Drew Barrymore Starred In This Forgotten Joel Schumacher-Directed TV Drama

Although she started out as a film actress and has since continued her career as a daytime talk show host, Drew Barrymore has done precious little work on the small screen as an actress. For a brief period in the early 1990s, however, Barrymore was tempted into taking a shot at a TV drama produced by Aaron Spelling and directed by Joel Schumacher.

Debuting on CBS on August 23, 1992, "2000 Malibu Road" starred Barrymore, Jennifer Beals, Brian Bloom, Scott Bryce, Lisa Hartman, Tuesday Knight, and Michael T. Weiss. Its premise was one rife with potential drama, featuring four women sharing a beach home: Jade (Hartman), a sex worker who's trying to get out of the business; Perry (Beals), an attorney grieving the death of her fiancé; Lindsay (Barrymore), an aspiring actress; and Joy (Knight), Lindsay's manipulative sister.

"The way women's dialogue is written by men is often pathetic!" Barrymore told Interview magazine at the time. "They make us say things we would never say. But men are getting a better understanding of women. I like transitions, and my character in the show starts scared and then becomes very strong; women aren't usually written that way. ... A lot of the respect I have for my character in '2000 Malibu Road' is because she doesn't take s*** and she speaks her mind, which is very much like me."

When Joel Shumacher took on the task of directing "2000 Malibu Road," it was the first time he'd done TV since 1979, when he wrote and directed the TV movie "Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill," an ensemble dramedy starring Dennis Quaid, Don Johnson, Candy Clark, Jamie Farr, Ed Begley, Jr., Jeff Altman, and future "Real Housewife" Kyle Richards. From there, he went straight to the silver screen, and in short order he was an in-demand director, thanks to a string of credits that included "D.C. Cab," "St. Elmo's Fire," "The Lost Boys," "Flatliners," and "Dying Young," among others.

Shumacher, who had known Drew Barrymore since she was in her early teens, clearly had enough sway to talk her into giving "2000 Malibu Road" a chance, and based on her remarks about the series, she was impressed with the material. Alas, just because it starred Barrymore wasn't enough to secure a long life for the show — it came and went after six episodes. The reasons for its departure remain murky. Aaron Spelling blamed the situation on CBS and the series' production companies being unable to decide who owned what, but both Lisa Hartman and Jennifer Beals have suggested that the bigger problem was that CBS had positioned the series against another Spelling production, "Melrose Place," starring Heather Locklear.

Whatever the ultimate reason for its departure, the six episodes of "2000 Malibu Road" were burned off by CBS before the 1992-93 TV season had even begun. While the series would've had a chance at renewal had it been successful, it lost a quarter of its audience after its premiere, sealing its fate and leaving it as a mere footnote in its stars' filmographies. "2000 Malibu Road" is not currently streaming.