Today’s TV Addict Top 5: Questions with MELROSE PLACE Star Michael Rady

Between SWINGTOWN, GREEK and now MELROSE PLACE I think it’s safe to say that you’re having quite the year!
Michael Rady: I’ve just been going from job to job pinching myself, first SWINGTOWN which the optimist in me didn’t think someone would let die, then GREEK which was a dream job and gave me the opportunity to work steadily pretty much for a season, and now MELROSE PLACE. I really have been so fortunate.

Was there any trepidation about stepping into such an iconic apartment building?
I didn’t really think about it. It really does nothing for me at all thinking about that kind of stuff. Our show is an entirely new show, set in the same place.

Were you a fan of the original series?
Only to the extent that my older sister watched it and I’d always be sitting on the couch asking, “What are you watching?” Pretty much all I remember is Heather Locklear and beautiful people sitting around the pool.

Is Jonah the new Michael Mancini, the apartment nice guy who will slowly find himself getting corrupted by all these beautiful women and his Hollywood surroundings?
The producers have sworn up and down he isn’t. They’ve sworn up and down he will turn out good in the end.

But having played such nice characters on both GREEK and SWINGTOWN, is there not a small part of you itching to play the bad boy for once?
Oh, I’m hoping Jonah buckles, because nobody is perfect. Really that’s my one wish for him, to represent the flaws, the bad in all of us. I mean there’s plenty of bad represented on MELROSE PLACE but he sort of grounds it. Jonah is really going to follow this roller coaster that is the ups and downs of the entertainment world out here.