“Melrose Place” had a mini-reunion on Wednesday’s “Strahan Sara & Keke,” and fans of the popular 1990s primetime soap were gifted with a fun-filled trip down memory lane.
Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison Parker), Andrew Shue (Billy Campbell), Daphne Zuniga (Jo Reynolds), Josie Bissett (Jane Mancini), Laura Leighton (Sydney Andrews) and Doug Savant (Matt Fielding) sat down for a Q & A that tackled everything from pool fights and cast romances to how the show played an important role in the O.J. Simpson trial.
Strahan started off by reminding the co-stars that it’s been 20 years since the show went off the air as Courtney chimed in, “And we all look exactly the same.” The rest of the cast and studio audience enthusiastically agreed.
“We feel lucky we were part of something that was unique — because that time has passed — the way TV is so different now,” Andrew confessed, as Josie explained how fans would make it a special event to watch it together, something not always found in today’s world of streaming content.
A clip was then shown of the infamous scene where Jane and her sister Sydney — wearing Jane’s wedding dress — get into a fight before they violently toss each other into the pool. Leighton said it was filmed in one take because, once she was wet, they didn’t want to dry everything and start all over again.
The pool in the fictional apartment building “was like an extra member of the cast,” explained Strahan, as the cast noted many characters ended up in it after a spat or romantic encounter.
But Daphne’s character, Jo, never had to endure such a fate.
“I kept thinking ‘please don’t put me in the pool,'” Daphne said with a laugh, adding, “Like maybe there’s so many of us, they’ll just forget that I haven’t been in the pool.”
She noted, however, rabid fans who “have seen every episode” might correct her on her memory.
Strahan then noted a testament to the show’s popularity was the fact that the jury for the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995 were allowed to watch episodes while sequestered, which surprised a few of the cast members, as well as Keke and Sara.
The Aaron Spelling-produced ratings king was ubiquitous in pop culture during its reign, even being mentioned in other TV programs.
After showing a classic clip of the “Seinfeld” episode where Jerry is given a polygraph test to see if he watches “Melrose Place,” Keke asked Andrew when he knew the show was a big hit.
“You’re in your own little bubble when filming a show, but it’s when you go out into the public, you realize,” he replied. “It was just so much fun. I wanna say these guys are all the sweetest, nicest, most professional people,” he gushed while motioning to his former cast mates.
“Everybody stayed in touch,” he then added before giving a “shout out” to Heather Locklear — who played the infamous Amanda Woodward on the series — as she has endured a difficult year, including a judge-ordered 30-day stint in a mental health facility stemming from her police battery case, according to TMZ.
“We think about her all the time, she’s also an incredible, incredible person,” said Shue.
Sara then remarked how co-stars Mark and Laura have been a couple since “Melrose Place” bowed out in 1999, asking when the pair first started dating.
“We got to know each other as co-workers and as people and so by the time we were leaving the show, that was the beginning of our relationship and now 21 years later!” Laura explained to a rousing round of applause.
And when asked if any of the cast’s children watch the show now, Courtney quipped, “I make my son watch it everyday. Instead of homework, we watch ‘Melrose Place.'”
The stars were later put to the test to see who knew the most about the show — see how they fared below:
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