‘BH90210’ back with soapy parody

Cast promises ‘drama, comedy and soap’

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif, Aug 8, (RTRS): The cast of the 1990s hit “Beverly Hills, 90210” returns to US television on Wednesday, much older but promising lots of the juicy drama that made their teenage characters famous.

The six, one-hour episodes of “BH90210” on the Fox broadcast network are not a typical remake. The series features seven of the original stars playing exaggerated versions of their real-life selves who reunite to create a reboot of the show that had been a pop culture phenomenon.

The idea originated with co-stars Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling and was fleshed out with input from the rest of the returning cast, the actors said.

“We wanted to leave it to the audience to decipher what’s real, what’s based on something real, what’s completely fictionalized,” Spelling said at a Television Critics Association event where networks preview new shows.

“We think they will have a lot of fun doing that,” she added.

Spelling described the tone of the series as “a blend of drama, comedy and soap”. Garth emphasized the soap part of the formula, dubbing it a “soapedy”.

The series also squeezes in dream sequences and throwbacks to the original shows to feed fan nostalgia, the actors said.

Critics have generally embraced the approach. Sixty-five percent of reviews were positive on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

“As midlife crises go, you could do a lot worse than Fox’s ‘BH90210’, a clever and intentionally cheesy reunion,” wrote Hank Stuever of The Washington Post.

“Beverly Hills, 90210”, which aired from 1990 to 2000, told the story of a group of high school students living the sweet life amid Southern California affluence while dealing with teen angst, as well as more serious issues such as date rape, AIDS and teen pregnancy.

Now, the characters face challenges such as broken marriages and growing older and wondering if they have fulfilled their potential, star Gabrielle Carteris said.

Also returning are Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green.

Doherty said she had rejected offers to reunite with the cast on screen until the sudden death of co-star Luke Perry, who died in March following a stroke at age 52. Perry’s death will be addressed in the new series.

Fantasies

“When Luke passed away, things drastically changed for me,” Doherty said. “It felt like it was a great opportunity to honor him. We went on this amazing journey together, to sort of heal through losing someone who means the world to us.”

If you’re watching Fox’s “BH90210” to see if Donna and David got hitched or more pressingly Dylan’s fate, you’ll have to save such fantasies for fan fiction.

That’s because this “Beverly Hills, 90210” revival, which premiered, is more of a soapy parody, giving the actors behind our favorite characters the space to play versions of themselves while poking fun at the public personas, rabid fans and roles that made them famous. The end result is a mostly fun but sometimes uneven venture into territory in which not all of the surviving headliners are creatively comfortable. Making things more complicated, all of the stars are executive producers on the series so the breadth of relatable vulnerability is limited.

For instance, Jason Priestly could actually be the worst guy in the world but his performance as a hot head who punches actors and cheats on his fictional wife (Vanessa Lachey) falls flat. Shannen Doherty also serves very little purpose in the first two installments the network previewed for critics other than to pop in and out and loom over her former costars like a bad smell. A couple of quick nods to the late Luke Perry, who died following the complications from a stroke earlier this year, are also too few and far between.

In contrast, Brian Austin Green is quite likeable as a stay-at-home dad who embraces the realization that his wife Shay (La La Anthony) is a pop singer with more star power and influence than him. The real Green is of course married to cinematic siren Megan Fox.

Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth, are also very convincing as a couple of friends and former teen stars trying to deftly navigate life as grown women, wives and mothers. Every exchange between them feels heartfelt and even when Garth insults Spelling for her lack of practical life skills during an argument, the dig isn’t mean-spirited. If anything, Spelling and Garth embrace the schadenfreude of their real lives to an excruciating extent.

Like her “BH90210” persona, Spelling has had problems with money and keeping a job and Garth has been married three times and has a daughter who is pursuing an acting career. Rumors and innuendo about Spelling’s actual husband Dean McDermott have also been tossed about in the tabloids, with some wondering if he married the daughter of super producer Aaron Spelling for financial reasons.