90210 revival offers fresh spin on reboots
90210 pals return with a different take on the traditional TV reboot
Don’t knock those retro fan conventions.
It took one to get the original gang from Fox’s 1990s high school teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210 — Brandon and Brenda Walsh (Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering), Donna Martin (Tori Spelling), David Silver (Brian Austin Green) and Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris) — back together again.
“We were at a ’90s fan convention,” said Priestley, 49. “So it was us and New Kids on the Block, seriously! It was super fun. And just the response to us and some other crazy antics that happened at that convention and just the amount of fun we had together got us all thinking that maybe there was something to it.”
Now the actors play heightened versions of themselves acting in a reboot of their old series (which ran from 1990 to 2000) on the new BH90210, which had its debut Wednesday on Fox and Global.
“It’s not a typical reboot,” Priestley said. “It’s a very different take on what a reboot could be. It’s ( behind-the-scenes). The conceit of the show is in this magical age of reboots in which we live, ‘What if Jason Priestley and Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling and Ian Ziering got together and tried to get a reboot made of their show from the ’90s? What would that look like?’ And that’s how the show begins. It’s a comedic-drama, heavy on the comedic.”
Sadly missing from BH90210 is the character of Dylan McKay, following the death of actor Luke Perry in March from a stroke at the age of 52.
But Perry was committed to appearing on BH90210 as much as his schedule shooting in Vancouver for The CW’s Riverdale would have allowed.
“He was there with us,” said Priestley of Perry being at the ’90s convention. “I mean Luke obviously being on Riverdale meant legally he could only do a certain amount with us. But he’d been a part of the development of the show with us and he was going to do as much as he could.”
Priestley said Perry was his closest friend on the ’90s show, and BH90210 will pay homage to the late actor.
“Luke’s passing affected us all very deeply. Myself, very much so,” Priestley said. “Luke was personally a very dear friend of mine. And we are dealing with it. They’re tricky waters to navigate. You want to deal with it. You have to recognize it. You want to make sure you deal with it tastefully and not exploitatively. I think we’ve dealt with it correctly. I hope so anyway. It’s difficult to know what’s right. I’ve never had to do this before. So you just do what you think is right.”
Riverdale has already announced that its season 4 première Oct. 9 will feature Doherty in “a special role” in a tribute episode to Perry.
Perry and Riverdale executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had wanted Doherty to make a guest appearance since season 1.
“They were such good friends, and when we were putting together this tribute episode, we wanted to make it as special as possible, and so we asked Shannen to do a pivotal, super-emotional role,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “She read the script and immediately said ‘yes.’ It’s very impactful.”
Priestley is in Toronto also filming the fourth season of the Global show Private Eyes, in which he plays a retired hockey player-turned-private investigator.
“I’m very excited to get back to it,” said Priestley. “I would hope that we’re going to do more than just this one (more) season. The show is the No. 1 scripted drama in Canada and the show is performing incredibly well. It’s really gratifying to all of us that the show is resonating as well as it is.”