When the Melrose Place cast got word of the show's demise, they didn't overreact. "We're not going to kill ourselves over this," promises Jack Wagner, who has played the scheming-but-sexy Dr. Peter Burns for five of Melrose's seven sudsy seasons. Cancellation "is the way of this business. We've all been through this before."
     And after all that bedhopping, blackmailing and backstabbing, Wagner, 39, could use the rest. "The whole show is kind of crazy," he laughs. "When I was chief of staff at the hospital, I was 34. I was like, shouldn't I be 64? And didn't I just try to kill Heather [Locklear], and now she's my wife?"
     Wagner, who first started making soap-opera fans swoon back in 1983 as General Hospital hunk Frisco, calls Melrose's end, "in a way, a sigh of relief. In soap operas, you're constantly struggling to find new spins on the same theme. The last year has been difficult."
     After Melrose's May 24 series finale, the avid golfer is looking forward to the links (he has a zero handicap) and spending time at home in L.A. with wife Kristina and their two sons. As for acting post-Melrose, Wagner, who has no work lined up, jokes, "I'm going to let my career go down the drain!"
- Ulrica Wihlborg