I love Beverly Hills 90210. I love that show. I watched it from its inception in 1990 aaaallllll the way to its grand finale in 2000. Ten years of Dylan, Kelly, Brandon, Donna, Steve, David, Brenda, Andrea (pronounced "ON-dreeeee-uh") and all the other characters that floated in and out of the show. It started when I was a Senior in High School and all of us gals would gather at our friend Lisa Perlman's house EVERY WEDNESDAY to watch "Bev 9" as we cool girls called it.
I will not lie nor ever deny that I LOVED 90210. I STILL love it; the reruns that is, that play on SOAPNet every day at 5pm. I get to watch Brenda try and bleach her hair in one of the first episodes so she could fit in with Kelly and Donna better and, instead, ends up with green hair. I get to see Andrea lust after Brandon as he tries to score with everything moving. I get to see David Silver go from "not" to "hot" coincidentally after his friend Scotty shoots himself. Or the ever growing bustline of Donna Martin as her boobs get bigger and her waistline smaller. Or Kelly joining a cult after she almost dies in a fire and goes lesbian for about three minutes. CLASSIC BEV 9! I LOVE IT!
Yet the powers of TV that be have decided bring back Beverly Hills 90210 and last night was the 2-hour premiere. I was excited to watch it. After all, I had been reading the "buzz" that some old faces would be making cameos AND also be there as permanent cast members! Great, I thought, it's going to be just like the new Degrassi High episodes that I love that have Joey and Caitlin in them from when I watched Degrassi back in the 80s! They reprised their roles and the show is AWESOME! I love Degrassi. Then and now. Sue Me.
Anyhow, back to the New Bev 9. I DVR'ed it last night as I was at my weekly FLASH meeting and thus would miss the first hour. So when I arrived home, I grabbed my dinner plate that Randy kept warm for me, propped up our little TV table, and proceeded to enter "TV Nirvana" with these new episodes of my 90210.
So I thought.
Not Quite.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY 90210?!?!?!? It was so contrived!!!! It was so predictable!!! Wait. Hang on. Maybe the OLD Bev 9 was contrived and predictable, but at 16 I didn't know any better? Now at 34 I just noticed it more? No matter, the new Bev 9 promises to be full of drama and scandal and treachery and blow jobs. Seriously, one of the first scenes in the first ten minutes was "Ethan" the cool guy getting a hummer in his Hummer on the first day of school in the parking lot while kids walked by, by someone who was *NOT* (shocker!) his girlfriend.
But I digress.
Kelly and Brandon have been replaced with Annie and Dixon who are brother and sister. Not twins and not even biological brother and sister as is made OBVIOUSLY clear in the first 3 seconds of the show as Annie and her mom and dad (Lori Loughling from Full House and Rob Estes from Melrose Place) are white and Dixon is black. So, right away there's a controversy right there. Add in the fact that Dad is the new principal of West Bev, you've got at least 650 story lines to go from there. Oh, and instead of being from Minnesota like the Walshes were, The Wilsons are from Wichita, Kansas. Nice.
Then of course, you've got the "bitch" character who is above schoolwork and has a posse. The Lacrosse team jocks who, of course, can't stand that "black guy" Dixon wants to join the team. Drug addicted, pill popping cool girl who does drugs because her mom can't pay the mortgage. The subversive film rebel nicknamed "Silver", whose real name is Erin. (Yep, you guessed it. That's David and Kelly's sister: Mel Silver and Jackie Taylor's love child from classic Bev 9). And the usual cast of "nerds" at the school paper which includes another "all-grownup character" Hannah Zuckerman-Vasquez (Andrea Zuckerman's and Jesse Vasquez's progeny from their marriage in classic Bev 9). Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) is back as West Beverly's guidance couselor and had a 4 year old son which has been *HINTED* as to being Brandon's and Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) is back as well, although in what capacity, who knows.
Though I am certainly biased (and almost 20 years older), I plan on watching this new Bev 9 and being a cynical old bat in the process.
1 comment:
One of my girlfriends sent a post on myspace asking who wanted to be in her fan club for the new 90210. She gets to be the president. Yeah, she's not a kid anymore like us, but it's a fun way to relive the days.
I didn't watch it or dvr it cuz my kids aren't interested in the least (and they're in charge of what we watch, of course lol), and eventhough I was completely addicted to the original, I don't think anything could ever be as good or cool as the original.
I am watching the series Jeremiah and Dylan is the star! Jason Priestly was on it for one episode too and that was cool. Theo from the Cosby Show is Dylan's sidekick. It's a good show, check it out.
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