Trivia

- Heather Locklear was credited as a “special guest star” for six seasons.

- Thomas Calabro,(Michael Mancini) was the only original cast member to remain on Melrose Place throughout the entire run.

- Melrose Place is a so-called “branch” of Beverly Hills, 90210 since part of the Melrose Place story begins there. Grant Show had appeared on two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 (as Jake Hanson), to introduce this spin-off, to viewers. Also in the pilot the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 which included Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, and Tori Spelling. Garth appeared on the first three episodes of Melrose to continue their characters’ story lines, with brief appearances by Ziering and Green in each show. Spelling appeared in only the first two shows because her character then left to study in France for the rest of the summer.

- Actress Hunter Tylo was originally cast in the role of Taylor McBride, but became pregnant soon after being hired, and was fired. Producers said the pregnancy violated the change-in-her-appearance clause in her contract, and she sued them. Tylo won the suit against Aaron Spelling and the other producers, and was rewarded $4.9 million.

- Stephen Fanning was originally cast in the role of Billy Campbell, but was fired when filming first began because he had gained too much weight. He was replaced by Andrew Shue, who re-shot the “Billy” scenes in the pilot two days after getting the role.

- The third season was originally going to end with Kimberly blowing up the apartment complex, but that was scrapped since the Oklahoma City bombing occurred a month earlier. Not wanting to be insensitive to the national tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing, the producers had the final shot of the season being Kimberly hitting the detonator, then showed the explosion in the season premiere in the fall of 1995.

- When the series ended, people who worked on the show sold bottles of the swimming pool water on EBay.

- Courteney Cox, Dean Cain, Calista Flockhart, Julianna Margulies, Paul Rudd, Robert Sean Leonard, Sherry Stringfield, Pamela Anderson, Noah Wyle, and Kathy Ireland all auditioned for roles when the show was first being cast in 1992.

- Both Linden Ashby and Rob Estes had guest appearances in the first season and second season and then became prominent members in the cast later in the series as completely different characters. Ashby played Jo’s ex-husband and then became Dr. Brett “Coop” Cooper and Estes played Sam and then became Kyle McBride.

- By early 1999, FOX decided that the ratings erosion as well as the extremely high production costs (it was said that they could have filmed an entire pilot just on Heather Locklear’s salary) warranted cancellation.

- In Season One, it’s mentioned that both Allison Parker and Jane Mancini are 23; and Billy Campbell is 22.

- From the fifth season on, “St. George Industries” became a running gag in the show, popping up as a random company name as needed; it was named after Chris St. George, a writers’ assistant for the show.

- The Season 7 villain “Alex Bastian” was named partly after then Script Coordinator Jon Bastian.

- The character, Billy Campbell, was named after actor Billy Campbell. According to the Season 1 DVD feature: “Beginnings”, Billy was intended to be the main character and they looked to cast his role first.

- Although Alyssa Milano and Heather Locklear were on-screen enemies, they actually got along really well, according to Milano.

- Throughout season 4, the picture above Sydney’s mantle is actually the album cover for the alternative-rock compilation, ‘If I Were a Carpenter’, a tribute to the famous 1970s singing duo.