After many months of talk and the last few weeks of hype, Heather Locklear finally steps back into Amanda Woodward’s stiletto heels and micro-mini skirts and makes her long-awaited return to Melrose Place tonight! But, before the show airs in full on The CW later on tonight, Access Hollywood gives us our first 3-minute look at Amanda’s reappearance on MP right now:

OMG … I am so excited … I cannot wait to watch this ep in full. It looks like Amanda will come back with guns blazing, ready to take out any and everyone in her way. Here’s hoping Heather Locklear will give MP the jolt of new life it really could use right about now. It’s great to have the original Melrose HBIC back in biz.

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We are now less than one week away from Heather Locklear’s much-anticipated return to Melrose Place and The CW has blessed us with our first look at Heather’s first scene back on the show. Here are a few screencaps:

In her first scene back, Locklear’s character Amanda Woodward steps in to assert her authority on the show … and how. After the jump, check out the vid clip in full …

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A couple weeks ago we got our first look at video of Heather Locklear making her much-anticipated return to Melrose Place as Amanda Woodward and today we get to check out a new teaser clip of her return:

While the first vid clip was just a 10 second tease, this new clip clocks in at a whopping 22 seconds. To be honest, you can’t really blame The CW for stretching out the anticipation for as long as they can. Getting Heather Locklear back on the show is a huge boon for them … I know I can’t wait for her arrival. After the jump, check out this new teaser vid clip in full …

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Now that we’ve primarily digested the news that Melrose Place is axing two of its main characters (no matter how painful that news may be), I think it’s time to look forward and celebrate who’s at long last coming back on board to the show. A new promo video, brought to my attention by Pink reader Collin, popped up on Facebook today formally announcing Heather Locklear’s return to Melrose:

It’s short, sweet and to the point. After the jump, check out one more screencap and watch this new promo video in full for yourselves …

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Late yesterday we learned the surprising news that both Ashlee Simpson (who plays Violet) and Colin Egglesfield (who plays Auggie) were fired from The CW’s new version of Melrose Place and at the time producers for the show, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, told Entertainment Weekly that it had been the plan “all along” to have these characters leave the show early once their storylines wrapped up in December. In a new interview with E!, Egglesfield reveals that that notion is NOT true, that he was not aware “all along” that his character would be written out of the show and, in fact, that when he signed on to the show it was with a multi-year contract as a core main character. Egglesfield has some idea why he was let go, tho … read on:

One day you’re happy as a clam, working as a castmember on a prime-time network drama, and the next day someone’s feeding you a line about changes in your show’s “tone” and shuffling you off to Buffalo. That’s what just happened to departing Melrose Place star Colin Egglesfield, who sums up his rollercoaster Thursday this way: “I’ve had better days, to be quite honest.” We just spoke to Colin exclusively to find out why he’s being pushed out of the show, not to mention where Auggie fits into the show’s big murder mystery, and despite what you may have theorized, Auggie’s not getting killed off, and despite what you may have been told, this exit was not planned from the beginning: “[They said it] was a network decision and obviously the ratings aren’t what they need or want them to be, so they’re going to try things to shake things up.” So what really happened today, and what’s going to happen next on Melrose Place? Here’s what we learned from Colin:

You were initially hired to be an ongoing series regular on Melrose Place, right?
Yes, definitely, I was slated to be in 10 of the 13 first episodes, but I had a multiyear contract.

What happened to change that? How did you learn they weren’t going forward with you and your character?
I got the call this morning from our producers, Todd [Slavkin] and Darren [Swimmer]. They were really saddened, and you could tell it was difficult for them to break this news to me. They said it was a network decision, and they said the network thought Auggie was a little too dark, with his alcoholism. They felt like in the landscape of Melrose they wanted to change the tone of the show. So that’s the explanation that they gave me.

And this morning was the first you’d heard of it?
They said that it wasn’t anything against me or my talent or anything. There was never any discussion that they weren’t sure what they were going to do with me or my character. And it wasn’t like I was getting in fights with crew members or punching people out.

Was your agent or manager told anything else or anything different about what happened?
No, that’s what they were told as well: that it was a network decision and obviously the ratings aren’t what they need or want them to be, so they’re going to try things to shake things up, but why they chose this, I don’t know.

Storywise, there’s the murder mystery, although I could have sworn we already absolved Auggie of killing Sydney Andrews. Is this a twist thing? Are you the killer of Sydney Andrews who must be punished?
The way in which I’m leaving the show, I’m not being killed off, I’m just leaving. It keeps the door open for, potentially, my character to come back, but who knows?

Are you done with the show for now, or are you still in the middle of production?
I’m shooting one more episode, and we start shooting that on Monday.

Do you have anything you want to say as a farewell to the fans and the people you’ve worked with?
Todd and Darren are great, I love those guys and they’ve always been straightforward and straight shooters and just great people to work with. I respect the decision that they had to make creatively to do what they need to do, I’m just frustrated that I’m not going to be a part of the show, because it was such a great job and a fun place to go to work every day. I’m disappointed to be leaving because I became really good friends with not only the cast of Melrose Place but many of the crew as well, so that’s sad, to not be able to go see them at work. But hey, I’m still friends with them, and I’d just like to say to everyone out there who’s been watching and supporting, thanks from the bottom of my heart, because this is something that I love to do.

OUCH!! Poor guy … it really sounds like this news came out of nowhere. I absolutely did not believe the bull the producers gave us that the plan all along had been to write these characters out of show from the beginning. As we hear from Colin himself, he just found out yesterday morning … AND, he still has another ep to film on Monday — poor, poor guy. As for Ashlee Simpson, she’s talking about her axing from the show as well. After the jump, check out what she has to say …

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Wow … here is some surprising casting news coming out of Melrose Place … with all the great news about which folks will be joining the cast, I don’t know that many of us (me included) considered who might be leaving the cast. Entertainment Weekly is reporting today that both Ashlee Simpson and Colin Egglesfield have been axed from the show! Their characters will be making their Melrose exit in January after the Who Killed Syndey Andrews? storyline wraps up in December. Um … wow!

Two months into its run, The CW’s ratings-challenged (but creatively-smokin’) Melrose Place reboot is about to undergo a major renovation. For starters, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield have been let go (they’ll last air in January), and the “Who Killed Sydney?” mystery is being wrapped up in December. Then, in addition to Heather Locklear’s Amanda, several new characters will be introduced and the show will take on a lighter, more fun vibe. Here, in an exclusive interview, exec producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer explain why they’re fixing a series that many (myself included) felt wasn’t broken and tease what’s ahead for Melrose 2.0 3.0.

What was behind the decision to let Ashlee and Colin go?
TODD SLAVKIN: Well, we always knew that this murder mystery would end in episode 12. And we always knew that [Ashlee's] character of Violet would be instrumental in that as a suspect, and [Colin's character of] Augie as well. And once that murder mystery was solved, she would go on her way. That was the original plan going into the development of the show.

So it was always the plan for Ashlee to leave after episode 12?
SLAVKIN: Yes. Because we felt that once the murder mystery was resolved, the tone of the show was going to shift into a much more fun, romantic, sexy upbeat kind of show, and [her] character would move on.

Same thing with Colin?
SLAVKIN: Colin was always meant to be the ultimate suspect. And his brooding alcoholic [character] tonally didn’t fit the paradigm moving into post-murder mystery Melrose Place.

Is it fair to say that if either of those characters clicked you would’ve found a way to keep them?
SLAVKIN: Well, you never know when you go along. But in the end, we felt like it was right [decision].
DARREN SWIMMER: The nature of soaps is that as things progress along, the story takes on a life of its own and the characters come and go in relation to that.

After the jump, find out how Ashlee and Colin took the news of their axing and read what Slavkin and Swimmer have to say about the possibility of other castmembers getting the axe from the show …

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Back in April of this year we learned that original Melrose Place castmember Thomas Calabro, who played Dr. Michael Mancini for the duration of the series, officially signed on to reprise his role on the new version of MP and just a few weeks ago, we learned that Heather Locklear (who played Amanda Woodward) signed on to reprise her role on the show. Now, we’ve already seen photos of Locklear on the MP set but today we get to see her shooting new scenes with Calabro … behold:

Fans of the original Melrose know that these two characters have always enjoyed a tenuous relationship … Amanda never settled for Michael’s bullshizz but even he managed to pull some stuff on her. These two characters are smart, conniving and very strong characters … it will be AMAZING to see them interact together again on the show. Seriously, it’s like the mid-90’s again … and I love it!! Locklear will be making her debut on the show in just a few weeks … I am practically counting down the seconds … I cannot wait!!!

[Photo credit: INFdaily]