THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 12, 1995 TAG: 9506100050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
DECISIONS. DECISIONS. What should I do tonight?
Watch the season premiere of the absolutely fabulous British sitcom, ``Absolutely Fabulous,'' on Comedy Central at 8? And tape ``The Baddest and the Best of Melrose Place,'' which I missed the first time around on Fox?
Or should I watch ``Melrose'' and tape ``AbFab''?
If ``Star Trek: Voyager'' wasn't into reruns, I'd have two VCRs fired up at 8 tonight.
The long, hot spring/summer of reruns has begun for devotees of ``Melrose Place,'' who must wait until fall to find out if the crazed Kimberly blew up the Melrose Place apartment complex, and if she did, who survived and who did not.
No help here from Carolyn Prousky, the Fox publicist for ``Melrose Place.'' She said the producers intend to keep the viewers guessing.
With filming for the show's fourth season to start around July 10, the writers are finishing up the first script this week. As ``Melrose Place'' faded into reruns, Kimberly (Marcia Cross) was about to press the button on a detonator that would trigger an explosion strong enough to blow Alison, Amanda, Jo, Michael and Billy and his new bride into the next county.
Does everyone survive?
``We're not saying,'' said Prousky.
Is there an explosion?
``You'll have to wait and see.''
In fact, an explosion at Melrose Place was filmed. The magazine Entertainment Weekly published a copy of the original script in which ``the force of the explosion sends Kimberly into the air, Amanda flies down the stairs, Alison's fireplace blows out as she hoists a drink, and Jo's apartment window blows out.''
You never saw those five scenes because Fox and the show's producers decided it would be in bad taste to broadcast them in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Do you want to see the explosion when ``Melrose Place'' starts up again in the fall? Is that enough time for the wounds in Oklahoma to heal?
Did you feel cheated because ``Melrose Place'' ended with a whimper instead of a bang last month?
I put those questions to readers who called my number on Infoline (640-5555, press 2486).
The majority agreed with the producers' decision to scrub the explosion.
Said Amber Jenkins of Virginia Breach: ``The producers were right to do what they did. If they showed the explosion, somebody who is sick may have seen it and be inspired to go out and make an explosion of their own. If there was a bad explosion on `Melrose Place,' and some characters were killed off, that would be terrible. Some actors would have lost their jobs. Let's hope Kimberly comes to her senses.''
Said Courtney Soscia in Virginia Beach: ``The producers were right not to show the bombs going off, but I wish they had showed us what happened after Kimberly smiled and put her finger on the button. The letdown is to be left hanging like that for months.''
That's to make sure you come back in the fall, Courtney.
I also tossed out the subject of the quiet ``Melrose Place'' finale in cyberspace, asking computer hackers around the country what they thought about it. From coast to coast, the word was. . . ``we want to see the explosion''!
(My Internet address is rsue30a(AT)prodigy.com)
Only a little less noisy than bombs going off is the return of Edina and Patsy to Comedy Central in six new episodes of ``Absolutely Fabulous'' beginning tonight.
Producer John Plowman summed up the characters to TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago when he said, ``They are role models for people who want to neglect their children, smoke a lot, drink a lot, take drugs and be generally despised by the rest of the world.''
Edina and Patsy would be right at home on ``Melrose Place.'' by CNB