te.

In all honesty - I have no problem with the finale. I thought it was good in the way that they tied up the loose ends, but left enough things open to speculate about. I agree with what Darren Star said though - if the show had been handled with more care after he left, it could've gone on for another seven seasons, but a lot of stuff happened to prevent that. I think Heather's pregnancy screwed up season 6 in a major way as they had to start filming earlier and it was obvious that they had no idea what direction to take the season in leaving a lot of loose end plots (Samantha paints a creepy picture! Michael dates a stripper! COOP.). Doug Savant was also signed up to do half the season, but because of commitments they had to write him out in the first episode. BTW - I'm rewatching season 1 right now and I guess Natalie did come back to check her mail:

Here's one of the articles where they talk about the whole thing: Re: "Melrose Hell" Re: Kimberly returning: Re: Sydney returning: Re: Darren Star about the show's lasting longer: Re: "character's returning" (the one who was sick was Courtney Thorne-Smith) http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/4616/lat0524.html The Natalie scene was indeed filmed apparently: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/4616/tvg0528.html Can't believe The Place is up all these years later! Too bad very few of the images work. Here's another article about ending the show with Charles Pratt Jr and Carol Mendelsohn plus Homicide's Tom Fontana and Another World's Leah Laiman: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/4616/nyt0613.html

To be honest, most of the cast members at this time were still kind of stuck up about the show and either wanted too much compensation, just wouldn't do it or had scheduling conflicts. Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison) was pretty much the only cast member who was up to doing a cameo, but she only wanted a non-speaking part but couldn't do it in the end due to her commitments on Ally McBeal, I believe. She was slated to appear in the bar scene where Amanda and Peter dances just before Eve tries to run them over if I remember correctly. Here are some other concepts that were thrown around according to Charles Pratt Jr: - An idea that went pretty far, possibly even filmed but cut out, was that Natalie - yes, Natalie, Alison's roommate that left in the first minute of the first episode - was supposed to come back and ask Lexi (Jamie Luner) if she knew where Alison was. It was dropped as it was considered to be too obscure. - Another idea was to have Eve's (Rena Sofer) last scene having her being taken to a psychiatrist - as she would've entered the office the chair would've swirlved around to reveal none other than the good doctor Kimberley Shaw (Marcia Cross). They apparently even negotiated with Marcia about coming back, but she demanded too much cash. - The most insane idea, however, was to have a dream sequence/one of the characters (possibly Michael (dream) or Eve (death)) going to Melrose Hell - basically meeting all the dead bad guys in a twisted hellish version of the courtyard. This was scrapped when it became apparent it was going to be too expensive to bring them all back. They also had a plot planned for bringing back Sydney at the start of season 7 with her having been kidnapped and had her death faked by that millionaire who courted her in season 5 (I forget his name). That idea was scrapped when Laura Leighton suddenly signed to 90210 instead.

Yes, Doug Savant was actually pushing for Matt to have a crush for Michael and it's obvious it's something the writers toyed with a bit, but I guess they were too afraid to go there sadly in case it would get a backlash from the gay community. Season 6 was a mess for several reasons - besides the exodus of original cast members, it was obvious that the show was rushed into production due to Heather's pregnancy - Doug Savant was originally set to appear in the first 13 (or so) episodes of season 6, but due to other commitments he could not fulfill that contract when they had to start filming early. It was also obvious that it effected the writing in the worst way - some stories were just randomly dropped (like Samantha's psycho painting) or was just there as an obvious filler story (Michael having that stripper move in only for her to steal his tv - WTF?). It's a shame because some of the stories did have potential (like Kimberly's mom stalking Michael), but overall it just sucked. Also, snatching PEYTON from Savannah only to have her play a pill-popping neurotic? Really, writers...

Re: 2000 Malibu Road It was supposed to be aired in the Spring of 1992 (hence Drew Barrymore's character's hope to land a pilot for the fall), but kept being pushed back. When CBS finally aired it - it became a huge smash hit! They did try to make new deals - but between the demands from the girls for a pay check rise, plus the fact that most of the sets had to be re-built, it never happened. Re: CPW The remaining episodes were originally going to be aired in March/April 1996 - both the Mariel/CPW eps! Obviously, someone decided against it and they got aired in the summer. No renewal unless they were smash hits. Which they weren't.