Life imitates art: Melrose Place edition

90210 was the same way at first, with two high school twins from Minnesota trying to adjust to living in Beverly Hills and teens dealing with problems such as parental divorce and teen pregnancy. Soon it became just a soap opera of high school and college kids.

 

Yeah, I remember that's how they hyped it up. I remember a couple of women came in halfway through the viewing, all nervous and asked who died. When they were told, they were like, "Who?"

 

Crazy to think that their LOWEST episode number during the run was 27. Usually more than 30. Shows today rarely crack 24.

 

Unlike Melrose Place, though, that first year of Beverly Hills 90210 was really, really good. A sweet, earnest show with some real heart. Brandon befriends the troubled surfer (and meets Dylan). Brenda falls for troubled Dylan at his hotel (where Jack McKay is not the Jack McKay who doesn't get blown up). Brenda watches Kelly's drug-addicted Mom (also not her original Mom) fall apart on stage and realizes her boring Mom is fine. Cindy nearly cheats on Jim with her ex-flame photographer. Brandon doinks his star-struck Minnesota girlfriend. I'll watch those episodes anytime. The show jumped the shark when Emily Valentine tried burning the town down.

 

Yeah, I'm so old I watched the pilot episode and thought this is kind of an interesting show, then....Peyton Place. Didn't watch religiously but enough to be conversant with the opposite sex

 

I thought she was great in The Client Side Out.

 

I even liked the Cowboy Scott dying episode, because it was showing David trying to put on a brave face for everyone, when in reality, he was falling apart inside.

Emily just sucked the life out of the show. She, and the freshman girl who Brandon was hooking up with both were wet blankets.

 

Kathy Ireland was in that movie, too. I thought it was ridiculous that Kathy Ireland was in a beach-oriented movie and never once appeared in a swimsuit. Courtney Thorne-Smith had to suffice, and that was OK, too.

 

David did show some surprising depth there, but it was negated by the gang pretending to give a shit about a guy they, other than Brandon and Dylan (who defended him from bullies in Dylan's debut) barely even knew.

I didn't mind Nikki, but it was absolutely hilarious that she was played by an actress who played a teenager in the original Vacation eight or nine years earlier.

 

Luke Perry is the Julio Franco/Bartolo Colon of actors. There is no way he's only 51. He looked 35 in 1990.

 

You will not speak ill of Dana Barron, aka The Original Audrey Griswold.

She’s easily a top 5 ‘80s crush.