TV on DVD: Hotel

One of my recent purchases was season one of the television show Hotel that reran SoapNet. It was an Aaron Spelling production that aired in the 1980s for five seasons. During most of its run it came on after Dynasty on ABC.

Hotel takes place in San Francisco on Nob Hill called the St. Gregory. This hotel was luxurious and much drama took place among both the guests and those who were employed there. Parts of some episodes were filmed on location in San Francisco. Some may compare this to program to The Love Boat, because like that program people came and went every episode. The difference was the tone as the stories on hotel were a lot darker. While there were comedic elements at times, it was not a show created for laughs.

The pilot episode that is the first one on the disk had Bette Davis as the owner of the hotel named Laura Trent. From what I understand she had health issues and could not continue. Anne Baxter as Victoria Cabot (who played Laura’s sister-in-law) ended up running the place. The hotel general manager was Peter (James Brolin) who took care of the day to day of running such a huge place. Peter had various one-episode romances during the first season, but eventually he fell for his assistant Christine (Connie Selleca). Mark (Shea Farrell) was blonde and did customer public relations for the hotel. Billy (Nathan Cook) was the head of security, who had a checkered past as he was an ex-con. Dave (Michael Spound) and Megan (Heidi Bohay) were married, and both worked at the hotel. Dave was a bellhop, while Megan was a check-in clerk. In real life, the actors who played Dave and Megan fell in love and married. Julie (Shari Belafonte- Harper) worked with Megan and helped answer questions about the hotel.

Part of the fun of a show like this is who ends up walking through the hotel in each episode. People who were famous from movies, other television roles or even new actors made up the guest casts. One episode had John J. York (Mac from General Hospital in a really small role), and Renee Jones (Lexie on Days of Our Lives) played Billy’s girlfriend. Unexpected surprises make shows like this a lot more entertaining, as I like playing "spot the actor."

Crime was present at the St. Gregory Hotel as well as musical acts like Liberace. Some of the characters were held hostage by a crazed family in one episode, another had a man who was a Holocaust survivor holding a gun to the head of one of the leaders, there were also jewel thievery, stalkers, and prostitutes. While the show aired in the 80s, I was slightly surprised by the subject matter, as while it wasn’t explicit, things were inferred that left no doubt of sexual behavior.

Unfortunately only season one of Hotel is available on DVD and SoapNet no longer carries the program. Hopefully CBS who released this set will make more seasons of this show available for purchase. What is odd is many of the cast members I am more familiar with for their appearances on game shows (like Nathan Cook) than from watching this show. So even if I was too young to watch it when it aired, I was familiar with the program.