Watch ‘Melrose Place’ cast reunite 21 years after the show's finale

Ree Hines
·2 min read

Welcome to the unexpected golden age of big and small-screen reunions!

With quarantine being the new status quo, house-bound fans have seen old favorites from “The Goonies,” “The Princess Bride,” “High School Musical,” “The Nanny,” “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Desperate Housewives” and “The Office” get together again — via video calling — and there are even more virtual meet-ups on the way.

On Tuesday, the latest classic TV cast to reunite and reminisce was the gang from “Melrose Place.”

As part of the “Stars in the House” YouTube series, which raises money for The Actors Fund, Marcia Cross (Kimberly Shaw), Heather Locklear (Amanda Woodward), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison Parker), Andrew Shue (Billy Campbell), Laura Leighton (Sydney Andrews), Grant Show (Jake Hanson), Josie Bissett (Jane Mancini), Thomas Calabro (Michael Mancini), Doug Savant (Matt Fielding), and Daphne Zuniga (Jo Reynolds) joined forces for a look back at the show, which ended 21 years ago.

“This is the first time everyone’s gotten together in, like, eight years,” co-host James Wesley noted before throwing it to the stars to tackle some of the show’s wilder past premises — for instance, the moment Cross learned that her character could make a return to the show, right before she filmed her death scene.

"I got a phone call from them saying, 'Would you like to come back at the end of the year?' I said, 'I don't understand, I'm driving off a cliff today, I'm dying (on the show),’” she remembered. “And they said, 'No, no, no, we're going to change that.' So I went away for a few months and then came back.”

MELROSE PLACE, (Standing, L-R:), Heather Locklear, Grant Show, Doug Savant, Thomas Calabro.(Seated, (Everett Collection)
MELROSE PLACE, (Standing, L-R:), Heather Locklear, Grant Show, Doug Savant, Thomas Calabro.(Seated, (Everett Collection)

They talked about her epic wig-reveal scene in the show’s second season, other unbelievable plot shifts and the many (many!) on-screen romances over the course of the nearly two-hour reunion.

And they also discussed the one early ingredient that really gave the show its flow — Locklear herself.

“Heather came on, and suddenly we had a villain, and it just took off,” said Thorne-Smith.

Like some of her past co-stars, Locklear even brought her character back to the small screen in 2009, for a “Melrose Place” reboot, alongside a new generation of stars. But Amanda didn’t really get to shine, since the follow-up show only lasted one season.

Still, that doesn’t mean she’s gone forever.

“It would be fun to play Amanda again," the actress said with a smile.

So hope springs eternal for fans of the prime-time soap opera’s best baddie.