brooke and Billy's marriage is rocky due to her jealousy, dishonesty and cruelty. They reconcile after Brooke's suicide attempt, but Billy leaves her for good. A drunken Brooke slips, hits her head on the edge of the Melrose Place pool and drowns. Haunted by her death, Billy tries to keep her memory alive. Soon, he resorts to unethical decisions while at D&D, including sleeping with clients, though later realizes the error of his ways.

Amanda admits faking her death years ago in Miami to escape her violent husband, Jack Parezi (Antonio Sabato Jr.)—a businessman with Mafia connections—who tracks her to L.A. and dies in an accident. She ends her relationship with Peter when she is reunited with her long-lost first love, Jack's brother Bobby (John Enos III). Peter gets involved with Alycia Barnett (Anne-Marie Johnson), Matt's lawyer in the Paul Graham case, and they conspire to ruin Bobby so Alycia can control his cable-TV empire; Peter hopes to win Amanda back. When Bobby discovers the plot, he attacks Alycia at Peter's office and she accidentally knocks him out the high-rise window to his death. Peter is arrested for the death, and Alycia dies in a car accident when she tries to leave town.

Kimberly and Michael remarry, but she develops multiple-personality disorder and often reverts to a violent 1950s housewife named Betsy Jones. When she drives with Peter to the police station to provide his alibi for Bobby's death, Kimberly (as Betsy) instead commits him to a mental institution to avenge his declaring her insane.

Jo gets involved with Richard Hart after breaking up with Jake, creating a rift between her and Jane. Jane pretends to seduce Michael to make Richard jealous; this infuriates Sydney, who spikes Jane's drink with prescription pills which cause a paralyzing stroke. Jake begins a relationship with Jane as she recovered, but after Richard rapes her during a business trip to New York she breaks up with Jake in her determination to harm Richard.

Matt, in medical school classes and interning at Wilshire, begins a romance with closeted film actor Alan Ross (Lonnie Schuyler). Alan lies publicly about his sexual orientation, fearing that revealing his homosexuality would blacklist him in Hollywood. Behind Alan's back Matt begins a short-lived relationship with David (Rob Youngblood), who took his old social-services job at Wilshire Hospital, but feels guilty about cheating on Alan. He breaks up with Alan after he enters a lavender marriage with co-star Valerie Madison (Jeri Ryan) as a publicity move. When Matt contracts meningitis from a patient he becomes addicted to painkillers, stealing pills from the hospital's stores.

Jo begins a relationship with Matt's medical-school professor Dominick O'Malley (Brad Johnson), who helps her care for Matt and deal with Sydney's school friend in a spousal-abuse case. When Dominick invites her to join him in Bosnia as part of a Doctors Without Borders program, she hesitates at first but eventually agrees. Amanda and Michael try to rescue Peter from "Betsy" at the mental institution. Kimberly returns to reality before falling from a scaffold; comatose, she leaves Peter again in jail with no alibi for Bobby's murder. Although Billy asks Jake to help reunite him with Alison, Jake and Alison begin a relationship of their own.

In the season finale, Jane discovers that Sydney is responsible for her stroke and blackmails her into helping her murder Richard. Sydney apparently kills Richard with a shovel, and the sisters bury him in a field. In the final scene, however, Richard's hand pops out of the ground while Jane and Sydney speed off in their car.