Melrose Place: Season Three

There is one genre of television that is the punch line of many jokes and the subject of numerous parodies yet it brings in more revenue that any other series format. This often ridiculed yet wildly popular format is the soap opera. When you consider the grandfather of this genre, ‘As the World Turns’ has been on since 1956 there has to be something to the soaps. While they may have started out as the mid afternoon ‘stories’ for stay at home housewives they are now one of the most popular series on prime time television. For nighttime series many only take the general methodology of the soaps but some have been full out embracing this format. One of the most famous, outrageous and memorable of these prime time soaps is ‘Melrose Place’. Although its seven year run is nothing like its daytime counterparts it may a lasting impact of television. Melrose Place started out as a loose spin off of the extremely popular 90210. The kids in that series were getting a bit long in the tooth to play teens anymore and, more importantly, the audience was growing up. The goal was to get the audience that was aging out of 90210 and hook them on a a new series with ‘twenty-somethings’ in the lead and more overt references to sex and other mature themes.

The main location for this series is the titular address; an apartment complex populated almost completely by upper scale beautiful people. I think they all have a clause in their lease that all tenants must be beautiful, sexually active, competitive and ambitious. Failure to comply will mean a loss of pool privilege and possible eviction. The series initially got off to a rocky start unable to come anywhere close to the ratings of its parent series. Then in season two things took off as the themes became more mature and even outrageous. By season three, the subject of the latest DVD box set, there were more dysfunctional families, plots, crazies and seductresses running around than you could keep track of. As with any successful soap opera the plots have to be over the top. Drama is more important than any semblance to reality.

As the third season gets started suspects are considered for the hit and run that targeted Michael (Thomas Calabro). First Jane (Josie Bissett) is considered then Sydney (Laura Leighton) is the lead suspect. Actually Sydney was involved encouraged last season by the sinister Kimberly (Marcia Cross). Sydney is arrested but Jane calls on her father to hire a lawyer to defend her. The result is Sydney is committed to a mental institution while Kimberly brings Michael, now with amnesia back home to ‘care’ for him. Meanwhile, back in Los Angles the diabolical Amanda (Heather Locklear) is looking to hook up with Billy (Andrew Shue) while the main object of his attention, Allison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) is away headed for an alcoholic crisis. Billy, not wanting to deal with that particular drama marries Brooke (Kristin Davis) who has a lot of daddy’s vast fortune at her disposal. At the hospital a new villain is introduced, Dr. Peter Burns (Jack Wagner) and gets involved with Amanda. This should be no surprise since I think it is in the contracts that every man in the cast gets a shot at Amanda. Cute little Brittany (Kathy Ireland) turns out to be a contact killer for the mob and his having an affair with Jake (Grant Show). Sydney gets out of the institution and becomes Jane’s personal assistant but really wants to take away her beau and business partner, Chris Marchette (Andrew Williams). Kimberly gets busy with Peter but he is also involved with Amanda. Towards the end what little there is to Kimberly’s sanity goes away and she plans to get her revenge on most of the people living in the apartment complex.

This is night time soap opera at its wacky best. Melrose Place is just about the definition of a guilty pleasure. There are no redeeming qualities in most of the large cast. There is plots and plans within other forms of machinations. Everyone has a hidden agenda and more than a few axes to grind. Instead of trying to found the myriads of story lines in something resembling reality the writers here just had a field day in seeing just how far they could push things. A female contract killer and a psychotic neighbor are just a couple of examples of what happens in this little apartment building. For the most part the characters here are wealthy and beautiful. There is nothing a regular person likes to see more than the privileged class taking each other down with their own greed and lust. In fact most of the seven deadly sins are a daily occurrence in this series. When all is said and done this is a fun ride. You can forget your mundane problems like work and relationships and get into the messed up lives of these people. It seems like every generation has its favorite soap opera and if you were around in the nineties this was it for you. Back then this was one of the top water cooler conversations. The reason this series succeeded was the same thing that drove much of its critics. It contained more sex than was considered normal for TV back then. This included the inclusion of an openly gay character.

This series made the careers of many of its cast. While Courtney Thorne-Smith is now know for ‘According to Jim’ and ‘Ally McBeal’ she was the young woman struggling with an addiction to alcohol here. If you think Marcia Cross is great as the diabolical and manipulating Bree on "Desperate Housewives’ that character can’t hold a candle to her portrayal of Kimberly in this series; talk about crazy as a loon. It was here that Heather Locklear became a household name and a symbol of a woman wiling to use all her assets to get what she wants.

Paramount certainly has access to some of the most popular television series ever. They are releasing DVD season sets that not only provide all the episodes but a lot of behind the scenes information to delight the fans. The full screen video is mastered a bit on the dark side. The colors are realistic but lacking the usual brightness. The Dolby stereo audio is good with reasonable channel separation considering the source is over a decade old. There are some good extras provided to add to your experience. The first is an overview of Melrose Place from the perspective of the character Jake. Another is ‘Seven Minutes in Hell’ which gives a montage of some of the best one liners of the season. Finally, there is an overview of the season. If you like things like Sex and the City or any other prime time soap go old school and get this set.

Posted 11/08/07