Shark Bytes
Where do you begin with this abomination of a show. How this show was even commissioned is a mystery. It was a lame attempt at a 90s version of Knots Landing that not even the biggest fans of Aaron Spelling cheese like myself could tolerate. The opening episode where some bloke is killed by "villainous" Matt played by the Diet Coke guy no less was preposterous as were further plots revolving around Matts shady dealings in the construction trade that lead to woeful dialogue along the lines of "he used cheap bricks to build the shopping mall that collapsed and killed all of those kids" or "I knew he was too poor to buy that picture his wife was selling at the garage sale, Matt must have been bribing him" (dont even ask). Hardly JR Ewing material now is it. Plots were awful and the central couple Nick and Joanna and Robert and Kate were hideous. Add to that the brat teen sister/daughter Rachel alongside Jessica ("I really love Robert") and Beth ("He made me star in the porno") and it was full on crap. The intrigues of the architecture world where the principals worked was hardly the stuff of Dynasty style boardroom antics. The only two decent charcters were scheming estate agent Laura Sinclair and plastic surgeon Corey. Alas Corey crashed and burned as a good character when Joel Wyner left and was replaced by Dylan Neal. Laura on the other hand had the potential to become a classic soap bitch but was unfortunately hindered by ridiculous plots and painfully bad acting from all other quarters. Not even the arrival of Joan Collins as Laura's mother Christina Hobson coild salvage the proceedings as Joan camped it up with what little plot she had (Collins later described the show as being "really awful" and vowed never to do a US primetime show again because of it). To add a final death knell to the series, Paul Satterfield was cast in a supporting role. Who you may ask? Satterfield (who played John Graham) is like the bastard cousin of Ted Mc Ginley and Rena Sofer who manages to kill off any series he appears on. His track record for appearing in cancelled series is very long. He had major roles in Hotel Malibu, Pacific Palisades and even Savannah - all of which crashed and burned spectacularly. All of the following series ended soon after he guested on them: Hunter, The Famous Teddy Z, Just the Ten of Us, University Hospital, Hope and Gloria, Burkes Law, Too Something, Murder One, Veronicas Closet, Early Edition, Profiler, The Pretender, Love Boat: The Next Wave, Plotergeist: The Legacy, Inside Schwartz and Coupling. The man is unstoppable. Pacific Palisades limped off screen after 13 episodes and most of the cast are back in daytime drama alongside numerous other failed primetime soap opera refugees.
This show was an Aaron Spelling creation, after Models, Inc. It didn't last long, my local Fox affiliate stopped carrying it after a few episodes, and I wound up reading episode recaps to try to keep up. It didn't help much, as the plot lines were increasingly frantic and desperate in their attempt to garner viewer interest. The show revolved around the lives of a group of seeming late 20-30-somethings living the yuppie life in, you guessed it, the Pacific Palisades. The main industry the characters were involved in was architecture/construction/real estate/etc. There was also a plastic surgeon character, a slut, etc. The show jumped from Day One, as it simply lacked what minimal qualities other Spelling shows possessed: attractive characters and at least one believable bleeding heart case that the audience could care about. Quickly into the season this show tried Melrose-esque plot twists such as a main character's presumed sister (played by Natalie Cirulli of Saved by the Bell: The New Class) actually being her daughter from a teenage rape. The daughter ran away from home with her boyfriend (played by Spelling's unattractive son, who also had a small recurring as Steve's half-brother on Beverly Hills, 90210. Which didn't help matters). Another rather uninteresting plot twist was the harlot character of the show sleeping with a plastic surgeon to get free surgery. The show also had a disaster to try to garner interest. The construction building was blown up, no one cared.
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