letterten 2009-10 fall preview | the cw

CW Tuesday 9pm

debuts Tuesday, September 8, 9pm

concept from	In an elegant Spanish-style apartment complex in the trendy Melrose neighborhood of Los Angeles, the lives and relationships of a diverse group of 20-somethings intertwine to form a close-knit surrogate family. Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton, the original Melrose Place) is the landlady, still beautiful at 40, and a central figure in the lives of all her tenants, especially handsome and rebellious David Breck (Shaun Sipos, Shark). Sydney started an affair with David despite her turbulent history with his estranged father, Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro, the original Melrose Place). Both father and son learned through experience that Sydney was not above using blackmail to control people.
stars	Ashlee Simpson-Wentz (7th Heaven), Colin Egglesfield (All My Children), Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield), Katie Cassidy (Supernatural), Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Michael Rady (Swingtown), Shaun Sipos (Shark), Stephanie Jacobsen (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Thomas Calabro (Melrose Place)
producers	Darren Swimmer, Davis Guggenheim, Todd Slavkin
studio	CBS Television Studios

my take

It's back. And no one is really surprised. It's paired with 90210 on Tuesday and has a few cast members from the original. Everyone looks pretty. There's a lot of sex and violence (probably at the same time in many cases) and they'll need to decide if they want to play it serious or partly cheesy. The promos look great and it'll probably give The CW a decent (for them) Tuesday night. The original Sydney (Laura Leighton) is the new landlord of 4616 Melrose and according the The CW is a "central figure in the lives of her tenants." That should be cougarlicious.

Joining her in this latest update are former castmates Daphne Zuniga (Jo), Thomas Calabro (Michael) and Josie Bisett (Jane). For now. Looks like the "old" will be reasonably integrated with the "new." Melrose 2.0 has everything it needs to pickup where the Fox edition left off and keep the CW Gossip Girl/The Beautiful Life, et al, thread alive and well fed. Did I mention they're talking with Amanda Woodward, er, Heather Locklear to join the party?.