Beverly Hills, 90210 (often referred to by its short title, 90210^[2][3][4]) 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.^[5]

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.^[6][7] 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.^[8][9]

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.^[10] 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.^[11][12] The revival premiered on Fox on August 7, 2019, and was cancelled on November 7, 2019.^[13]

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.^[14][15]

Cast notes

Torand Productions was used by the production company for several seasons on the show. "Torand" is derived from the first several letters of Aaron Spelling's first and second children, Tori and Randy.^{[citation needed]}

The original name for the show, used during shooting of the original pilot in March and April 1990, was Doing Time in Beverly Hills;^[16] later, the tentative title for the show changed to Class of Beverly Hills. The show's episodes were issue-based until the producers decided it should become a teen soap opera. In the first season, the teenage characters (aside from David Silver and Scott Scanlon) were said to be in the eleventh grade, but due to the success of the show, their ages were retconned to be one year younger in the second season, making them tenth graders in the first.

Jennie Garth had to audition five times for the role of Kelly Taylor^[17] and was the first to be cast on the show.^[18] Gabrielle Carteris felt that she was too old to play a high school student. She first auditioned for Brenda because she thought that being a real-life twin would help her chances, but the producers felt that she would be better for the part of Andrea.^[19]

When Tori Spelling (Aaron Spelling's daughter) auditioned for the show, she used the name Tori Mitchell and auditioned for the role of Kelly Taylor, but she was eventually recognized and was instead cast as Donna Martin.^[20] Tori Spelling brought Shannen Doherty to her father's attention after seeing Doherty's movie Heathers and being impressed with her performance.^[21]

Lyman Ward was originally cast as Jim Walsh in the pilot but was replaced by James Eckhouse, and Ward's scenes were cut and re-shot with Eckhouse. Kristin Dattilo was also up for the role of Brenda Walsh, but she turned it down. She later guest starred as Melissa Coolidge in an episode of the first season.

Additionally, Luke Perry had auditioned for the role of Steve Sanders, but the role eventually went to Ian Ziering before Perry was cast as Dylan McKay. Perry's character was not an original cast member of the show, and he was first featured in the show's second episode. He was originally intended to only appear in one story arc, for one or two episodes. Fox was initially reluctant to have him included as a regular, but Aaron Spelling felt differently and gave Perry a bigger role during the first two years until the network was won over.

In the first season, when Donna tries out for school D.J., she is referred to as Donna Morgan. Throughout the rest of the show, her name is Donna Martin.

In addition, in the first season Donna's mother was named Nancy Martin and played by actress Jordana Capra. When she was reintroduced in season two, she was named Felice Martin and was played by actress Katherine Cannon.

In the pilot episode, the role of Jackie Taylor was played by Pamela Galloway and by Ann Gillespie for the rest of the series. Terence Ford and Arthur Brooks portrayed Dylan's father, Jack McKay, in two episodes before Josh Taylor assumed the role.

The series was produced in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. During the 10 years the series was in production it was filmed in a warehouse complex in Van Nuys, the interiors of the series as well as the exteriors of the Peach Pit parking lot and P.P.A.D. club entrance were all located off the 15000 block of Calvert Street. An unmarked gated studio entrance now stands at this address, but the exterior brick facing of the P.P.A.D. is still visible down the alley, on the side of the building.

Walsh House

Peach Pit

Beverly Hill High School

California University

Kelly & Donna beach house

Locations in script

The studio building complex has since been the home to various projects including the 2006 CBS series Jericho, which guest starred James Eckhouse in one episode. Until February 2010, the CW series Melrose Place was also produced at the original 90210 Calvert studios.^[28] Post-production services for Beverly Hills, 90210 were provided by LaserPacific for all seasons.^{[citation needed]}

Many changes were made after the pilot episode. The producers first used a location that was used only once during the pilot episode for the Walsh house, that was located in a gated community of Brentwood.^{[citation needed]} After the pilot episode the Walsh house was moved to Altadena, California.^{[citation needed]} The house used for Dylan's home in the show is located in the same Altadena neighborhood.^{[citation needed]}

Three locations were used for the frontage of The Peach Pit during the show's ten-year history. The original location, on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, was only used in the first few episodes of season one, then was changed to a different location for the rest of that season. When the Peach Pit was fictionally remodeled during season two, the producers used Rose City Diner in Pasadena, California, to film the exterior of the gang's hangout, and it remained the same throughout the rest of the show's run.^{[citation needed]}

Most of the filming during the second season of the summer season at the Beverly Hills Beach Club took place in Santa Monica, at the old Sand and Sea Beach Club. The beach club used in the show was the very same beach club that was used during one summer season of Saved by the Bell.^[29]

The filming location for West Beverly High School was in the middle class community of Torrance at Torrance High School, located in the 90501 zip code. Torrance High can also be seen in other shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

When the 90210 characters began attending the then-fictitious California University in the show's fourth season, the scenes around campus were actually filmed at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. Kelly and Donna's beach house used in the show is located in Hermosa Beach.^[30] The Golden Oak Ranch, outside Santa Clarita, was also used for filming.^[31]

Beverly Hills, 90210 originally aired from October 4, 1990, to May 17, 2000, on Fox in the United States. The show aired Thursday at 9:00 pm for the first two seasons and Wednesday at 8:00 pm for the rest of its run.

Prior to the premiere of Beverly Hills, 90210, Glory Days was airing on Thursdays at 9:00 pm. After the show had moved to Wednesday, where Fox did not have regular programming, The Heights took over the timeslot. After Beverly Hills, 90210 left Fox in 2000, it went to air reruns on syndication and was replaced by Malcolm in the Middle and Normal, Ohio.

Seasons 2 and 3 featured all new summer episodes that aired during July and August before the regular fall episodes started in September. At the beginning of the third season, in July and August 1992, all new summer episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 were playing during the series new time slot of Wednesdays at 8pm but viewers could see repeats from Beverly Hills, 90210's first season in the original time slot of Thursdays at 9pm. The Fox Network was heavily promoting the new time slot so viewers could find the show. The seventh season started earlier than usual because of the 1996 Olympics and the MLB Playoffs on Fox during the month of October.^{[citation needed]}

At various times since 1998, reruns of the show have aired in syndication, on FX until 2005. Later SoapNet aired reruns of the show seven days a week until 2013. The syndicated episodes featured the show's original music, unlike the DVD and Hulu releases. Since 2014, Pop airs reruns of the show with two back-to-back episodes, sometimes three or four. The syndicated episodes that are featured on this network however, do not use the show's original music with the content mostly taken from the DVD releases.

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named the show #20 on its list of top 100 TV shows in the past 25 years.^[37] The magazine also named the theme music #15 on its list of top 25 TV themes in the past 25 years,^[38] and the "90210 Sideburns" #50 on its list of Pop Culture Moments that Rocked Fashion.^[39] The show was named one of the Best School Shows of All Time by AOL TV.^[40]

The first-season episode "Spring Dance" caused outrage from many parents after the character of Brenda loses her virginity to Dylan. Parents were offended by the fact that Brenda suffers no consequences and shows no remorse for having had sex, something unusual for network television in 1991.^[41] After a slew of angry phone calls to the network, Fox decided to placate upset viewers by featuring a pregnancy scare for Brenda and Dylan in the second season, as a means of "punishing" the teenagers for their decision.^[42] Executive Producer Charles Rosin criticized this decision, saying "Someday I will write a long article about the censorship that occurred after Brenda lost her virginity at the Spring Dance to her boyfriend (who had been AIDS tested) because she was happy and not full of remorse."^[43]

In February 1992, at the height of the show's popularity, the three main stars Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone.^[2][44]

The following is a list of all home video releases for Beverly Hills, 90210:

In December 2018 it was reported on Deadline Hollywood that a reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210 was being shopped around to different networks.^[52] The project was initially developed by Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth in conjunction with CBS Television Studios, and was first hinted at by Spelling on her Instagram page the previous March.^[53] The bulk of the original cast is attached, including Garth, Spelling, Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green and Gabrielle Carteris. CBS confirmed on December 18 that the project was in "early development", adding "We aren't confirming much detail except that it is an untraditional take on a reboot with some of the original cast".^[53]

On February 1, 2019, Spelling confirmed that a reboot of the show was underway, stating,

It is the OG crew back together, and we're playing heightened versions of ourselves. The fans will be pleasantly surprised, though, because we will intercut that with scenes from the show. So it'll be a whole ensemble cast.^[54]

She added that "almost everybody" from the original cast was set to return, with Luke Perry's participation initially presumed to be limited because of his work on Riverdale until his death on March 4.

Following Perry's death, CBS Television executive David Stapf said the new series would honor him in some way.^[55] Stapf also confirmed Spelling pitched the idea of a new TV show reuniting the original cast.

On February 27, 2019, it was announced that a six-episode reboot had been ordered by Fox.^[11] According to a press release on April 26, 2019, the revival — retitled as BH90210 — would feature the cast playing "heightened versions of themselves" in an irreverent drama "inspired by their real lives and relationships with each other."^[56] On May 8, 2019, it was announced that the reboot would premiere on August 7, 2019, at 9/8c on Fox.^[57] It was announced on November 7, 2019, that there would not be a season 2 of the reboot.^[58]