Global Courant
Before Sex and the City and long, long before Emily in Paris, showrunner Darren Star brought to the small screens one of the series that marked an entire generation in the nineties: Beverly Hills, 90210.
The show is about a group of young people who live in Beverly Hills -the crème de la crème of Los Angeles- and study together, first in high school and then in college.
Through episodes (296 of an average of 45 minutes spread over 10 seasons), Beverly Hills, 90210 explores with a youthful eye a melting pot of hot topics of its time, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide or early pregnancy.
The series has a total of 10 seasons.
Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty are the twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh, the protagonists; Jennie Garth as Kelly Taylor, Brenda’s and Donna’s best friend, a character played by Tori Spelling; the late Luke Perry is Dylan and Ian Ziering plays Steve, Brandon and Kelly’s best friend.
The series was broadcast in the United States by the FOX network from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000. Due to its unusual success, it would later be broadcast in many countries, including Argentina, where it could be seen on Channel 13 from 1992 to 1994.
So far, the basics.
The history of Beverly Hills, 90210 holds secrets. On Twitter, for example, there are those who warn that the program is cursed. So let’s review some of the curiosities about its origin and, why not, what is its dark legacy…
From top left: Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth, Gabrielle Carteris, Brian Austin Green, Ian Ziering, and Jason Priestley. Photo: AP
The creation
Darren Star was almost a teenager when he created Beverly Hills 9210. He had grown up in Potomac, Maryland (United States), in the nucleus of a middle-class family, and was based in Los Angeles, where he began his studies linked to the audiovisual industry.
In California he studied at Wyngate Elementary, where he wrote plays for his classmates; at Cabin John Junior High School organizing film series; and at Winston Churchill High School performing in school plays and musicals.
In 1979 he traveled south to study at the University of Southern California. There she perfected herself in the art of scriptwriting and began to shape his first big hit. Star wanted to use TV to tell true stories of adolescents and represent through them the reality of a generation.
In lands of opportunity, opportunity was not long in coming: Fox asked him to write a show about Beverly Hills.
Darren Star is the creator of Beverly Hills, 90210, but also of Sex and the City and Emily in Paris.
“Kids are universal and their problems are universal, and what we’re trying to do is a truthful, accessible show about high school,” he said at the time in an interview with the Washington Post.
His idea was for the series to focus specifically on the twins Brandon and Brenda and their relationship with their parents, Cindy and Jim (Carol Potter and James Eckhouse).
“The twins find themselves in the midst of a new set of peers who have more money, the latest designer clothes and expensive cars, and discover that the stakes have been raised considerably. The fast lane is faster, expectations are higher and the peer pressure is stronger. These Minnesota teens are being forced to reexamine their own identities and values in a radically different environment,” Star explained.
The first season was moderately successful.
But with the passage of time and the accumulation of seasons, the premise of the argument was distorted. From the middle of the first season, Beverly Hills, 90210 was covering other topics while discovering new relevant characters.
Initially, Fox gave the series a complicated schedule: Thursdays at 9 p.m. It was competing against the biggest TV show in America at the time, Cheers. Still, Darren was grateful because to this day he believes that no other network would have given him the opportunity to premiere.
“It’s very difficult to get pilots and series produced. Making television was something I wanted to do, but not as a staff writer. The difference between movies and television is that with television your material is produced quickly. It’s a great laboratory: you can see things a week later,” the showrunner said.
The first season of Beverly Hills, 90210 did not go well. The rest yes. Its audience number was increasing until the sixth season, where the average rating began to decrease until the end of the story.
Curiosities of the series
As in any great production (much more one that lasts ten years on the screen), behind Beverly Hills, 90210 there is a story full of resentments, passions and… tragedies.
As for the cast, it can be mentioned that Perry was not going to be considered in an important role. Fox didn’t want it, but Aaron Spelling, producer and Tori’s father, did. So, in this case, the latter won the fight.
The actress who made the best career after her participation in the series is Hilary Swank, who appeared in less than 20 episodes. Her abrupt departure allowed him to land a role in Boys Don’t Cry and in 2000 win her first Oscar. Five years later she would get the same award for her performance in Million Dollar Baby.
Hilary Swank was in a handful of episodes.
One of the reasons the story of Beverly Hills, 90210 took a turn in the middle of the first season is the Gulf War. Because? Because the first of its episodes dedicated to the friends of the main couple was broadcast in February 1991, the date on which all the channels had suspended programming to report on the war.
Since Fox had no news department, it aired the series and got peak ratings.
One of the biggest blows of the cycle came in the Season 4 finale, when news broke that Doherty would be jumping ship over conflicts with other cast members and producers. The actress had arranged for her character to gradually disappear from the plot over the course of the episodes.
Producer Charles Rosin said in 2000 that Doherty was often retarded and had a “cruel and uncaring” attitude. The main “enemy” of the actress on the set was Garth, with whom it was learned that she had multiple run-ins.
Oh, and it’s worth clarifying (for those who don’t know what the title of the series means) that the number “90210” is the zip code of Beverly Hills…
Damn 90210?
This subtitle is for you to draw your own conclusions.
Certainly there is no “curse of Beverly Hills 90210” as it happens with other productions (such as Poltergeist), but there were events related to the cast that today, at least, make us wonder things.
Perry, one of the most representative faces of the series, died in 2019 at the age of 52. He suffered a stroke and passed away surrounded by his children, his fiancée and his ex-wife, Minnie Sharp.
Luke Perry died in 2019 from a stroke. Photo: AP
On the other hand, Doherty has been suffering from complications with cancer for more than five years. In 2016, her confession at a conference toured the world: “In five years I will be dead. I told my husband: You have to enjoy every second you spend with me because I am going to be dead in five years.”
Priestley nearly lost his life in 2002 in a fiery car accident, hitting a wall in pre-race training in Kentucky while going over 180 miles per hour. He was transferred to an intensive care unit and operated on urgently. He miraculously survived.
Years later, the actor confessed that he had problems with alcohol. “I even spent five days in jail for drunk driving,” he admitted in a book.
Finally, we can mention Spelling’s addiction to cosmetic surgeries, who put his life at risk and ended up unrecognizable for not being able to stop retouching himself. In 2018, he headlined a Lifetime reality show in which he detailed his fight against his compulsion for cosmetic treatments.
Beverly Hills 90210: What do we have left?
Mainly, and this falls from mature, what we are left with is the original series. We said: 296 of an average of 45 minutes distributed in 10 seasons. In Argentina, at the moment it can only be seen on the channel dedicated to the Pluto TV series.
In second place we have a 2019 series entitled BH90210, which is nothing more than a reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210 that has the participation of several of the original actors. It has a season of 6 episodes.
The 2019 version of Beverly Hills, 90210.
It is necessary to notify that there is 90210, a 2008 series that works as an update of the previous one. It has new actors, but it also has the participation of several of the originals. It has 5 seasons and a total of 114 episodes. It’s available on Paramount+.
In 1992, Star devised a spin off of Beverly Hills, 90210. It is another series of the style that was devised to capture an older audience. It’s called Melrose Place and at the time it was quite a success: there are 7 seasons and more than 200 episodes.
