Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward

In residence: January 27, 1993-May 24, 1999

Character description: "Melrose Place" was sagging in the ratings during its first season. Aaron Spelling called upon Heather to give the show the boost it needed, and did she ever! Thanks to her, "Melrose Place" became a cult hit. Heather was introduced in episode 21, titled "Picture Imperfect", as Amanda Woodward, Alison's new boss at D&D Advertising. Instantly she caught the eye of Billy and the two dated. Billy left Melrose Place to move in with her but the two broke up because of her father and irreconcilable differences. When Billy and Alison got together in May of 1993, Amanda dropped the bomb that she was pregnant with Billy's child but had a miscarriage. She bought the Melrose Place building when it was put up for sale and wormed her way into everybody's else's lives.

Billy dumped her for good in September of 1993 and she started going after Jake. The two got together after Amanda accidentally set Jake's bike shop on fire, which caused the breakup of Jake and Jo. Amanda's father, Palmer Woodward, gave Jake a job at his car dealership, but he had to turn in Palmer to the F.B.I. when they found out he had been scamming customers. Amanda gave him the boot and had a one night stand with Billy when he had been having problems with Alison. Soon afterwards, Jake and Amanda got back together after her father confessed to the F.B.I., and Billy and Alison did the same. When Billy proposed to Alison in February of 1994, Amanda blabbed the secret of their one night stand, which almost broke up their engagement. In April of 1994, Amanda hired a handyman named Ted in the apartment complex who spied on her through a secret peephole. Amanda and Jo caught the eye and she gave him a scare by threatening to blind him. Later, Amanda saw Jo on the beach photographing Sarah Owens from Models Inc., an agency that Amanda refuses to do business with. When her boss at D&D found out she had boycotted Models Inc., Amanda was ordered to publicly apologize to the CEO of Models Inc., who Amanda knew was her mother, who walked out on her years ago. Amanda's mother, Hillary, tried to worm her way back into Amanda's life, but Amanda refused to open up. Chas Russell, Hillary's young fiance, mediated their feud and eventually made a pass at Amanda, witnessed by Alison. Word accidentally got back to Jake, who dumped Amanda, who fired Chas, who filed a $10 million sexual harassment suit against D&D. Amanda won the suit, and pushed her mother and Chas out of her life for good, leaving her no choice but to leave to "Models Inc.," a failed "Melrose" spinoff.

In September of 1994, Amanda's father returned to Melrose, having escaped from jail. He tricked Amanda into signing over her life savings to him and used Jake to escape the country, but died in the act. Amanda soon after hooked up with Dr. Peter Burns, the new chief-of-staff at Wilshire Memorial. The two of them bought up stock in D&D and took it over, forcing the president to committ suicide. Peter brought his old secretary, Caitlin Mills, into the efficiency expert position at D&D, and tried to force Amanda out and Caitlin in as president by having Amanda fail a mandatory drug test. When this didn't work, Peter attempted to murder Amanda in the operating room, but Michael saved the day. Peter was sent to jail, and Caitlin was booted from D&D. However, after this entire incident, Amanda became gravely ill. Michael diagnosed her with cancer and attempted to treat her. He was successful, but when Amanda felt he was overstepping his boundaries, Kimberly seized this opportunity to get revenge with Michael and started stalking Amanda but making her think it was Michael. Michael was sent to jail but bailed out by the now free Peter Burns. Amanda, along with the rest of the complex, survived Kimberly's explosion.

Brooke Armstrong, a new junior ad exec, was demoted to file clerk by Amanda. For revenge, Brooke started snooping in Amanda's files and found information on her ex-husband, Jack Parezi, who Amanda has escaped long ago by faking her death. Brooke told Jack that Amanda was still alive and he came to L.A. At first, he had Amanda convinced he was settling down with his fiancee and divorcing Amanda. Amanda learned Jack's fiancee didn't exist, and he attacked her. Defending herself, Amanda accidentally caused Jack to fall from the second floor of his house. Jack died, and Amanda and Peter covered the incident. Bobby Parezi, Jack's brother and Amanda's ex, came to town to kill Amanda, but ended up winning her back instead, much to Peter's dismay. Peter and Bobby's lawyer, Alycia Barnett, set up Bobby and framed him for bribery. Bobby lost his cable company due to this and Amanda dumped him, then used Billy to get her D&D contract renewed before getting back together with Peter, until she learned the truth about the cable company. Bobby was murdered accidentally by Alycia and Peter was framed. To keep from testifying against him, Amanda married him.

When Peter was getting to trial, Taylor McBride, his dead wife's sister, came to L.A., disguising her identity from Amanda. She came in the way of their marriage, and eventually broke it up. Amanda was having other problems at D&D due to Arthur Field's son, Craig. Craig was revealed as the controlling stockholder in D&D and lost the presidency to Craig. She tricked him into signing a contract that allotted her half the D&D share, and took her office back. Amanda and Peter almost fell back together, but Craig Field ruined that attempt, and Peter started fooling around with Taylor. Amanda found out everything, including Taylor's past with Peter and their affair. She divorced him, as did Kyle to Taylor, and Amanda and Kyle got together in the fifth season finale.

Amanda, however, had lost D&D to Craig and Sydney's takeover and had to call upon her ex-business associate, Eric Baines, to finance her new agency. But there was a catch when the business was going: she had to spend one night with him. Amanda refused, and Eric started buying up interest in all Amanda's property. Amanda then gave in, Kyle broke the thing up, and almost dumped Amanda. Kyle came back to Amanda, who was injured in a helicopter crash. He proposed to Amanda, and Taylor, wanting Kyle back, paid a lookalike of his ex-army buddy, Christine, to seduce Kyle away from Amanda. "Christine" died in the process, and Taylor and Kyle's other ex-buddy, Nick, made it look like "Christine"'s death was a suicide caused by Amanda. Amanda, haunted by memories of this incident, rejected Kyle, and hooked up with Lexi's old friend, Rory Blake. Amanda and Rory started fooling around and she traveled to the Dominican Republic with Rory to divorce Kyle and marry Rory, who was only interested in Amanda's money. Rory tried to kill her in the Dominican until Kyle saved her after he found out that Taylor and Nick were the ones who accidentally killed "Christine." Amanda and Kyle returned to Los Angeles and Peter tried to get Amanda back by arranging a phony kidnapping and attempting to make himself look like her rescuer. Amanda was grateful to him and declared she still had feelings for him, something that was hard for Kyle to deal with.

In the 7th season opener, she inherited Matt's journal full of secrets about the Melrosians, including one about herself. To keep this a secret, she tore out the page, and Kyle questioned its whereabouts until she got him off the trail. When a singer named Eve Cleary showed up at Upstairs later, we learned that the secret had something to do with Amanda and Eve. Peter and Eve married and before the wedding, the secret came out: Amanda and Eve were cheerleaders in high school together and Eve was jailed for murdering her boyfriend, Kent Demarr, in Amanda's defense. Amanda had been making trips to San Francisco every now and then to check up on Eve. Amanda then decided she wanted to have a baby with Kyle, who found out he was sterile and declined to tell her. He chose instead to drink all the time, which concerned Amanda. She later found out he went to New York without telling her to find new bands for Upstairs. She followed Kyle out there and thought he had cheated on her so she gave him the boot. They reconciled later when she needed him after being rejected by Eve for Kyle spilling their secret. Kyle couldn't survive his drug problem so Amanda sent him to rehab with Peter's help. But Eve got the impression that Amanda and Peter were having an affair, and moreso thought that when she learned Amanda is pregnant. Eve found Kyle in rehab and she told him what she had overheard and Kyle attacked Peter, which ended up giving Amanda a concussion. Amanda survived but the baby died in the fall. Peter uncovered the truth about Kyle's sterility, that there was a mix-up at the lab and the baby was his. Amanda and Kyle reconciled again, which is more than can be said for her and Eve, but Amanda finally forgave her by coming to her defense when her parole was in jeopardy. Amanda and Kyle then decided they wanted to build their dreamhouse so she put Melrose Place up for sale to get the money to do so. Seeing that her agency was starting to sink, she devoted herself full time to work and saving it. Amanda was called upon by a stranger named Sam who bought the apartment building. She was ready to introduce the residents to the new landlord when Lexi appeared and said she used Sam as a front to buy the building from under her. Lexi announced she was moving into Amanda and Kyle's apartment, so she evicted the two of them. Amanda and Kyle stayed with Jane at her beachhouse and Amanda continued to devote herself full time to work. She started to woo Tony Marlin, a rich and powerful owner of cruise lines and casinos. Tony wanted her to shoot an original commercial on his cruise ship, so she calculated her budget to do so and found she needed to lay off half her staff to afford it. Fearing Jane and Kyle were getting too close, Amanda laid her off. Amanda and Kyle broke up because it was obvious to him that Amanda cared too much about business and not enough about him. Amanda moved out of the beachhouse and into Tony's townhouse and then tried to sell Eve as the star in Tony's commercial. On the cruise ship, Amanda started spending an unusual amount of time around Peter because Tony ordered her to keep Peter away from Eve for the day. Amanda and Peter ended up taking a tour of an island and missing the launch back to the cruise ship. They had to share a hotel for the night and attended the wedding for an island native's daughter the following night. Amanda seduced Peter and they made love after the wedding. Peter flew back to L.A., fearing Eve would find out. Tony lied to Eve and told her that Amanda set it up so she and Peter would miss the launch. Eve lashed out at Amanda and ended their friendship. Peter and Eve patched things up back in L.A. but Amanda then declared how much she still loved Peter. Peter took her back and ended his marriage with Eve. Amanda screened the commercial that was filmed on the cruise ship, only to discover it was ruined by Lexi Sterling. Amanda was forced to close her agency after losing Tony as a client. To cope with losing Peter, Eve underwent therapy from Dr. Louis Visconti and she started remembering that Amanda was responsible for the murder of Kent Demarr and brainwashed Eve into believing that she murdered Kent. Before Eve and Lexi could go to the police, Eve knocked out Lexi and plotted to kill Peter and Amanda. Amanda confessed to Peter that she was responsible for Kent's murder, but it was self-defense. At the same time, Dr. Shulman discovered that funds were embezzled from the hospital children's charity, and blamed Peter for this misdeed, even though Michael was responsible. Fearing they would be jailed, Peter and Amanda plotted to leave the country. A hit-an-run driver, which Amanda identified as Lexi (actually Eve dressed in Lexi's clothes), tried to kill them by running them over. Amanda reported this to the police and Lexi was arrested. Lexi told the police everything about Kent Demarr's murder and Amanda confessed. Dr. Visconti gave Peter and Amanda the keys to his cabin and the police tracked down the duo to this point. Before Michael could go inside to talk sense into them, the cabin exploded. Peter and Amanda were pronounced dead after the police discovered their cadavers. A funeral was held for the two, and afterwards, Kyle received a locket in the mail that Amanda promised to give him if his and Jane's baby is a girl, which they only discovered one hour prior to that time. Amanda and Peter had fled to a Caribbean Island and remarried. They had paid Michael one million dollars to keep their secret and Peter left him the chief-of-staff position. To throw off the police, they planted cadavers in the cabin and switched dental records. The couple vowed to pass the time by staying together and making children, naming them after the Melrosians, except Kimberly.