HUNTINGTON BEACH : Downtown Is the Place as Fans Watch Filming of ‘Melrose’

“When we’re rolling, you’re going to have to keep it quiet--dead quiet!” executive producer Frank South shouted to the star-struck crowd on the beach Tuesday morning.

South was directing an episode of “Melrose Place,” one of TV’s hottest nighttime series, and fans, many with cameras in hand, were standing in the drizzle hoping to catch a glimpse of the show’s female star, Heather Locklear.

“She’s cuter in person than I thought,” said Art Jensen, a city worker who was on hand for the filming. Though he’s not a Melrose viewer, he admitted to being a Locklear fan. “If my wife knew I was here,” he confided, “she’d kill me.”

Surrounded by crew members and lights, Locklear, barefoot and clad in tight blue jeans and a pink sweater, did a scene with John Enos, who plays her new love interest on the show. As the camera rolled, the two acted out an intimate conversation, then an embrace on the shore.

South sat in a director’s chair planted in the sand and followed the action on a monitor. When the actors finished the scene, he yelled, “That’s a cut!”

The episode was a success for Huntington Beach too, which in the past year has made a big pitch to persuade the movie, TV and commercial industries to film in the city.

“We’ve got miles of beachfront, and we have a certain attitude and ambience,” said Michael Mudd, cultural services manager.

New-car commercials and other TV shows have been shot here recently, including episodes of “Baywatch” and “Rescue 911.”

The city gains in several ways, Mudd said. Film crews and casts stay at local hotels and spend money at restaurants and shops, boosting business revenue, and the city itself charges $500 a day for each location when filming is done on public property.

Robert Karpman, location manager for “Melrose Place,” said he chose Huntington Beach because he needed a hotel for one scene, and the Waterfront Hilton fit the bill.

Tuesday’s filming was not restricted to the beach. Melrose heartthrob Jack Wagner and actress Anne-Marie Johnson did a “walk and talk” scene in front of the Baskin-Robbins store at Main Street and Walnut Avenue.

Karpman said the scenes will all be part of episodes set to air Jan. 22 and Feb. 5.

Linda Schulz, 52, of Huntington Beach was part of the crowd Tuesday. An admitted “Melrose groupie,” Schulz said the highlight was getting Locklear’s autograph for her son, Chris, 32.

“This is his favorite show too,” she said. “But he probably doesn’t want everyone to know that.”