Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: July 15, 1973
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Brian Austin Green began his storied career on Beverly Hills, 90210 at the tender age of 17 — and a tiny, pipsqueaky 17 at that — which means that on some level, in the public imagination he is always going to be that squeaky-voiced geek who wasn’t cool enough to hang around with Brandon and Brenda and Kelly and Steve. Of course, as with all high-school shows, the cast gets older, octaves drop, facial hair is or is not attempted; people change. And rather than follow the Saved by the Bell route, which kept Screech decidedly geeky well past the point where it served any function, David Silver got to shed his dorky labels. Which, ironically, freed him up to be a REAL dork.
The kind of dork who pursues a keyboard based pop music career.
The kind of dork who wears backwards kangol hats pretty much every day during freshman year at college.
The kind of dork who gets hooked on “meth,” even as the TV show chooses to present “meth”— or, fine, “speed” —as a kind of orange-juice-based designer drug.
Somehow, Brian Austin Green made it through the wilderness, and now there’s a very real argument to be made that he is the most relevant 90210 alum in 2016. He’s still working fairly regularly. His marriage to Megan Fox keeps his name afloat. He’s still keeping it tight at 43. Tip of the cap, birthday-boy Brian Austin Green. You survived your awkward stage in front of America and lived to tell the tale.
