{"id":208,"date":"2009-09-09T09:08:42","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T09:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp\/?p=208"},"modified":"2009-09-09T09:08:42","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T09:08:42","slug":"what_a_difference_a_decade_mak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/2009\/09\/what_a_difference_a_decade_mak\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Difference a Decade Makes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not so much, apparently.<\/p>\n<p>Whenever I pass posters promoting the remakes of both <em>90210<\/em> and <em>Melrose Place<\/em>, I wonder who green-lit these nostalgia projects. Who brought the idea of updating these particular  bits of nighttime TV soap to the table in the first place, and now that they&#8217;ve been made, who is watching them? And I wonder if much of this all hinged on the &#8220;imagine what stirring some Twitter and Facebook into the plot pot would do!&#8221; If only Heather Locklear had had a Blackberry. For those of us who grew up and moved out while the original shows were on air, it<br \/>\nseems like a chance to peek in on the class reunion to see that we haven&#8217;t<br \/>\naged a day.<\/p>\n<p>This thought line was iced over with a second one this week when I saw that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2227228\/\">Slate<\/a> (okay), and then the <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/08\/arts\/television\/08melrose.html\">New York Times<\/a><\/i> (yeah), but then also the <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/arts\/critics\/television\/2009\/09\/14\/090914crte_television_franklin?currentPage=all\">New Yorker<\/a><\/i> (wha?) had all spilled ink over the recast of this trashy TV show from the &#8217;90s. <\/p>\n<p>And there&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/goldderby.latimes.com\/awards_goldderby\/2009\/09\/melrose-place-divides-tv-critics-entertainment-news-2468097.html\">plenty more<\/a>, um, analysis, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/ae\/tv\/articles\/2009\/09\/08\/a_melrose_place_for_our_times\/\">Matthew Gilbert, writing for the <i>Boston Globe<\/i><\/a>, may have summed up the state of things best: &#8220;And so I &#8220;like&#8221; the new &#8220;Melrose Place,&#8221; in that I think it has the potential to be as addictive, and phony, as a can of Pringles potato crisps. The trashy CW series, tonight at 9 on Channel 56, has none of the hokey moral quandaries of the show that precedes it, &#8220;90210,&#8221; no lesson-learning unless you&#8217;re a student of chicanery and double-dealing. The new &#8220;Melrose Place&#8221; is just a mess of gossipy plotlines about adultery, murder, and secrets. If it has a moral compass, the arrow is stuck pointing down, to hell.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<object height=\"344\" width=\"425\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/rMzx-bInm0k&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x5d1719&amp;color2=0xcd311b\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/rMzx-bInm0k&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x5d1719&amp;color2=0xcd311b\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" height=\"344\" width=\"425\"><\/object><\/p>\n<p><object height=\"360px\" width=\"425px\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/mediaservices.myspace.com\/services\/media\/embed.aspx\/m=5636959,t=1,mt=video\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/mediaservices.myspace.com\/services\/media\/embed.aspx\/m=5636959,t=1,mt=video\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" height=\"360\" width=\"425\"><\/object><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not so much, apparently. Whenever I pass posters promoting the remakes of both 90210 and Melrose Place, I wonder who green-lit these nostalgia projects. Who brought the idea of updating these particular bits of nighttime TV soap to the table in the first place, and now that they&#8217;ve been made, who is watching them? And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/gap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}