90210

For some reason, when new shows come on television, I rarely watch them right away. Such was the case earlier this year with Friends, as my regular readers will know.

That was also the case with Beverly Hills 90210 back when I was in college. I started watching that show sometime in 1994 or 1995, once it reached syndication. Quite frankly, what got me into the original show was Jennie Garth (Kelly Taylor) and Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea Zuckerman) whom I found incredibly attractive. I'm not so sure what happened to Gabrielle Carteris or what she looks like these days, but Jennie Garth is still hot (like last year when she did Dancing with the Stars).

Once I got into the show, I asked my wife (at the time) to tape it for me every day, since my job required me to work second shift two to three times per week. So for a time I was watching it in syndication and watching the new shows as they would come out weekly, starting with, I think, season five through season nine. I don't think I ever bothered with the final season, season ten.



Recently and much to my delight, I managed to acquire the first two seasons of the original Beverly Hills 90210 at a very reasonable price. I had seen some of the episodes but not all of them.

Did you know that a pre-"Friends" Matthew Perry has a guest starring role near the end of season one? Or that Vivica A. Fox has a guest spot in the first third of season two episodes?

Whether you were a fan of that show or not, it was one of those foundational shows that solidified FOX network as viable in comparison to the big three of ABC, CBS and NBC. You know, back in the day when there weren't a gazillion channels on cable and there was no such thing as tiers of channels that you could order from the cable company. When people said that there was no need for a fourth major network.


Which brings me to tonight's series premiere of 90210, the new spin off series I've been seeing the previews for all summer. I'm watching it now as I write this and I'm not sure what to make of it so far. Some of the characters from the old series have parts in this series and some of the characters of this series are the children of the kids in the old series. There are so many characters and plot lines in this two-hour episode that I'm not sure which characters we're supposed to like and which we're not.

I'm going to try and get into this show but my gut feeling is that it won't last but two or three seasons, if that. One of the reasons the original 90210 did so well at first was because the show was very topical and issues oriented for the first three plus seasons, blending the issues with the drama and character stories, then moving into pure glitz, glam and evening soap-opera plot-lines. This new show is getting into the soap opera style from the get go.

Yes, I know that I skipped tonight's Big Brother episode to watch 90210 and that's okay. I know I can watch BB tomorrow on cbs.com.

Anyway, I enjoyed watching the first two seasons of the original BH 90210, which means that eventually I'll buy the other eight seasons but not right away. Seasons three through five are still way too expensive for my taste and seasons six through ten haven't even been released yet.

Don't you worry about me, though. I've found some other older television shows on DVD to occupy my time, which I'll blog about after I've watched them.