'90210': Countdown to Cancellation
How the CW's Beverly Hills Reinvention No Longer Breaks Ground
Aug 29, 2008
In 1990, Darren Star created a prime-time teen drama delving into teen issues in the way of after-school specials, but against the backdrop of Beverly Hills, the home of the rich, fashionable and fabulous. Beverly Hills, 90210 went past the superficial fronts of the trendy and showed that they, too, had issues. Many, many issues.
In the beginning, the show centered on the lives of Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Shannen Doherty and Jason Priestley), twins from Minnesota thrown into the rough and tumble West Beverly High, where they proceeded to befriend the most popular students. With characters Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering), Donna Martin (Tori Spelling), David Silver (Brian Austin Green), and Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris), the show became a hit for teenagers and adults alike.
The show broke ground by taking a teen show into prime time and touching issues that were entertaining and controversial (remember the episode about whether or not to dispense condoms at school?). The behind-the-scenes drama with Shannen Doherty, who had a penchant for catty fighting with co-stars, added to the show's controversy and continued its ratings gold.
This season on the CW, 90210 is being resurrected and revamped for this generation's teens. While it has the initial hype of its predecesor to give it a ratings boost that may be able to carry it for a season (maybe even two if the stories are interesting), the new 90210 is nothing more than the average teen drama now seen much more often than the original's premiere in 1990.
One of the goals for 90210 on the CW is to be nostalgic. Viewers of the decade-long soap will tune in to see old characters such as Brenda Walsh and Kelly Taylor carry on drama from the past.
The original Beverly Hills, 90210 was just that, original. There were no other teen dramas that could compete with its storylines and audience range. After the now deceased WB got its hooks into the teen market in the mid to late '90s, teen dramas have become nothing revolutionary.
While the new 90210 will no doubt have racy content, teen shows such as 7th Heaven (more family than teen), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, Felicity, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and a slew of others, have more recently carried the torch of covering the dramatic teen terrain.
The 90210 of today has nothing fresh to offer viewers. Deep emotional issues for teens? Been done. Controversy? Much harder by today's television standards. Teen sex and backstabbing? Hello Gossip Girl. A hot cast? If a show didn't, it wouldn't be in the running.
90210 will garner some viewers. Probably many for its inception. But it will only have staying power if it can reinvent itself, and maybe an entire genre of television, just as the original.
