Beverly Hills, 90210 at 36: The Template That Became a Machine

“Beverly Hills, 90210” ran for 10 seasons and 284 episodes on FOX, from October 4, 1990, to May 17, 2000. It was created by Aaron Spelling and Darren Star, and it built the most durable teen franchise American television has produced. It is also, watched now, a show at war with itself: a drama about teenagers in one of the richest places in the country that keeps insisting money is not the point.

West Beverly Hills High and the class of 1993

The premise is simple and the show rarely improved on it. A group of teenagers live in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California, attend the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School, and then the fictitious California University after graduation. That is the whole engine. The school is fake, the money is real, and the gap between those two facts is where the series lives.

The cast was large and, for a while, genuinely well used. Jennie Garth played Kelly Taylor. Ian Ziering played Steve Sanders. Luke Perry played Dylan McKay. Brian Austin Green played David Silver. Tori Spelling played Donna Martin. Vincent Young played Noah Hunter. Lindsay Price played Janet Sosna. Daniel Cosgrove played Matt Durning.

Garth’s Kelly is the spine of the thing. She is the most widely seen character in the wider franchise, instrumental in launching two spin-offs, and she appears in more episodes than anyone else across the continuity. That is not an accident of scheduling. Kelly is the character the show trusts to carry a bad year.

A franchise that grew in real time

The continuity progresses in real time, which was introduced in 1990 with the debut of Darren Star’s teen drama. After the series became a worldwide success in 1991, Star expanded it. “Melrose Place” arrived in 1992, a drama about young adults in Los Angeles. “Models Inc.” aired from June 1994 to March 1995.

Then the franchise went quiet for a decade and came back twice. “90210,” the fourth entry, was developed by Rob Thomas, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, and premiered on The CW on September 2, 2008. A follow-up to “Melrose Place” debuted on The CW on September 8, 2009, and concluded in April 2010. A six-episode revival, “BH90210,” was ordered by FOX in February 2019 and sits outside the continuity.

Four actors stayed for a show’s entire run: Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering. Grant Show is the only performer who appeared in all three of the original series. That kind of loyalty is rare, and it shows on screen — the later seasons have a worn-in quality the early ones lack.

Luke Perry and the James Dean problem

The first series made careers. Jason Priestley earned Golden Globe nominations and began a directing career through the show. Luke Perry won acclaim and drew comparisons to James Dean. That comparison was always flattering and always a little unfair; Perry’s Dylan McKay is a moody kid with a motorcycle, not a rebel with a cause, and the show never quite decides whether to indulge the myth or undercut it.

The franchise kept importing established names as it went. Heather Locklear, a former “Dynasty” and “T. J. Hooker” star, joined “Melrose Place,” and her performance has been called one of the most prominent of that show. Alyssa Milano, a former child actress, also starred. “Models Inc.” featured former “Dallas” actress Linda Gray and later added “Dynasty” veteran Emma Samms.

Daytime television supplied a steady pipeline: Kristian Alfonso, Stephen Nichols, Jack Wagner and Vanessa Marcil all made appearances. In 2009, singer-actress Ashlee Simpson joined the proposed fifth series as Violet Foster. Laura Leighton was later announced to reprise her role as Sydney Andrews, despite the character having apparently died during the original series. The Hollywood Reporter called Sydney “one of the most popular characters” from the previous show.

Some characters have appeared in multiple shows throughout the continuity.

That line is doing more work than it looks like. It is the whole business model in nine words.

What the show gets right, and what it dodges

The early seasons work because they are small. A group of kids, a fake high school, a real zip code. The show is at its best when it treats Beverly Hills as a place where teenagers happen to live rather than as a theme. The class stuff is background, and it should stay background.

It does not always stay background. The series has a habit of announcing its own importance — a Very Special Episode instinct that ages badly. The college years lose the pressure of high school and never find a replacement. By the time the cast is meant to be adults, the show is running on the affection the audience already has, which is a real fuel source but a finite one.

The performances hold up better than the plots. Garth is the most reliable, and her centrality across the franchise is earned rather than assigned. Ziering plays Steve as a rich kid who never learned to be interesting, which is a harder job than it sounds. Green’s David Silver grows more than any other character on paper, and Green mostly keeps up. Tori Spelling’s Donna Martin became the show’s most mocked figure and also its most recognizable one, which is its own kind of achievement.

The score

“Beverly Hills, 90210” earns a 7.3 of 10. Not a great drama, and never pretending to be one at its best. What it is: the template. Ten seasons, 284 episodes, a real-time continuity that spun into five more shows, and a casting pipeline that pulled from soap operas, prime-time soaps and pop music without ever losing its own center.

The score reflects that split honestly. The show’s influence is a 9. Its craft is closer to a 6. The middle is where it lives.

The part worth watching is the first four seasons, before the franchise logic takes over and the characters start existing to launch other characters. After that, it becomes a machine — a well-built one, but a machine. That is not a knock on the people in it. It is what happens when a teen drama becomes a business, and “Beverly Hills, 90210” became a business faster and more completely than anything else on television at the time.

Aaron Spelling · Beverly Hills 90210 · Darren Star · Jennie Garth · teen drama · TV Review