‘Melrose Place’ Reunion! 9 Things We Learned From Heather Locklear, Marcia Cross and More

Credit: YouTube (2)

‘Melrose Place’ Reunion! 9 Things We Learned From Heather Locklear, Marcia Cross and More

The former residents of West Hollywood’s most iconic apartment complex spilled secrets for a good cause! Josie Bissett (Jane Mancini), Thomas Calabro (Michael Mancini), Marcia Cross (Kimberly Shaw), Laura Leighton (Sydney Andrews), Heather Locklear (Amanda Woodward), Doug Savant (Matt Fielding), Grant Show (Jake Hanson), Andrew Shue (Billy Campbell), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison Parker) and Daphne Zuniga (Jo Reynolds) reunited for a virtual Melrose Place reunion in support of The Actors Fund. “What I miss most is the working with the group of people and the crew that becomes the family,” Leighton, 51, said. “And that was, it was really hard to go from having that family for a number of years to all of a sudden, not on a daily basis. And I think it's sort of why we've all kind of remained in touch even, you know, through long periods of everybody's lives go different ways. But, circling back to that time, I have always, I just have maintained that fond feeling of this group as a family.” Bissett, 49, added, “And we all, I mean, when the show hit, I don't think anybody expected it to be what it was. And so we were all kind of in that together as well.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asgD_RoBOqw&feature=emb_title The virtual reunion was seemingly the first time that the cast had seen Locklear, 58, in recent years. The T.J. Hooker alum, who has been in and out of treatment for her substance abuse struggles and mental health issues, celebrated one year of sobriety on April 21. “Let me just say this, the one question I get from everybody, any time anybody talks about the show, they say, ‘Tell me what Heather's like in real life? Like is she, you know, she got all these rocker guys’ and then I tell them, which I'll tell everybody who's watching, she's the sweetest, nicest, most professional, awesome person I know,” Shue, 53, said. “We’re all really excited to see you.” Cross was quick to agree. “I love you, Heather, and I'm really happy to see you too,” the Desperate Housewives alum, 58, said. “When you just jumped in with that joke, what about the pandemic I went, ‘Oh my God, that is so Heather, she's so sharp and so funny and so on it.’ It just brought me back to like you, like you're fabulous so I'm just so happy to see you.” Locklear thanked her former costars for their kind words. “It was the cast, it was the crew and it was for the years that we were together and doing so many episodes and two episodes at the same time,” she said about her time on the drama. “We really had to help each other and it was a really nice group.” Melrose Place is currently streaming on Hulu. Scroll through for everything we learned from the reunion:

Credit: YouTube (2)

‘Melrose Place’ Reunion! 9 Things We Learned From Heather Locklear, Marcia Cross and More

The former residents of West Hollywood’s most iconic apartment complex spilled secrets for a good cause! Josie Bissett (Jane Mancini), Thomas Calabro (Michael Mancini), Marcia Cross (Kimberly Shaw), Laura Leighton (Sydney Andrews), Heather Locklear (Amanda Woodward), Doug Savant (Matt Fielding), Grant Show (Jake Hanson), Andrew Shue (Billy Campbell), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison Parker) and Daphne Zuniga (Jo Reynolds) reunited for a virtual Melrose Place reunion in support of The Actors Fund. “What I miss most is the working with the group of people and the crew that becomes the family,” Leighton, 51, said. “And that was, it was really hard to go from having that family for a number of years to all of a sudden, not on a daily basis. And I think it's sort of why we've all kind of remained in touch even, you know, through long periods of everybody's lives go different ways. But, circling back to that time, I have always, I just have maintained that fond feeling of this group as a family.” Bissett, 49, added, “And we all, I mean, when the show hit, I don't think anybody expected it to be what it was. And so we were all kind of in that together as well.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asgD_RoBOqw&feature=emb_title The virtual reunion was seemingly the first time that the cast had seen Locklear, 58, in recent years. The T.J. Hooker alum, who has been in and out of treatment for her substance abuse struggles and mental health issues, celebrated one year of sobriety on April 21. “Let me just say this, the one question I get from everybody, any time anybody talks about the show, they say, ‘Tell me what Heather's like in real life? Like is she, you know, she got all these rocker guys’ and then I tell them, which I'll tell everybody who's watching, she's the sweetest, nicest, most professional, awesome person I know,” Shue, 53, said. “We’re all really excited to see you.” Cross was quick to agree. “I love you, Heather, and I'm really happy to see you too,” the Desperate Housewives alum, 58, said. “When you just jumped in with that joke, what about the pandemic I went, ‘Oh my God, that is so Heather, she's so sharp and so funny and so on it.’ It just brought me back to like you, like you're fabulous so I'm just so happy to see you.” Locklear thanked her former costars for their kind words. “It was the cast, it was the crew and it was for the years that we were together and doing so many episodes and two episodes at the same time,” she said about her time on the drama. “We really had to help each other and it was a really nice group.” Melrose Place is currently streaming on Hulu. Scroll through for everything we learned from the reunion:

Credit: CBS via Hulu

Snow on Jake Hanson’s Romance With Kelly Taylor

Fans may recall that Jennie Garth’s Beverly Hills, 90210, character helped launch Melrose Place in 1992. Looking back, however, Snow, 58, admits his character dating a high school student Kelly Taylor was “a little creepy.”

“She was a little too young for him,” he said. “That’s how I felt about it. I don’t think it would fly nowadays.”

The Dynasty actor added: “I was the first one to be cast because they used me to springboard for the show off of 90210.”

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The Cast on Filming Struggles

The group got candid about filming more than 30 episodes a season.

“We would do doubles, remember those, guys? We would shoot two episodes at the same time,” Zuniga said. “We would be up in the morning for one episode and then do all those scenes and then drive across town or out to Santa Clarita if we remember where the hell are we supposed to show up and then do that scene for like two weeks in a row? Twice a year I think.”

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Shue on Billy and Alison’s Relationship

“I would not have gotten the part if it wasn't for Courtney,” Shue said. “I was brought in at the last minute. They had had another actor who had worked for a few days and they let him go and they brought me in an emergency session at Aaron's house and I got to audition with Courtney and I had auditioned him for the part two months earlier and didn't even get a call back because I was auditioning with a casting director, which is a lot different. But then when I got the audition with Courtney, I didn't really have to act, but just be myself and work my butt off. I was able to get the part.”

Shue added that “one of the best scenes [he] ever did was Billy “saying goodbye” to Alison: “We had real chemistry.”

When asked if they would still be together if the show came back, he quipped, “We joked that we should do a horror film, where we all have a reunion and we all come back for a funeral. The Big Chill meets the Devil.”

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Cross on Kimberly’s Infamous Scenes

Whether it was blowing up the apartment complex or revealing her secret scar under her wig, Cross’ Kimberly had a lot of iconic moments on the series.  

“[The bombing] was one of many crazy things that I did, you know, like breastfeeding somebody else's child. [I’d] just freak out, call Darren and be like, ‘I can't do this,’” Cross admitted. “And he'd, go do it, do it, do it. And I would do it and, and I remember it was a problem because then there was the Oklahoma bombing and so it was supposed to air and they pushed it because it was too close, but it was very fun to do.”

As for the wig scene, Cross said she was “shocked” it was such a big deal when it aired. “I just was, you know, just doing what they said to do,” she said. “And then, yeah, I wasn't like, ‘Oh God, here we go.’ I just was like, OK, ‘She's crazy and I'm never going to have to live it down!’” 

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Thorne-Smith on Alison Going Blind

Fans may remember when Thorne-Smith’s character briefly went blind. “I was in apartment, they were trying to get me out, but I was drunk. So I said ‘Leave me alone!’” the actress recalled. “And then [the building] blew up and I was blind. And then when I was blind, Billy was really nice to me. So after I got my sight back, I pretend that I was still blind so he would keep being nice to me.”

Credit: CBS via Hulu

On the Iconic Pool

While the pool may be the most memorable landmark from the show, it wasn’t as nice as it looked.

“[They heated the pool] to the point of being gross, actually kind of gross,” Leighton revealed.

Savant added, “It was kind of like a bacteria. It was like a Petri dish dish.”

Shue then noted that there was “no deep end.”

“It was only about 4 feet, the whole thing,” he said.

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Locklear on Her Favorite Scenes as Amanda

Locklear loved playing the bad girl on the series.

“Yes. It was pretty fun. Since I don't normally do that in real life,” she said. “I don't behave like that, maybe sometimes. But, it was super fun. It was very fun. You know, people like that kind of attitude.”

She also fondly recalled a catty scene with Lisa Rinna’s Taylor McBride. “There's so many fights,” she said. “Scratching, I guess, that's what girls fight are. … It would be fun to play Amanda again.”

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Leighton and Savant’s Real Life Connection to the Show

Leighton and Savant, who met on set, tied the knot in 1998 and have two kids. They revealed during the reunion their son went to school by the church where her character was infamously killed in her wedding dress.

“We were at the first day of kindergarten. And you start the day like in the morning meeting, which is, you know, in this chapel space, and we're sitting there going ‘My gosh, this place is really pretty it's looks familiar,’” she recalled. “And we realize we're in the same church where we shot that scene! And we're now sending our kid to school there.”

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The Cast on Love Triangles

“I think I hooked up with everyone. Really, I mean, so I'm supposed to say my favorite? It was an orgy with all of them!” Locklear quipped.

Bissett, for her part, had fond memories of filming love scenes with then-husband Rob Estes, who played  Kyle McBride. “My ex-husband at the time, he was my husband, because we were just so comfortable together, so that was nice,” she said “You know, it's never super fun making out. It's never what it seems. Right. But with him, it was like what we do in real life so it was easy. And I was pregnant too with our son.”

Leighton’s most notable romance for Sydney was also with Estes.

“I don’t know if I have a favorite but there was a time where my character was hooking up with (Josie’s) ex-husband as well!” she said. “And obviously we were friends, we laughed a lot because we were friends during that time. I mean I worked a lot with Thomas and that was always, he was always so mean to Syd. So yeah, it wasn't maybe the most fun, but he storylines are always fun to tell.”

Love scenes, overall, were very “mechanical” and “awkward” according to the cast.

“Everybody just tries to like sort of make light of it, like we got to get comfortable and we gotta, you know, sort of find the humor and the weirdness of it all,” the Pretty Little Liars alum said.

Snow added, “It’s very mechanical. It's very, it's like you never want to cross a line of what's real and what's not real, but you're always thinking that maybe somebody else is thinking that you are and it's just so uncomfortable.”