On Wednesdays, I take a look at shows that lasted one season or less. Here's a look at 1995's Central Park West!
CENTRAL PARK WEST
September 13, 1995 - June 28, 1996
17 episodes
CBS
Starring: Madchen Amick, John Barrowman, Melissa Errico, Lauren Hutton, Justin Lazard, Michael Michele, Tom Verica and Mariel Hemingway
Created by: Darren Star
Plot: Stephanie Wells (Hemingway) and her husband, Mark Merrill (Verica) move from Seattle to Central Park West in Manhattan as Stephanie takes a job as editor-in-chief of Communique magazine. The owner of the magazine (recurring guest Ron Leibman) has a second wife, Linda (Hutton) who has two grown children: Carrie (Amick), a columnist for the magazine, immediately becomes a rival of Stephanie's while Peter (Barrowman) is a golden boy lawyer. Rounding out the cast are friends of Carrie or Peter.
This was a very glossy pilot with pretty high production values for a mid-90s drama on CBS. The pilot did a pretty solid job at showcasing the glamorous life of living in an upper class part of Manhattan with lots of establishing shots and location shooting. Of course the lush look was countered with a plot that was about as deep as a small puddle. It was clear this was an attempt to do a version of Beverly Hills, 90210 or Melrose Place that could be considered less trashy and ridiculous so it would be palatable to the CBS audience. But the problem is it lost all its fun that those shows inevitably had (I didn't watch them but I am assuming given how successful they were). This show felt like it was taking itself too seriously while still wanting the audience to let go and treat it like a primetime soap and the result was a fairly dull pilot in a gorgeous setting.
The performances were decent but nothing special and it felt hard to get to know the characters. The best developed ones were probably Carrie and Peter as brother and sister. Madchen Amick got off some good lines and delivery while Peter drove a lot of the plot especially in the second half of the episode. Given where the pilot went, it was surprising that there was so much focus on Stephanie at the beginning of the episode. We saw her moving in right at the top and then going toe-to-toe with Carrie but then she sort of faded to the background. Even her on-screen husband really had more to do after the beginning. I get it was an ensemble show and they had a lot of characters to service but the pacing and story structures just felt odd. Finally, the highly stylized soundtrack was a little distracting at times and just added to it being all gloss, no substance.
Central Park West was the poster child for a failed CBS strategy in the 1995-96 season. CBS was plugging along fine in the early 1990s but the 1994-95 season was an abject disaster and they were becoming known as an "old person's network." To make matters worst, they lost an NFL package to FOX so things were not going well for the network. NBC was the dominant network with young adults who were attractive to advertisers thanks to hits like Seinfeld, Friends, ER and many more. ABC had the family friendly programming with hits like Home Improvement, Roseanne and Grace Under Fire. But CBS was for the grandparents. Their only shows in the Top 10 for the 1994-95 season were 60 Minutes and Murder, She Wrote. So there was major strategy shift for the 1995-96 season. CBS debuted a whopping 11 new series with several geared towards younger audiences. And the crown jewel, or so they thought, was Central Park West, a glossy primetime soap from Melrose Place creator Darren Star.
Despite a summer's worth of promotion, the problems were apparent immediately with mixed to negative reviews and disappointing ratings. It was one of the biggest bombs relative to promotion and hope for its network. The morning after the premiere must have been shocking for CBS and the team behind Central Park West because they really seemed to believe they had a big fat hit on their hands. Despite their effort, young viewers were not about to believe that CBS could put on a "cool" show that would appeal to the Gen X crowd. CBS pulled Central Park West from its lineup midway through November Sweeps. It didn't return until Summer 1996 when it was re-branded as CPW with Raquel Welch joining the cast and Mariel Hemingway gone. The rebrand was mostly ignored and CBS reverted back to its older skewing shows in Fall 1996 with pickups like Cosby and Touched by an Angel spinoff Promised Land.
Tomorrow: A look at Season 7 (Part 1) of Happy Days!
Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at The Crew!
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