Central Park West Discussion Thread

[EricMontreal22]

In the Melrose Place thread you said you found all shows like it shallow and unwatchable (and yes I'm badly misquoting you ). I kinda agree with you but have a love hate thing for them--but Central Park West, when i was 14 was the first one I actively started watching when it began--and I was upset when ti never caught on lol (I wonder if it woulda been a bigger hit on Fox than Models Inc and lasted longer?)

[Tishy]

I thought I was the only one who watched this show. Of course, I don't remember any of it other than I did watch it and Raquel Welch was on it

[Cashton]

CPW was so good! The first season was more fresh, the second season got real Dynasty which was cool by me 2.

[SFK]

I remember being kind of bored, actually, to be more accurate I guess I was a smidge ADD watching the first few episodes as a high schooler. I remember Kylie Travis' character's debut for some reason, a shot of her leopard pumps as she stepped out of her cab/limo (?). Once it got axed and came back revamped as CPW, we watched EVERY episode (I want to say that they aired during the summer). It was must-see TV for us, and I still have some eps on VHS. We really enjoyed it and lamented the death of the primetime soap when it, Savannah, The Monroes, Pacific Palisades, Pasadena et al bit it and faded into oblivion.

I mentioned that I was in high school at the time, well in my media class my teacher cited Central Park West as an epic fail for CBS (of course we weren't using the term "epic fail" in 1995). He talked about how it was promo'd to death only to be bumped off the schedule. It was a major hit for the Tiffany Network as they were trying so hard to capture that certain demo. I of course chimed in with my SOD provided info that the show was coming back as CPW with Gerald, Raquel, and Noelle. "Ohhh, wow, it's being reVAMPED!" I remember my teacher emphatically saying.

Another memory, SOW did a little piece on CPW with a picture of Raquel and Lauren after their catfight in the fountain... they said how sorry they were to see the show go, and on the same page they said that Morgan Fairchild's (she was on her way out of The City) Sydney Chase could have benefitted from the camp factor Raquel's Dianna provided. Morgan was dead set on this idea of a '90s soap diva, she had all the trappings of the '80s soap divas, but was rather austere in terms of her delivery. She felt that we all wanted to get away from that '80s OTT campy soap bitch. Personally, I don't think we ever really get tired of that which explains why Tiffany "New York" Pollard and her chupacabra of a mother have 5 reality shows under their belts.

Raquel LOOKED great on CPW (though my mom said she looked like a witch, especially in this opera cloak she wore one ep), the clothes (the hats!) were VERY Alexis. After all, she was in the running to play Alexis pre-Joan Collins. My gripe with her is that she seems incapable of delivering an organic performance. I know I know, this type of soap lends itself to a certain "style", it's rather British actually with an emphasis on the lips, the teeth, the tongue. It's all style, no substance, and for me, Raquel comes across as very studied, TOO studied. She knows exactly how she's going to deliver every line, and she's missing that confident, naturally clever, *wink* to the audience quality Joan had that made Alexis such magic. Raquel's trying too hard to be perfect, to get it "right".

[Matt P.]

This show was supposed to be a huge break out hit in 1995. This was around the time that Melrose Place was already big and with that buzz, CPW was must see tv. So popular that Mariel Hemmingway hosted SNL and did a skit about CPW with Will Farrell.

Another fun fact was that Melissa Orrico was upset that her character was killed off so during her death scene she purposely made it over dramatic and tried milking every second to waste time.

::sigh:: Such fun camp that I hope to one day revive in TV.

[Sylph]

Then why was it cancelled? 

[Paul Raven]

The show was one of CBS attempts to get the young folks watching.

At the time,it had one of the highest awareness ratings,due to CBS ' massive publicity drive.Ironically,most people said they wouldn't be watching - which explains the lackluster ratings.

The competition was Grace Under Fire/Naked Truth on ABC and Dateline on NBC.Grace was in the Top 20 and Naked and Dateline Top 30.

Nine episodes aired before the show was yanked during November sweeps.It came back as CPW the following summer.CBS had obviously lost interest.

[SFK]

Yeah, CPW played more like a miniseries, and I guess I was in denial, but they really didn't try to hide that fact. The promos pretty much stated that it was a special 8 episode summer series, but we were really hoping it would come back in the fall after that Dianna (Alexis) and Adam (Cecil) death mid-coitus scene.

[dc11786]

Metro, a New York based cable station, aired "Central Park West" six or seven years ago. Oddly, in the weekly showings, they skipped over episodes 9-13, but on a Thanksgiving Day marathon, they aired the entire series. I was surprised how smoothly the show transitioned from "Central Park West" to "CPW". The whole Mark-Carrie mess was revealed resulting in Stephanie and Mark returning to Seattle as Adam Brock arrived looking to purchase Communique.

Overall, though, the show never completely gelled. The canvas had interesting characters, but they never really seemed to be used well. Rachel Dennis was a wonderful manipulator, but her receiving the title of editor was rather anti-climatic and she was rather dull in the CPW episodes. The potential of the Carrie-Rachel rivalry was always there, but never made it to complete fruitition. I couldn't understand dumping John Barrowman's Peter. Nikki never seemed to have much of a story (other than a romance with a hitman/artist in the unseen episodes).

BTW, Melissa Errico's antics were the basis of a plotline on Star's WB comedy "Grosse Point". When the show was writing of Marcy Stenfeld's character Kim, Marcy pulled the same stunt. Star said in an interview that an actress on Central Park West had done something similar when she was killed off, and Errico's Alex was the only female to bite the dust.

[Matt P.]

GP was pure genious! I think that I read somewhere that when the camera panned on Orrico's character's "dead" face, she kept moving her mouth and making faces.

Here's what I really enjoyed about Dianna. She had good lines and was a campy bitch when delivered:

[detroitpiston]

Talk about bad acting..........

[DaytimeFan]

OH that sums it up perfectly. Raquel Welch lacks the ability to create the confident *wink* to the audience that Joan Collins excels at. I think the comic touch Joan has is what sets her apart, she plays her 'bitch' roles with a sense of joie de vivre, coupled with aggression.

Raquel Welch, on the other hand, always comes across as so mannered, so studied and so damn stiff. Raquel Welch ALWAYS plays the part exactly the same. Be it comedy, drama or soap, she IS Raquel Welch. She is so [!@#$%^&*] serious, it drives me crazy. She has absolutely no sense of humor which I think is deadly.

I wish I could like her, but I just NEVER, ever, have.

[Chris B]

I don't think her problem was that she was too serious, she was just a mess. Couldn't act to save her life. She wasn't playing it too hard or serious, but far too over the top and too forced. She simply can't act. I wish Kylie Travis was given more of a chance to go up against her because she had the chops to tear her ass up. Madchen Amick as well.

[Sylph]

Yep. That's it.

[SFK]

I think DaytimeFan's point is that she takes herself too seriously, I think we are all in agreement about the acting, it's just a matter of semantics (forced=OTT=mannered=studied=tries too hard=bad acting , sorry Raq, you look like a million though )