<p><span style="font-size:19.5pt;"><font face="Verdana">Donning Anew the Miniskirt of a Predator</font></span>

<span style="font-size:7.5pt;"><b><font face="Tahoma">By Dave Itzkoff</font></b></span>

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;"><font face="Georgia">IN the seven seasons Heather Locklear spent on “Melrose Place,” the vintage-1990s Fox soap opera, she was synonymous with ruthlessness, deviousness and hemlines that rose as high as prime-time television would allow. So when she returned to a resuscitated version of “Melrose Place” that began this fall on the CW network, Ms. Locklear considered making a few demands. Starting with her skirts.

“They’re short,” Ms. Locklear said in a telephone interview, “and I keep wanting to say, ‘Shorter,’ but I have to work into that, because I think wardrobe might be mortified.”

It has been nearly 17 years since Ms. Locklear, 48, first wriggled her way into the tantalizing garb of Amanda Woodward, the coldblooded — or, depending on your perspective, determined — advertising executive who imbued the original “Melrose Place” with a sense of backstabbing, hair-pulling purpose.

Ms. Locklear knows that not every strategy from her old playbook will work on the new show, which she joins on Nov. 17. She’s now an unlikely elder stateswoman in a cast of mostly 20-somethings — not to mention a mom — and what was risqué in her heyday is now tame by even network television standards. But as she did the first time around, she approaches the over-the-top melodrama with a healthy dose of irony.

“I really was winking at the audience,” she said. “As I stood there watching everything going around me, I tried to go: ‘This is crazy. I’m normal.’ ”

Long before she landed in the bedroom-hopping hothouse of “Melrose Place,” Ms. Locklear had made herself a favorite of that show’s prolific executive producer, Aaron Spelling. In 1981, she was cast as the feather-haired schemer Sammy Jo on Mr. Spelling’s ABC series “Dynasty,” a stint that overlapped with her co-starring role on his ABC cop drama “T. J. Hooker.” (“And once you did one of his shows,” Ms. Locklear said, “you had to do ‘Love Boat,’ you had to do ‘Fantasy Island,’ ” other Spelling guilty pleasures — which she did.)

In 1993 Mr. Spelling turned to Ms. Locklear again when the original “Melrose Place,” a much-hyped spinoff of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” got off to a slow start in the ratings. “You could hear the crickets,” Ms. Locklear said. “It was very boring. It was all nice people, and, really, there are some bad people in the world.”

As Amanda, Ms. Locklear compensated and then some: she seduced several of the show’s male characters, helped orchestrate the buyout of the advertising agency where she worked and drove its ex-president to suicide, overcame lymphoma and was revealed to have faked her own death. The 1999 series finale seemed to suggest that Amanda and a paramour (played by Jack Wagner) were killed in an explosion — then showed the two walking blissfully on a beach.

“Maybe they always thought, ‘Oh, we’ll do a spinoff,’ ” Ms. Locklear said.

Sure enough, when the “Smallville” producers Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin were approached by CW to restart “Melrose Place,” they said their approach would mostly emphasize a new cast of characters — with one exception.

“Heather Locklear is so synonymous with the franchise,” Mr. Slavkin said. “Amanda Woodward is the one character we felt could be folded in, in a much bigger way, to make the show more accessible.”

In her initial conversations with the producers Ms. Locklear was not convinced. “I thought, Is that a good idea?” she said. “Has it been long enough and does anyone care anymore? It was hard to see what they were really going to do.”

But after the new show had its debut on Sept. 8, and Ms. Locklear saw how it integrated other “Melrose Place” veterans like Thomas Calabro (who plays the conniving Dr. Michael Mancini) and Laura Leighton (who portrays the husband-stealing, one-time mental patient Sydney Andrews), she had a change of heart. So Amanda Woodward will return from her desert island hideout, having dumped the boyfriend she left there. (“You can’t stay on one thing for too long,” Ms. Locklear said. “Yawn.”)

Remade for the 21st century, Amanda Woodward is now a partner in a publicity firm, and both mentor and tormentor to a young underling played by Katie Cassidy. (The producers say they optimistically named the firm WPK Public Relations in their pilot, in case that W eventually stood for Woodward.)

Though Ms. Locklear’s return to “Melrose Place” is a reminder of an era when her pinup posters adorned locker rooms and garages from coast to coast, it is not without its downsides. For one, it raises the question of whether she has been permanently pigeonholed as Amanda Woodward. Since the first series ended, she has worked steadily on shows from “Scrubs” to “Hannah Montana,” most often playing self-assured sexpots.

Ms. Locklear said the time she spent on “Melrose Place” had helped propel her to other kinds of work, like a three-season run on the comedy “Spin City,” in which she played the campaign manager for the mayor’s ill-fated senatorial bid. “There’s a window where it’s so good that people want you for different things,” she said. “And then there’s a window when it’s too long, and that’s when you get typecast.”

Her step back into the spotlight also means she will face increased scrutiny for her personal life, which at times has been as convoluted as entire seasons of “Melrose Place.” In the past two years she divorced the rock musician Richie Sambora, her second husband and the father of her 12-year-old daughter, Ava; sought treatment for anxiety and depression at a rehabilitation facility; and pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge that stemmed from a D.U.I. arrest.

Ms. Locklear declined to discuss these matters but said that these details about her would turn up whether or not she had a starring role on a network series.

“There’s that whole Internet thing,” Ms. Locklear said. “You can’t help but be scrutinized, so I might as well be doing something while I’m being scrutinized. People can talk about whatever they want, but this is what’s happening now. I don’t look back.”

Her once and future co-stars report that Ms. Locklear is still the same wisecracking and levelheaded performer they knew in the 1990s. “I haven’t yet seen the girl in a bad mood,” said Mr. Calabro. “If she’s on her game or off her game, once that camera turns on, she pretty much sorts it out.”

Ms. Locklear said she had found an unexpected incentive to resume her “Melrose Place” work: namely, her daughter. “Children want their moms at home, but she did want to know when I was going to be an actress again,” Ms. Locklear said.

Generally Ava is not allowed to watch “Melrose Place,” though she did spy a scene from a DVD Ms. Locklear was sent. “She was like: ‘Uh, whoa. People are kissing and more than kissing.’ ” Ms. Locklear said she told her daughter, “That’s what my boyfriend and I used to do — but not like that.”

But now that her mother is back in the milieu that made her famous, Ava has concluded that the sky’s the limit. Affecting the excitable voice of her daughter, Ms. Locklear said, “Mom, if you were on ‘Gossip Girl,’ I mean, that would be, like, the coolest.”

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<span style="font-size:7.5pt;"><b><font face="Tahoma">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/arts/television/08itzk.html?ref=television</font></b></span></p>

Have you seen Heather Locklear on Conan last week?

It was hilarious: skirt talk, re: apartment building and a B!tch slap-reenactment with "Conando". LOL!

Is she touring any other shows to promote her return?

She better hurry....MP got a 0.8 in the ratings for last nights show...OUCH!

In the households?! Oh sh*t!

In the households?! Oh sh*t!

If this thing doesn't deliver a jaw-dropping whirlwind of a change, it needs to get cancelled. Now.

I am really disappointed with Slavkin & Schwimmer. And I did like some of their work on Smallville (but I always thought they are such huge misfits for Melrose Place v2.0).

If this thing doesn't deliver a jaw-dropping whirlwind of a change, it needs to get cancelled. Now.

I am really disappointed with Slavkin & Schwimmer. And I did like some of their work on Smallville (but I always thought they are such huge misfits for Melrose Place v2.0).

I'm really sad about this because this is really the only show I watch on the CW and really the only primetime show I watch.

I really think they only rented Season One of Melrose Place before they developed the show. And while I enjoyed Season One, what Melrose really needed was a blend of both...people's struggles along with the fun, campy stuff.

And Ashlee Simpson-Wentz sucked the life out of this show.

My biggest worry is that Katie Cassidy's Ella will be Alison-ized for Amanda Woodward. If that happens, I'm outta here. There's enough room for two bitches on the block.

Oh, don't go there! Alison was such a dumb, annoying character! I never liked her!

The casting on this show's terrible and it's what's killing it, too. All these models fanning around with zero acting capabilities... Ew.

CW should take note: you don't develop a spin-off just like that. It needs some years for that.

The casting on this show's terrible and it's what's killing it, too. All these models fanning around with zero acting capabilities... Ew.

I disagree, for the most part I think the show is well cast(Cassidy, Rady, & Lucas being the strongest, Egglesfield and Simpson-Wentz the weakest, and Sipos & Jacobsen somewhere in the middle). No, what's killing this show is the lack of continuity and Slavkin, Swimmer, and Beeman's obvious fear of camp. The CW needs to hire someone like Frank South as a story consultant or co-executive producer. Someone who'd be able to add a touch of crazy fun to the show that the original had.

I disagree, for the most part I think the show is well cast(Cassidy, Rady, & Lucas being the strongest, Egglesfield and Simpson-Wentz the weakest, and Sipos & Jacobsen somewhere in the middle). No, what's killing this show is the lack of continuity and Slavkin, Swimmer, and Beeman's obvious fear of camp. The CW needs to hire someone like Frank South as a story consultant or co-executive producer. Someone who'd be able to add a touch of crazy fun to the show that the original had.

Well, I said too. Which means there's a multitude of factors in play here. Everything lacks sizzle, everything is pale, bleak, cheap, nothing really lights the fire, worn off, shabby, seen.

These two guys - I have a very hard time believing they're these huges fans of the original show they say they are. Nothing has been done properly and the lack of long-term planning, or any planning for that matter, shows.

Amanda: What's your end game?

Ella: I wanna be you.

Amanda: Well that's a pretty lofty goal.

Apart from Simpson-Wentz and Egglesfield, the acting on Melrose Place is tolerable IMO.

There are so many people who say they'll be watching the show once Locklear has joined. I honestly wonder why people aren't tuning in to watch at least one or two episodes before she arrives to get into the story and to meet the other characters.

Personally, I would never watch a show just because a certain actor or actress is part of the ensemble.

I also don't get why the CW promotes Melrose as a "hit series" when it's currently the lowest-rated show on any network.

<p><span style="font-size:19.5pt;"><font face="Verdana">Heather Locklear returns to 'Melrose Place' just in time</font></span>

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;"><b><font face="Verdana">The CW series has been struggling, and the addition of the original series' most famous character, Locklear's Amanda Woodward, could be the boost it needs.</font></b></span>

<span style="font-size:7.5pt;"><b><font face="Tahoma">By Maria Elena Fernandez</font></b></span>

<span style="font-size:9pt;"><font face="Verdana">That shaking underneath Hollywood tonight is not from a quake, but from the force unleashed by the return of a TV powerhouse no less than William Shatner reprising his role as Capt. James T. Kirk or Larry Hagman taking over "Dallas" again. Amanda Woodward -- that is, Heather Locklear -- is back on “Melrose Place,” and her arrival couldn't be better timed.

The first time Amanda appeared at the West Hollywood apartment complex of twentysomething troublemakers and bed-hoppers, Aaron Spelling's show wasn't living up to its "Beverly Hills, 90210" spinoff hype. Now, 10 years after Fox's hit "Melrose" went off the air, the CW finds itself in a similar predicament -- lackluster ratings, despite abundant promotion, the presence of four of the former series' stars (Locklear makes five), and a choice time slot behind the new "90210."

It's unfair that everything seems to be riding on Amanda's pad-less shoulders again. “Melrose Place” is averaging just 1.9 million viewers, and more worrisome, only 700,000 of them are in the target demographic of 18-to-34-year-old women. So far, the CW has only committed to 18 episodes.

Locklear knows her debut was not designed to coincide with the network's new creative direction that required firing cast members Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield. Seeking a lighter tone, the series will abandon its more sinister story lines to focus at the business at hand: hookups, fancy parties, and career and relationship woes.

"Absolutely, this is on my mind, but hopefully my going there will bring some attention and make people watch because it's not just about watching Amanda, it's about bringing awareness to the show," said Locklear.

"It's not a teenage show," said Locklear, who joins the series in the 10th episode. "It just needs to get the attention of people and for people to get hooked because that's what the original 'Melrose Place' was about."

Co-creators Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer had always wished Locklear, whose portrayal of a sexy, no-nonsense "Melrose" diva became emblematic of '90s pop culture, would join the cast. That's why they named the publicity firm where Ella (Katie Cassidy) works "WPK," hoping someday Amanda Woodward would be revealed as the W.

"Before I saw the pilot they had asked me and I thought, 'It's a whole new network, new writers, how do I fit in?' " Locklear said. "I wasn't sure we were supposed to be messing with this. I saw the pilot and I wasn't sure, still. But then I saw the second episode and I thought, 'This is really fun, the clothes are great and now they're starting to get into some story lines.' And I went, 'I'm in. If I'm not the one who killed Sydney, I'm in."

Ah, the double-edged sword that is Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) hangs over the series until the 12th episode, when police solve her murder. Amanda did not kill Sydney -- let's get that out of the way -- but their characters, said Slavkin, are connected in the ominous ways that have always bound the beautiful, conniving residents of the famous address.

Sydney's death has been complicated to handle creatively. Bringing back from the dead a series favorite only to have her murdered in the first 10 minutes intrigued viewers of the original. But viewers who missed the original and were not invested in the character found the noir flashbacks of her relationships to the new characters jarring.

"The question for us became: Should we have taken 12 episodes to slowly unravel the murder mystery?" said CW President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff. "Initially, I thought it was a very clever idea because, by focusing on a different suspect each week, you really got to know each of the characters more intricately. But then what wound up happening is that it became harder to go to other types of stories."

Slavkin and Swimmer had always intended for Sydney's murderer to be caught this season, but abandoning the noir element means saying goodbye to Leighton -- at least, for now.

"We're not ruling her out in terms of the life span of the show," Slavkin said. "Even though the actress isn't there, the ghost of Sydney is still out there."

This shift doesn't mean "Melrose Place" will turn into the Happiest Place on Earth.

"We wound up in a place that was darker than we originally thought and we wanted to make this course correction and this was the opportune time to do it," Ostroff said. "Not to say that the show won't still have story lines that are intense and not to say that theshow won't have controversial arcs for the characters."

Apparently, only certain kinds of inner conflicts are welcome in the new "Melrose" world order, which is why recovering/self-defense murderer Auggie (Egglesfield) and emotionally disturbed Violet (Simpson-Wentz) are gone, Ostroff said. Violet's story line, the producers said, was meant to end when the murder was solved. But firing Egglesfield was the network's decision "and was very difficult for us," Slavkin said.

"With Auggie, we boxed ourselves in a corner," Ostroff said. "He was a very brooding character and we felt it was very hard to unshackle him from his past and redeem him at this point."

The decision came as a surprise to Egglesfield who, like Simpson-Wentz, exits the series in the 13th episode, which airs in January.

"I'm sad to leave," Egglesfield said, during a telephone interview his last week of work. "But I don't blame anyone. . . . I don't understand why they didn't give Ashlee and me a little bit more of a shot, but in this business, that's just the way it goes sometimes."

The departures of Auggie and Violet take place in the same episode that two new characters are introduced: Dr. Drew Pragin (Nick Zano) and Ben Brinkley (Billy Campbell). Pragin, a doctor, likes to make people laugh and -- shockingly -- is harboring a secret. Brinkley is Amanda's boyfriend, which raises the question: Where is Peter? (Jack Wagner, Locklear's real-life boyfriend). When viewers last saw the couple, they had faked their deaths and run away to an island.

"They do address it, but you can't blink," Locklear said. "You'd think Amanda would be a little more content on that island and change, but she really couldn't stand it. She is who she is and she had to get off that island. She's a girl who needs to be in the middle of the action. A woman, actually. Amanda is a woman now."

[email protected]</font></span>

<span style="font-size:7.5pt;"><b><font face="Tahoma">http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-melrose17-2009nov17,0,3941576.story</font></b></span></p>

I thought tonight's episode was very strong. They definitely turned up the dial in the risque department.

Maybe but I just don't think it's going to make it

I'm just about to watch if my download will ever finish. I hope Amanda doesnt let me down.

Love, love, love Heather. That's what I call a grand entrance...