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Beverly Hills 90210
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Hollywood Mourns Shannen Doherty: Jason Priestley, Alyssa Milano And Jennie Garth React To 'Beverly Hills, 90210' Star's Death At 53
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R.I.P. Shannen Doherty: '90210' & 'Charmed' Actress Dead at 53
Devotees of Fox’s foundational teen TV drama Beverly Hills, 90210 are still spinning out at the news that the show is returning to the network, with six of its original stars, this summer. What they may not realize is that this iteration on the legendary franchise, unlike its late ’00s CW revival 90210, is not a drama: as THR‘s Lesley Goldberg puts it, the actors “will play heightened versions of themselves” shopping a Beverly Hills, 90210 revival. It’s like a hybrid of the Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry and Jerry tried to bring back Seinfeld and…well, So NoTORIous, the 2006 VH1 sitcom in which Tori Spelling played “herself”; Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler, who co-created NoTORIous, are showrunners on this new project as well.
As the co-host of the Again With This podcast, in which Sarah D. Bunting and I have been exhaustively recapping each episode of Beverly Hills, 90210‘s original ten-season run for almost four years (and as the co-author, with Sarah, of a forthcoming book about it), I was never not going to watch any new show under the 90210 umbrella. And considering that the show is not just available on streaming services but has aired continuously in syndication since its series finale almost 20 years ago, we are probably part of a huge potential audience for a 2019 take on the 90210 gangsters, even if Ian Ziering is not playing Steve Sanders but the veteran of numerous Sharknado attacks; and Tori Spelling, Donna Martin graduate, will surely joke self-deprecatingly about her relatively early exit as Unicorn on The Masked Singer. Are “heightened versions” of these personalities more compelling than the characters that launched their careers during the first President Bush’s only term in office? No one knows that yet, but I can tell you authoritatively that, given the standards for TV writing in the ’90s, those characters are probably not that compelling to anyone viewing them without the benefit of nostalgia.
Regardless, of course I am all in on the new series. But I do have questions.
They couldn't get Shannen Doherty?!
The revival has booked six of the nine then-teens in the original series’s opening credits cast: Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea); Jennie Garth (Kelly); Brian Austin Green (David); Jason Priestley (Brandon); and the aforementioned Spelling and Ziering. Douglas Emerson retired from acting after his character, dorky hanger-on Scott, accidentally and fatally shot himself in Season 2, so he…probably was never going to be back under any circumstances. Luke Perry (Dylan) might not have been able to commit to return, given his full-time job playing Archie’s father Fred on The CW’s Riverdale. (Also, as of this writing, Perry is hospitalized following a massive stroke he coincidentally suffered the day the revival news was announced.) And yes, we all remember that Shannen Doherty was fired from her role as Queen Bitch Brenda, but surely any beef had been squashed when she returned to play Brenda in The CW’s 90210? Not to mention Doherty is not that busy; though she had been cast on the Paramount Network’s Heathers TV series, it was not going to be taking up her time — or anyone else’s — anymore.
I know there are more BH90210 seasons without Brenda than there were with her. And I suspect that, given some of their remarks as advisors on a BH90210-inspired challenge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Spelling and Garth have mean-girl tendencies and might have boxed Doherty out of this opportunity for petty personal reasons. But how do you pitch “heightened” versions of this cast and leave out its most famously scandalous member?!
(All of this assumes that Doherty is healthy enough to participate. If not, a sincere “Get Well Soon!” to her!)
Where is 'Grosse Pointe'?
When the revival story dropped, historians of The WB network fondly recalled Grosse Pointe. Premiering mere months after Beverly Hills, 90210‘s series finale aired, Grosse Pointe was a sitcom set behind the scenes at a teen TV drama and came from Darren Star, who had also created Beverly Hills, 90210 with Tori’s father, the late and legendary king of primetime soaps, Aaron Spelling. Grosse Pointe‘s characters mapped pretty much exactly onto the main BH90210 cast, and Star was even able to call in favors for GP appearances from Joe E. Tata (Peach Pit owner Nat) and Priestley (Brandon). The show lasted only one season on The WB, and while it is very affordable on DVD, it’s not available on any streaming service. With the likely spike in interest due to the BH90210 revival, that may change; since CW Seed is home to many teen-targeted one-season wonders, here’s hoping a deal can be struck before BH90210 2019 lands this summer.
How much of this are we actually going to get?
Lesley Goldberg’s THR story quotes official materials that describe BH90210 2019 as “a six-episode limited event series.” But Big Little Lies was originally promoted as a limited event series, and now we’re all waiting for Meryl Streep to join its second season; The Handmaid’s Tale was a limited event series that will drop its third season this year. (Don’t even get me started on the three excruciating seasons of one-time limited event series Under The Dome — seriously, don’t, it was complete nonsense, I’m still mad, and I will tell you all about it.) By now, we all know most alleged “limited event series” are only limited by the size of their audience — so, no more or less than any other show. Why not let us decide whether or not it’s going to be an “event”?
For me, it will be: when Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered in 1991, I was exactly the same age as the teen characters. Now when I watch the first season, I’m a year older than Carol Potter, who played mother Cindy to Brandon and Brenda. Maybe I would have liked a remake in which I got to see where all my fictional peers ended up after I saw them last. But it might have shown newspaper journalist Brandon laid off; indie magazine publisher Steve out of business; apparel boutique owners Kelly and Donna priced out by rising rents and replaced by a Gap; and only Andrea and David thriving — the former as a doctor, and the latter as a men’s rights activist radio personality.
…so never mind. The version of this story in which Brian Austin Green can get a meeting with a TV executive might be an even bigger wish-fulfillment fantasy than the original series ever was.
Writer, editor, and snack enthusiast Tara Ariano is the co-founder of TelevisionWithoutPity.com and Fametracker.com (R.I.P.), as well as Previously.tv. She co-hosts the podcasts Extra Hot Great and Again With This (a compulsively detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Beverly Hills, 90210), and has contributed to New York, the New York Times magazine, Vulture, The Awl, and Slate, among many others. She lives in Austin.
