Syndication Files 09.30.09: Beverly Hills, 90210
Posted by Porfirio Diaz on 09.30.2009
The zip code that became insanely famous thanks to this early 90s teenage melodrama. Beverly Hills, 90210 was one of the first teenage oriented drama shows made and is often referred to as the best of its kind. Sex, drugs, teenage angst…wait, just how old were those actors again? Find out more on the next edition of the Syndication Files, 90210.
It's a wonderful day for piiiieeee…
Argh, that song has been in my head for days. I hate you Family Guy, yet love you at the same time.
Speaking of love-hate relationships, is there any way we can take the Cowboys' giant HD scoreboard and have it land right on top of Brett Favre? I love football but I grow tired of the super hyper media circus and their relentless chatter of the legendary gunslinger that is Favrey McFavre Face. That was even before the 49ers-Vikings game this past weekend!
*Sigh* Sometimes maybe I do hate football.
Syndication Files #14
Beverly Hills, 90210
Classic classic opening theme
Would it be too much of a stretch if I were to call this the most famous zip code in the world? It has to be, right? Stretch or not, this sequence of numbers were made even more famous thanks to this early '90s teen-o-rama television series.
Beverly Hills, 90210 was created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling, who is notable for his works on Charlie's Angels, T.J. Hooker, Starsky and Hutch, and others. This show was also one of the first prime time television shows to base around a group of teenagers living in an otherwise upscale and realistic world. The show underwent several tentative titles during development, including Class of Beverly Hills and Potomac 20854.
Potomac 20854? That's just sounds terrible and really doesn't have the same ring as Beverly Hills, 90210 does. People who get paid in coming up with titles for television shows actually thought that would be a good name for a show? In the world of media and journalism, titles can make or break your project (on a side note, 14 Syndication Files columns in and still going strong). The title introduces the viewer to the nature of the show and is also the first thing viewers see during the introduction. Was there anyone willing to stick around after seeing the show's opening credits with the name Potomac 20854? Sounds like a show based around an underground world of ultimate fighting vacuum cleaners. Don't they want people to at least give their show a chance? Not with our attention spans.
Is there even anything special about Potomac, Maryland besides Winston Churchill High School? I guess that school was Star's actual high school and actually had a lot of similar identities to that of the fictitious West Beverly High School in the show. Still, I'm not exactly packing up my bags to travel to Potomac anytime soon.
The cast of Potomac 20854 Beverly Hills, 90210
Yes, I'm still bitter about the 49ers-Vikings game. Plus that tirade ended up being totally insufficient for obvious reasons. Sigh, I need some nice herbal tea with a side of vicodin.
Anyway, once the producers settled for the title of Beverly Hills, 90210, the show was ready for its big debut. The very first episode aired on FOX on October 4, 1990.
Here's the gist of this teenage tale: a group of pretty people living in Beverly Hills with big expensive houses and big expensive cars get themselves into a lot of commotion within life and to each other.
Hey that sounds more like The Hills, only more realistic (as more realistic a fake show could get). Let's get into the depth of the 90210 plot: twins Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Brenda (Shannen Doherty) Walsh had just moved with their parents from Minnesota (ah crap) to Beverly Hills. The Walsh family prides themselves in being a stable middle-class family with strong values and strong beliefs. Beverly Hills is there to make sure that's no longer the case. Watch as those values and beliefs are stripped away only to be replaced with personal crises and teenage drama. You can almost already tell the cultural shock the two teenagers are going to experience while they navigate through the world of high school. All they want to do is try to fit in!
Drama!
Beverly Hills, 90120 behaved more as a soap opera rather than your typical sitcom. The show dealt with the experiences of a group of teenagers rather than just focusing on Brandon and Brenda. Their friendship list includes the stanky Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), the hypersexual Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering), the shy Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris), the surprisingly bland Donna Martin (Tori Spelling), and of course the loner and rebel of the series, Dylan McKay (Luke Perry).
Not only did the show narrate the group's friendships and relationships, they also incorporated real life issues among teenagers including romances, alcoholism, premarital sex, drug addictions, death, and other relevant issues. Really as much as I like to harp on FOX, I don't think these storylines would fly on any other network during that time period. FOX is one of the gutsiest networks out there. They took a chance on a show with impurity storylines and paid off in the end, just like 1/8 of the other successful shows they took a chance on. I don't know if 90120 was the first show to make use of the term "teen drama", but 90120 was the show that went full frontal with that term. Well that and "teenage insecurities".
Scandalous!
How about that casting? Just look at the finalized cast member lineup again: Jennie Garth, Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty (hot!), Luke Perry, Tori Spelling, Tiffani Thiessen (replaced Shannen Doherty at the end of the fourth season), Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris and Brian Austin Green (who went from Tiffani Thiessen to Vanessa Marcil to Megan Fox. Somewhere Tony Romo is pouting with jealously but I'm sure it's more likely because of the interception he just threw). Can you believe that these young (ha!) actors and actresses were once nobodies? I admit that the star quality drop off is quite notable once you go past Tori Spelling but these people established themselves into huge names thanks to the success of the show and instantly become teen idols among young viewers.
Teenage girl swooned to the likes of Jason Priestley and Luke Perry, especially towards the latter. Perry was high on most people's list for the most popular character on the show. But there was just something about him that stood out among his fellow cast members. Oh that rights, his age! There was much publicity about the fact that this at-the-time 25-year old actor was made to play a sixteen year old role. There's something unsettling about that. Even Jason Priestley was a little more reasonable age of 21 when he first worked on the show. Whenever you come across an age joke featuring Luke Perry, now you know.
A 25-year old is hitting on teenagers…not creepy
Along with including interesting angles, the producers even added another interesting concept to the show's timeline. 90210 was just one of several shows that are actually linked with each other within an ongoing timeline or canon, similar Kevin Smith and his fictional shared canon universe of View Askewniverse. As of now, the series that are linked within the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise are Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Models Inc., 90210 (2008 version), and Melrose Place (2009 version). So you may see one show's most recognized character appear on another show in real time. Their appearance would not disrupt the continuity of the series. An famous example would be Jennie Garth's multiple guest appearance on Melrose Place, in which a storyline involved her character Kelly Taylor transferred over towards the launch of Melrose Place. I think this is all pretty neat, though I am a sucker for continuity and canonization.
Beverly Hills, 90210 lasted on the airwaves for 10 seasons, ending with their final episode on May 17, 2000. The series was so good that the suits thought it was a great idea to dug up its corpse and make a re-launched spin-off. 90210 (2009 version) become the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise. I don't know how well the re-launch is doing but considering that the show launched on September 2, 2008, and that it's still currently on the air, I call it a success so far.
Like I said, Beverly Hills, 90210 became a phenomenon, becoming the #1 show among teenage girls during the early 90s. It is often regarded as the best "teen drama" series of all time. As far as I could tell, there has been no other show that has come close to matching their success. This show is not what I consider my cup of tea, but the show did give the world Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry age jokes. I can't argue with that.
The lesson here is that the girl always comes back…always (See: Twilight)
Commercial Break
Family Guy + Robot Chicken = Crazy Delicious
I could technically call this a commercial. Well I could also call Robot Chicken the longest commercial of all time. Really, isn't the show just one big product placement?
Meh, I don't care. This scene is still great.
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Favre didn't manage to totally ruin my Sunday. I enjoyed Fox's season debut of Animation Domination. I even enjoyed The Cleveland Show, though not as much as the other big three.
Let's see: Conan bumps his head, Hugh Jackson stops a Broadway play due to a ringing cell phone, Roman Polanski gets caught, and a new SNL case member drops an F-bomb. Yup, nothing interesting to read here.
And with that, I'm out of time. Out like Brett Favre! (I wish)
