History Series / MelrosePlace

* DepravedBisexual: Matt's one-time boyfriend, [[JerkAss Paul]], who ended up killing his wife and framing Matt for the murder.

** [[spoiler:TheBusCameBack: Jane by season six's end.]]

** A more straight version would be Jane, who was seen in family home movies as being brought out of the hospital after being born by her and Sydney's mother, who had just given birth to her, yet we learn in season five that she was adopted.

* TheUnfavorite: Sydney.

* HeyItsThatGuy: What many ''Film/MortalKombat'' fans said upon seeing Linden Ashby in season 6.

* SanitySlippage: Kimberly for ''two whole seasons'', culminating in her ending up with '''two''' spliy personalities, no less. Sadly enough, it may have to do with her previous head injury/brain surgery.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: What most people thought seeing Alyssa Milano's appearance on the show.

** [[spoiler:And let's not forget Kimberly in season two of the original show. After being critically injured in an alcohol-related car crash with Michael, who was the driver, it is discovered that she died from her injuries. Sydney, knowing that he was drunk and that he forced Matt to fake the B.A.C. results, blackmails him into an unhappy marriage. However, just as he is beginning to love Sydney, Kimberly reappears outside of his house. It was learned that Kimberly's "death" was all a ploy by her mother to get Michael out of her daughter's life.]]

* BusCrash: Apparently, this is what happened to [[spoiler:Matt, who perished in a car accident in season six]], although many fans take into consideration that due to its randomness and the secrets that were divulged afterwards that [[HesJustHiding it could all be just fake.]]

* FakeGuestStar: Heather Locklear

* TheUnfavorite: Sydney

* KilledOffScreen: Apparently, this is what happened to [[spoiler:Matt, who perished in a car accident in season six]], although many fans take into consideration that [[HesJustHiding it could all be just fake.]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: They have had nine.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: While he was the resident DrJerk (and not necessarily "evil" but rather slimy and womanizing), Michael also acted respectable at times, such as caring for Amanda when she had leukemia and giving Jo's baby back to her after realizing that Kimberly stole him.

* KarmaHoudini: Kimberly usually got away with a lot of her bad behavior, and when it did finally [[DownerEnding catch up]] [[TearJerker with her,]] it was still looked at as DisproportionateRetribution.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Several occasions, such as real life married couple Josie Bissett (Jane) and Rob Estes (Kyle)[[note]]Unfortunately, they have since divorced[[/note]] ending up together in the finale, Grant Show (Jake) and Laura Leighton (Sydney) dating and she and Doug Savant (Matt) eventually marrying.

** [[spoiler:And let's not forget Kimberly in season two of the original show. After being critically injured in an alcohol-related car crash with Michael, who was the driver, it is discovered that she died from her injuries. Sydney, knowing that he was drunk and that he forced Matt to fake the BAC results, blackmails him into an unhappy marriage. However, just as he is beginning to love Sydney, Kimberly reappears outside of his house. It was all a ploy by her mother to get Michael out of her daughter's life.]]

** Perhaps even moreso with Thomas Calabro, who played Michael Mancini, who was nothing but kind and outgoing with a fun sense of humor. Unfortunately, fans translated his character to him in real life, with one even [[FanDumb dumping a glass of milk on him.]] This prompted him to begin ''carrying cards with him in public to give to fans'' explaining that he was the total opposite of his show character.

* DiedHappilyEverAfter

* RomanceOnTheSet: Several occasions, such as real life married couple Josie Bissett (Jane) and Rob Estes (Kyle) ending up together in the finale, Grant Show (Jake) and Laura Leighton (Sydney) dating and she and Doug Savant (Matt) eventually marrying.

* NightmareFuel: [[spoiler:Kimberly's removal of her wig and the revelation of a huge, disfiguring surgical scar on her head from brain surgery.]] In Melrose Place's ''E! True Hollywood Story'', Marcia Cross admitted that fans would [[spoiler:tug at her hair to see if it were fake.]]
** Then there's also [[spoiler:Brooke's ghost coming back to seduce/taunt Billy.]]

* {{Wangst}}: Dear Lord, Craig in season 6. On one hand, it was understandable [[spoiler:(becoming a sudden widower, especially in such a violent way, does do that to a person)]], but on the other hand, the writers took it UpToEleven and [[spoiler:let him wallow in misery throughout the season, culminating in him being DrivenToSuicide in the season's penultimate episode.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Hunter Tylo of ''TheBoldAndTheBeautiful'' was to play the original [[BitchInSheepsClothing Taylor McBride.]] However, she was fired due to becoming pregnant, which she had successfully sued the show's creator, Aaron Spelling and the show's producers for.
* TheWoobie: Pretty much every female character (as well as Matt) in varying degrees, but specifically Allison, Jo and Sydney, who occasionally was also a JerkassWoobie.

* MamaBear: Kimberly's mother, who ended up quite scary in her own right. Then there is a matter of Michael and Jennifer's [[MyBelovedSmother mother...]]

* MrFanservice: Let's be honest. ALL of the men on Melrose Place were this, even many of the guest stars, namely being popular male supermodel Antonio Sabato, Jr.

* TheWoobie: Pretty much every female character in varying degrees, but specifically Allison, Jo and Sydney, who occasionally was also a JerkassWoobie.

* DeusAngstMachina: Allison, ''dear God.'' [[spoiler:She and her sister were victims of molestation at the hands of her father, her mother knew about it yet turned a blind eye to it all and blamed the girls for ruining the family, her ex-boyfriend becomes obsessed with her and ends up committing suicide while she helplessly listens on the phone, she is forced to call off her fairytale wedding to her one true love, Billy, because the issues within her past, all of this happening sometime after he impregnates one of her rivals (who is also her boss, Amanda, who alternates between befriending her and bullying her) and before he abandons her and eventually marries another (who is also her coworker/stepdaughter, Brooke, who's a selfish, manipulative rich bitch), she is manipulated into marrying her aforementioned rival's billionaire father, who secretly and unceremoniously divorces her and cuts her out of his will a short time later right before his mysterious drowning death, which the stepdaughter/rival blames her for, she becomes pregnant by and marries longtime friend-turned-love interest, Jake, but is forced to terminate the pregnancy due to medical reasons and splits with him ''and'' after being forced to leave L.A., she eventually ends up in rehab for alcoholism, which she struggled with throughout the series and was directly caused by her traumatic childhood.]] If there is one soap opera character in need of a hug, it's definitely her.

* MrFanservice: Let's be honest. ALL of the men on Melrose Place were this, even many of the guest stars, namely being supermodel Antonio Sabato, Jr.

* TheUnfavorite: Sydney.

* DeusAngstMachina: Allison, ''dear God.'' [[spoiler:She and her sister were victims of molestation at the hands of her father, her mother knew about it yet turned a blind eye to it all and blamed the girls for ruining the family, her ex-boyfriend becomes obsessed with her and ends up committing suicide while she helplessly listens on the phone, she is forced to call off her fairytale wedding to her one true love, Billy, because the issues within her past, all of this happening sometime after he impregnates one of her rivals (who is also her boss, Amanda, who alternates between befriending her and bullying her) and before he eventually marries another (who is also her coworker/stepdaughter, Brooke, who's a selfish, manipulative rich bitch), she is manipulated into marrying her aforementioned rival's billionaire father, who suddenly and unceremoniously divorces her and cuts her out of his will right before his mysterious drowning death, which the stepdaughter/rival blames her for, she becomes pregnant by and marries longtime friend-turned-love interest, Jake, but is forced to terminate the pregnancy due to medical reasons and splits with him ''and'' after being forced to leave L.A., she eventually ends up in rehab for alcoholism, which she struggled with throughout the series and was directly caused by her traumatic childhood.]] If there is one soap opera character in need of a hug, it's definitely her.

* StraightGay: Matt.

* TheWoobie: Pretty much every female character in varying degrees, but specifically Allison, Jo and Sydney, who occasionally was a JerkassWoobie.

* HeyItsThatGuy: What many ''{{Mortal Kombat}}'' fans said upon seeing Linden Ashby in season 6.

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot (its launch on ''{{Beverly Hills 90210}}'')

* SpinOff (the short-lived ''Models, Inc.'')

* AllWomenAreLustful

* DeusAngstMachina: Allison, ''dear God.'' She and her sister were victims of molestation at the hands of her father, her mother knew about it yet turned a blind eye to it all and blamed the girls for ruining the family, her ex-boyfriend becomes obsessed with her and ends up committing suicide while she helplessly listens on the phone, she is forced to call off her fairytale wedding to her one true love, Billy, because the issues within her past, all of this happening sometime after he impregnates one of her rivals (who is also her boss, Amanda) and eventually marries another (who is also her coworker/stepdaughter, Brooke), she is manipulated into marrying her aforementioned rival's billionaire father, who suddenly and unceremoniously divorces her and cuts her out of his will right before his mysterious drowning death, which the stepdaughter/rival blames her for, she becomes pregnant by and marries longtime friend-turned-love interest, Jake, but is forced to terminate the pregnancy due to medical reasons and splits with him ''and'' after being forced to leave L.A., she eventually ends up in rehab for alcoholism, which she struggled with throughout the series and was directly caused by her traumatic childhood. If there is one soap opera character in need of a hug, it's definitely her.
* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex

* KarmaHoudini: Kimberly usually got away with a lot of her bad behavior, and when it did finally [[DownerEnding catch up with her,]] it was still looked at as DisproportionateRetribution.

* MamaBear: Kimberly's mother, who ended up quite scary in her own right. Then there is a matter of Michael and Jennifer's [[MyBelovedSmother mother...]]

* MrFanservice: Let's be honest. ALL of the men on Melrose Place were this.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Amy Locane's "southern" accent was all over the place.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Several occasions, such as real life married couple Josie Bissett (Jane) and Rob Estes (Kyle) ending up together in the finale, Grant Show (Jake) and Laura Leighton (Sydney) dating and she and Doug Savant (Matt) eventually marrying.

* TheWoobie: Pretty much every female character, but specifically Allison, Jo and Sydney, who occasionally was a JerkassWoobie.

** Perhaps even moreso with Thomas Calabro, who played Michael Mancini, who was nothing but kind and outgoing with a fun sense of humor. Unfortunately, fans translated his character to him in real life, with one even [[FanDumb dumping a glass of milk on him.]] This prompted him to begin ''carrying a card with him in public'' explaining that he was the total opposite of his show character.

* TheWoobie: Pretty much every female character, but specifically Allison, Jo and Sydney.

* DrJerk: Michael from the end of season one on and Peter's initial character while also [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor going back and forth between a humanly decent and dedicated M.D. and this.]]
* DeusAngstMachina: Allison, ''dear God.''

* EvenEvilHasStandards: While he was the resident DrJerk (and not necessarily "evil" but rather slimy and womanizing), Michael also acted respectable, such as caring for Amanda when she had leukemia and giving Jo's baby back to her after realizing that Kimberly stole him.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Sydney.

* HairOfGold: Alison

''MelrosePlace'' may be the quintessential GuiltyPleasure. A ''{{Seinfeld}}'' episode saw Jerry repeatedly denying he watched it, until his policewoman girlfriend made him take a polygraph exam, under which he snapped and admitted his addiction.