Chuck Rosin and Larry Molin and among others from the OG show do a weekly 90210 podcast via YouTube where they discuss episodes and characters. 

 

5 hours ago, te. said:

The intention with Ray was to redeem him by having him work with his anger issues. Of course this was a case of Daddy Spelling pulling the plug because he thought it made his precious daughter look like an idiot (like she needed help...) and he was promptly written out before they even got to that point.

Donna/Tori only would've looked like an idiot if she had gone back to Ray even after he had rehabilitated himself.  But, you know, in order for a redemption storyline like that to have worked, 90210 needed to be a show that could do that kind of story well.  Unfortunately, aside from maybe "Family," Aaron Spelling's shows were lightweight.  I could be wrong, but I fear that Ray's redemption arc just would have come across as the tritest thing ever, lol.

Moreover -- and this is just my personal opinion -- but I feel like it's difficult, if not impossible, for ANY series to redeem a character once that character has been written into that specific corner.  I mean, you can get away with a seemingly nice person gradually becoming unglued, but when he (or she!) starts assaulting other people (especially women)...?  The audience, I think, has a hard time forgiving OR forgetting. 

I think that's why soaps, in particular, typically resort to explaining away the abusive behavior as the result of a brain tumor or chemical imbalance.  (That is, when they don't just gloss over the matter entirely...hey, Luke, wassup?).  It's a lot easier for the writers to deal with the issue that way than to put in the years of work that it would take to redeem an otherwise irredeemable character with no guarantees that the audience will ever accept him/her as a protagonist again.

Oh, I agree. I don't think it would've somehow been well-written, especially as 90210 were moving into Melrose territory with fast-paced and bigger story arcs. I think it was probably better to just send Ray away, but Jamie Walters seemed to blame the show for effectively tanking his music career (though I don't really think his career trajectory would've been much different).

1 minute ago, te. said:

Jamie Walters seemed to blame the show for effectively tanking his music career (though I don't really think his career trajectory would've been much different).

Agree.  Many music artists came and went during that period.  He's just the only one who hit Donna Martin.

Chuck Rosin ran the show for the first five years, and his deputies Steve Wasserman and Jessica Klein took over for seasons 6-7, so there was at least some continuity. Season 8 was when they brought in the outsider, Michael Braverman of “Life Goes On,” to be the showrunner. The transition was jarring to say the least and he was fired halfway through the season.

I wonder why Rosin left. He never had another showrunner job that lasted more than a handful of episodes.

The Ray character never made sense to me. As Larry Mollin said, the show was supposed to be about ordinary kids living extraordinary lives. So why did they think we’d be interested in this bumpkin character? And who the hell was named Ray even back then?

Andrea should have been sent away for a semester overseas when Gabrielle became pregnant. Making Andrea a young mother and saddling her with Jesse just destroyed all story possibilities for her.

Braverman, that was it. And the Life Goes On credential explains why the show changed tonally (not that S7 was very good, but S8 was just dull). Why did I think Jason Priestley was partly involved in that in his new creative role? Or am I nuts?

ETA: Oh, I forgot, it's all in the Mollin interview. I first read these pieces years ago, I forget parts of them.

I always felt they chickened out on Brandon and Val hooking up at the end of Season 5 - IIRC it picks up some time later in S6 and says they burst out laughing midway through making out and never did anything with it again, after teasing them together for Val's entire first year on the show.

Edited February 8, 20223 yr by Vee

Season 8 felt like the gang were living in the Midwest instead of Los Angeles. 

Doing a Kelly-Brandon-Valerie triangle was the logical next step for the show. I thought it was a big missed opportunity that they didn’t go there, especially since Kelly and Valerie already disliked each other.

13 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

Doing a Kelly-Brandon-Valerie triangle was the logical next step for the show. I thought it was a big missed opportunity that they didn’t go there, especially since Kelly and Valerie already disliked each other.

I haven't watched that season in many years but I recall Brandon and Valerie's quasi-incestuous attraction to each other being a major throughline for that whole season, even during her fling with Dylan. And her closeness to Brandon was a key part of her rivalry with Kelly. Yet after that one cliffhanger it was never, IIRC, touched again.

Edited February 8, 20223 yr by Vee

I always wonder if the Val-Brandon-Kelly triangle was something Jason or Jennie didn't want to do.  I know Jason had a larger role behind the scenes and it just feels like a story both might object to and it's clear they had influence.  I am just speculating, but it was so quickly dropped when it always seemed like that's where the show was headed.

5 hours ago, carolineg said:

I always wonder if the Val-Brandon-Kelly triangle was something Jason or Jennie didn't want to do.  I know Jason had a larger role behind the scenes and it just feels like a story both might object to and it's clear they had influence.  I am just speculating, but it was so quickly dropped when it always seemed like that's where the show was headed.

It wouldn't surprise me at all. The story in the interviews about JP vetoing the Spice Girls appearing in favor of a corny 'roaring 20s' theme for his episode bc of the obnoxious big band revival trend of the year seems textbook to me. (Though I personally enjoyed The Cardigans, who appeared during that episode)

Why Kathleen Robertson chose to leave 90210. 

 

Thank you for posting both of those, I looked it up in the video the other day. It's pretty much as I suspected.

9 hours ago, Vee said:

It wouldn't surprise me at all. The story in the interviews about JP vetoing the Spice Girls appearing in favor of a corny 'roaring 20s' theme for his episode bc of the obnoxious big band revival trend of the year seems textbook to me. (Though I personally enjoyed The Cardigans, who appeared during that episode)

I am probably just projecting my annoyance of their characters and some backstage rumors, but I could imagine JP thinking Brandon was 'above' dating Val and JG objecting to Kelly being in that triangle lol.  

I can believe it, lol.