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Your Cheating Heart is an index, not a trope.
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* YourCheatingHeart:
** Paul starts a relationship with Carrie even though he's married to another woman.
** Played with in David's case: he has sex with Julie after Sarah breaks up with him; after Julie reveals this to Sarah, Sarah immediately dumps him again as she takes this as cheating, but David thought it wasn't because he and Sarah "were on a break".
** Paul starts a relationship with Carrie even though he's married to another woman.
** Played with in David's case: he has sex with Julie after Sarah breaks up with him; after Julie reveals this to Sarah, Sarah immediately dumps him again as she takes this as cheating, but David thought it wasn't because he and Sarah "were on a break".
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Grammar/punctuation/style
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* CountryMouse: At the beginning of the series, Sarah, who's originally from rural Iowa, has just moved to L.A. The first few episodes she keeps remarking how different living in a big city is compared to where she used to live. In the second half, it becomes clear that this living place is not so good for her, as she becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs, arrested for drunk driving, the victim of a car-jacking, and unable to keep up her modelling job-- [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nor her virginity]] despite at the beginning swearing she intended to keep it until marriage. None of which seem likely to have happened had she still been living in Iowa. In the last episode she [[spoiler:decides this is not a healthy environment for her, and goes home with her dad]].
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* CountryMouse: At the beginning of the series, Sarah, who's originally from rural Iowa, has just moved to L.A. The first few episodes she keeps remarking how different living in a big city is compared to where she used to live. In the second half, Later it becomes clear that this living place in a big city is not so good for her, as her -- she becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs, arrested for drunk driving, the victim of a car-jacking, and unable to keep up her modelling job-- [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nor job--[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or her virginity]] despite at the beginning swearing she intended to keep it until marriage. None of which seem likely to have happened had she still been living in Iowa. In the last episode she [[spoiler:decides this is not a healthy environment for her, and realizes she's much happier in rural Iowa than in L.A. [[spoiler:and goes back home with her dad]].
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Capitalization
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* CountryMouse: At the beginning of the series, Sarah, who's originally from rural Iowa, has just moved to L.A. The first few episodes she keeps remarking how different living in a big city is compared to where she used to live. In the second half, it becomes clear that this living place is not so good for her, as she becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs, arrested for drunk driving, the victim of a car-jacking, and unable to keep up her modelling job-- [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nor her virginity]] despite at the beginning swearing she intended to keep it until marriage. None of which seem likely to have happened had she still been living in Iowa. In the last episode she [[spoiler:decides this is not a healthy environment for her, and goes home with her Dad]].
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* CountryMouse: At the beginning of the series, Sarah, who's originally from rural Iowa, has just moved to L.A. The first few episodes she keeps remarking how different living in a big city is compared to where she used to live. In the second half, it becomes clear that this living place is not so good for her, as she becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs, arrested for drunk driving, the victim of a car-jacking, and unable to keep up her modelling job-- [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nor her virginity]] despite at the beginning swearing she intended to keep it until marriage. None of which seem likely to have happened had she still been living in Iowa. In the last episode she [[spoiler:decides this is not a healthy environment for her, and goes home with her Dad]].dad]].
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Using "but" in two sentences in a row doesn't look too good. Also, minor grammar.
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** Subverted at [[spoiler:Monique and Adam]]'s wedding in the last episode. [[spoiler:Adam's ex, Greyson]], shows up at the wedding very much NOT invited and NOT wanted, and it seems she is there to give a speech to prevent the wedding. But she doesn't say anything at all. But, turns out [[spoiler:she has taken much more drastic measures than a speech: she hired a hit man to kill the bride...]]
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** Subverted at [[spoiler:Monique and Adam]]'s wedding in the last episode. [[spoiler:Adam's ex, Greyson]], shows up at the wedding very much NOT invited and NOT wanted, and it seems she is there to give a speech to prevent the wedding. But she doesn't say anything at all. But, Although, it turns out [[spoiler:she has taken much more drastic measures than a speech: she hired a hit man to kill the bride...]]
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* CharacterDevelopment:
** Julie, who's pretty one-dimensionally portrayed as a bitch who's only nasty to other characters, gradually softens up during the series, and ends it a much nicer person.
** Eric, who physically, emotionally and financially abuses his girlfriend Linda, makes a HeelFaceTurn after she leaves him, and in his next relationships, is much more loving.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After [[spoiler:David leaves for Europe]], he's never mentioned by the characters again, as if he's never existed; extra strange since [[spoiler:Hillary is his mother, Sarah and Julie are his ex-fiancees]], and he works in the same industry as his mother.
** Julie, who's pretty one-dimensionally portrayed as a bitch who's only nasty to other characters, gradually softens up during the series, and ends it a much nicer person.
** Eric, who physically, emotionally and financially abuses his girlfriend Linda, makes a HeelFaceTurn after she leaves him, and in his next relationships, is much more loving.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After [[spoiler:David leaves for Europe]], he's never mentioned by the characters again, as if he's never existed; extra strange since [[spoiler:Hillary is his mother, Sarah and Julie are his ex-fiancees]], and he works in the same industry as his mother.
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* LawOfInverseFertility: Getting pregnant in this universe seems to be inversely proportional to how much it's planned/wanted, with almost half of the characters getting pregnant accidentally... With Carrie, it's her backstory that happened [[TeenPregnancy during her teens]] and ended in giving the baby up for adoption; for Linda, it's only mentioned in passing that she also got pregnant at 17 (in her case ending in an abortion), and for [[spoiler:Sarah]], an unplanned pregnancy becomes a major plot point later in the series, ending in an [[spoiler:ConvenientMiscarriage]].
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* LawOfInverseFertility: Getting pregnant in this universe seems to be inversely proportional to how much it's planned/wanted, with almost half of the characters getting pregnant accidentally... accidentally...
** With Carrie, it's her backstory that happened [[TeenPregnancy during her teens]] and ended in giving the baby up foradoption; for adoption.
** For Linda, it's only mentioned in passing that she also got pregnant at 17 (in her case ending in anabortion), and for abortion).
** For [[spoiler:Sarah]], an unplanned pregnancy becomes a major plot point later in the series, ending inan [[spoiler:ConvenientMiscarriage]].a [[spoiler:ConvenientMiscarriage]].
** The reverse, not being able to conceive, seems to be true for Kyle and his wife (the adopive parents of Carrie's biological son). Only implied, since it isn't stated they tried and failed to conceive before choosing to adopt.
** With Carrie, it's her backstory that happened [[TeenPregnancy during her teens]] and ended in giving the baby up for
** For Linda, it's only mentioned in passing that she also got pregnant at 17 (in her case ending in an
** For [[spoiler:Sarah]], an unplanned pregnancy becomes a major plot point later in the series, ending in
** The reverse, not being able to conceive, seems to be true for Kyle and his wife (the adopive parents of Carrie's biological son). Only implied, since it isn't stated they tried and failed to conceive before choosing to adopt.
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* MonochromeCasting: All characters, including minor ones, are white/Caucasian. There's one TokenMinority character in African-American Cynthia (who doesn't appear until episode 5 and initially isn't even billed during the opening credits but as "guest star" even though she's part of the main characters), but no Asians and, especially remarkably since it takes place in L.A., no Hispanics.
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* MonochromeCasting: All characters, including minor ones, are white/Caucasian. There's one TokenMinority character in African-American Cynthia (who doesn't appear until episode 5 and initially isn't even billed during the opening credits but as "guest star" even though she's part of the main characters), but characters and was much longer on the show than character David, who did get billed)--but no Asians and, especially remarkably since it takes place in L.A., no Hispanics.
* PutOnABus: Or rather, a plane, as David very abruptly leaves to Europe halfway the series.
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** When her [[spoiler:father confesses to her that he used to be an active alcoholic before she was born, Sarah]] suddenly realises her alcohol (ab)use has gotten out of control, and asks her father "Daddy, am '''I''' an alcoholic?", to which her father answers "Only '''you''' can know if you are. This is according to real-life Alcoholics Anonymous rules (and her father is later shown to attend those meetings): only a person themselves can "diagnose" or call themselves an alcoholic.
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** When her [[spoiler:father confesses to her that he used to be an active alcoholic before she was born, Sarah]] suddenly realises her alcohol (ab)use has gotten out of control, and asks her father "Daddy, am '''I''' an alcoholic?", to which her father answers "Only '''you''' can know if you are. are". This is according to real-life Alcoholics Anonymous rules (and her father is later shown to attend those meetings): their meetings)guidelines : only a person themselves can "diagnose" or call themselves an alcoholic.
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* CardCarryingVillain: While Julie's not a villain in the usual sense (except maybe to Sarah) but just [[AlphaBitch extremely bitchy]]: Julie never denies that she's out to get other people, that she's manipulative and only looks out for number one, etc.; she even touts this.
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* CardCarryingVillain: While Julie's not a villain in the usual sense (except maybe to Sarah) but just [[AlphaBitch extremely bitchy]]: Julie never denies that she's out to get other people, that she's manipulative and only looks out for number one, etc.; she even touts this.
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* CountryMouse: At the beginning of the series, Sarah, who's originally from rural Iowa, has just moved to L.A. The first few episodes she keeps remarking how different living in a big city is compared to where she used to live. In the second half, it becomes clear that this living place is not so good for her, as she becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs, arrested for drunk driving, the victim of a car-jacking, and unable to keep up her modelling job-- [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nor her virginity]] despite at the beginning swearing she intended to keep it until marriage. None of which seem likely to have happened had she still been living in Iowa. In the last episode she [[spoiler:decides this is not a healthy environment for her, and goes home with her Dad]].
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* LittleBlackDress: The models are frequently shown to be wearing little black dresses, especially when they're at parties. Also evident on the current page image, the series poster.
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* TruthInTelevision:
** When her [[spoiler:father confesses to her that he used to be an active alcoholic before she was born, Sarah]] suddenly realises her alcohol (ab)use has gotten out of control, and asks her father "Daddy, am '''I''' an alcoholic?", to which her father answers "Only '''you''' can know if you are. This is according to real-life Alcoholics Anonymous rules (and her father is later shown to attend those meetings): only a person themselves can "diagnose" or call themselves an alcoholic.
** Also, children of alcoholics are likelier to become alcoholics themselves. That's parly "nurture" and partly "nature"; the latter certainly seems to be the case for Sarah, as he had never told her he had been an alcoholic before she was born so she didn't even know.
** When her [[spoiler:father confesses to her that he used to be an active alcoholic before she was born, Sarah]] suddenly realises her alcohol (ab)use has gotten out of control, and asks her father "Daddy, am '''I''' an alcoholic?", to which her father answers "Only '''you''' can know if you are. This is according to real-life Alcoholics Anonymous rules (and her father is later shown to attend those meetings): only a person themselves can "diagnose" or call themselves an alcoholic.
** Also, children of alcoholics are likelier to become alcoholics themselves. That's parly "nurture" and partly "nature"; the latter certainly seems to be the case for Sarah, as he had never told her he had been an alcoholic before she was born so she didn't even know.
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The series lasted only 29 episodes in one season, after which it was axed very abruptly--leaving a huge cliffhanger unresolved.
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The series lasted only 29 episodes in one season, after which it was axed very abruptly--leaving a huge cliffhanger unresolved.
unresolved, though it was resolved in an alternate ending when the series was shown on Creator/{{E}}.
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* BitterWeddingSpeech: Julie shows up just as David and Sarah are about to take their vows, to break them up by revealing David slept with her recently.
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* BitterWeddingSpeech: BitterWeddingSpeech:
** Julie shows up just as David and Sarah are about to take their vows, to break them up by revealing David slept with herrecently.recently.
** Subverted at [[spoiler:Monique and Adam]]'s wedding in the last episode. [[spoiler:Adam's ex, Greyson]], shows up at the wedding very much NOT invited and NOT wanted, and it seems she is there to give a speech to prevent the wedding. But she doesn't say anything at all. But, turns out [[spoiler:she has taken much more drastic measures than a speech: she hired a hit man to kill the bride...]]
** Julie shows up just as David and Sarah are about to take their vows, to break them up by revealing David slept with her
** Subverted at [[spoiler:Monique and Adam]]'s wedding in the last episode. [[spoiler:Adam's ex, Greyson]], shows up at the wedding very much NOT invited and NOT wanted, and it seems she is there to give a speech to prevent the wedding. But she doesn't say anything at all. But, turns out [[spoiler:she has taken much more drastic measures than a speech: she hired a hit man to kill the bride...]]
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* LawOfInverseFertility: Getting pregnant in this universe seems to be inversely proportional to how much it's planned/wanted, with almost half of the characters getting pregnant accidentally... With Carrie, it's her backstory that happened [[TeenPregnancy during her teens]] and ended in giving the baby up for adoption; for Linda, it's only mentioned in passing that she also got pregnant at 17 (in her case ending in an abortion), and for [[spoiler:Sarah]], an unplanned pregnancy becomes a major plot point later in the series, ending in an [[spoiler:ConvenientMiscarriage]].
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** [[Linda]] reveals she got pregnant at 17 and had an abortion.
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** [[Linda]] [[spoiler:Linda]] reveals she got pregnant at 17 and had an abortion.abortion.
** Downplayed with [[spoiler:Sarah]], as she's not in high school or living with her parents anymore, but at 19 she technically still is a teenager, and she herself says that she's way too young and that she can't possibly take care of a baby when she even can't take care of herself.
** Downplayed with [[spoiler:Sarah]], as she's not in high school or living with her parents anymore, but at 19 she technically still is a teenager, and she herself says that she's way too young and that she can't possibly take care of a baby when she even can't take care of herself.
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* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: When David realizes that his mother Hillary will sabotage any modeling agency he might try to start in the U.S., and that his fiancee Julie also is more loyal to Hillary than to himself, he abruptly leaves for Europe. He thinks he can start a modeling agency over there, away from Hillary, and that with Julie out of the picture there's nothing keeping him in the U.S. anymore.
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* MyHairCameOutGreen: When Sarah becomes too arrogant about her latest contract, with a shampoo company, Julie puts green dye in Sarah's shampoo bottle. Sarah washes her hair with the shampoo, and so unwittingly dyes her hair green.
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* PsychoPsychologist: The psychiatrist Hillary gets to help Carrie [[BitchInSheepsClothing first seems professional and a nice guy, but]] he turns out to be a disgrace to his profession by sleeping with Carrie, who's his patient, and then using his influence to lock her away in a mental institution. And he also had sexually abused other patients in the past--Hillary finds out he actually moved from New York to L.A. because his medical licence was revoked in New York because of his misconduct.
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* WeightWoe: The models frequently mention that they have to be thin for their jobs, and that they are on diets. Most of it is within healthy limits, except for Cynthia. She thinks she's "fat" and starts dieting, after a remark someone makes about her weight during a photo shoot (which she might even have misinterpreted). In reality, she's absolutely ''not'' overweight; she has bulimia, and the dieting soon develops in bingeing and purging.
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* MissingMom: Hillary abandoned her daughter Amanda when she divorced, which is why Amanda hasn't seen her mom in decades.
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* MissingMom: MissingMom:
** Hillary abandoned her daughter Amanda when she divorced, which is why Amanda hasn't seen her mom indecades.decades.
** Carrie & Teri's mother abandoned them when they were teenagers, leaving it to Carrie, as the older sister, to take care of Teri.
** Hillary abandoned her daughter Amanda when she divorced, which is why Amanda hasn't seen her mom in
** Carrie & Teri's mother abandoned them when they were teenagers, leaving it to Carrie, as the older sister, to take care of Teri.
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** Her mother abandoned her in her teens, so she had to take care of her younger sister Teri, working jobs and providing an income for both of them--none of which Teri was ever grateful for. In fact, Teri was always openly hateful and hostile towards her; not to mention that Teri's modeling career always went better than Carrie's and Carrie always was compared unfavourably to Teri. Then Teri is murdered--after a big fight with Carrie, so they never reconciled.
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** Her mother abandoned her in her teens, so she had to take care of her younger sister Teri, working jobs and providing an income for both of them--none of which Teri was ever grateful for. In fact, Teri was always openly hateful and hostile towards her; not to mention that Teri's modeling career always went better than Carrie's and Carrie always was compared unfavourably to Teri. Then Teri is murdered--after a big fight with Carrie, so they never reconciled. To add insult to injury, Carrie is a suspect for Teri's murder and arrested for it, though she can prove her innocence.
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* TeenPregnancy:
** When Carrie was 17, she got pregnant. Because her own mother had abandoned her and she also had to take care of her sister Teri, she had to put the baby up for adoption.
** [[Linda]] reveals she got pregnant at 17 and had an abortion.
** When Carrie was 17, she got pregnant. Because her own mother had abandoned her and she also had to take care of her sister Teri, she had to put the baby up for adoption.
** [[Linda]] reveals she got pregnant at 17 and had an abortion.
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* TraumaCongaLine: Poor Carrie goes through an extreme amount of misery and trauma.
** Her mother abandoned her in her teens, so she had to take care of her younger sister Teri, working jobs and providing an income for both of them--none of which Teri was ever grateful for. In fact, Teri was always openly hateful and hostile towards her; not to mention that Teri's modeling career always went better than Carrie's and Carrie always was compared unfavourably to Teri. Then Teri is murdered--after a big fight with Carrie, so they never reconciled.
** She had to put up for adoption a baby she had as result of a teen pregnancy, only to hear shortly afterwards that the baby had died. But 10 years later she finds out the baby hadn't died after all. She goes to find her now-10-year-old son, only to fall in love with, and start an affair with, the child's adoptive father, who's married. When the man finds out she's the child's biological mother, he never wants to see Carrie again--and forbids any contact between the child and Carrie, which is heart-breaking for her.
** She sees a psychiatrist to deal with the loss of her sister and her son, but the man falsely declares her insane and locks her away in a mental institution, sexually abusing her. Luckily, she manages to get out, but then everything is taken up to eleven when...
** ...she is drugged and shipped off to an unnamed South American country to be used as a sex slave... And this horrible fate is the last thing we see of her.
** Her mother abandoned her in her teens, so she had to take care of her younger sister Teri, working jobs and providing an income for both of them--none of which Teri was ever grateful for. In fact, Teri was always openly hateful and hostile towards her; not to mention that Teri's modeling career always went better than Carrie's and Carrie always was compared unfavourably to Teri. Then Teri is murdered--after a big fight with Carrie, so they never reconciled.
** She had to put up for adoption a baby she had as result of a teen pregnancy, only to hear shortly afterwards that the baby had died. But 10 years later she finds out the baby hadn't died after all. She goes to find her now-10-year-old son, only to fall in love with, and start an affair with, the child's adoptive father, who's married. When the man finds out she's the child's biological mother, he never wants to see Carrie again--and forbids any contact between the child and Carrie, which is heart-breaking for her.
** She sees a psychiatrist to deal with the loss of her sister and her son, but the man falsely declares her insane and locks her away in a mental institution, sexually abusing her. Luckily, she manages to get out, but then everything is taken up to eleven when...
** ...she is drugged and shipped off to an unnamed South American country to be used as a sex slave... And this horrible fate is the last thing we see of her.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/models_inc.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The protagonists, left-to-right: Carrie, Linda, Julie, Sarah, Teri/[[spoiler:Monique]]]]
A 1994 drama TV series that started as a spin-off of ''Series/MelrosePlace'', which itself was a spin-off of ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'', which is not to be confused with its own 2000's reboot, or with ''Melrose Place'''s own 2000's reboot (welcome to the world of Creator/AaronSpelling 's intertwining drama series).
The series follows an L.A. modelling agency, called Models, Inc., run by ruthless bussiness woman Hillary Michaels (mother to ''Melrose Place'' character Amanda, thus the connection between the two series) and her son David.
The most successful models of the agency live together in a beach house in Malibu and the series mostly follows the heavy drama that develops between them.
The series starts off with new model Sarah just having been contracted by Models Inc., and moving into the models' beach house, after moving from Iowa to L.A. to pursue a modelling career. [[TheIngenue Sweet and meek]] Sarah soon clashes with resident AlphaBitch Julie, a model who's jealous of Sarah not only career-wise but also because David, Julie's ex and the vice president of the agency, starts dating Sarah.
Other models are Linda, who's in an abusive relationship and is being blackmailed with a secret from her past, and Carrie, who at 27 is getting too "old" to model, and always is in the shadow of her more successful younger sister Teri.
Teri, herself, gets murdered in the very first episode, which sets off a "whodunnit" arc (Hillary, David, her sister Carrie and her boyfriend Brian are all suspects for her murder) that lasts the first few episodes, after which the series gets less crime/mystery-oriented and more SoapOpera-like.
The series lasted only 29 episodes in one season, after which it was axed very abruptly--leaving a huge cliffhanger unresolved.
----
!! This series provides examples of:
* AFatherToHisMen: Hillary is a female version--she will do anything to ensure the wellbeing of "her girls", as she calls her models. She seems to care much for them as persons, rather than just employees.
** When Hillary finds out Eric takes most of Linda's salary, she opens a second, secret bank account for Linda to put half of Linda's salary on, so that Linda can keep at least half of her salary for herself.
** When Linda is being blackmailed by Eric with a porn tape she once made, Hillary goes after Eric to take all copies of the tapes from him, to make sure this footage disappears forever. [[note]]Luckily, this was before the internet, so "buying all tapes" ''was'' sufficient for this.[[/note]]
** During Carrie's SanitySlippage, she hires a psychiatrist for Carrie.
* BettyAndVeronica:
** David, in the beginning, is in a love triangle with AlphaBitch Julie and the much sweeter, [[TheIngenue ingenue]] Sarah.
** Gender-flipped version with Linda when she has difficulty deciding whether she want to be with adventurous, but manipulative Eric or with stable, but slightly boring, Chris.
* CardCarryingVillain: While Julie's not a villain in the usual sense (except maybe to Sarah) but just [[AlphaBitch extremely bitchy]]: Julie never denies that she's out to get other people, that she's manipulative and only looks out for number one, etc.; she even touts this.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The psychiatrist Hillary hires to help Carrie seems a real NiceGuy. He starts an affair with [[spoiler:Carrie (which is totally unprofessional, of course)]] ''and'' with Hillary, deceiving both women. Then his true colors really show when he [[spoiler:falsely declares Carrie insane and puts her away in a mental institution]]. It also turns out he was sentenced for [[spoiler:sexually abusing other patients]] in the past.
* BitterWeddingSpeech: Julie shows up just as David and Sarah are about to take their vows, to break them up by revealing David slept with her recently.
* ConvenientMiscarriage: [[spoiler:Sarah]] gets pregnant, unplanned and unwanted. After much consideration, she decides to have an abortion--but is ran over by a car on her way to the abortion clinic, causing her to miscarry, so the pregnancy is ended without an abortion.
* DescentIntoAddiction: Sarah gets addicted to alcohol, and later also to cocaine and other drugs.
* {{Doppelganger}}: After Teri dies, an ''exact'' lookalike of her shows up and is hired by Models Inc.[[note]]Teri and Monique were played by the same actress, of course[[/note]]
* DrowningMySorrows:
** Sarah starts to drink because she feels sad about her [[spoiler:ended relationship with David]] and alcohol makes her forget that. She drinks more and more until she fully develops into [[TheAlcoholic an alcoholic]].
** When David feels bad after his [[spoiler:break-up with Sarah]], he "deals" with it by going out and drinking--until the next morning.
-->'''Hillary:''' David, it's 10:30 in the morning, and you're drinking whisky?
* DrunkDriver: During her alcoholic phase, Sarah gets behind the wheel after drinking too much, and is promptly arrested for it.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The titular modeling agency is called, very plain and unimaginatively, ''Models Inc.'' Also out of universe, as the series itself is named after the agency, and is about, well, models.
* FourthDateMarriage: David and Sarah want to get married after knowing each other only a few weeks. Invoked because Hillary is forbidding their relationship and David thinks them marrying might make Hillary accept it.
* {{Gaslighting}}: Eric emotionally abuses Linda, and does this so manipulatively that she thinks ''she'' caused and deserved it. Most clearly when he casually offers her to an acquaintance of his for sex, without her consent or even knowledge, and when she confronts Eric about the guy trying to sleep with her, Eric twists it such that she thinks ''she'' caused it and ends up apologizing to Eric instead of the other way around.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: Sarah comes across as very girly. When she tells that when she was a child she always hung out and played with the boys, and did things like climb in trees, Brian is surprised that she also was a bit of a tomboy as a child.
* GoldDigger: Julie only wants lovers who are ''rich'', as she herself even outright says. Subverted when she finds out her new love interest Craig is not rich, and not even interested in becoming so, and she first dumps him because of this but ultimately gets back with him despite this [[note]]Only to find out he was rich after all, and was hiding it[[/note]]
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: When [[spoiler:Sarah]] accidentally gets pregnant, she thinks about getting an abortion. After much internal and external debate (also with pro-choice Linda and pro-life Carrie arguing opposite sites), she decides to go through with the abortion, so ultimately subverted. Then discussed In Universe when the (would-have-been) father finds out and finds it terrible that she considered an abortion (he's a [[spoiler:priest]]...)
* GreenEyedMonster: Julie is very jealous of Sarah from the moment she meets her, first because Sarah is a successful new model, then also because Julie's ex David starts to fall for Sarah.
* HeelFaceTurn: In the first half of the episodes, Eric is a narcissistic asshole who physically, verbally and financially abuses Linda. After she leaves him, he gets much more gentle. He doesn't just stop abusing her, but even genuinely wants to become friends with her, and he becomes much nicer to people in general.
* HighSchoolSweethearts: Sarah during her high school years was together with her then-boyfriend Hank, whom she even litterally refers to as her High School sweetheart. Subverted when she left Iowa after graduation to move to LA, he got abusive, and they broke up.
* InformedAbility: David is often said, by other characters, to be quite TheCasanova, to the point that it seems he [[ReallyGetsAround slept with half the female population of L.A.]], but we never see anything of this, and the first thing we see from him is him falling truly in love with Sarah and wanting a monogamous realationship with her.
* TheIngenue: Sarah is sweet-natured and naive (at the beginning of the series, at least), and a virgin. The other characters even sometimes refer to her as "sweet little Sarah".
* LadykillerInLove: David apparently was quite the Casanova, sleeping with lots of women, before meeting Sarah. He falls deeply in love with her, and mentions that that is a first for him; he even wants to marry her.
* LastDisrespects: At Teri's funeral after she's murdered, the other models speak disrespectfully about her.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Teri falls to her death from a high-rise building, which initially is thought to be an accident because she is drunk. Soon after it becomes clear she was pushed to her death by someone.
* MissingMom: Hillary abandoned her daughter Amanda when she divorced, which is why Amanda hasn't seen her mom in decades.
* MonochromeCasting: All characters, including minor ones, are white/Caucasian. There's one TokenMinority character in African-American Cynthia (who doesn't appear until episode 5 and initially isn't even billed during the opening credits but as "guest star" even though she's part of the main characters), but no Asians and, especially remarkably since it takes place in L.A., no Hispanics.
* MyBelovedSmother: Hillary is pretty possessive of her son David, always telling him what to do, and forbidding his relationships first with Sarah and then with Julie.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When Carrie becomes mentally unstable, Hillary, with the best of intentions, hires a psychiatrist to help her. Little does Hillary know that the man first starts to take sexual advantage of Carrie, and then falsely declares Carrie insane so he can lock her away in a mental hospital... Hillary wanted to help Carrie, but Carrie is way worse off after.
* OneOfTheBoys: Sarah tells she mostly hung out with boys when she grew up, because she had 2 brothers.
* PutOnABus: David plays a fairly big role in the first third of the season, but he abruptly leaves for Europe when he decides to leave Models Inc. and start his own agency, because his mother will sabotage all his efforts to do so in the U.S. Afterwards, he is never spoken of again.
* RapeAsDrama:
** Sarah was nearly raped by her ex-boyfriend Hank, and this left some psychological scars on her which resurface when she gets together with David.
** Cynthia gets raped by Frank, and is traumatized after that. She joins a self-help group to deal with it, to no avail, as she develops an eating disorder because she can't deal with the trauma.
* RedHerring: Various characters are suspects for Teri's murder, until the real killer is found.
** Hillary is a suspect from the beginning on, since Teri was about to break her contract with Hillary to leave Models Inc., and Teri was Hillary's most profitable model. Then Hillary's clothes' fibers are found under Teri's nails, so she's arrested for it. Turns out she fought with Teri but didn't kill her.
** David is revealed to have had a fight with Teri on the night of her murder, and so also becomes a suspect.
** Teri also had a fight with her boyfriend Brian, about whether or not he also would leave Models Inc.
** Last but not least, Teri also fought with Carrie, and when Carrie is found out to have tampered with police evidence, Carrie's also arrested,
* PenName: Craig turns out to be a [[spoiler:famous writer]]; he could hide this because he writes under a made-up name he took on when he started publishing. The fact that it's a female name, and the writer is believed to be a woman, makes it even less obvious.
* PosthumousCharacter: Teri gets murdered in the first episode and we barely see something of her before she dies. She heavily features in flashbacks in later episodes though, and that is how we get to know more of her.
* SanitySlippage:
** Brian starts to see and hear Teri after her death; this is not treated as her being a real ghost, but as Brian being mentally unstable.
** Carrie develops weird behaviours after her sister's death, amongst others impersonating Hillary. She is admitted to a mental hospital by a psychiatrist for it.
* SexyPriest: Sarah falls in love with a handsome man, Mark, and starts a romantic relationship with him, until he reveals to her that he's about to take his vows to become a priest--which includes celibacy, so they break things off.
* StalkerWithACrush:
** Cynthia is stalked by former childhood friend Frank. He even follows her to another state, and keeps harrassing her and sending death threats. She manages to get a restraining order against him, but to no avail, as he [[spoiler:kidnaps and rapes her]].
** [[spoiler:Stephanie]] is in love with Brian--who doesn't have a clue about this-- and goes to extremes to "win him over", even [[spoiler:murdering Teri]] and [[spoiler:sending Sarah death threats]].
* TitleDrop: Happens in every episode, as the name of the agency all characters work for also is the name of the series.
* TokenMinority: Cynthia, as an African-American girl, is the only non-white character appearing.
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: Whenever Eric physically abuses Linda he gaslights her into thinking she deserved it and "made him do it".
* YourCheatingHeart:
** Paul starts a relationship with Carrie even though he's married to another woman.
** Played with in David's case: he has sex with Julie after Sarah breaks up with him; after Julie reveals this to Sarah, Sarah immediately dumps him again as she takes this as cheating, but David thought it wasn't because he and Sarah "were on a break".
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[[caption-width-right:350:The protagonists, left-to-right: Carrie, Linda, Julie, Sarah, Teri/[[spoiler:Monique]]]]
A 1994 drama TV series that started as a spin-off of ''Series/MelrosePlace'', which itself was a spin-off of ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'', which is not to be confused with its own 2000's reboot, or with ''Melrose Place'''s own 2000's reboot (welcome to the world of Creator/AaronSpelling 's intertwining drama series).
The series follows an L.A. modelling agency, called Models, Inc., run by ruthless bussiness woman Hillary Michaels (mother to ''Melrose Place'' character Amanda, thus the connection between the two series) and her son David.
The most successful models of the agency live together in a beach house in Malibu and the series mostly follows the heavy drama that develops between them.
The series starts off with new model Sarah just having been contracted by Models Inc., and moving into the models' beach house, after moving from Iowa to L.A. to pursue a modelling career. [[TheIngenue Sweet and meek]] Sarah soon clashes with resident AlphaBitch Julie, a model who's jealous of Sarah not only career-wise but also because David, Julie's ex and the vice president of the agency, starts dating Sarah.
Other models are Linda, who's in an abusive relationship and is being blackmailed with a secret from her past, and Carrie, who at 27 is getting too "old" to model, and always is in the shadow of her more successful younger sister Teri.
Teri, herself, gets murdered in the very first episode, which sets off a "whodunnit" arc (Hillary, David, her sister Carrie and her boyfriend Brian are all suspects for her murder) that lasts the first few episodes, after which the series gets less crime/mystery-oriented and more SoapOpera-like.
The series lasted only 29 episodes in one season, after which it was axed very abruptly--leaving a huge cliffhanger unresolved.
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!! This series provides examples of:
* AFatherToHisMen: Hillary is a female version--she will do anything to ensure the wellbeing of "her girls", as she calls her models. She seems to care much for them as persons, rather than just employees.
** When Hillary finds out Eric takes most of Linda's salary, she opens a second, secret bank account for Linda to put half of Linda's salary on, so that Linda can keep at least half of her salary for herself.
** When Linda is being blackmailed by Eric with a porn tape she once made, Hillary goes after Eric to take all copies of the tapes from him, to make sure this footage disappears forever. [[note]]Luckily, this was before the internet, so "buying all tapes" ''was'' sufficient for this.[[/note]]
** During Carrie's SanitySlippage, she hires a psychiatrist for Carrie.
* BettyAndVeronica:
** David, in the beginning, is in a love triangle with AlphaBitch Julie and the much sweeter, [[TheIngenue ingenue]] Sarah.
** Gender-flipped version with Linda when she has difficulty deciding whether she want to be with adventurous, but manipulative Eric or with stable, but slightly boring, Chris.
* CardCarryingVillain: While Julie's not a villain in the usual sense (except maybe to Sarah) but just [[AlphaBitch extremely bitchy]]: Julie never denies that she's out to get other people, that she's manipulative and only looks out for number one, etc.; she even touts this.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The psychiatrist Hillary hires to help Carrie seems a real NiceGuy. He starts an affair with [[spoiler:Carrie (which is totally unprofessional, of course)]] ''and'' with Hillary, deceiving both women. Then his true colors really show when he [[spoiler:falsely declares Carrie insane and puts her away in a mental institution]]. It also turns out he was sentenced for [[spoiler:sexually abusing other patients]] in the past.
* BitterWeddingSpeech: Julie shows up just as David and Sarah are about to take their vows, to break them up by revealing David slept with her recently.
* ConvenientMiscarriage: [[spoiler:Sarah]] gets pregnant, unplanned and unwanted. After much consideration, she decides to have an abortion--but is ran over by a car on her way to the abortion clinic, causing her to miscarry, so the pregnancy is ended without an abortion.
* DescentIntoAddiction: Sarah gets addicted to alcohol, and later also to cocaine and other drugs.
* {{Doppelganger}}: After Teri dies, an ''exact'' lookalike of her shows up and is hired by Models Inc.[[note]]Teri and Monique were played by the same actress, of course[[/note]]
* DrowningMySorrows:
** Sarah starts to drink because she feels sad about her [[spoiler:ended relationship with David]] and alcohol makes her forget that. She drinks more and more until she fully develops into [[TheAlcoholic an alcoholic]].
** When David feels bad after his [[spoiler:break-up with Sarah]], he "deals" with it by going out and drinking--until the next morning.
-->'''Hillary:''' David, it's 10:30 in the morning, and you're drinking whisky?
* DrunkDriver: During her alcoholic phase, Sarah gets behind the wheel after drinking too much, and is promptly arrested for it.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The titular modeling agency is called, very plain and unimaginatively, ''Models Inc.'' Also out of universe, as the series itself is named after the agency, and is about, well, models.
* FourthDateMarriage: David and Sarah want to get married after knowing each other only a few weeks. Invoked because Hillary is forbidding their relationship and David thinks them marrying might make Hillary accept it.
* {{Gaslighting}}: Eric emotionally abuses Linda, and does this so manipulatively that she thinks ''she'' caused and deserved it. Most clearly when he casually offers her to an acquaintance of his for sex, without her consent or even knowledge, and when she confronts Eric about the guy trying to sleep with her, Eric twists it such that she thinks ''she'' caused it and ends up apologizing to Eric instead of the other way around.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: Sarah comes across as very girly. When she tells that when she was a child she always hung out and played with the boys, and did things like climb in trees, Brian is surprised that she also was a bit of a tomboy as a child.
* GoldDigger: Julie only wants lovers who are ''rich'', as she herself even outright says. Subverted when she finds out her new love interest Craig is not rich, and not even interested in becoming so, and she first dumps him because of this but ultimately gets back with him despite this [[note]]Only to find out he was rich after all, and was hiding it[[/note]]
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: When [[spoiler:Sarah]] accidentally gets pregnant, she thinks about getting an abortion. After much internal and external debate (also with pro-choice Linda and pro-life Carrie arguing opposite sites), she decides to go through with the abortion, so ultimately subverted. Then discussed In Universe when the (would-have-been) father finds out and finds it terrible that she considered an abortion (he's a [[spoiler:priest]]...)
* GreenEyedMonster: Julie is very jealous of Sarah from the moment she meets her, first because Sarah is a successful new model, then also because Julie's ex David starts to fall for Sarah.
* HeelFaceTurn: In the first half of the episodes, Eric is a narcissistic asshole who physically, verbally and financially abuses Linda. After she leaves him, he gets much more gentle. He doesn't just stop abusing her, but even genuinely wants to become friends with her, and he becomes much nicer to people in general.
* HighSchoolSweethearts: Sarah during her high school years was together with her then-boyfriend Hank, whom she even litterally refers to as her High School sweetheart. Subverted when she left Iowa after graduation to move to LA, he got abusive, and they broke up.
* InformedAbility: David is often said, by other characters, to be quite TheCasanova, to the point that it seems he [[ReallyGetsAround slept with half the female population of L.A.]], but we never see anything of this, and the first thing we see from him is him falling truly in love with Sarah and wanting a monogamous realationship with her.
* TheIngenue: Sarah is sweet-natured and naive (at the beginning of the series, at least), and a virgin. The other characters even sometimes refer to her as "sweet little Sarah".
* LadykillerInLove: David apparently was quite the Casanova, sleeping with lots of women, before meeting Sarah. He falls deeply in love with her, and mentions that that is a first for him; he even wants to marry her.
* LastDisrespects: At Teri's funeral after she's murdered, the other models speak disrespectfully about her.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Teri falls to her death from a high-rise building, which initially is thought to be an accident because she is drunk. Soon after it becomes clear she was pushed to her death by someone.
* MissingMom: Hillary abandoned her daughter Amanda when she divorced, which is why Amanda hasn't seen her mom in decades.
* MonochromeCasting: All characters, including minor ones, are white/Caucasian. There's one TokenMinority character in African-American Cynthia (who doesn't appear until episode 5 and initially isn't even billed during the opening credits but as "guest star" even though she's part of the main characters), but no Asians and, especially remarkably since it takes place in L.A., no Hispanics.
* MyBelovedSmother: Hillary is pretty possessive of her son David, always telling him what to do, and forbidding his relationships first with Sarah and then with Julie.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When Carrie becomes mentally unstable, Hillary, with the best of intentions, hires a psychiatrist to help her. Little does Hillary know that the man first starts to take sexual advantage of Carrie, and then falsely declares Carrie insane so he can lock her away in a mental hospital... Hillary wanted to help Carrie, but Carrie is way worse off after.
* OneOfTheBoys: Sarah tells she mostly hung out with boys when she grew up, because she had 2 brothers.
* PutOnABus: David plays a fairly big role in the first third of the season, but he abruptly leaves for Europe when he decides to leave Models Inc. and start his own agency, because his mother will sabotage all his efforts to do so in the U.S. Afterwards, he is never spoken of again.
* RapeAsDrama:
** Sarah was nearly raped by her ex-boyfriend Hank, and this left some psychological scars on her which resurface when she gets together with David.
** Cynthia gets raped by Frank, and is traumatized after that. She joins a self-help group to deal with it, to no avail, as she develops an eating disorder because she can't deal with the trauma.
* RedHerring: Various characters are suspects for Teri's murder, until the real killer is found.
** Hillary is a suspect from the beginning on, since Teri was about to break her contract with Hillary to leave Models Inc., and Teri was Hillary's most profitable model. Then Hillary's clothes' fibers are found under Teri's nails, so she's arrested for it. Turns out she fought with Teri but didn't kill her.
** David is revealed to have had a fight with Teri on the night of her murder, and so also becomes a suspect.
** Teri also had a fight with her boyfriend Brian, about whether or not he also would leave Models Inc.
** Last but not least, Teri also fought with Carrie, and when Carrie is found out to have tampered with police evidence, Carrie's also arrested,
* PenName: Craig turns out to be a [[spoiler:famous writer]]; he could hide this because he writes under a made-up name he took on when he started publishing. The fact that it's a female name, and the writer is believed to be a woman, makes it even less obvious.
* PosthumousCharacter: Teri gets murdered in the first episode and we barely see something of her before she dies. She heavily features in flashbacks in later episodes though, and that is how we get to know more of her.
* SanitySlippage:
** Brian starts to see and hear Teri after her death; this is not treated as her being a real ghost, but as Brian being mentally unstable.
** Carrie develops weird behaviours after her sister's death, amongst others impersonating Hillary. She is admitted to a mental hospital by a psychiatrist for it.
* SexyPriest: Sarah falls in love with a handsome man, Mark, and starts a romantic relationship with him, until he reveals to her that he's about to take his vows to become a priest--which includes celibacy, so they break things off.
* StalkerWithACrush:
** Cynthia is stalked by former childhood friend Frank. He even follows her to another state, and keeps harrassing her and sending death threats. She manages to get a restraining order against him, but to no avail, as he [[spoiler:kidnaps and rapes her]].
** [[spoiler:Stephanie]] is in love with Brian--who doesn't have a clue about this-- and goes to extremes to "win him over", even [[spoiler:murdering Teri]] and [[spoiler:sending Sarah death threats]].
* TitleDrop: Happens in every episode, as the name of the agency all characters work for also is the name of the series.
* TokenMinority: Cynthia, as an African-American girl, is the only non-white character appearing.
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: Whenever Eric physically abuses Linda he gaslights her into thinking she deserved it and "made him do it".
* YourCheatingHeart:
** Paul starts a relationship with Carrie even though he's married to another woman.
** Played with in David's case: he has sex with Julie after Sarah breaks up with him; after Julie reveals this to Sarah, Sarah immediately dumps him again as she takes this as cheating, but David thought it wasn't because he and Sarah "were on a break".
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