Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210
Season 2 Title Card
Format	Teen drama/Soap opera
Created by	Darren Star
Starring	see Cast
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	10
No. of episodes	296 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	44 minutes (60 including commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX
Original run	October 4, 1990 – May 17, 2000
Chronology
Followed by	90210
Related shows	Melrose Place Models Inc.
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Beverly Hills, 90210 is a prime time television drama series that aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on FOX in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise. The show followed the lives of a group of teenagers living in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California and attending the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School and, subsequently, the fictitious California University after graduation. The show was created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling and Spelling Television. The "90210" in the title refers to one of the city's postal ZIP codes.

The original premise of the show was based on the adjustment and culture shock that twins Brandon (played by Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (played by Shannen Doherty) experienced when they and their parents, Jim and Cindy moved from Minnesota to Beverly Hills. In addition to chronicling the friendships and romantic relationships of a group of close-knit teenagers, the show also addressed numerous topical issues including date rape, alcoholism, domestic violence, gay rights, drug abuse, teenage suicide, AIDS, teenage pregnancy, and abortion.

The series gained popularity during the summer of 1991, when FOX aired a special "summer season" of the show while most other series were in reruns. The series became one of FOX's top shows when it began its next season that fall. Viewership increased dramatically and the cast members, particularly Jason Priestley and Luke Perry, became teen idols, while the series would make actresses Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling household names.

Cast

Main article: Characters of Beverly Hills, 90210

Departures

The show's later years were known for frequent casting changes:

Shannen Doherty

Following reported on-set friction, Shannen Doherty left the show at the end of the fourth season. Doherty's character, Brenda Walsh, was written off the show at the end of season 4 as moving to London to attend school at the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts. While the character's absence was originally described as only being for a year, she never actually returned, despite being mentioned from time to time during the show's remaining seasons. She was replaced with former Saved by the Bell star Tiffani Thiessen, who played bad girl character Valerie. Shannen Doherty has begun appearing as Brenda Walsh in the new spin-off of the series, though the terms of her contract and the exact number of episodes she will appear in remains uncertain.

Luke Perry

Luke Perry left 90210 towards the beginning of the sixth season. Perry's send-off features his character, Dylan McKay, marrying Antonia Marchette (Rebecca Gayheart), the daughter of the mob boss (Stanley Kamel) who ordered his father's death during the third season. Before the marriage, Dylan attempted to use Antonia to get to her father, but falls in love with her instead. Her father, uncomfortable with the marriage, orders Dylan's death. The hired hitman inadvertently kills Antonia instead due to the fact that she is driving Dylan's car at the time of the planned hit, and is wearing a hooded raincoat, so the hitman cannot see whom he is shooting. Dylan leaves town heartbroken, after his father-in-law reluctantly agrees to a truce in the wake of his daughter's death. It is revealed later in the series that Dylan's father was not really murdered and that he had faked his death in order to enter the Witness Protection Program. Perry returned permanently during the ninth season of the show, but was now credited as a "Special Guest Star" -- much like Heather Locklear was on Melrose Place.

James Eckhouse and Carol Potter

Both actors left the show following the fifth season at the end of their original five year contracts. During the high school years of the show, Jim and Cindy Walsh played secondary roles, offering advice to Brenda and Brandon, along with their friends, but were rarely given plotlines of their own. They generally would spend most of their time reacting to various things that Brenda, Brandon and later Valerie did. As the show entered the college years, Jim and Cindy were moved even farther into the background as the show took on a much more soap operatic tone and the characters grew up, reducing their need for parental oversight. Following the fifth season, both characters left Beverly Hills for Hong Kong, making occasional guest appearances in the sixth, seventh and eighth seasons. Even though all the Walshes eventually left the show, the Walsh home continued to play a central role in the series. The show explained this by having Brandon tell Steve his parents had given the green light for Steve to keep living in the house.

Gabrielle Carteris

Gabrielle Carteris left the show following the fifth season. Her character, Andrea Zuckerman, changed radically during the transition from high school to college. In high school, Andrea was the brainy editor of the West Beverly Blaze, who had a crush on Brandon and secretly lived out of district. During the fourth season, the character's freshman year of college, Andrea drops journalism, becomes pregnant, and gets married to someone she barely knows (Jesse Vasquez) before the year is out. While the pregnancy plotline was written at Carteris' request, so as to incorporate her real life pregnancy, this was a major shift for the character, and also caused her to become somewhat isolated from the other characters on the show. Andrea Zuckerman eventually left the show during the end of the fifth season because she decided to finally go to Yale. After her original five-year contract ended, Carteris voluntarily left 90210 for her own self-titled talk show, which lasted only one season. Carteris returned to 90210 for guest appearances during the sixth, eighth, and tenth seasons.

Jason Priestley

Jason Priestley stopped acting on the show at the beginning of the ninth season. However, he remained credited as an executive producer for 90210 until the end of the series. In the show, Brandon is still recovering from his aborted wedding to Kelly, and is offered a job in Washington, D.C., which he accepts. Brandon was the last Walsh family member to leave Beverly Hills, and his only other appearance on the series following his departure is by video to Donna and David at the time of their wedding.

Tiffani Thiessen

Tiffani Thiessen (credited as Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, late of Saved By the Bell) replaced Shannen Doherty after her departure following the fourth season. Thiessen portrayed Valerie Malone, an old Walsh family friend from Buffalo, New York who moves into Brenda's old room. While Valerie is meant as a replacement for Brenda, the characters are very different, and Valerie has a rocky relationship with most of the gang during her time on the show. Valerie leaves Beverly Hills soon after Brandon, saying that she is going to return home to Buffalo. Thiessen returned to the show for the series finale for Donna and David's wedding

Broadcast

Beverly Hills, 90210 originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on FOX in the United States; NBC Daytime and SoapNet showed repeats. Various networks around the world subsequently aired Beverly Hills, 90210. In the United Kingdom, ITV showed the first two seasons until the satellite channel Sky1 acquired the rights for the rest of its run from Seasons 3-9; Season 10 was never shown. Five later acquired the repeat rights of Seasons 1-4 . Australia aired the show on Network Ten, FOX8 and their now ceased Fox Kids. In Canada, the show was aired on Global. It was also shown on TVA (in French), and aired in syndication on TVtropolis. It is shown in Denmark on TV2. In Spain, the show was aired on Tele 5 from 1991 to 2005.

In Malaysia the series is now airing thru 8TV beginning Jun 14 onwards every Saturdays, 11:45pm

Cancellation

When Beverly Hills, 90210 began, the show was heavily issue-oriented with Brenda and Brandon facing a different teen issue nearly every week in largely self-contained episodes. As the show progressed, it became more character-driven with the characters entering into various love triangles, while dealing with general adult issues.

Ratings for the tenth season declined to an average of 10 million viewers per episode (according to the May 2000 issue of Us Weekly). The ratings were small compared to previous seasons. The lower ratings, along with the high costs associated with any television show in its later seasons led Fox to cancel the series in January 2000. The final episode aired in May 2000. However, even with all the cast changes, the series finale of the show attracted a large amount of viewership.

Spin-offs

Melrose Place

Main article: Melrose Place

The series Melrose Place was a spin-off from the show, as actor Grant Show (who played Jake on Melrose Place) appeared for a multi-episode run as Kelly's love interest, and a friend of Dylan's. Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering made appearances as their Beverly Hills, 90210 characters in the first few episodes of Melrose Place.

Models Inc

Main article: Models Inc.

Models Inc., a series about the personal and professional struggles of several young models, spun-off from Melrose Place. The series was introduced via the characters Hillary Michaels, the mother of Melrose Place's Amanda Woodward, and model Sarah Owens—both of whom had appeared in a multi-episode run on the former show.

2008 Spin-Off 90210

Main article: 90210 (TV series)

A third spin-off from the show is currently airing, which focuses on a family from Kansas who move to Beverly Hills when their grandmother suffers from alcohol addiction. It aired on the CW Network on September 2, 2008.

Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty reprised their roles as guidance counselor Kelly Taylor and actress Brenda Walsh. During the fourth episode of the season entitled, "The Bubble," Brenda reveals to the audience in a rather heated conversation with Kelly, that the father of Kelly's son is none other than Dylan McKay.

Parodies

The Rap duo, Insane Clown Posse, released an EP titled Beverly Kills 50187, whose title is similar to the show's title.

Star later produced a series Grosse Pointe, which satirized the production of a high-school soap opera being filmed in Los Angeles. The show was clearly a 90210-style show.

The short-lived The Ben Stiller Show did a parody of this show, The Heights and Melrose Place called Melrose Heights 90210-2420 that portrayed the cast as superficial, self-absorbed, and self-pitying. A typical episode's "issue" was a character getting a headache, which affected all the other characters. Each episode would end the same upbeat song (resembling The Heights hit single "How Do You Talk To An Angel") performed by the whole cast with new lyrics for each episode.

Another aspect of the show that was the subject of parody was the fact that a number of the show's cast members were in their mid-to-late 20s and not teenagers. In particular, Luke Perry and Gabrielle Carteris were singled out for most of the criticism regarding being too old to play teenage characters. Carteris was 29 during filming of the first season, Perry was 23, Jason Priestley turned 21 prior to the show's premiere, and Ian Ziering was 26. Brian Austin Green (then 17), Shannen Doherty (19), Tori Spelling (17) and Jennie Garth (18) were the only cast members to have started the show as teenagers who grow older later on in the show.

Saturday Night Live did their own parody of the show when Jason Priestley hosted in 1992. In the episode, it is announced that the zip code 90210 would be changed to 90218. Several of the kids took offense to it and reacted in different ways (Kelly and Donna go shopping, Dylan gets drunk, Brandon keeps taking everyone's keys and putting them in a lock box feeling they are not able to drive, etc.). In the end, the zip code reverts back to 90210 after protest.

The short-lived Fox Television sketch show The Edge did a parody of 90210 that mocked Tori Spelling. During the sketch, the character of Tori constantly says, "I can do whatever I want because this is my Daddy's show." Aaron Spelling took offense to this, and asked for an apology from the producers of the show (he never got one).

The Mickey Mouse Club did a parody sketch called Beverly Hillbillies 90210, combining the characters of both 90210 & The Beverly Hillbillies. In 1999, Christina Aguilera from the Mickey Mouse Club made a cameo performance on Beverly Hills 90210 as herself performing at the PPAD for David Silver's surprise birthday party, season 10 episode 2: Let's Eat Cake. Music from former MMC members Justin and JC of N Sync also was originally used during several opening title sequences during the mid to late seasons of 90210.

MADtv made its own parodies of the show as Beverly Hills, 90210 B.C. set in prehistoric Beverly Hills. When Luke Perry made his high profile return to the series, MADtv did a second parody entitled Beverly Hills 9021-H20 which had the characters being stalked and killed off by Luke Perry, who had rejoined the cast as a masked killer who was a parody of Michael Myers of the Halloween film series.

Czech TV Nova parody show Tele Tele made parody of the show known as "Heverly Debils". Three mini-episodes (about 10 minutes each) were filmed.

GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan released a song called "Killah Hills 10304", an ironic reference to the show's title in a song about crime and a rough neighborhood.

Ratings

• Season 1 (1990 - 1991) - #35 - 14.2
• Season 2 (1991 - 1992) - #25 - 17.6
• Season 3 (1992 - 1993) - #15 - 18.3
• Season 4 (1993 - 1994) - #12 - 21.1
• Season 5 (1994 - 1995) - #31 - 14.6
• Season 6 (1995 - 1996) - #46 - 12.9
• Season 7 (1996 - 1997) - #48 - 11.5
• Season 8 (1997 - 1998) - #58 - 10.4
• Season 9 (1998 - 1999) - #75 - 9.7 million^[1]
• Season 10 (1999 - 2000)- #75 - 8.3 million^[2]

Awards and nominations

Episodes

Main article: List of Beverly Hills, 90210 episodes

Influences on popular culture

• The punk rock band Relient K refers to 90210 in their song "Hoopes, I Did It Again."
• The Canadian rock band Boys Night Out named one of their songs from their 2003 full-length debut release Make Yourself Sick "It's Dylan, You Know the Drill" after the message on Dylan's answering machine.
• Switchfoot refer to "the 90210" in their song "Poparazzi" from the album Learning to Breathe.
• Post-Hardcore band From Autumn To Ashes has a song entitled Kansas City 90210
• Hard rock band Wednesday 13 refer to 90210 in the title of their album Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death Dying and the Dead.
• The cast's ages, generally older than their characters' ages, have been a source of ridicule. On Family Guy, when Peter must go without TV for weeks, he constructs a TV out of a box he can look out of and goes to his daughter's high school, thinking it's West Beverly. Seeing Meg Griffin there, he mentions that the producers must be desperate to keep getting guest stars for the 10th season. (This episode aired during 90210's final season). During Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Stewie Griffin mentions the old kid on 90210, and it cuts to a scene of the cast with an elderly, possibly senile old woman named Andrea.
• In American Dad!, Roger the Alien entertains his Arab husband with tales of "the Land of West Beverly, where all the teenagers are in their 30s."
• In an episode of Nickelodeon's Doug, upon watching an episode of Teen Heart Street, a 90210 parody, all of Doug's friends start wearing his casual attire, which is referred to as the "Dylan Farhnam look," which was a take on Brandon Walsh and Dylan McKay.
• The show is referenced briefly by name in a song in A Goofy Movie, created by Disney.
• The show name is also mentioned in the Salt-N-Pepa Song "It's None of Your Business."
• In an episode of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air from 1993, where Will and Carlton attempt to join a college fraternity, there is a scene where the pledge leader asks Carlton where he is from and he mentions Bel-Air, right across the street from the producer of 90210. The pledge leader mentions that he doesn't watch it, and then Carlton mentions that he doesn't know what he's missing, as that Dylan is on the verge of getting back with Brenda. Will then tells him to knock it off, as they're in enough trouble as it is, then quickly asks if its true or not.
• Bill Simmons, in one of his articles in Page 2 on ESPN.com in 2001, characterized the arrival of Tiffani Thiessen to the show, as the greatest upgrade in TV history.^[3]
• In the Pearl Jam music video for Jeremy, 90210 appears as text as a part of the collage effect of the video.
• In 1994, DC Comics had each annual special published as an Elseworlds story. In the L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #5, written by Tom Peyer, one of the stories in the annual was a parody of 90210 called L.E.G.I.O.N., 90210, which had the cast of L.E.G.I.O.N. filling the roles of 90210.
• In My Name Is Earl, the episode airing on October 25, 2007, references 90210: One character describes the afterlife as a place where everyone hangs out and drinks beer, and the other character asks "Like the Peach Pit After Dark?" to an affirmative response. The line about the PPAD was stated by Alyssa Milano, who had major roles in two of Aaron Spelling's shows: Melrose Place and Charmed
• In Camp Nowhere, a scene is set up so that it appears the kids are trying to build a fire. Random discouraged comments are heard throughout, and one kid points out that it's almost 8 o'clock. After they "get it started," everyone backs away to reveal a TV playing the opening to 90210. You can then hear one girl say, "If I don't see Dylan, I die!"
• In an episode of the show Greek, during a protest outside school administration regarding restrictions placed on fraternities and sororities, one of the characters chants "Donna Martin graduates" causing all other protestors to momentarily stop chanting. This chant is a reference to the episode when Donna Martin challenges her suspension from high school after consuming alcohol at the senior prom, where the entire junior and senior class protested in support of Donna's graduation with the rest of her class.
• In the season 4 episode "The Perfect Date" of What I Like About You, Charlie (played by Jason Priestley) mistakes Val (played by Jennie Garth) for being someone he knew when he was younger, as he asks her if they went to high school together (a nod to Jennie Garth playing Kelly Taylor). When Val replies that she didn't think so, Charlie asks her if she remembered that he was the editor of the school paper.
• In the season 3 episode "Dangerous Liaisons" of What I Like About You, Val (Jennie Garth) and Todd (Luke Perry) flashed back to high school, where Todd spoke of his girlfriend, Brenda, who was away in Paris. Val also mentions that Brenda was her best friend.
• In Episode 18 of Cowboy Bebop, Speak Like A Child, Spike and Jet visit a 20th Century Video Otaku, who is watching an episode of the show, specifically a scene with Brandon and Brenda. (Shannon Doherty and Jason Priestly are erroneously listed as Executive Producers for this episode.)
• In the 8th season of Full House, D.J. is torn between two boys she likes and has to choose one of them. Stephanie comes in and says, "this is better than 90210".
• In the 4th season of Gilmore Girls, Lorelai Gilmore's boyfriend Jason Stiles sends her flowers with a card that said "from Jason". Jason asks Lorelai if she got his flowers. She jokingly replies that she thought they were from Jason Priestley.

Trivia

• There was not a single character that appeared in all 296 episodes of the show, however, Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth are the cast members with the most appearances with 292 episodes followed by Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green both with 291. Kelly Taylor is the character who has appeared in most episodes, 303 in total, counting her Melrose Place and 90210 appearances. Steve Sanders, Donna Martin and David Silver, have appeared in a total of 294 episodes; including their recurring stints in Melrose Place.
• Beverly Hills High School is actually located in ZIP code 90212. There are three zip codes in Beverly Hills and the most affluent homes lie within the mostly residential 90210, where the High School does not. (Most of the 90210 zone is in fact in Los Angeles City despite the name.) However, the characters attended the completely fictitious West Beverly High School, which could have been located in any ZIP code. The filming location for West Beverly High School was in the middle class community of Torrance, California at Torrance High School located in the 90501 zip code. Torrance High can also be seen in other shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• The series was actually made in Van Nuys, California. For the 10 years the series was in production it was filmed in a warehouse complex in Van Nuys, the interiors of the series as well as the exteriors of the Peach Pit parking lot and P.P.A.D. club entrance were all located off the 15000 block of Calvert St in Van Nuys, CA. An unmarked gated studio entrance now stands at this address, but the exterior brick facing of the P.P.A.D. is still visible down the alley on the north side of the building. The studio building complex has since been the home to various projects including the CBS series Jericho, which guest starred James Eckhouse in one episode.
• The characters later began attending the then-fictitious California University in the show's fourth season, and the scenes around campus were actually filmed at Occidental College.
• Tentative titles for the show included Class of Beverly Hills (which would end up being the name of the first episode) and Potomac 20854, with Star's actual high school, Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Montgomery County, Maryland—a school with similar demographics to Beverly Hills High—as an inspiration.
• Luke Perry was not an original cast member of the show and he was first featured in the show's second episode. His character Dylan McKay was originally intended to only appear in one story arc, for one or two episodes. Fox was initially reluctant to have him included as a regular, but Aaron Spelling felt differently and paid Perry's salary himself during the first two years until the network was won over.
• Lyman Ward was originally cast as Jim Walsh and played him in the original pilot but his scenes were reshot with James Eckhouse at the original Walsh home.
• The main characters were juniors in high school during the first and second season, while David and Scott where freshman. The Fox Network specifically asked that the characters be kept in high school as long as possible.
• David Silver's character was a freshman in season one and a sophomore in season two, while the rest of the cast remain in the same grade as juniors for the first two seasons.
• In the first season, the Walshes hire a Hispanic maid named Ana. She is never seen in any other seasons nor is it mentioned what happens to her.
• While Kelly and Valerie were constant enemies in the show, Jennie Garth and Tiffani Thiessen are close friends.
• After the pilot episode, the Walsh house changes to a different building (which explains the odd scenery behind James Eckhouse in the re-shot pilot scenes... it matches the Walsh house used in the remaining ten seasons of the series, not the house used only in the pilot.) The building for "The Peach Pit" was also changed after a few episodes in season one.
• The role of Valerie Malone was given to Tiffani Thiessen after Alicia Silverstone had already turned it down.
• Aaron Spelling created the character of Gina Kincaid especially for Vanessa Marcil.
• The character Jim Walsh was ranked #41 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" (June 20, 2004 issue).
• Terence Ford and Arthur Brooks portrayed Dylan's father, Jack McKay, in two episodes before Josh Taylor assumed the role.
• In the first season, when Donna tries out for school D.J., she is referred to as Donna Morgan. Throughout the entire show, her name is Donna Martin. In addition to this, in the first season Donna's mother was named Nancy Martin and played by actress Jordana Capra. When she was reintroduced in Season 2 she was named Felice Martin and was played by actress Katherine Cannon.
• Brandon is thirty seconds older than Brenda.
• Torand Productions was a dba used by the production company for several seasons on 90210. Tor-Rand productions came from the first three letters of Aaron Spelling's first child, Tori and the first four letters of his second child, Randy's, name.
• Kristin Dattilo was up for the role of Brenda Walsh, but turned it down. She would later guest star as Melissa Coolidge in an episode (One Man and a Baby) of the first season.
• Entertainment Weekly named the show #20 on its list of top 100 tv shows in the past 25 years.^[4] The magazine also named the theme song #15 on its list of top 25 tv theme songs in the past 25 years^[5], and the "90210 Sideburns" #50 on its list of Pop Culture Moments that Rocked Fashion.^[6]

DVD releases

CBS Home Entertainment has released the show on DVD in Region 1. Due to music licensing most of the original music has been replaced,^[7] as well as (starting with Season 2) some episodes edited from their original broadcast versions. Deleted songs include "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover", "Losing My Religion" and "In The Mood".

For reasons that were never made clear, the first three season releases used promotional pictures from their succeeding seasons instead of the actual promotional pictures that were taken while the seasons aired. Due to the group pictures from the fourth season being used on the third season DVD and the absence of Shannen Doherty in later seasons, a collage of still photos was used on the fourth season DVD. As well, photos of Jamie Walters and Kathleen Robertson would appear on season 5 DVDs.

Individual Release

Season Sets

Soundtrack

• Beverly Hills 90210 (soundtrack)

References

External links

• Watch 90210 Online
• Beverly Hills, 90210 at TV.com
• Beverly Hills, 90210 at the Internet Movie Database
• SOAPnet 90210 Page
• CBS.com Classics Beverly Hills 90210 Page
• 90210pedia—a Wikia project
• 90210 Forum
• 90210locations.info