Beverly Hills, 90210 Discussion Thread

[Khan]

Random thought: in the beginning, I suspect Aaron Spelling was somewhat hands-off with "90210," because this kind of series -- one centered around the day-to-day lives of teenagers (albeit, teenagers living in Beverly Hills) -- was foreign territory to a producer whose only other younger-skewing show up to that point had been "The Mod Squad" back in the '60's.

However, once "90210" took off, and Spelling's personal fortunes had reversed (after the industry had already written him off as a relic and a has-been), he began asserting more and more creative control, interfering with Darren Star's original vision for the show, and causing the show's quality to decline in the process.

Again, just a random thought.  Make of it what you will.

[Chris 2]

It was interesting that during the show’s first five seasons, Spelling and his producing partner Duke Vincent were not credited as Executive Producers. I can’t remember that happening on other Spelling shows. Once Chuck Rosin left, Spelling and Vincent were credited as EPs after the final scene, following whoever the showrunner du jour was.

[FrenchBug82]

My personal interpretation is not that it declined in quality - coz it never was a good show on the merits - but it lost the connection with its teenage audience and the zeitgeist it had captured.
Question is how much was AS's involvement, cast changes and how much was just as the characters got older, it was always going to be hard to adapt the concept of the show in a way that stayed compelling. And - that one may be more my personal reaction - the moralizing corniness that was fine with teenagers became really uncomfortable playing out with young adults.

[Khan]

Good point(s).

[Chris 2]

Has there ever been a high school show that handled the aging of its core characters well? Maybe Friday Night Lights, although even on that show the new characters were never as compelling as the original crew.

[te.]

I remember one of the early reviews of Melrose Place pointing this out - how it was okay for 16-year-old Brandon to learn about racism, but became down-right stupid to have 23-year-old Billy Campbell learn that racism bad. Melrose of course realised this - for whatever reason 90210 just didn't want to drop social issues storylines despite the fact that they were never that good at them at their peak and literally no one watched the show for them, much less in the waning years.

[Chris B]

I was having so much fun watching those first four seasons, but now that I'm in season 6 it's more of a challenge. It's like a completely different show now, very Melrose Place, which I don't mind, but the quality isn't there. The casting of all the new characters is good, but the writing is weak. Right now they've brought Emma Caufield on as an Andrea 2.0 basically repeating the storyline that Andrea and Brandon had in the early years. This is yet another example they could've just kept Andrea. I'll also say, they are fools for making Ray a woman beater, because the actor is good and actually has good chemistry with Tori Spelling.

I find that as time goes on, the most interesting things (other than Valerie) are the side stories. I love the comedy we get from Steve and Clare and it's always nice when we get a scene of the girls or the boys together. Basically, whatever character moments slip through because the storylines (especially this season) aren't really hitting.

[Vee]

I think they wanted Emma to stick around, but she refused. I loved Susan Keats.

S6 is the last season I took seriously. It got pretty trashy but I enjoyed a lot of it. Apparently the Ray story got away from them.

[FrenchBug82]

I am interested in that. What do you mean by that?

[te.]

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WHERE'S THE COKE KELLY?

[Chris B]

There's interviews posted a couple pages back with some of the writers and Ray was meant to stay long term and be redeemed. Aaron Spelling thought that it made Tori look dumb to stay with an abuser and forced them to write him off. I hate they ever went with the abuse angle. Especially with Dylan leaving, he would've been a good character to have around to fit that brooding thing that Luke brought to the show. Another story he ended was when they were going to pair Cress Williams character with Donna. He didn't want his daughter to have a Black boyfriend, so the character was written off.

[FrenchBug82]

Oh that's what is was about.
I thought Vee was referring to some extra goss

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Wasn't that Ray actor dating TS too?

[carolineg]

I don't believe Jamie Walters and Tori Spelling ever dated.  He was the lead on the very brief Spelling show "The Heights" and made his way over to 90210 shortly after it was cancelled.  I don't think JW was destined for a long, famous music and TV career, but it had to hurt his career significantly.

I think Ray could have been redeemed without making Donna look dumb.  She didn't have to go back to him.  He could have existed outside of that relationship.  It was clear they were angling something long term with Ray because JW appeared in the credits for so long and barely appeared on screen after the abuse story.

[Khan]

Agree.

[Soaplovers]

I always thought Donna going back to David made her look dumb.

I remember season 1 was all social issues of the week.  However, I loved the slumber party episode.  Good character developing..and accidental foreshadowing of Kelly/Brenda/Dylan