90210 S1E16: Fame Is Where You Find It

SDYW writer Alligator is visiting this weekend, so we’re tag-teaming this one: we’re both watching, but I’m writing and she’s embroidering. This is her memory: Brandon starts dating an actress after being asked to play a bit part on a TV show. And Brenda takes over his job at the Peach Pit and pretends to be some 1950s-esque waitress.

We open with some Brandon doing some fancy footwork on roller blades. And wearing huge blue kneepads. A kid in a black trench coat steals a woman’s purse and some girl calls him Kirk and threatens to turn him in. He pulls a switchblade. It’s all very serious… but it turns out they’re shooting an episode of a popular TV show. Apparently the guy cast as “surfer dude” is in the hospital with food poisoning, so when the director sees Brandon, they ask him to fill in.

I just looked down to type for a moment, and Alligator said, “Do you see this? Do you see this?” And I looked up and saw this:



Well actually, I saw a long shot of this outfit involving weird parachute pants. But it was hard to get a good photo of it. Yikes.

Anyway, Brandon meets the lead actress, Lydia, and falls for her. Shocking. He does a great job in his five seconds of fame, so they offer him a job as a recurring guest. Brenda is jealous because Keep It Together is her favorite show. Brandon asks Brenda to cover his shifts at the Peach Pit while he works on the show, and she’s a total bitch about it. But she does it anyway.

Nat tells Brandon not to get caught up in the “Hollywood hoopla,” so obviously he will. Brandon becomes super popular and girls fall all over him. A limo picks him up from school and people ask for his autograph. His first real day on the job, he is in a shot where he kisses Lydia about 100 times. And they pseudo-date, but Lydia is just using him to make her co-star and old boyfriend, Sean, jealous. Brandon is now 0 for 7. Alligator notes that he will continue to strike out until he meets Emily Valentine.



Brenda sucks as a waitress until she adopts the persona of Laverne, a ’50s-era career waitress complete with cat-eye glasses and a bad New York accent. Surprisingly, she’s great when she does this; she just needed a little confidence. She is straight outta Ed Debevics, for those who grew up in the Southwest.