'Melrose Place' Star: Show Took A 'Wacky' Turn After Heather Locklear Came Onboard
"I don't know if the writers really planned on all of this happening..."
Lisa Capretto— OWN
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In the 1990s, "Melrose Place" was a wildly popular primetime soap opera with a cast of characters who led drama-filled lives in Los Angeles. But in the midst of their bed-hopping, blackmail and love triangles was one relatively stable character, played by Josie Bissett.
Bissett starred as Jane Mancini, the fashion-designer wife of a doctor. As Bissett tells "Oprah: Where Are They Now?", she always felt a strong connection to Jane's personality.
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"She was one of the only characters on the show that was sound and sweet," Bissett says. "I related to that."
"Melrose Place" became a hit, though the series began much more mild than it ended. Initially, it focused on the common challenges of several 30-somethings trying to live out their dreams. As far as television shows go, Bissett felt that it was a winning formula.
"There was nothing else like that out on TV yet, [showing] real issues," Bissett points out. "But then, we brought on Heather Locklear."
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Locklear joined the main cast of "Melrose Place" in its second season, and that's when the storylines really started changing.
"The show took a turn," Bissett says.
Soon, "Melrose Place" plot points began getting more outrageous and eventually included more than a few attempted murders, torrid affairs, arson, bouts of certifiable insanity, a prostitution ring, explosions, fake deaths, kidnapping and baby-stealing, to name a few.
"I don't know if the writers really planned on all of this happening, but it naturally then became a dramedy, really," Bissett says. "'Melrose' [featured] this serious but also wacky stuff that doesn't happen in real life."
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing though, she adds. Going full-on "soap opera" only seemed to make "Melrose Place" more of a success.
"I think that's why it really was something that people watched and loved," Bissett says.
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