Heather Locklear

Aaron Spelling's Lifesaver

Aaron Spelling had a ratings problem in 1993, and Heather Locklear was the emergency fix. The series Melrose Place struggled to find its footing during its first season, so the producer called on his go-to actress to play Amanda Woodward. The character wasn't a lead in the original script. But Locklear walked onto the set in a shoulder-padded jacket with an icy stare that changed the course of the Fox network.

Television owed her its life.

Her arrival immediately boosted ratings. The writers understood that audiences didn't want to see young architects with moral problems. They wanted a relentless boss who didn't apologize for her ambition. Locklear already knew that game, because in 1981 she began working on Dynasty as Sammy Jo Dean.

She was only twenty when she entered the world of the Carringtons.

For much of the 1980s, she juggled two grueling shoots. In the mornings she filmed the police drama T.J. Hooker alongside William Shatner, and in the afternoons she put on the wig for Dynasty. She was a model employee for the industry. She was never late and always knew her lines before stepping out of the car.

From Drama to Comedy Control

Many critics believed her career would end when the doors closed on the Melrose apartment complex in 1999. But that same year she joined the cast of Spin City alongside Michael J. Fox. It was a smart move. She traded the scheming soap-opera villainess for Caitlin Moore, a political strategist with dry, effective comic timing.

And the gamble paid off.

She earned back-to-back Golden Globe nominations in 2000 and 2002 for this role. The industry realized Locklear had a natural gift for quick comebacks (a talent often overshadowed by a pretty face). During this period, her personal life began taking up more space in magazines than her professional work. Her marriages to Tommy Lee and Richie Sambora kept her under a spotlight that eventually became suffocating.

A Refuge on Television

From 2007 on, big-budget roles started to dry up. She guest-starred in episodes of Hannah Montana and Two and a Half Men, but the spark of major productions had faded. Hollywood can be brutal to actresses over forty-five. She tried to regain momentum with the return of Melrose Place in 2009.

The audience was no longer the same.

The revival lasted just one season and was canceled in 2010 due to a lack of interest from younger viewers. Locklear then turned to quick-turnaround TV movies. In 2013 she appeared in Scary Movie 5 and in the series Franklin & Bash, trying to carve out a place in the legal comedy genre that never quite took off.

Her last notable appearance was in 2021 in the TV movie Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story. The production was shot in Nashville under the Lifetime network banner. Budgets for this type of film typically run around two million dollars per shoot.