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TwitterCW chief talks 'Melrose Place'
The CW held a cocktail party for TV critics Monday at 90210's Peach Pit. But a gaggle of reporters was soon besieging network head Dawn Ostroff not about the current show, but about a possible new version of Melrose Place.
The project is in active development, she says, and talking with a writer about penning a pilot. There were reports last month that One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn would develop the show and hand it off -- similar to what Rob Thomas did with 90210 before passing it off to Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah -- but Ostroff now says he won't be involved.
Nor can she say who will be writing the pilot: "We're in the process of negotiating with someone, but I can't say who yet because the deal's not done."
So what can she tell us? Like the original, which was spun off from Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1992, the new Melrose Place would focus on people in their 20s "who are trying to get their lives started."
"They're all ... in either their first or second jobs, and it's all about life in L.A.," Ostroff says. "What the original Melrose Place did was it was great drama, great storylines, but it didn't really capture L.A. It wasn't a show that went out and really captured the feeling of Melrose, which we think is an opportunity we can take advantage of. We envision the show being stylized and really getting the feeling of Melrose, of Hollywood, of that whole cultural scene."
What about the show's tone? one reporter asked. Will it be "earnest first-season Melrose or crazy, Kimberly-blows-up-the-apartment-complex Melrose?"
"We've actually had that exact conversation," Ostroff says. "I think it's certainly not crazy [and] people being blown up in the beginning. I think initially you've got to really get invested in the characters, but I also think it can't be so dramatic and sort of sleepy that not enough is going on. Our fans really love some of that heightened drama, as they can see when they watch One Tree Hill or Gossip Girl."
The CW will also probably follow the 90210 template of populating the show with mostly new characters and a few familiar faces from the old Melrose Place, from Heather Locklear on down.
"We've talked about everyone, but we haven't talked to anyone yet," she says. "... Of course Heather would be one of the people we talk about, because when you think about Melrose Place she's one of the first people you think of."
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No one is watching "90210" so why do they feel the necessity to resussitate "Melrose Place"? I mean, did all of the writers in Hollywood forget how to come up with new ideas during the strike?
This is such a stupid stupid idea.
@bhm1304: Nobody's watching the show? Why is it getting decent ratings? Why is it being renewed? Why are there reviewers who are praising it for the new stories?
Clearly you're stuck in the past and cannot see the innovation of refreshing cl***ic material for a whole new generation. You're not the demographic they want. You can turn off your TV now.
People tuned into Melrose to see the off-the-wall drama and crazy plots. To offer up a new Melrose without those ingredients would be a marketing and network disaster.
The only thing that could make that mistake worse would not bringing back our number 1 scripted show: Smallville.
I think starting a spinoff with Amanda (Heather Locklear) would be a mistake, because of how the original show finished up. Amanda is happy with Peter on an island they bought after faking their own deaths. I would prefer to see Thomas Calboro back as Michael Mancini (as he was the only star of Melrose to last from day one to the end) owning the apartment complex they are at. You don't have to focus on Michael Mancini, but you can certainly have him come around for a visit or two. That also opens to the door for possible returns of Lisa Rinna (mother of Michael's baby), Josie Bisset (Michaels first ex), and even Alyssa Milano who played his sister Jen...plus a slew of others. Also if you wanted to build Heather Locklear and Jack Wagner back in as Amanda and Peter, only Michael knows where they are and taht they are still alive. So if one of the creators for this is reading this please look first towards Thomas, because through Michael you can bring just about anyone and everyone back to the complex for a visit for the most part.
Unless it has the original cast. It's just another prime time Soap Opera. Why call it Melrose Place without Locklear, Savant, Leighton, Bissett,Thorne Smith, etc.
Knight Rider got off great because it had H***lehoff in the pilot and has a black car. KR rocks because it sticks to the original idea, just modernized.
Bionic Woman sucked because they disregarded the past. All of a sudden Jamie Sommers is still 20 something, has turned brunette and has a kid.
When you have a re-make it has to stick the original idea or people. No Linsday Wagner no Bionic Woman. No Locklear no Melrose. A Black Car with a One Man That Can Make A Difference (with a Former Soap Star)and a hot brunette mechanic and you have Knight Rider, just with some extra people thrown in.
Since the new "Knight Rider" rocks, as someone has posted, I guess that is why NBC has reduced its full season order from 22 episodes to just 17 and will have the series finish its season before the sweeps period starts in March (it's being pushed back from the traditional February due to the digital conversion) and will replace it with another cheap reality series?
"Knight Rider" rocks? Yeah, right. It's disasters like this that has forced NBC to hand over five hours of its schedule to the painfully unfunny Jay Leno.
knight rider is possibly the worst scripted show on tv, makes daytime soap stars look like oscar winners...
I'm disheartened that Mark Schwahn isn't going to pen the pilot. One Tree Hill, and it's refocus on the characters in their twenties, has been amazing, and he has the ability to write crazy but keep the story grounded in the characters past, presents, and future. It's a shame that deal didn't work out.
I agree that Amanda should not return to Melrose Place. Why would she want to come back? To remember all of the pettiness of her twenties and thirties? Ridiculous. None of the characters from Melrose Place 1990s should return in my opinion. It's a show about people in their twenties having a go at their first or second jobs. All of the 90s characters have seen their first and second jobs p*** by them. Jake, owning Shooters, would be the only character that I could see maybe returning with someone at Melrose Place tending bar.
Melrose Place could definitely make a comeback- but focus on the apartment building being the real star, not past characters.
Yeah, no one is watching the new 90210. It was quickly renewed while ratings were still CW-decent, but last night's was the lowest yet for a new episode, barely reaching a meager 3 million people. That's not good.
Eric, concerning last night's ratings for the new "90210" being the "lowest yet for a new episode", it did air against a little series called "American Idol".
Think that may have had something to do with it?