Beverly Hills 90210: Little Known Facts About The Teen Classic

We all grew up watching teen dramas that dealt with the issues of our generations. These have changed obviously, with the advent of social media but the main ones involving love, friendship, and school haven’t changed. Each show depicted these such as The O.C., but in the 1990s the pinnacle of teen dramas was Beverly Hills, 90210. It embodied every issue that teens in the wealthy Hollywood neighborhood had to go through, and it provided an escape for every teen watching it from their own problems. Darren Star, who helmed the show, idolized the legendary John Hughes and his insight into the teenage psyche in his films such as The Breakfast Club. So, he decided to create the television version as an ode to him. The actors and actresses who played the characters on the cult classic also had their own issues, sometimes similar to their characters that were not made public. So, for all of you 90210 fans out there, have a look at some of the hidden things that were going on off-camera amongst the cast and production team.

The Walshes

The show focused on the Walsh twins, Brenda, and Brandon who moved to Beverly Hills because their father got a job in the area. This move and the subsequent drama created when the two arrived at school, is the premise for the beginning of the series.

The house used as their home in Beverly Hills wasn’t actually in the 90210 zip code but was in Altadena, 30 miles away.

Everyone’s Favorite Curly Mullet

Steve Zanders played by Ian Ziering was actually going to take a pass on his role because he felt that the show wasn’t focused on anything substantial. He wanted to use his acting chops for more than just a puff piece which seemed to be little more than a teenage soap opera. And while it did have elements of this he realized that he was not in a position to turn his nose up at a leading role.

As he read more of the pilot script he realized that the show would actually tackle some major issues felt by teens, and he wanted to play his part in this. Good choice!

Auditioning Ain’t Easy

Brenda Walsh played by the talented Shannen Doherty almost did not get her role. When she came in to read for Walsh’s character she did not feel very confident in her portrayal of the character and the lines she read. She walked out of the casting room with a feeling of dejection. Clearly, this was not a sentiment shared by the casting team, and she subsequently got a call back for the role and eventually was given the part.

Sometimes going in with low expectations makes it easier to exceed them and obviously, Shannen did. 90210 would not have been the same without her.

If You’re Not First, You’re Last

Brenda Walsh’s twin brother, Brandon was actually not cast until the very end of the casting call. You would think that her twin brother would be quite an important character to cast, but it seemed finding the right Brandon was not as easy. Jason Priestley was subsequently given the role of Brandon literally right before they started shooting the series.

He had only three days to have a look at his lines and memorize them before he had to do his first read through. All the other characters had been cast by the time he was presented with his role.

The Bad Boy

The late Luke Perry played the iconic role of Dylan McKay, who was the quintessential rebel without a cause on the show. His role as Dylan was actually only supposed to be temporary and was going to be written off pretty quickly. However, Perry’s talent and good looks quickly stole the audience’s hearts and Darren Star decided to keep him on the show and the writer’s pool quickly adapted the scripts and storylines to reflect this.

We’re glad that Perry has been immortalized like this, and we can remember him through his excellent work on 90210 and many other productions.

Pseudonym

Aaron Spelling, one of Hollywood’s greatest television producers of all time, was the primary producer on 90210. He also has a daughter, Tori Spelling who is a household name now, although at the time she was not. In fact, she did not want to capitalize on her surname so she changed it in order to land her role on his show.

It’s possible the person in charge of casting knew who she was, but that is a secret still being closely guarded it seems!

Tori Spelling

Donna Martin quickly became one of the main characters on the show, and like Dylan, she was meant to be written off, but again this was not the case. Her famous father seemed to have played a role in her character’s development as she was never involved with any romantic scandals.

She was portrayed as the wholesome one, so it seems. Daddy gets what daddy wants (especially if he is the producer in Tori Spelling’s case).

Age Is But A Number

Andrea Zuckerman played by Gabrielle Carteris was nowhere near close to being the 16-year-old she was supposed to be portraying. In fact, she was a whopping 13 years older ringing it at 29 years old.

This was a heavily guarded secret as the audience may have had trouble empathizing with her character if they knew she was so much older than them. She finally admitted her age after she had been on the show for a few years.

Keeping it PG

The network commissioning the series – Fox, did not want anything of a less than moral nature airing. So, in order to allow for the fact that Brenda and Dylan decided to take their relationship to the next level, they demanded that the two deal with the consequences of their so-called salacious actions.

The writers did not want teens to think that this was abnormal behavior, and instead just showed that the couple loved each other and their actions were an expression of that love.

Making Strides

The show was beginning to tackle some taboo subjects that lots of groups found morally reprehensible. Due to this, the show began to receive some threats, one such threat actually involved the planting of a bomb on set.

The fact that the show became a target for such actions told the production team and the cast that the show had real clout and was rifling some feathers which were their intention. It was not just some fluff piece.

High School Drama

Not everything was all hunky dory behind the scenes. In fact, some of the cast members actively despised each other. There was some real bad blood between two castmates in particular: Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty. Apparently, the two would have screaming matches on set, and from the sounds of things truly disliked each other which made for some tense times.

It seems like it was high school on and off screen, and these actresses were well out of high school at this point.

Offscreen Romance

Two of the onscreen characters actually ended up dating offscreen. This is not unexpected, it must be hard to have a fake romance on screen and then walk off the set. It seems like proximity was in play for Jason Priestley and Christine Elise. Jason actively admits that Christine was his first real girlfriend outside of the typical high school flings.

Maybe they learned a thing or two from their onscreen romance, it definitely seems like they had amazing chemistry.

Sunglass Ban

There were no sunglasses at night happening on this set. Aaron Spelling abhorred them, even in sunny scenes actors were not allowed to wear them. Spelling did have a good reason for this, and it was not an aesthetic thing. He thought that the actors would not be able to draw the audience in and emote well if they could not see their full facial expressions.

So, all the times you see the characters squinting in the sun just remember it was all for you!

Continuity

Those feathered bangs, curly mullets, and blonde dye jobs stayed pretty static throughout the series, didn’t they? Well, this was definitely not the stars choice but was actually something that was expected of them. In order to provide continuity throughout the series, Aaron Spelling wanted the characters to maintain their everyday appearance.

So, this meant no changes to their hairstyles or hair colors. It seems like there were a lot of rules that had to be followed on this set, but they all contributed to its success.

Hilary Swank Did A Brief Stint

Academy Award winner Hilary Swank also did a brief stint on the show, but she did not become a fan favorite like some of the cast and was quickly written off the show. One could even say she was fired. Her character, Carly Reynolds was blondie Steve Sanders’ lady love.

She was not fired because she was a bad actress though, or difficult, it was simply that the audience preferred seeing Steve single and ready to mingle.

Tantrums On Set

Steve Sanders’ character often did not have a lot of dialogue with any substance to it, so the writers decided to give him some good lines, which actor Ian Ziering really appreciated. He finally got a chance to put his acting chops to work. However, after filming the scene they ultimately decided to cut them.

Ian’s response? Destroying the insides of his trailer as a way to take out his frustration. Probably not the most effective way to relay your opinion.

A Reunion

While some of the characters left the show like Jason’s Brandon, there has been talk of a reunion for 2019. Sadly, Luke Perry will not be there as he passed away suddenly in March of this year from a massive stroke, and Shannen Doherty does not want to sign on, but the other 6 former core castmates plan to make a return.

We are excited to see where our favorite characters ended up, and who they ended up with!