2000 Malibu Road

1 9 9 2 (USA)
1 x 120 minute episode
4 x 60 minute episodes

2000 Malibu Road is the address of a luxurious $5 million beachfront house on Malibu Beach in California, the residence of Jade O’Keefe (Lisa Hartman), a beautiful, high-priced call girl, commanding as much as $4,000 a night.

But Jade is trying to leave prostitution behind her (“I thought I could sell my body without selling my soul”, she intones)  so to help make the house payments she takes in three roommates: Lindsay Wallace (Drew Barrymore), a gorgeous but unknown actress; Joy Wallace (Tuesday Knight), her fat, ambitious sister and agent; and Perry Quinn (Jennifer Beals of Flashdance fame), an attractive but prim criminal attorney with a drinking problem.

Jade’s real name is Victoria Page Tremont, and she is the daughter of the influential Tremonts of Virginia –  net worth: $500 million. Victoria wanted no part of the life her parents had chosen for her (who to marry and how many children to have) and ran away from home when she was 17 years old. Becoming a prostitute was the only way she found to support herself.

Aspiring actress Lindsay had little confidence in her abilities. She is busty and accentuates her breasts with low-cut blouses (her sister thinks the sexier she is, the better her chances of getting work). While Lindsay is absolutely gorgeous, she believes that “there are thousands of girls who are a lot prettier and a lot bustier than I am.”

While Lindsay is very sweet and trusting, Joy is deceitful and devious. She has a gift for telling pathetic stories about herself or Lindsay and having people believe her to get what she wants. Joy is also “far out” and believes in psychic powers, tarot cards and Ouija boards. She is very nosy and pries into everyone’s business (information she uses to blackmail people into helping Lindsay).

Joy calls Lindsay “Honey Bunny” and, through blackmail, gets Lindsay the role of the younger daughter on the DBS network television series The Jessica Rolley Show (Sally Kellerman played Jessica, a neurotic superstar who was taking her first plunge into television). Lindsay works under the professional name of Lindsay Rule.

Perry is a private practice criminal lawyer with honest compassion for her clients. Her late fiance,  Mitch, was a cop with the South Central Precinct who was killed in the line of duty, which is when she hit the bottle.

Each character promptly develops a crisis: Someone wants to kill Jade, then she is framed for murder and sent to prison; Perry defends an old high school crush who may or may not be guilty of rape and who promptly disappears; and Lindsay falls for the son of a big-name producer – though she is not convinced of his good intentions.

This slick but empty upscale summer soap opera from CBS represented a new low for producer Aaron Spelling, director Joel Schumacher and creator Terry Louise Fisher.

Jade O’Keefe
Lisa Hartman
Lindsay Wallace
Drew Barrymore
Joy Wallace
Tuesday Knight
Perry Quinn
Jennifer Beals
Eric Adler
Brian Bloom
Scott Sterling
Scott Bryce
Camilla Tremont (Victoria’s mother)
Constance Towers
Porter Tremont, Victoria’s stepfather
Mitchell

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