Melrose's New Doctor is "Loving" It

by Christine Champagne

Although Loving fans remember new Melrose Place tenant Linden Ashby from his early 1980s stint as rich boy Curtis Alden, the actor himself would prefer to forget his daytime gig. "I'll be the first one to say I didn't have the best attitude in the world," he confesses. "I was the angry young man, and I fought the producers tooth and nail." When Ashby saw something in a script that didn't make sense, he voiced his concerns, clashing with the powers-that-be and making life difficult for himself. Finally, in 1983, a year and a half after he joined the serial, he was fired. He hadn't been happy at LOVING, but still, it took the actor a long time to get over being axed. "Getting fired is never easy," he explains. "There is nothing worse in the world. It just killed me."

Fortunately, his current job is turning out to be a much better experience. Melrose viewers have taken a shine to his character, Dr. Brett "Coop" Cooper, who loathes the man Melrose's audience loves to hate - slimeball Dr. Michael Mancini. "Everyone says, 'Get Michael!'" chuckles Ashby. "I won't let them down." Although the actor's wife and former Loving co-star, Susan Walters (Lorna) was cast as a war buddy of Kyle's on Melrose, the duo didn't get to spend much time together on the set since they weren't involved in the same storyline. But Ashby isn't lonely. He's made lots of new friends including Thomas Calabro, who plays his on-screen nemesis. "He's probably my closest friend on the set," says Ashby. "He's incredibly talented and a lot of fun to be around."