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MELROSE PLACE
Summer Sizzle
     Having access to a million channels doesn't help alleviate summer's prime-time doldrums. But MELROSE PLACE has filled the Monday night void with new episodes, and though the regular season was a disappointment, summer's offerings shifted into high gear immediately.
     Frankly, we never cared for the pairing of Billy and Samantha (a.k.a Mr. Dumb and Ms. Dumber), so we were delighted when it hit the fan for them. Soon after Billy reamed out unfaithful Sam, Jeff squealed that her hubby and best pal Jennifer were doing the horizontal mambo.
     We loved Peter's seriocomic sessions with his shrink, which resulted in Peter deciding that all his problems stemmed from the fact that he still loves Amanda. Duh, we could've told you that long ago, doc.
     And there were two surprising twists involving pregnant Taylor. In a desperate attempt to reunite with Kyle, she did something completely out of character - told the truth about the late Christine. When he still rejected her, she tried to commit suicide, but lived (natch). Taylor quickly regained her spunk after Michael admitted that he's the baby's father.
     Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, busy Amanda got a tan, got divorced, got married to sleazy Rory and got poisoned by her new hubby. We loved it when Kyle rescued her in the nick of time (Rory died during their fight) and they rewed.
     Of course, in addition to entertaining us, MP is also paring down its cumbersome cast, preparing to fulfill a promise to ditch those over-the-top plots and get back to relationship-oriented storytelling. Let's hope this action-packed summer sojourn means we're headed for a big fall!