90210 S2E11: Leading From The Heart

Kelly falls for Brenda's paraplegic cousin.

This is a good episode, but there’s not a lot to say. The twins’ cousin Bobby, who is paraplegic, visits Beverly Hills. He and Kelly hit it off, but when she takes him to a party he gets uncomfortable. He has to be carried up the stairs, he can’t dance with Kelly, and some girl trips over him and spills her drink on his shirt. Kelly dances with the party host, and Bobby gets upset and leaves. Kelly is confused, and of course her judgmental friends are all, “Way to go Kel,” and “You must have done something to upset him!”

When Kelly goes to talk to Bobby, he says the girls he meets never stick around. Kelly’s like “Stop freaking out, we went on one date, why are you putting all these expectations on me, I’ve only known you for two days.” Finally, someone speaks up about the ridiculous expectations on this show!

In other news, this ep also includes a totally unnecessary scene in which Brandon cries and says it’s his fault that Bobby is in a wheelchair because he dared him to do a ski jump. It’s awkward.

90210 S2E10: Necessity Is A Mother

I am getting really bored with 90210, folks.

Dylan’s mom has been in town for a while and is getting on his nerves. She’s a new-age-meditation type described as a “space case.” He starts drinking again, is totally irritable, and blows everything off. One night, he shows up drunk at the Walsh home and everyone freaks out. Brenda blames Dylan’s mom, and Brandon says, “She didn’t pour the booze down his throat.” Dylan then comes to school drunk, and Brenda tells Brandon he can’t let Dylan drink. Because of course it’s Brandon’s responsibility. Kelly serves as the voice of reason in this situation, telling Brenda she can’t help Dylan. He has to decide to help himself.

Now this, I like. Brandon doesn’t want Dylan to drive drunk, so he offers to take him anywhere he wants to go. Dylan wants to go to a bar, so then Brandon is forced to watch him get wasted and lose money playing pool. Back at the Walsh home, in a super OC moment, Iris tells Cindy she can’t handle this. Cindy says she has no choice, she’s his mom. Iris rolls her eyes. Jim forbids Brenda from seeing Dylan for the second (??) time. In the end, Iris moves back to Hawaii, giving Dylan his “freedom.” However, they agree to try to build a real relationship.

In other news, Donna does exceptionally well during a stock market game in Economics class, and Steve convinces her to take all of her savings and do it for real. Kelly keeps using the word “stupid,” as in “Don’t be stupid” or “This is stupid.” And we all know that Donna doesn’t respond well to that word. Steve and Donna do well at first, but then Donna wants to sell and Steve doesn’t. Instead, Steve takes stock tips from someone named “Bernie Goldfinger.” The stock plummets and Steve blames Donna, saying he shouldn’t have listened to her stupid ideas. But surprise! Donna sold her stock and made a lot of money. She tells Steve and Kelly never to call her stupid again.

90210 S2E9: Ashes To Ashes

An attempt to create a neighborhood patrol leads to race hate and violence.

Awww yeah! Race hate and violence! A neighborhood association meeting at the Walsh home prompts Cindy to install an alarm system, which then continually goes off at unexpected times. A new black family moves to the neighborhood and the neighbors are suspicious. Brandon and older sister Charise (Vivica A. Fox) hit it off, but in a friendly way. Shocking that Brandon doesn’t have romantic notions. Perhaps Emily Valentine has changed him.

Charise’s boyfriend Devo comes to see her and gets “arrested” by the neighborhood patrol even though he’s just walking down the street. The younger brother, Robinson, becomes the photographer for the West Beverly Blaze. As a former high school newspaper editor, I would not be too jazzed about a photog whose best photos look like this:



That's not just me taking a bad photo of the TV. There is actually a hand in front of the guy's face. Anyway, the ep is full of people being both intentionally racist, and “accidentally” racist. Brandon wants to write an expose for the paper, but the Ashe family would rather forget the whole thing. He goes to the “hood” to see Devo and almost gets beat up, but Devo saves him. Devo says the story isn’t a “story” because it happens all of the time.

In the end, Brandon publishes his expose. The ep ends with Dylan quoting aloud from the article: “It’s when we stop looking at the human race as individuals, we as a generation are in trouble.” He then says, “Eloquently put, man.”

90210 S2E8: Wild Fire

Brandon and Dylan both make a date with the same girl – wild new student Emily Valentine – and Brenda’s jealousy prompts her to rethink her feelings for Dylan.

We open on Brandon having a fantasy in which he is relaxing on the beach with three girls in swimsuits fawning over him. One of them is giving him a pedicure, and is filing his toenails. Nice fantasy, Brandon.

Anyway, it’s the first day of school. I guess they are seniors now. There is a cute montage of everyone getting dressed and hating what they see in the mirror. At school, Dylan meets new student Emily Valentine when she roars up on her motorcycle. Torn jeans, leather jacket, skeleton earrings, short and spiky blonde hair, guitar slung on her back. If that’s not wild, I don’t know what is.

Dylan asks her out. Minutes later, she meets Brandon, who also asks her out. She goes out with both boys, making no attempt to hide that fact, and they are both cool with it. When Brandon discovers he really likes her, Dylan backs off.

Meanwhile, Emily becomes friends with the girls until they learn that she went on a date with Dylan. Brenda proceeds to completely ostracize Emily from the group, and the girls talk about what a slut she is. Excuse me, but isn’t Kelly calling anyone a slut like the pot calling the kettle black? In a truly fantastic moment, Brenda uses her bitchiest voice to tell Emily to “have fun at the gynecologist.”

Emily is hurt, of course, and when Brenda finally gets around to apologizing, Emily admits she’s a virgin. In one of the Season 2 special features (yes, I watched them first), Christine Elise says her best scenes were with Brenda because she felt strong-armed by Shannen Doherty in real life. Those tears? Those are real.

In the end, Brenda realizes she’s not willing to lose Dylan, and they get back together.

In other news, Scott returns from Oklahoma a cowboy-hat-wearing, country-music-listening dude, and David realizes that they are growing apart.

90210 S2E7: Camping Trip

The gang heads up to Yosemite on what turns out to be a totally doomed camping trip. Stuck in the rain, the gang makes some unexpected friends – and encounters unexpected danger.

Totally doomed? More like totally boring. The gang goes camping but gets rained out and has to stay is a leaky cabin. Boo-hoo. Next door a couple of newlyweds get into a fight when he says he doesn’t want kids. You’d think this would be something you’d discuss BEFORE getting married, but whatever. It allows Kelly, Steve, and Dylan to go on and on about being children affected by divorce.

Like me, Dylan gets fed up with it all. So, he spends the night sleeping draped over a boulder after drinking two little airplane bottles of alcohol he swiped from the newlyweds’ cabin. Oh no! Dylan is off the wagon! The next morning Brandon finds him and they go for a hike. Brandon slips and almost falls off a mountain, but Dylan saves him. The end.

90210 S2E6: Pass, Not Pass

Brenda and Andrea clash over their mutual interest in their hot acting teacher, whose interest in one of the girls surprises them both.

Brenda and Andrea both have a crush on their acting teacher, Chris Suitor. They both think he likes Brenda, even though he totally flirts with Andrea when they run into each other at a bookstore. The girls both stalk him at the Peach Pit, and all three end up hanging out. It becomes painfully clear that Chris likes Andrea, and Brenda gets super jealous. The girls have to do a dramatic scene together for their final project in drama class, and instead of fake-slapping Andrea, Brenda hauls off and whacks her for real. Andrea cries, but instead of apologizing Brenda’s like, “Whatever bitch, you deserve it for stealing Chris from me.” Andrea’s reply? “You can’t steal something someone doesn’t have in the first place.”

Andrea and Chris make out until he finally admits that he has a girlfriend back home. Andrea is crushed, but Chris is all, “Whatever, silly child, you’re my student.” As though he hadn’t been making out with her this whole time. Whatta douche.

Meanwhile, Brandon finally buys his dream Mustang only to find out it’s a lemon. The poor naive thing “just can’t believe some people make a living ripping off other people!” Jim is totally unsympathetic (rightly so), saying Brandon should have checked the car out before buying it. Hurrah!

Since summer is over and his beach club job has ended, Brandon tries to get his Peach Pit job back, but Nat has hired Lucy Liu (!!), who is a super efficient waitress. Nat strings Brandon along for a while, then finally admits that Lucy is going back to college so of course Brandon can have his job back. And Jim pays for Brandon’s new car to be fixed. Puh-leeze.

Side note: at this point David and Donna are becoming awfully friendly…

90210 S2E5: Play It Again, David

Kelly is mortified when her mother starts dating David’s father and plots to break up the new couple, while Brandon, who is mentoring a local boy, discovers that his “little brother” may be hiding a dark secret.

Kelly, Brenda, and Jackie (K’s mom) are having lunch at the club when Jackie breaks a tooth. In swoops the charming & funny Mel, “Beverly Hills’ third best oral surgeon.” Jackie and Mel hit it off instantly, and Kelly is horrified to learn that he is David Silver’s father. She plots a way to break them up, acting like a huge brat when they all go to dinner. Her mom wonders why Kelly doesn’t want her to be happy, and Kel realizes what a dope she’s being. BORING!

Meanwhile, Brandon acts as a “Big Brother” to a kid named Felix. He discovers Felix has a bunch of bruises, and Felix admits that his mom hit him. Instead of going to the police, or social services, Brandon goes to Felix’s mom, who claims she’s never done it before. She’d been drinking, and she got upset. He helps her get into an unspecified “program,” and Felix is sent to a group home. And that’s the end.

This episode was lame.

90210 S2E4: Anaconda

After an illegal late-night poker game, Brandon and Dylan clash over a break-in at the beach club.

Dylan is having money troubles. His mom has offered to let him live with her in Hawaii, but he doesn’t want to go. He starts hocking his belongings at a pawnshop to stay afloat. Meanwhile, Brandon is convinced to let Steve and some other dudes into the beach club after hours to play poker. One guy tells the story of these “legendary” nights that occurred in the past, during which the guys would dress like they were in the ‘40s and bring beautiful girls along for good luck and play for “real money.” Steve is inspired, and sets up his own legendary night.

Dylan shows up, uninvited, and proceeds to lose all of his money. He leaves separately from the rest of them. The next day, Brandon learns that the beach club has been robbed – all of the electronics from the room they were in are gone. Brandon admits that he let some friends into the club that night.

Later, Brandon finds a ticket to Hawaii while digging through Dylan’s stuff (because he doesn’t trust him) and assumes that Dylan robbed the club. The detective shows up and sees an amp and a fax machine in Dylan’s Porsche, so she takes him down to the station. They let him go, though, and in the end we learn that the real perpetrators were the men of the Seashell Laundry Service. Dylan’s mom bought him the place ticket, and he leaves for Hawaii after making amends with Brandon.

90210 S2E3: Summer Storm

Dylan, injured in a surfing accident, stays with the Walshes during his recovery – until Jim Walsh kicks him out for kissing Brenda!

OMG! The same generic beach club opener with the same extras AGAIN! I guess the viewer wouldn’t notice this when watching it the first time around, but when you watch a couple of episodes in a row it becomes painfully apparent. Anyway, Dylan gets a mild concussion and cracks a few ribs while surfing. Cindy feels bad that the poor boy has no parents, so she invites him to stay at the Walsh home. In Brandon’s room. Which shares a bathroom with Brenda’s room. Real smart.

Of course the two run into each other in the middle of the night when they both have to use the bathroom. Dylan is shirtless and Brenda is in shortie pajamas. There is palpable tension. Later, Brenda comes home to find Dylan on the sofa. He asks her to do a variety of things for him (get him a sandwich, get his book) and she gets irritated. “Anything else?” she asks snottily. “You,” he replies.

So, Little Miss “I Need Space” attacks him and they make out on the couch until Jim comes home and catches them. He kicks Dylan out, so Dylan breaks into a cabana at the beach club and has a soft focus flashback to his childhood, when he and his father actually got along. He sobs himself to sleep.

The next day, Brandon finds Dylan, who we learn that is not a big fan of his mom. She’s a “flake” who was “never there for him.” Eventually Dylan and Jim come to terms after Brenda cries a lot and tells her dad how much she cares for Dylan. Dylan writes his dad a letter that basically says he doesn’t believe in him but he still needs a dad.

Meanwhile, Kelly falls for Kyle (David Lascher), who is obviously gay. In the end, he admits that he’s gay. With the other girls in summer school, Kelly doesn’t have anyone to hang out with except her mom, whom she tries to convince to start dating again. Donna and David are assigned to do a scene from Romeo & Juliet in drama class, and they are both terrible so David comes up with the idea to swap roles. I wouldn’t think this meant they were suddenly good actors, but the class loves it. However, their teacher does tell them it was a cop-out.

90210 S2E2: The Party Fish

Brandon begins to realize his new job might harbor unexpected hazards when a budding friendship with an influential sports promoter becomes more complicated than Brandon even could have foreseen.

Wow, this episode begins with the exact same generic “beach club” shots that were in the last episode. So apparently the wealthy folk who can afford to be beach club members can’t afford to wear different items of clothing. In this ep, Brandon meets club member and sports promoter Jerry Rattinger. He also develops a crush on an older woman named Sandy who works at the club. Meanwhile, Dylan pretends that his breakup with Brenda is no big deal. Also, because of the whole drama class business they’re always shooting in school even though it’s summer. And Kelly always seems to be around, which makes no sense because she’s not taking summer school.

Steve invites Brandon to the grunion run, saying, “Donna will be there, Kelly, Dushane, Linda, Kyle, everybody!” I’m sorry, but who the hell is Dushane? Not to mention Linda and Kyle? Not only that, but what kind of name is Dushane? Who wrote this episode? Later, after a party at the beach club, Sandy is offended that Brandon didn’t introduce her to his parents. Craaaazy.

Brandon and Sandy sort of date until Dylan “warns” him about her. It is unclear what the warning is. Snippily, Brandon asks if Dylan “warned” Brenda before he broke her heart. Dylan’s reply? “You got that flipped around.” Moments later, a tearful Sandy breaks a date with Brandon. And then Rattinger offers to buy Brandon a car in exchange for some work that Brandon will do for him. Jim is not ok with this, and Brenda points out that it is weird that Rattinger is offering Brandon money for nothing. Brandon doesn’t see why.

Eventually, Brandon learns that Rattinger uses young men to keep his wife happy while he enjoys dalliances with young beach club ladies, and now he’s trying to “get back” with Sandy. Brandon finds Sandy going up to Rattinger’s cabana and gives her a taste of that special Walsh prudishness. She tells him he can’t judge her because he knows nothing about her. In the end, Sandy goes to live with her mother in San Luis Obispo, and Brandon learns another valuable lesson about trusting the rich.

90210 S2E1: Beach Blanket Brandon

A pregnancy scare prompts Brenda to break things off with Dylan, while Brandon gets a cool new job at the Beverly Hills Beach Club.

New credits! They are much more campy and fun, consisting of “action” shots of each character followed by a Sears-portrait-studio moment. Nice.

Now, one of the things I remember crystal-clearly about 90210 is Brenda taking a pregnancy test and her results color being a mix of the two possible outcomes, as well as her saying something along the lines of, “I wait to have sex with a guy I really love, I use protection, and I’m purple.” Obviously that struck a nerve with my young self. I also remember, even as a child, recognizing the same extras over and over again. Like one scene in the hallway at school where the same floppy-haired blonde guy walked by no less than 4 times. The brain is a funny thing, my friends.

As we open, it is the last day of school. Wow. I miss that feeling. Brenda and Donna are taking an acting class during summer school. Brenda tells the girls that her period is late. Brandon talks to Andrea to “clear things up” before summer starts. She says its no big deal. He asks, “It’s no big deal that we almost became a couple?” Um…they didn’t. They almost had sex. Is Brandon honestly not supposed to recognize that it’s not the same thing?

The girls buy a home pregnancy test for Brenda. Donna says abstinence is 100% effective and Brenda replies, “Thank you Donna, but I think it’s a little too late for that now.” The test should be blue for positive, red for negative … and Brenda’s results are green. And here’s the line: “I wait to have sex with a guy that I love, I act responsibly, I take every precaution, and I’m green.” She tells the girls she doesn’t think sex was worth it.

Business at the Peach Pit dies down in the summer, so Brandon gets a job at the beach club. Brenda tells Dylan that sleeping with him was a mistake. He says this is his problem too. At the gynecologist, when Brenda goes to give her urine sample, she sees that she’s gotten her period so she leaves without having an examination. As they leave, Dylan suggests she ask the doctor about putting her on the pill. Brenda storms off.

I was shocked when 90210 blew past the actual moment of Brenda losing her virginity, but they sure are heaping on the doubt and regret now. Cindy finds Brenda’s pregnancy test while sorting the trash for recycling, and the Walsh parents are surprisingly calm. Afterwards, Jim is disappointed that he sounded just like his own father, who he swore he wouldn’t be like.

In a rather heartbreaking ending, Brenda breaks up with Dylan because she can’t handle the new pressures of their relationship. I’m 99.9% sure the original episode had Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” playing instead of whatever upbeat drivel this is. It kind of ruins the moment.

[NOTE: I was wrong, the original song was apparently “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. Also, in researching this I discovered that entire scenes have been cut from the DVD version because they couldn’t get the rights to the music. For example: a scene in a later season 2 episode in which Kelly makes up new lyrics to Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love” is now gone. Understandable, but sad.]

Anyway, it’s the first drama class of summer school and Brenda, Donna, Andrea, and David are all students. An attractive young teacher comes in, and Andrea and Brenda both eye him like they’re lapsed vegetarians and he’s a thick, juicy steak. After class, Brenda runs into Dylan and he says that because of her, he stopped being a loner. They both cry. OMG! I wish you guys could hear the guitar riff after Brenda says, “Goodbye, Dylan.” It belongs in an REO Speedwagon song.

90210 Season 2

I’m bored of trying to remember what happened in these episodes, plus I’m learning that I don’t remember the show as well as I thought. So I’m abandoning that thread. The new intros will be taken verbatim from the DVD packaging, exclamation points and all. Here’s what we apparently have to look forward to in the “season where things really start to sizzle”:

1. The gang meets Color Me Badd!

That should be quite enough to keep you interested, but if not, here’s more:

2. The introduction of Emily Valentine
3. Brenda’s pregnancy scare
4. “Race hate and violence”
5. Kelly falls for Brenda’s paraplegic cousin
7. Scott kills himself (sparklers will always remind me of this episode)
8. Steve tries to find his biological mother

Let's venture down memory lane...

Much like with My So-Called Life, I have vivid and specific memories of Beverly Hills, 90210. And, with the CW's new version launching in the fall, I figured what better time to re-watch it. However, I am only going to do the seasons that I watched during their initial run. Before watching each episode, I will reminisce. After each episode, I will re-examine. Let the games begin!

A brief history 0f 90210, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Beverly Hills, 90210 was a popular prime time television drama series that aired from 1990–2000 on the FOX network. The show followed the lives of a group of teenagers living in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills and attending the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School. The show was created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling and Spelling Television. The "90210" in the title refers to one of the suburb's postal ZIP codes.

Originally the central characters were twins Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty), who moved with their parents, Jim and Cindy, from Minneapolis to Beverly Hills. However, during the show's run, the focus shifted as characters came and went. The show addressed many topical issues like date rape, alcoholism, domestic violence, gay rights, drug abuse, teenage suicide, AIDS, and teenage pregnancy.

90210 gained popularity during the summer of 1991, when FOX aired a special "summer season" of the show while most other series were in reruns. The series became one of FOX's top shows when it began that fall. The cast members, particularly Jason Priestley and Luke Perry, became teen idols. The series would also make actresses Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, and Tori Spelling household names.

When 90210 began, the show was heavily issue-oriented, with Brenda and Brandon facing a different teen issue nearly every week. As the show progressed, it became more character-driven, with the characters entering into various love triangles while dealing with general high school issues. As the show moved into the college years, episodes became largely plot-driven and much more soap operatic.

Due to the various cast changes and changes behind the scenes, ratings for the tenth season declined to an average of 10 million viewers per episode. The lower ratings, along with the high costs associated with a show in its later seasons, led FOX to cancel the series in January 2000. The final episode aired in May 2000. However, even with all the cast changes, the series finale of the show attracted a large number of viewers.

Trivia!
No single character appeared in all 296 episodes of the show.
The filming location for West Beverly High was Torrance High School, also seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Dylan McKay was intended to appear for only one or two episodes. Aaron Spelling paid his salary during the first two years until Luke Perry won the network over.
The main characters were juniors in high school during both the first and second season. FOX specifically asked that they be kept in high school as long as possible.