

                            T h e   H e i g h t s

                                (mini-guide)


This is a mini episode guide for the Spelling TV show 'The Heights',
by Tom Zoerner. Is is also availabe at the Spelling WWW archive
at URL http://wwwcip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/tree/misc/heights


The U.S. rockband, consisting of 5 guys and 2 girls: The Heights, is
named after the suburb the members live in. Partly comedian, partly
serious and melancholy the show tells about relations, crisises and
important events in the lives of the young people.


Regular Cast and Instruments
----------------------------
Alex Desert . . . . . . Stan  . . . . . . . . . . . bass
Ken Garito  . . . . . . Arthur 'Dizzy' Manselli . . drums
Cheryl Pollak . . . . . Rita  . . . . . . . . . . . sax
Charlotte Ross  . . . . Hope  . . . . . . . . . . . guitar and rhythm
Shawn Daid Thompson . . J.T.  . . . . . . . . . . . lead guitar
Zacharia Throne . . . . Lenny . . . . . . . . . . . keyboards
James Walters . . . . . Alex  . . . . . . . . . . . guitar

Tasia Valenza . . . . . Jodie
Ray Arancha . . . . . . Stan's Dad
Donelly Rhodes  . . . . Mr 'Dad' Manselli


Partial Recurring cast
----------------------
Jerry Wasserman . . . . James Bendizi (italian soft mafia gangster)
Camille Saviola . . . . Mrs. 'A' Manselli


created by Eric Roth and Tony Spiridakis
produced by Aaron Spelling and Duke Vincent
music by Steve Tyrell


Additional Information
----------------------
For further information seek Cardiff's Movie Database Browser in GB.
Use the key 'Beverly Hills' in the title search. You can also search
for names and get extensive filmo- and biographies for the actors.
Use WWW and URL http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Movies/moviequery.html
The lists can now be searched via a mail-server interface. For details
send a message with a subject HELP to movie@ibmpcug.co.uk



Storyline and Titles Overview
-----------------------------

1.01 Talk to an angel 
   Alex wooes to Rita with a poem that he's written. She seems to
   like him and they come close. Jodie recognizes that she's
   pregnant and tells her friend Dizzy about it. Alex joins the band as
   second guitarist. 

1.02 Children of the night 
   Alex meets a youth who lives on the street; he tries to help him,
   but he steels his keys to the store and some money from the
   cashbox. First Alex is under suspect, but finally Rita can persuade
   the boy to tell the truth. Lennie takes a job at a comic and junk
   vendor, but looses it again, since he is not as weird as the owner
   wants him to be. 

1.03 Decisions 
   Stan's father wants Stan to graduate in music conservatorium.
   Stan proposes and gets a place, but then he decides not to go.
   Dizzy buys a ring from Jo Bandizi, but it's faked. He confronts him
   and gets his money back. He tries to propose to Jodie, but she
   doesn't want yet. Hope has an idea for a song, but differs with J.T.
   about the realisation. They come up with two very different
   versions (Common ground versus Battleground). Anyway they start
   falling in love. 

1.04 Natalie 
   Dizzy takes a second job as night portier in a fine hotel, where he
   even gets offered a career. Jodie doesn't like him doing two jobs.
   She learns that he tries really hard to please her, and accepts his
   marriage proposal. Lenny falls in love with Natalie, but his
   approach is too slow, so that J.T. gets her first, before she
   recognizes her real love interests. 

1.05 Shooting stars 
   The famous performer Betty B. and former close friend of Rita
   comes in the town and visits the band. Betty wants Alex to
   secretly write songs for her and later even come to New York, but
   he decides to stay with his small live and Rita. Dizzy and Jodie
   have some problems to tell her mother of the pregnancy and
   marriage. 

1.06 Flashback 
   The band has the idea to modernize Stans Dad's bar. They play
   rock music and really many people come, but the atmosphere
   doesn't please Stan's Dad, so they have to go back to normal.
   J.T.'s Dad has a class reunion and doesn't want to go. J.T. learns
   that his father was way back in school a nice guy, but has
   dramatically changed during Vietnam war. Hope's parents urge her
   to give up the band and go to college, but she decides to stay. 

1.07 So hot 
   Lenny meets Rosie, who is a fighter for environmental protection,
   and joins her in this interest and her bed. Rita decides it's time to
   sleep with Alex, but he wants to have it more special and wait. In
   the end, though, they do the hot thing. 

1.08 On the road 
   Jodie and Alex seek an appartment but find nothing appealing and
   end up with a room at her parent's. Stan looks afer the son of a
   cousin at his foster-mother. Suddenly his cousin comes out of
   prison and claims her child. Later she sees that he has a better life
   at the foster-mother. J.T. drives a Cadillac to Seattle for James
   Bandizi and wants to make a holiday of it by taking Hope with him.
   However she takes Lenny along and he annoys them later. 

1.09 The big day 
   Dizzy marries Jodie. Stan almost loses the wedding ring. Rita is too
   hot for Alex, wants always just to join the hips, what frightens him.
   J.T. and Alex propose to their girl friends while heavily drunk and
   get laughed. Hope pretends he slept with her while drunk, but he
   can't remember anything and is sad. 

1.10 Honeymoon 
   Jodie and Dizzy are in honeymoon at a hotel and meet another
   freshly wedded pair. The other guy has problems to copulate, it's
   his first time. The pair annoys them so much, that Jodie and Dizzy
   can't get at it and they leave early. Since Dizzy moved out from
   Stan, he seeks a new roommate. Finally Lenny moves in, and
   causes some adjustment problems. Alex wants Rita to move out
   from their parents, but she is annoyed from that. Finally she moves
   in with Hope in a fine appartment. 

1.11 Strains 
   Rita gets visited from a long gone boy friend and Alex sees, that
   he wants to get Rita back and intervenes. Rita is first pissed, but
   in the end she recognizes the lower motives of the ex and dumps
   him. James Bandizi wants the band to play on the birthday party of
   his daughter, but he wants to sing a song himself. Dizzy wants to
   get more familiar with his mom in law and finds working out as a
   bond, but overdoes the thing. 

1.12 Nightmares 
   Jodie and Dizzy visit a Lamaze class and he goes way too much
   for it, gets very worried about the health of the child. J.T. flirts and
   annoys a woman, who pretends to be a which and curses him.
   Some bad accidents occur to him in follow. Hope and Rita propose
   for the same job at a magazine and do heavily compete. In the end
   noone gets the job. 

1.13 The big chance 
   Alex finds his long lost dad, and learns that he did not only leave
   one family. The store house where the band rehearsed is bought
   and they have to leave. What first looks like the end of the band
   due to missing financable room for rehearsal appears to be the big
   chance: they get the job as house band, although the owner is
   very annoying. 


Steve Tyrell in the Producer's footnote of the Compact Disc
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Heights project was the brainchild of Eric Roth and Tony Spiridakis,
who believe real music has a place on television. Thanks to them, I was
put in the enviable position of nurturing their vision from its embryonic
beginning to the completion of this recording. I will always be grateful
to them as well to Gary Randall, Duke Vincent and Ken Miller for theit
help in making this album a reality.  Thank you, James Walter, Shawn
Thompson, Alex Desert... THE HEIGHTS band. Each one a unique and
individual talent. You are all stars and it serves you right.

Written by: Tom Zoerner (zoerner@uni-erlangen.de) 
