Ellen Gray: Keep your eye on this 'Melrose Place' actress

MELROSE PLACE. 9 tonight, Channel 57.

IGNORANCE ISN'T always bliss.

Sure, never having seen a single episode of the original "Melrose Place" puts me, for once, in the same boat as many of the CW's most desired viewers, who may have been too young to care what Heather Locklear and Laura Leighton and Thomas Calabro were up to all those years ago.

I can't offer age as an excuse; I just couldn't be bothered.

But now that the CW has decided to exhume a second Fox soap from the '90s, pairing an updated "Melrose Place" with the second season of "90210" (8 tonight, Channel 57), I find myself poring over old episode guides and Wikipedia story line summaries, trying to figure out, for instance, how Leighton's character, Sydney Andrews, could have been dead in Season 5 of the original but alive at the top of tonight's premiere of the remake.

Leighton, who was in town just last week looking perfectly healthy, seemed amused by my plight, though concerned that after watching the pilot for the first time, I'd thought some research was necessary to understand the new show. Sydney's return, while briefly explained, isn't something the writers wanted to dwell on, she said. She's just there to build a bridge to a new generation of attractive twentysomethings living in posh apartments at impossibly low rents.

Fair enough.

But then why call it "Melrose Place"?

Why not just say it's "The Hills" - but with a plot?

Plotting, rather than mere manipulation, is after all what separates these prime time soaps from their cheaper sisters, the docu-soaps, and the plot of the new "Melrose," which gradually reveals ties between some of the new tenants and characters from the old stories, does seem to rely on some knowledge of the original.

You won't need a Wikipedia cheat sheet, though, to see who the early standout's likely to be on the new "Melrose Place."

That would be Katie Cassidy, David Cassidy's daughter. She plays Ella Simms, a hard-charging publicist who has a soft spot for aspiring filmmaker Jonah Miller (Michael Rady) - who's already happily in love with teacher Riley Richmond (Jessica Lucas).

Rady has enormous puppy-dog eyes, and a personality to match, but it's Cassidy who's fun to watch. Whether she's swimming with the sharks at work or hanging out by the pool at home, she delivers even the cheesiest dialogue with the kind of assurance that's absolutely necessary to keep any prime-time soap from accidentally turning into a comedy.

Can't yet say the same for a red-tinted Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, whose early appearances as newbie tenant Violet Foster - you might want to pay attention to the character's last name - suggest she may have been cast as much for her own last name(s) as for her acting chops.

Other tenants include Ella's med-school roomie, Lauren Yung (Stephanie Jacobsen), sous chef Auggie Fitzpatrick (Colin Egglesfield) and Ella's buddy David Breck (Shaun Sipos), who has connections to at least two original "Melrose" characters. How much you'll actually care about any of them may decide whether you're ready to embrace the new "Melrose Place."

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.