Credits Director : Various Starring : Grant Show Heather Locklear, Andrew Shue, Marcia Cross Our Score :

By Clint Morris

By year 3 of ''Melrose Place'', it was pretty clear that Kelly, Brandon, Steve, David or anyone else from ‘that postcode’ wouldn’t be making guest-appearances on the spinoff show from here on out. It was its own beast – and a beast with teeth, it seemed!

''90210'' could be radical at times – especially in its later years – but from the moment the ratings dipped on its spinoff series, ''Melrose'' was transformed into a giant snickers bar – it got very nutty. Thing is, it worked.

It could’ve gone either way – it was a pretty drastic shift in tone for the show, which had started out as a reasonably soft, serious-issues weekly serial – but the tweaking helped considerably, and for the next few weeks, ''Melrose'' became must-see television (well, must-see television for anyone easily suckered in by snazzy promos!). It gave people something to talk about around the water-cooler at work besides, er, the amount of chlorine in their company’s water supply.

Heather Locklear deserves much of the credit for ''Melrose'' 2.0 – she not only bought serious spunk to it, but gave a terrifically over-the-top and welcome boost to show by giving it it’s one true villain; the despicable Amanda. (At the same time, Locklear was being paid so much for her contribution to the show that by the seventh season, producers realized they could shoot a pilot on Locklear’s per-episode fee… so they decided to end the series). The character was so damn evil, you couldn’t take your eyes off her!
But Amanda wasn’t alone in the nasty stakes – who can forget the deliciously demented Michael (Thomas Calabro)? Who, when, the show begun was a seemingly sweet and devoted husband without a screw loose and by season 3, had had all his screws turned loose.
Oh, and I’m forgetting someone, the maniacal Kimberley (Marcia Cross), of course! She was the lass Michael left his wife (Josie Bisset) for, and again, like the latter, was a seemingly normal person when she was introduced earlier on in the show before being re-worked a hair-brained baby-stealing hair-lacking psychopath. Just terrific!

Though the capable cast deserves some credit, much of the success of ''Melrose Place'' can be attributed to its writers. The team came up with such wacky and compelling storylines each week. There were some absolute doozies in the third season – who can forget Michael’s battle with amnesia, due to being run over by the crazy Kimberley?; what about Jo’s baby being kidnapped by a nutty nanny?; and wasn’t Billy’s new wife (Kristin Davis) a little scary? Ah, the memories.

Thanks to DVD, we get re-live them. The disc features every sudsy over-the-top episode from Season 3 plus several featurettes on the show. If you just can’t “get into” ''Brothers & Sisters'' or ''Desperate Housewives'', revisit ''Melrose'' – it’s probably what you’re looking for.