Series Description

The Central Park West TV show was a 60 minute drama series on CBS that aired for 21 episodes during the 1995-96 season. It was a primetime soap opera that concentrated on the greedy, sex-crazed, power hungry staff at a trendy New York magazine.

Central Park West Cast

Mariel Hemingway .... Stephanie Wells (1995)
Lauren Hutton .... Linda Fairchild Rush
Tom Verica .... Mark Merrill
Ron Leibman .... Allen Rush
Madchen Amick .... Carrie Fairchild
John Barrowman .... Peter Fairchild
Melissa Errico .... Alex Bartoli
Justin Lazard .... Gil Chase
Michael Michele .... Nikki Sheridan
Kylie Travis .... Rachel Dennis
Raquel Welch .... Dianna Brock (1996)
Gerald McRaney .... Adam Brock (1996)
Noelle Beck .... Jordan Tate (1996)

Central Park West Trivia

The name of the magazine on the series was, "Communique". As you might have guessed, the Central Park West TV show got its name from the location of Communique magazine's offices.

Central Park West's ratings were terrible so CBS pulled it off the air in November of 1995 after just nine episodes. CBS executives felt, however, that the basic premise of the series was good so they made changes to the cast and storylines. They planned to bring the series back in the spring of 1996 but it didn't return until June. They also changed the title from "Central Park West" to simply "CPW" for some strange reason. Mariel Hemingway's character who was just about the only human being with any decency on the show was eliminated. Raquel Welch, Gerald McRaney ("Simon and Simon"), and Noelle Beck ("Tucker") were added to the cast. The changes apparently didn't result in anything suitable to CBS and Central Park West ended after just eight more episodes.

Interestingly, Raquel Welch had nearly won the role of "Alexis Carrington" on another primetime soap titled, "Dynasty" in the early 1980s but Joan Collins won the role.

Several of the Central Park West characters came to vicious ends during the series. Alex Bartoli went nuts stabbed herself to death while trying to kill Peter Fairchild. Mark Merrill accidentally shot himself with his own gun. Allen Rush died of a heart attack after his hostile takeover of Communique failed.