It is said that in Hollywood there are no longer any original ideas and there is news that does not help to oppose the apocalyptics of creativity. And, according to American media reports, CBS Studios is developing a reboot of Melrose Place that features the participation of three veteran actresses: Heather Locklear, Laura Leighton and Daphne Zuniga, who at the time were Amanda Woodward, Sydney Andrews and Jo Reynolds.
The screenwriter in charge of the project is Lauren Gussis, known for writing on Dexter and having created Insatiable. It has Leighton and Zuniga as executive producers, which means that they want to have a say in the creative process of the new series. And, for now, they already have a starting point to whet their appetite:
“When one of their dearest friends suddenly dies, the original residents of Melrose Place gather to remember the deceased. But this pressured meeting soon reveals old traumas, ignites old romances, awakens old grudges and uncovers new secrets… throwing our characters into a chaotic drama reminiscent of the past, but with a much more modern perspective,” the synopsis indicates.
The striking thing about the project is that, although many have forgotten it, Melrose Place (1992-1999) already had an attempted resurrection in the first decade. In 2009, led by screenwriters Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, the neighborhood reopened its doors for the youth channel The CW, which hired young actors such as Ashlee Simpson, Katie Cassady and Colin Egglesfield to repeat the formula: a morbid neighborhood of beautiful people where friendships were as common as betrayals, forbidden affairs and even murders.
The curious thing is that, to reconcile the search for a youth audience with an adult profile brand, members of the original cast were hired to return to their roles: thus Laura Leighton, Thomas Calabro and Heather Locklear became recurring actors in the series. , at the same time that Daphne Zuniga or Josie Bissett made an appearance in some episodes. The result, however, was a disaster both creatively and commercially and did not make it past the first season, which not even Locklear could save, whose participation was received with great fanfare by the media.
Melrose Place, in fact, is a difficult property to update. Created by Darren Star, the man behind Sex and the City or Sensation of Living, it was the result of a time with general television where a soap opera of undeniably attractive young adults and with an enviable capacity to exploit crazy plots was groundbreaking. With the actors already mentioned and Doug Savant, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Lisa Rinna, Marcia Cross, Rob Estes, Brooke Langton and Kristin Davis, it also became a generator of television stars.
Even Melrose Place had trouble getting going. It was developed as a contrived spin-off of Feeling Living (Grant Show was Kelly’s boyfriend in the teen series only to lead to the series) and, at first, its ratings jeopardized its continuity. It was too harmless, wanting to focus on the lives of well-off young people with aspirations in life. But, after the incorporation of Heather Locklear as the evil Amanda Woodward, the scriptwriters working under the orders of Aaron Spelling knew how to breathe life into the plots, making them more shameless.
Now, from this synopsis, it will be necessary to see if CBS Studios manages to make the project go ahead and exactly what its form will be. Will it be a strict sequel? Will it be aimed at an adult audience who watched the original series or will it try to present a new wave of young people, as the 2009 version already proposed?
