PASADENA, Calif. -- By all rights, "Hyperion Bay" probably should have been canceled several months ago. The show was good and getting better, but not much of anybody was watching.
But instead of canceling the show, the WB canceled the show's creator/executive producer, Joseph Dougherty -- tossing him aside to completely revamp the show. Dougherty, a Humanitas Prize-winning former writer/producer of the acclaimed "thirtysomething," has been replaced by Frank South, the guy who ran "Melrose Place" for several years as that show became outlandishly over-the-top."This show had, right from the beginning, great potential," South said. "The cast is amazing. It's a great bunch of young people with an enormous amount of talent.
"It was all there, ready to go. And all we did was just finally turn the key and start the engine of this show. It's a new show, but it's the same people."
The show returned with its first new episodes in months this week. In addition to Monday's installment, a second episode airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 30. Fans of the show will notice an immediate difference -- in addition to greatly increasing the pace of the storytelling, former "Baywatch" babe and sometime Dennis Rodman spouse Carmen Electra joins the cast.
That's a change series star Mark-Paul Gosselaar called a "welcome addition" in light of the show's "dismal ratings."
"Our ratings, quite honestly, aren't what the network expected, so you make changes," Gosselaar said. "Thankfully, it wasn't the cast that changed. They could have easily fired everyone or not picked up the back nine, which most networks wouldn't do."
"Everybody seemed to think it moved way too slowly," said co-star (and former Utahn) Bart Johnson.
Indeed. Even the normally rather taciturn Jamie Kellner, the CEO of the WB, couldn't contain his sarcasm about Dougherty's version of "Hyperion Bay." When asked whether his network was selling sex, he replied, "Did you watch the early episodes of 'Hyperion Bay,' by the way? Because they weren't selling sex, I'll promise you that. They held hands once and everybody on the programming staff cheered."
Jordan Levin, the WB's executive vice president of entertainment, said, "We believe there was a very small but core loyal audience who enjoyed the premise of the show but kept waiting for something to happen. They wanted to see the characters make clearer choices, come into clearer conflict. . . . We wanted desperately to accelerate the storytelling."
South has certainly done that. All sorts of stories race off at warp speed in this week's two episodes, and things take some wild turns. There's a big fire that ends up doing . . . well, not much of anything. A nice-guy character suddenly turns into a stalker. A story line involving a crooked developer that has been going on for most of the series comes to a sudden conclusion.
And, of course, the steamy love-scene ratio rises rapidly.
"It's much more intense. The characters are dealing with things that we hadn't even begun to deal with in the first nine (episodes)," Gosselaar said. "Emotions are flaring. Things are being thrown."
In addition, Electra clearly demonstrates that she doesn't have a clue about acting -- not that that has prevented other TV actors from becoming stars on shows like "Melrose Place."
She plays Sarah Hicks, the daughter of the guy who owns the big computer company for which Dennis Sweeny (Gosselaar) works. (The boss takes a sudden, rather evil turn.) Electra "doesn't become the lead of the show," South said. "She's part of the ensemble and, in a way, it also symbolizes the rise of the women in this show."
And the women in "Hyperion Bay" do suddenly seem to be acting a great deal more like Amanda (Heather Locklear) on "Melrose."
"As it was before, we had more of a traditional situation of a small town where we had active men with women supporting them," South said. "Now we have women very much just as powerful as the men."
If you like "Melrose" or "Beverly Hills, 90210," the "new-and-improved" version of "Hyperion Bay" is going to be your cup of tea. If you were a fan of the original version, you may end up rather disappointed.
At this point, cast members are actually pretty much relieved just to still have jobs.
"When we saw the numbers, all of us sort of panicked and said, 'Let's start looking for work,' " Gosselaar said. "Bringing Frank on was a choice by the network. They had a certain show in mind that they weren't getting with Joe.
"We're all just happy to be on a show on the WB. We want to continue to work and get good ratings. I think that's what it all comes down to. Everybody wants this to be a successful show, and we don't want to be in the position we were in when we were looking at the papers going, 'Oh, no.' "
The WB is making a big effort to relaunch the show this week and plans to let it air nine consecutive episodes without pre-emptions.
"They've dumped a lot of money into it and a lot of publicity. We have high hopes," Johnson said. "Frank South's got a huge job cut out for him. He's trying to save us all and not get us canceled. The WB really believes in the cast, and they really like everybody involved in the project."
"I think they're succeeding in creating a completely different show than we started off with," Gosselaar said.
Now all they have to do is hope that different turns out to be better, at least in terms of the ratings.
WHITHER NELSON AND BART? Bart Johnson has done an admirable job in a rather thankless job on "Hyperion Bay" -- playing Nelson Tucker, the former high-school hero whose life has fallen apart and whose wife has left him.
And, according to Johnson, things aren't going to get better for the character anytime soon.
"It's not so great for Nelson Tucker. Poor guy," Johnson said. "I thought from the beginning that it's got to pay off at some point, going through all this crap.
"But it gets worse for poor old Nelson. Poor guy. I don't think he's ever gonna win."
Johnson was not in a position to give away too much -- producers and network officials tend to frown on actors giving away plot developments to the press. But don't be surprised if, even if "Hyperion Bay" survives, Nelson Tucker doesn't.