He enjoyed a longer run as one of Valerie Harper's sons on Valerie, which morphed into The Hogan Family after the contentious star was replaced by Sandy Duncan. ''I never really had a problem with Valerie,'' Bateman says. ''I've worked with people a thousand times worse.'' It's this kind of showbiz experience that gives Bateman the air of an old pro. ''He's savvy,'' says Arrested creator Mitch Hurwitz. ''It's not like dealing with a comic getting his first shot.''
Starring in a string of flops has been ''frustrating,'' says Bateman. ''But this is my best job in 24 years. If it lasts, that would be really fortunate.'' And definitely an arresting development. -- Bruce Fretts
Laura Leighton SKIN
Of all the scheming vixens on Melrose Place, Leighton's Sydney earned a special place in our hearts for being the dumb one. While Heather Locklear's Amanda could bring down empires without breaking a sweat, and Marcia Cross' Kimberly blithely wrecked lives out of sheer insanity, Sydney was often the victim of her own schemes. She was the sort of person who'd drug her own sister in order to steal her man, and then find herself said sister's caretaker. She was like Lucy Ricardo with a mean streak and a sex drive.
And then -- bam, she was gone. Sydney was, you'll recall, run over by a car on her wedding day. With that, Leighton more or less disappeared from TV (save for a continuity-challenging appearance on Beverly Hills, 90210, the show that spawned Melrose). Now Leighton is back as a brighter schemer on Fox's new drama Skin.
After Sydney was flattened in 1997, Leighton married her Melrose costar Doug Savant and had a child. Aside from some independent films, she has been devoting her time to her family (which includes two children from Savant's previous marriage). Now that her youngest is ready for school, Leighton, 35, says she's eager to take on a series again. Not that the kids are privy to their parents' day jobs: ''They're not old enough to see [Melrose] yet,'' she says. ''They certainly won't be watching Skin, either.''
While Sydney's resume included stints as a prostitute and exotic dancer, on Skin, Leighton is on the side of the bluenoses. She plays Cynthia Peterson, a campaign manager for the district attorney of Los Angeles, who's out to shut down a porn magnate. Viewers, however, will quickly see a link between the two: Skin's Cynthia is ''sort of a mischievous character -- I'm always up to something,'' she says.
Given that her character works for the DA, it seems doubtful she'll have to get naked -- unlike Sydney, whom the show's writers seemed to revel in humiliating. ''Of course,'' she says, ''that would have been inevitable on Melrose.''
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