Beverly Hills 90210
Beverly Hills 90210 was a popular primetime television soap opera that aired from 1990 to 2000 on the Fox Network. The show followed the lives of a group of teenagers living in the posh, star-studded Southern California community of its title. The show was created by producers Aaron Spelling and Darren Star. The "90210" in the title refers to the suburb's zip code.
The original central characters were twins Brandon (played by Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (played by Shannen Doherty), who moved with their parents, Jim and Cindy, from the Twin Cities to Beverly Hills.
Although the first season had low ratings, Fox stuck by 90210, even re-launching it in 1991 with an innovative summer mini-season. Viewership increased dramatically and cast members Priestley and Luke Perry became instant teen idols.
The infamous Melrose Place was initially a spinoff from the show. In latter seasons, the success of Melrose Place's development into an ultra-sensationalistic soap opera influenced the direction of its predecessors, which also headed off into the same direction.
Star's later series Mexico with Dylan and gets caught, smokes, gets involved in a love triangle, almost dies in a plane crash, gets arrested for raiding an animal test lab.)
- Kelly Taylor (Played by Jennie Garth, involved in love triangle with Dylan and Brenda, diet pill abuser, was stuck in a fire at Steve's house, became involved in a cult, uses cocaine, is date-raped and has a miscarriage. May never be able to have children.)
- Steve Sanders (Played by Ian Ziering, steals tests, falsely accused of date rape, searches for roots, finds out mother was killed in car crash, steroids, hacker, his house caught fire, steals Brandon's tests, pot user.)
- Andrea Zuckerman (played by Gabrielle Carteris, attends out of district school, breaks legs in car crash, unplanned pregnancy, marital problems.)
- Dylan McKay (Played by Perry, surfing accident, alcohol, school dropout, wrongly accused of cheating on SAT tests, father dies in car bombing right in front of his eyes, involved in triangle with Brenda and Kelly, gets into coke and heroin, has car accident, marries daughter of the reputed mob figure who arranged his father's murder, wife gets killed by gunmen hired by her father in an attempt to kill him.)
- David Silver (Played by Brian Austin Green, takes Steve's car without a license and crashes it, friend dies in accidental shooting, psychologically unstable mother, uses speed and crack, gambling.)
- Donna Martin (Played by Tori Spelling (daughter of Aaron Spelling) , low SAT score, learning disability, drinking, gets expelled from school, almost raped and pushed down stairs by abusive boyfriend, held at gun point on TV station, has memory blockage and walks out during college final exam, grandmother and father die of heart attacks, drugs, frequently stalked.)
- Valerie Malone (Played by Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, pot smoker, tries to steal $100,000, tries to commit suicide.)
Trivia
- As a result of the show, 90210 is the most familiar ZIP code for people who live outside the United States. It is often used to try US-only services like Google Local.
