Beverly Hills, 90210

Series overview

The series began with the introduction of the Walsh family—Jim, Cindy, Brandon, and Brenda—who had recently moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Beverly Hills, California as a result of Jim's job promotion. In the first episode, Brandon and Brenda began attending West Beverly Hills High School, where they were eventually introduced to several friends who composed the remainder of the cast: Kelly Taylor, Steve Sanders, Andrea Zuckerman, Dylan McKay, David Silver, Scott Scanlon, and Donna Martin. The show followed the dramatic lives of its characters through high school, college, and ultimately the adult world, while introducing several additional characters as its seasons progressed. It is the longest-running show produced by Aaron Spelling, airing slightly longer than Dynasty.

Shannen Doherty

Shannen Doherty left the show at the end of the fourth season. Doherty's character, Brenda Walsh, was written off the show as moving to London to attend school at the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts. While the character's absence was originally described as only being for a year, she never returned, though she was mentioned from time to time during the show's remaining seasons. She was replaced with former Saved by the Bell star Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who played the bad-girl character Valerie Malone. Doherty's departure from the show would be the longest the continuity had seen with a lead cast member not making another guest appearance after they had left the show. Spanning for a time of 14 years, Brenda Walsh was not seen in any 90210 incarnation until September 2, 2008, in which she reprised her role in the CW's spinoff, 90210. Doherty appeared as Brenda Walsh in the 2008 spin-off series, 90210, along with former costars Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Ann Gillespie, and Joe E. Tata.

Gabrielle Carteris

Gabrielle Carteris left the show following the fifth season. Her character, Andrea Zuckerman, changed radically from high school to college. In high school, Andrea was the brainy editor of the West Beverly Blaze, had a crush on Brandon, and secretly lived out of district. During the fourth season (freshman year of college), Andrea becomes pregnant, and gets married to someone she barely knows (Jesse Vasquez) before the year is out. Her plot lines chronicled the struggles of trying to juggle college, marriage, and a baby (including affairs by both Andrea and Jesse). While the pregnancy plot line was written at Carteris' request, so as to incorporate her real life pregnancy, this was a major shift for the character, and also caused her to become somewhat isolated from the other characters on the show. The character eventually headed to Yale University.

After her original five-year contract ended, Carteris voluntarily left the show for her own self-titled talk show, which lasted only one season. Carteris returned to the show for guest appearances during the sixth, eighth and tenth seasons.

James Eckhouse and Carol Potter

Both actors left the show following the fifth season at the end of their original five-year contracts. During the high school years of the show, Jim and Cindy Walsh played secondary roles, offering advice to Brenda and Brandon, along with their friends, but were rarely given plot lines of their own (one exception to this was the episode "The 17-Year Itch," during season one). They generally spent most of their time reacting to various things that Brenda, Brandon and later Valerie did. As the show entered the college years, Jim and Cindy were moved even farther into the background as the show took on a much more soap operatic tone and the characters grew up, reducing their need for parental oversight. Following the fifth season, both characters left Beverly Hills for Hong Kong, making occasional guest appearances in the sixth, seventh and eighth seasons. Even though all the Walshes eventually left the show, the Walsh home continued to play a central role in the series. The show explained this by having Brandon tell Steve his parents had given the green light for Steve to keep living in the house.

Luke Perry

Luke Perry left Beverly Hills, 90210 toward the beginning of the sixth season. Perry's character Dylan McKay marries Antonia Marchette (Rebecca Gayheart), the daughter of the mob boss (Stanley Kamel) who ordered Dylan's father's death during the third season. Dylan had, at first, attempted to use Antonia to get to her father, but falls in love with her instead. Because Antonia's father is not comfortable with the idea of his daughter marrying Dylan, he orders Dylan's death. He hires a hitman to kill Dylan, but inadvertently kills Antonia who is driving Dylan's car at the time of the planned hit.

Dylan is heartbroken and decides to leave town, after his father-in-law reluctantly agrees to a truce in the wake of his daughter's death. During the seasons where Perry is absent, it is explained that his character Dylan has reconciled with Brenda and is living with her in London.

Perry returned permanently during the ninth season of the show, but was credited as a "Special Guest Star"—much like Heather Locklear was on Melrose Place. He admits on the beach to Kelly that he returned because he missed his friends, but most of all because he missed her.

Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson left the show at the end of the seventh season. In the show, after graduating from C.U., Clare is forced to choose between moving to Paris with her father (her only living relative) or staying with Steve. Initially choosing Steve, she changes her mind and moves to Paris. Clare is mentioned several times up to and including the series finale, but is never seen again. Robertson chose not to renew her contract as she had been working in television since 1990 and wished to pursue her interest in independent films. She later starred with former 90210 cast members Tori Spelling in Scary Movie 2 and Shannen Doherty in Nowhere.

Jason Priestley

Jason Priestley left the show at the beginning of the ninth season. However, he remained credited as an executive producer for 90210 until the end of season nine. His character Brandon was still recovering from his aborted wedding with Kelly when he was offered a job in Washington which he accepted. Brandon was the final Walsh family member to leave Beverly Hills, departing after Brenda and his parents, and his only other appearance on the series following his departure was by video to Donna and David at the time of their wedding. Priestley was the first cast member to direct episodes of the show.

Tiffani Thiessen

Tiffani Thiessen (credited as Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, late of Saved By the Bell) replaced Shannen Doherty after her departure following the fourth season. Thiessen portrayed Valerie Malone, an old Walsh family friend from Buffalo, New York who moves into Brenda's old room. While Valerie is meant as a replacement for Brenda, the characters are very different, and Valerie has a rocky relationship with most of the gang during her time on the show. Valerie leaves Beverly Hills soon after Brandon, saying that she is going to return home to Buffalo. Thiessen returned to the show for the series finale for Donna and David's wedding. Thiessen had discussed the option of leaving with Priestley and left two episodes after Priestley's departure. She was then replaced by Vanessa Marcil who plays Gina Kincaid, Donna Martin's half-sister (initially thought to be her cousin) and a former ice skating champion.

Development

Torand Productions was used by the production company for several seasons on the show. Torand productions came from the first three letters of Aaron Spelling's first child, Tori and the first four letters of his second child, Randy's, name.

Tentative titles for the show included Class of Beverly Hills. The show's episodes were originally issue-based until the producers decided it should become a teen soap opera. In the first season, the teenage characters (aside from David Silver and Scott Scanlon) were said to be juniors in high school, but due to the success of the show, their ages were retconned to be one year younger in the second season, making them sophomores in the first.

Jennie Garth had to audition fives times for the role of Kelly Taylor and was the first to be cast on the show. Gabrielle Carteris felt that she was too old to play a high school student. She first auditioned for Brenda because she thought that being a real life twin would help her chances, but the producers felt that she would be better for the part of Andrea. When Tori Spelling (Aaron Spelling's daughter) auditioned for the show, she used the name Tori Mitchell and auditioned for the role of Kelly Taylor, but she was eventually recognized and was instead cast as Donna Martin. Lyman Ward was originally cast as Jim Walsh in the pilot but was replaced by James Eckhouse, and the scenes were cut and re-shot with Eckhouse. Kristin Dattilo was also up for the role of Brenda Walsh, but she turned it down. She would later guest star as Melissa Coolidge in an episode of the first season. Additionally, Luke Perry had auditioned for the role of Steve Sanders, but the role eventually went to Ian Ziering before Perry was cast as Dylan McKay. His character was not an original cast member of the show, and he was first featured in the show's second episode. He was originally intended to only appear in one story arc, for one or two episodes. Fox was initially reluctant to have him included as a regular, but Aaron Spelling felt differently and gave Perry a bigger role during the first two years until the network was won over.

In the first season, when Donna tries out for school D.J., she is referred to as Donna Morgan. Throughout the entire show, her name is Donna Martin. In addition to this, in the first season Donna's mother was named Nancy Martin and played by actress Jordana Capra. When she was reintroduced in season two, she was named Felice Martin and was played by actress Katherine Cannon. In the pilot episode, the role of Jackie Taylor was first played by Pamela Galloway and then by Ann Gillespie for the rest of the series. Terence Ford and Arthur Brooks portrayed Dylan's father, Jack McKay, in two episodes before Josh Taylor assumed the role.

Filming

The series was produced in Van Nuys, California. During the 10 years the series was in production it was filmed in a warehouse complex in Van Nuys, the interiors of the series as well as the exteriors of the Peach Pit parking lot and P.P.A.D. club entrance were all located off the 15000 block of Calvert St in Van Nuys, CA. An unmarked gated studio entrance now stands at this address, but the exterior brick facing of the P.P.A.D. is still visible down the alley on the side of the building. The studio building complex has since been the home to various projects including the CBS series Jericho, which guest starred James Eckhouse in one episode. Until February 2010, the CW series Melrose Place was also produced at the original 90210 Calvert studios. Post-production services for Beverly Hills, 90210 were provided by LaserPacific for all seasons.

Many changes were made after the pilot episode. The producers first used a location that was used only once during the pilot episode for the Walsh house that was located in a gated community of Brentwood, California. After the pilot episode the Walsh house was moved to Altadena, California. The house used for Dylan's home in the show is also located in Altadena, California, in the same neighborhood of the Walsh Home.

Three different locations were used for the frontage of The Peach Pit during the show's ten-year history. The original location was only used in first few episodes of season one and is located on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was changed to a different location for the rest of season one. When the Peach Pit was fictionally remodeled during season two, the producers used Rose City Diner in Pasadena, California to film the exterior of the gang's hangout and it remained the same throughout the rest of the show's run. Most of the filming during the second season of the summer season at the Beverly Hills Beach Club took place in Santa Monica, California at the old Sand and Sea Beach Club. The beach club used in the show was the very same beach club that was used during one summer season of Saved by the Bell.

Beverly Hills High School is actually located in the ZIP code 90212. There are three zip codes in Beverly Hills and the most affluent homes lie within the mostly residential 90210, while the high school does not. (Most of the 90210 zone is in fact the Beverly Hills Post Office section of Los Angeles despite the name.) However, the characters attended the completely fictitious West Beverly High School, which could have been located in any ZIP code. The filming location for West Beverly High School was in the middle class community of Torrance, California at Torrance High School located in the 90501 zip code. Torrance High can also be seen in other shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The characters later began attending the then-fictitious California University in the show's fourth season, and the scenes around campus were actually filmed at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California. Kelly and Donna's beach house used in the show is located in Hermosa Beach, California.

The Golden Oak Ranch outside Santa Clarita, California was also used for filming.

Broadcast

Beverly Hills, 90210 originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox in the United States.

The show aired Thursday at 9:00 pm for the first two seasons and Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Pacific)/7:00 pm (Central and Eastern) for the rest of its run.

Prior to the premiere of Beverly Hills, 90210, Glory Days was airing on Thursdays at 9:00 pm. After the show had moved to Wednesday, where Fox did not have regular programming, The Heights took over the timeslot. After Beverly Hills, 90210 left the air in 2000, it was replaced by Malcolm in the Middle and Normal, Ohio.

Seasons 2 and 3 featured all new summer episodes that aired during July and August before the regular fall episodes started in September. At the beginning of the third season, in July and August 1992, all new summer episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 were playing during the series new time slot of Wednesdays at 8pm but viewers could see repeats from Beverly Hills, 90210's first season in the original time slot of Thursdays at 9pm. The Fox Network was heavily promoting the new time slot so viewers could find the show. The seventh season started earlier than usual because of the 1996 Olympics and the MLB Playoffs on FOX during the month of October.

Later SoapNet aired reruns of the show seven days a week until 2013. The syndicated episodes featured the show's original music, unlike the DVD and Hulu releases. In 2015, Pop currently airs reruns of the show with two back-to-back episodes. The syndicated episodes that are featured on this network however, do not use the show's original music with the content mostly taken from the DVD releases.

Specials

A number specials were produced during and after the show's run.

90210: Behind the Zip Code was a direct-to-video documentary released on VHS on September 18, 1992.

Beverly Hills, 90210: Behind the Scenes was a May 26, 1993 special hosted by Katie Wagner that aired after the third-season finale. It featured interviews with cast members, and was included in the VHS release of "Graduation" from 1993 and is also available on 2013 Complete Box Set of Beverly Hills, 90210.

Beverly Hills, 90210: A Christmas Special was a December 19, 1994 special in which fifth-season cast members discuss what their plans for their Christmas holiday would include.

The Best Moments of Beverly Hills, 90210 was a January 24, 1996 retrospective of the first five and a half seasons hosted by Tori Spelling.

Beverly Hills, 90210: Our Favorite Moments was an October 14, 1998 retrospective of the first eight seasons hosted by Ian Ziering.

Beverly Hills, 90210: The Final Goodbye was a May 10, 2000 retrospective of the series and its finale. It's also available on The Final Season DVD Release (Season 10).

Beverly Hills, 90210: 10 Year High School Reunion was a retrospective of the series broadcast on May 11, 2003. Set in a mockup of the Walsh family living room, it featured all of the primary cast members that were on the show in May 1993, and was the first reunion of Shannen Doherty with her former cast mates in nine years. This reunion is available on the 2013 Complete Box Set of Beverly Hills, 90210.

Beverly Hills, 90210: Fox 25th Anniversary Special was an April 22, 2012 retrospective of TV shows that aired on Fox. It ran for an hour and 35 minutes and there was a 3-minute 15 second segment on Beverly Hills, 90210 with interviews from Shannen Doherty, Gabrielle Carteris, Jason Priestley, and Ian Ziering. This special hasn't been released on DVD.

International

Various networks around the world subsequently aired Beverly Hills, 90210.

U.S. ratings

After poor ratings in the first season, the average rating per episode increased - averaging above 11% from season two until season five. From season six until the end of the series the average rating gradually decreased, resulting in an average rating of 6.9% in season nine and 5.9% in the last season. During the entire series, the episodes with the highest ratings peaked at 14.1%, and included the closing episodes of seasons two and three and the opening episode of season five.

Critical reception

Entertainment Weekly named the show #20 on its list of top 100 TV shows in the past 25 years. The magazine also named the theme song #15 on its list of top 25 TV theme songs in the past 25 years, and the "90210 Sideburns" #50 on its list of Pop Culture Moments that Rocked Fashion.

Series finale

Ratings for the tenth season declined to an average of 10 million viewers per episode (according to a May 2000 issue of Us Weekly). The ratings were small compared to previous seasons. The lower ratings, along with the high costs associated with any television show in its later seasons led Fox to end the series in January 2000. Though there were many cast changes, over 25 million people tuned in to watch the final episode which aired in May 2000. All of the original younger cast, excluding Shannen Doherty and Douglas Emerson, appeared in the series finale. Tiffani Thiessen also returned in the series finale.

Melrose Place

The series Melrose Place was a spin-off from the show, as actor Grant Show (who played Jake on Melrose Place) appeared for a multi-episode run at the end of the series second season as Kelly's love interest, and a friend of Dylan's. Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering made appearances as their Beverly Hills, 90210 characters in the first few episodes of Melrose Place.

Models Inc

Models Inc., a series about the personal and professional struggles of several young models, spin-off from Melrose Place. The series was introduced via the characters Hillary Michaels, the mother of Melrose Place's Amanda Woodward, and model Sarah Owens—both of whom had appeared in a multi-episode run on MP. In addition to his role in Melrose Place, Jake Hanson was the only character to appear in both Beverly Hills, 90210 and Models Inc.

90210

A third spin-off premiered in on The CW Network on September 2, 2008, focusing on a family from Kansas who move to Beverly Hills when the children's grandmother suffers from alcohol addiction.

In guest appearances, Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty and Tori Spelling reprised their roles as Kelly Taylor, Brenda Walsh and Donna Martin, respectively. Joe E. Tata also reprised his role as Nat, owner of the Peach Pit, diner turned coffee house, for a couple of episodes at the beginning of the show's first season.

The show was canceled by The CW on February 28, 2013, putting an end to the 90210 franchise. The show ran for five seasons.

Melrose Place (2009)

A fifth series was officially picked up by The CW on May 21, 2009. The show is an updated version of Melrose Place, featuring a group of young adults living in a West Hollywood apartment complex. Smallville producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer wrote the pilot script and became the executive producers on the series. The series was canceled on May 20, 2010.

Novelization

Several books based on the scripts were written by Mel Gilden.

Unauthorized story

On October 3, 2015 a television movie called The Unauthorized Beverly Hills, 90210 Story was first released. It told the behind the scenes making of story of the show.

Parodies

The rap duo Insane Clown Posse released an EP titled Beverly Kills 50187 which featured a song titled "Beverly Kills" describing member Violent J killing the series' characters for being rich and prejudiced toward the "lower class".

The short-lived The Ben Stiller Show did a parody of this show, The Heights and Melrose Place called Melrose Heights 90210-2420 that portrayed the cast as superficial, self-absorbed, and self-pitying, as well as introducing each of the stereotypical cast along with "Akeem, the black guy". A typical episode's "issue" was a character getting a headache, which affected all the other characters. Each episode would end the same upbeat song (resembling The Heights hit single "How Do You Talk to an Angel") performed by the whole cast with new lyrics for each episode.

A cutaway gag in an episode of Family Guy parodied the fact that a number of the show's cast members were in their mid-to-late 20s and not teenagers. In the gag, Andrea is portrayed as a senile elderly woman.

When Jason Priestley guest-hosted Saturday Night Live in 1992, one of that episode's sketches, which parodied Beverly Hills 90210 involved that town's zip code being changed to 90218 due to the 1990 Census redistricting. Several of the characters take offense to the fact that Beverly Hills will be absorbed into poorer communities and convene at the Peach Pit, where a Hispanic busboy expresses pride that his native community of Reseda now shares the same zip code as the 90210 cast. The gang lashes out in different ways, with Dylan getting drunk and Donna and Kelly going impulse shopping. Priestley, in his role of Brandon, confiscates all their keys and puts them in a lockbox and gives them a tag to reclaim them when they regain self-control. The sketch ends with the zip code "Beverly Hills, 90210" retained as their rich and powerful parents lobbied the US government not to redistrict.

The Fox sketch show The Edge did a parody of 90210 that mocked Tori Spelling. During the sketch, the character of Tori constantly says, "I can do whatever I want because this is my Daddy's show." Aaron Spelling took offense to this, and asked for an apology from the producers of the show. Saturday Night Live also did a Tori Spelling parody as well, where Melanie Hutsell spoofed Spelling, which was met with less protest.

The Mickey Mouse Club did a parody sketch called Beverly Hillbillies 90210, combining the characters of both 90210 and The Beverly Hillbillies. In 1999, Christina Aguilera from the Mickey Mouse Club made a cameo performance on Beverly Hills 90210 as herself performing at the PPAD for David Silver's surprise birthday party, season 10 episode 2: "Let's Eat Cake". Music from former MMC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez of 'N Sync also was originally used during several opening title sequences during the mid-to-late seasons of 90210.

MADtv made its own parodies of the show as Beverly Hills, 90210 B.C. set in prehistoric Beverly Hills. When Luke Perry made his high-profile return to the series, MADtv did a second parody entitled Beverly Hills 9021-H20 which had the characters being stalked and killed off by Luke Perry (Pat Kilbane), who had rejoined the cast as a masked killer who was a parody of Michael Myers of the Halloween film series.

The Czech TV Nova parody show Tele Tele made parody of the show known as Heverly Debils. Three mini-episodes (about 10 minutes each) were filmed.

GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan released a song called "Killah Hills 10304", a reference to the show's title in a song about crime and a rough neighborhood.

A VH1 promo for I Love the 90s featured Hal Sparks and Michael Ian Black sitting in the Peach Pit, with Beverly Hills, 90210's theme music playing. Joe E. Tata also appears in the promo as Nat.

In 2009, The Simpsons aired an episode called "Waverly Hills, 9-0-2-1-D'oh", which features Lisa wanting to go to a better school and finding it in the very posh town of Waverly Hills.