"Central Park West" One of the Best Television series from NYC!

        

Central Park West (also known as CPW) is an American prime time television soap opera that ran from September 1995 to June 1996 on CBS..

Central Park West was created by Darren Star, the man behind such hits as "Melrose Place" and "Sex and the City".

Perhaps the most sophisticated prime time soap ever made.....

As the title suggests, CPW was set in New York, in the affluent Central Park West area of Manhattan. Actresses Mariel Hemingway, Mädchen Amick, and Kylie Travis portrayed three of the central characters on the show.

The program represented CBS's attempt to reestablish itself after a disastrous 1994-95 television season where the network lost a heavy amount of established affiliates due to affiliation switches related to Fox acquiring NFC football

 It was the network's most-promoted new show in many years with a promotional campaign exclusively produced to appeal to younger viewers, and attempted to recapture the network's past nighttime soap glory from the years of Dallas and Knots Landing. Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue was offered a lead role, but declined.

The series was not successful and was removed from CBS' schedule in November 1995, returning some months later with new additions made to the cast (Hemingway left by this point, and Welch was brought in). The retooling was not enough to save the show, which was canceled in June 1996.

The failure of the series returned the network quickly back to their traditional broadcasting focus and repairing relations between both the network's new affiliates and their older stations which were frustrated by the network's moves in programming rights and programming within the Laurence Tisch era, which would end shortly thereafter with Westinghouse's purchase of CBS, Inc. in 1995 (approval of CPW to be placed on the network's schedule came well before Westinghouse's purchase).

Central Park West premiered on September 13, 1995, and aired Wednesdays from 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. With a cast headlined by Mariel Hemingway, Central Park West centered around the glamorous and exciting life of the staff of trendy magazine Communique, owned by Allen Rush (Ron Leibman), "the Darth Vader of publishing". Mariel Hemingway played the role of Stephanie Wells, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of Communique.

Central to the plot is the rivalry between Stephanie and Allen's stepdaughter Carrie Fairchild (Mädchen Amick), a scheming young woman who does her best to seduce Stephanie's writer husband Mark Merrill (Tom Verica). The series followed several other ambitious New Yorkers, as well as the evil and deceitful Australian bombshell Rachel Dennis (Kylie Travis), the new fashion editor at Communique.

Central Park West was initially geared towards Generation X viewers and was heavily promoted by CBS. The series failed to draw in viewers and was put on hiatus in November 1995. Central Park West was then revamped in an effort to attract older viewers. Mariel Hemingway's character was written out of the series, and Gerald McRaney, Noelle Beck and Raquel Welch joined the cast. Retitled CPW, the revamped version, which consisted of eight episodes, began airing June 1996, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:00 - 11:00 p.m. The changes were unsuccessful as CBS canceled the series on June 28, 1996...

How it all began.....Successful editor Stephanie Wells moves from Seattle to a fancy, luxurious apartment in Central Park West along with her writer husband Mark Merrill. She's been offered a job as the editor of the trendy magazine "Communique", owned by the very wealthy Allen Rush.

Allen is married to Linda Fairchild Rush and the stepfather of her grown-up children, Peter and Carrie. Carrie writes a column for "Communique" for a ridiculously high salary and her bitchy attitude immediately gets her in conflict with her new boss, Stephanie. Peter, however, has a very successful career as a lawyer at the district attorney's office and is doing good. His good friend, Gil Chase, works a broker and dumps his girlfriend Deanne Landers after he's thrown away all her money on a bad investment.

 She then shows up at his work and promises to get him back. Peter, Gil, Carrie, and their friend, Nikki Sheridan, a talent SoHo art gallery owner, play softball in a park and are joined in the game by beautiful Alex Bartoli. She and Peter later walk around in Central Park West and seem to fall instantly in love. Allen has arranged for Mark to get a teaching job at a respectable school but Mark feels the school board is giving him the job as a favor to Allen and not because of his abilities. Deanne sues the company Gil works for.

 Peter and Alex have a romantic dinner together and are photographed. Carrie arranges a party for Stephanie. There is of course a hidden agenda; Mark is also present and Carrie goes out of her way to seduce him by pretending she's a big fan of his writing. Deanne's law suit goes nowhere but she's not planning to let Gil get off that easily. Alex turns out to be a journalist. The picture of her and Peter and everything he's said to her is to get printed on the first page of the newspaper she works for. She feels guilty, though, because she's fallen for him. Carrie makes progress with Mark and he lets her read the play he's working on......(to be continues....)

I'm a fan of the prime time soaps of the 80's (DALLAS, DYNASTY, KNOTS LANDING & FALCON CREST) until 1989, the ones that entered the 90's became a shadow of what they were in the beginning (Only KNOTS was good until the penultimate season, last one was a mess but had a great final episode). With the 90's I missed a prime time soap opera with the quality of early Dallas, KL or Dynasty... I never liked Melrose Place or Models... Then CPW came in and I was excited. I know the series didn't had the success it deserved and changed by mid season, becoming more Dynastic with ambitious Raquel Welch marrying Lauren Hutton's ex-husband to see him die in her arms... inheriting his fortune??? We didn't know, because the series was canceled at that precise moment. I enjoyed all the episodes, but I must say the first ones, were the best. And I love the character of Carrie Fairchild, maybe because she was like the first Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin) Carrington my favorite Dynasty character: a spoiled rich girl, intelligent, cunning and ambitious to get what she wanted.