Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210 (often referred to by its short title, 90210) is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling under his production company Spelling Television. The series ran for ten seasons on Fox from October 4, 1990, to May 17, 2000, and is the first of six television series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise. The series follows the lives of a group of friends living in Beverly Hills, California, as they transition from high school to college and into the adult world. "90210" refers to one of the city's five ZIP codes.

The initial premise of the show was based on the adjustment and culture shock that twins Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) experienced when they and their parents, Jim (James Eckhouse) and Cindy (Carol Potter), moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Beverly Hills, California. In addition to chronicling the characters' friendships and romantic relationships, the show addressed topical issues such as sex, date rape, homophobia, animal rights, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, eating disorders, racism (including antisemitism), teenage suicide, teenage pregnancy, and AIDS.

After poor ratings during its first season, the series gained popularity during the summer of 1991, when Fox aired a special "summer season" of the show while most other series were in reruns. Viewership increased dramatically, and 90210 became one of Fox's top shows when it returned that fall. The show became a global pop culture phenomenon with its cast members, particularly Jason Priestley and Luke Perry, who became teen idols; the series also made actresses Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth household names in the United States. The show is credited with creating or popularizing the teen soap genre that many other successful television shows followed in the years to come.

The show had many cast changes; Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green, and Ian Ziering were the only actors to appear during its entire run and appeared on the first episode of the spin-off Melrose Place. On February 27, 2019, it was announced that a six-episode reboot had been ordered by Fox and that the show would simply be titled BH90210. The revival premiered on Fox on August 7, 2019, and was cancelled on November 7, 2019.

Genre

• Teen drama
• Soap opera

Created by Darren Star

Starring

• Jason Priestley
• Shannen Doherty
• Jennie Garth
• Ian Ziering
• Gabrielle Carteris
• Luke Perry
• Brian Austin Green
• Douglas Emerson
• Tori Spelling
• Carol Potter
• James Eckhouse
• Joe E. Tata
• Mark Damon Espinoza
• Kathleen Robertson
• Tiffani-Amber Thiessen
• Jamie Walters
• Hilary Swank
• Vincent Young
• Lindsay Price
• Daniel Cosgrove
• Vanessa Marcil

Theme music composer John E. Davis
Composer Jay Gruska

Executive producers

• Aaron Spelling
• E. Duke Vincent
• Charles Rosin
• Darren Star
• Steve Wasserman
• Jessica Klein
• Paul Waigner
• Larry Mollin
• Jason Priestley
• Laurie McCarthy
• John Eisendrath
• Doug Steinberg
• Michael Braverman
• Brian Austin Green
• Ian Ziering

Series overview

The series begins with the introduction of the Walsh family—Jim, Cindy, Brandon, and Brenda—who have recently moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Beverly Hills, California, as a result of Jim's job promotion. In the first episode, Brandon and Brenda begin attending West Beverly Hills High School, where they befriend several classmates: the self-centered and promiscuous Kelly Taylor, carefree and spoiled Steve Sanders, smart and driven Andrea Zuckerman, ditzy and virtuous Donna Martin, brooding loner Dylan McKay, and younger and naive students David Silver and Scott Scanlon. The show follows the siblings as they bear witness and take part in the dramatic lives that their wealthy and privileged peers lead.

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 with 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.

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 titled 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 a 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.