Beverly Hills, 90210

I admit I haven't watched this show for years, so am going on memory here. I watched every episode of Seasons 1-5. When the quality took a nosedive after Season 4 (but Andrea was still around) I started watched it less and less. From what I gathered the plotlines just got more and more ridiculous. The new main actors were all plain like vanilla, like Vincent Young, Jamie Walters, Lindsay Price, Vanessa Marcil, etc. None of the new replacements excited me at all. (Daniel Cosgrove was not bad).

But, in terms of pure gold, the Brenda years, love or hate the actress, Seasons 1-4, were the best. Season 5 clocked in some golden moments too although I hated what happened to Andrea's character, going from brainy nerd to reluctant mother. After that I wouldn't watch anything as a repeat or catch up on what I missed.

While "Beverly Hills 90210" was making its ten year run, I never watched a single episode. The affairs of rich kids in Beverly Hills really didn't interest me; and, even though Jennie Garth and Tiffani Amber-Thiessan are real eye candy, that wasn't enough to tie me to watching a weekly continuing drama with what I thought would be such an uninteresting subject. However, when the Soap Opera Channel offered the show in sequence five days a week and my wife encouraged me to watch it with her, I reluctantly agreed. I'm glad I did, because "Beverly Hills 90210" is, in my opinion, the best written and produced continuing drama in TV history. Why do I say this? Because "Beverly Hills 90210" survived two radical format changes and remained consistently watchable for its entire 10 year run. Actually, "Beverly Hills 90210" is three different shows: an excellent "high school teenagers in love" show; a very good "college kids antics" show and a good "Yuppies in love" show. The creative talent managed to produce three above average shows with an amazing consistency of story lines and talent, using mostly the original cast. Nobody else has ever done this, at least to my knowledge. The producers are to be commended for keeping the cast remarkable intact, even down to the minor characters. To the best of my knowledge, only one character was played by two different actresses, that being Andrea Zuckerman's grandmother. Compare that to the more prestigious soaps, "Dynasty" and "Dallas." On "Dallas" alone, two actors played Gary Ewing, Digger Barnes, Miss Ellie and Kristen Shepherd (who shot J.R.), and three actors played Jenna Wade, and all of these characters were more important to the show's plotting than Andrea's grandmother.

While all three shows are above average, the "high school teenagers in love" episodes are the best. However, I believe they were also the easiest to plot, since teenagers have more restrictions on their behavior and their problems are generally more direct, easier with which to relate and generally easier to resolve. This is only slightly less true for college students, but it's a whole different ball game by the time one gets out of school and into the "real world;" and, by the time these episodes were written and produced, the characters were no longer fresh. The loss of Shannen Dougherty ("Brenda Walsh") was the series first major blow, and the series slipped badly her first season away (the fifth). However, after a weak start, Tiffani-Amber Thiessan ("Valerie Malone") became a very impressive cast member. However, Shannen brought an inventiveness to the series which was never regained.

The second major blow the series suffered was the loss of Kathleen Robertson ("Claire Arnold"), at the end of "the college years". While other original cast members had left, including Gabriella Carteris ("Andrea Zuckerman"), Carol Potter ("Cindy Walsh") and James Eckhouse ("Jim Walsh"), I felt the loss of Kathleen Robertson the most. Kathleen's "Claire Arnold" was a fascinating blend of three of the main characters; she exhibited Brenda's daring, Kelly's poise and Donna's madcap sensuality. The show lost a lot of it's warmth with Kathleen's departure, as well as the (unfortunately) correct decision to place less emphasis on the older adult cast members. This happens in life as well as young adults leave school and are out on there own. The show also lost it's innocence when Donna (Tori Spelling) lost hers to David (Brian Austin Green).

The final blow to the series happened over two seasons. The departures of Luke Perry, Jason Priestly and Tiffani-Amber Thiessan badly shook the show, but for very different reasons. Luke Perry (Dylan McKay) brought a lot of romance to the show; Jason Priestly ("Brandon Walsh") brought a brash, crusading spirit; and Tiffan-Amber Thiessan brought a wholesome, mature sexiness that was sometimes at odds with the character she played. Worse, for their first seasons at least, the replacement characters, Vincent Young ("Noah Hunter"), Lindsay Price ("Janet Sosna"), Daniel Cosgrove ("Matt ) and Vanessa Marcel ("Gina") while all fine actors, did not bring the missing ingredients to their characters. While Season 9 was clearly the worst of the season (due mostly to unconvincing plotting), Season 10 was a triumph, starting strong and getting better every week. Lindsay Price shed the somewhat dowdy image of his first season and a half and showed how beautiful and sexy she can really be (not to the mention, the best natural figure of the female stars). Daniel Cosgrove gained stature as "Matt"; and, while never acquiring the "Brandon brashness," certainly captured Jason Walsh's earnestness. Most importantly, warmth and romance returned to the series. I watched the last episode wanting more and that's a great testimony to any show.

Here's my rating of the series pilot and 10 seasons

PILOT – ** ½ SEASON 1 - *** SEASON 2 - **** SEASON 3 - **** SEASON 4 - *** ½ SEASON 5 - ** ½ SEASON 6 - **** SEASON 7 - *** ½ SEASON 8 - **½ SEASON 9 - ** SEASON 10 ****

hit of its period, it remains charming. for courage to present many closed problems of teenagers. for its friendship spirit and nice characters. for art to be universal and to propose models. for music and beauty and drawings of dreams and a really good bad guy as new James Dean and a good guy , source of best solutions, for a new generation to hill of Hollywood and, sure, for the definition of freedom not only as state of soul but as guide for actions. it was beautiful and charming and fascinating. and, like each piece of a lost age, it is a precious memory. more important after you forget the details and discover than the years of youth are almost smoke and dust.

I did not watch much of the show when it was originally on TV. Now, about 25 years after it started I decided to watch something that "is 90's" and BH 90210 was the show that right away got into my head.

So I went through all the 10 seasons, now in my 30's and I must say I really enjoyed it. The fact that the actors were older than the characters doesn't bother one at this point anymore, actually it helped. It almost brought the feeling back of me watching the show about the older kids who are already in high school, just like it was back when I was 10 and caught a few episodes.

It is of course very cheesy, yet entertaining. One can see how Aaron Spelling started and set up the formula for the teen dramas that followed Beverly Hills. It is also great to see the 90's go by in their clothes and the things they live through.

I loved their high school years, but I enjoyed the show pretty much until Valerie left. After she was gone it went downhill for me, but by that time the show was almost over.

While Valerie was my favorite female character, David was my favorite guy. He was a sweet kid from the start, although he has done a lot of stupid things during the show. Most characters had their charm. But even though I liked the show pretty much until the end, when it came to the adult time most of the original cast has lost their charm. I liked Kelly at first, but in the final years of the show I couldn't stand her. Steve stopped being fun but an annoying guy who will have a kid. And when Dylan came back he seemed like an annoying parody of himself.

Still, the show is a classic for me. As somebody who once in a while likes to watch some cheesy soap, this was a good entertainment with a great cast that fitted the show very well and will always be the faces that I associate with the 90's pop culture.

When the show first premiered it, surprisingly, had a lot of depth. It dealt with the problems that most teenagers go through as they are going through high school (sex, drugs, racism, death and AIDS). The only thing that was different about it was the fact that it was set in upscale Beverly Hills. However, when the scene shifted to college, it became more of a soap opera along the lines of its distant cousin Melrose Place. I would rather look at the episodes from the first two seasons when the stories were all done in one episode than look at the garbage it eventually became.