THE CAST OF 90210 ‘We’re Closer Than Ever’
The BH90210 costars talk to Us about their tight-knit friendships and how they’re honoring the late Luke Perry
Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling were determined to make BH90210 happen. Fans had been asking — well, begging — the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 to reunite on screen for nearly 20 years. And the real-life best friends had finally come up with a perfect premise. Instead of reviving the characters they had portrayed during the show’s 10-season run between 1990 and 2000, they’d play heightened versions of themselves. “Personally, it never made sense for me to go back and play Kelly Taylor,” explains Garth. “I felt like our audience deserved more, so when we came up with this fresh concept, we were all like, ‘Let’s do this!’”
Everyone was on board… except Shannen Doherty, who said she was “hesitant” to join Garth, Spelling and fellow alums Jason Priestley, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green and Gabrielle Carteris. The actress had left the original series in 1994 amid rumors of tension with her costars. Then, on March 4, tragedy struck. Luke Perry (who starred as beloved 90210 bad boy Dylan McKay) died suddenly at age 52 after a massive stroke. “When Luke passed away, things changed dramatically for me,” Doherty revealed during the TV Critics Association’s summer press tour. “So I thought it was the right time to do it,” she tells Us, “not only to honor a friend, but also to re-create something that was special to us, and special to the world.”
SEPARATE WAYS
A lot happened in the nearly two decades since the original show went off the air. While the cast remained friendly, their lives went in different directions. Spelling, Garth and Doherty got most of the attention
during the post-90210 years, thanks to personal and professional highs and lows. Spelling, 46, went on to star in multiple reality shows like
Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood
and True Tori, which focused on her life at home with husband Dean McDermott, 52, and their five kids, Liam, 12, Stella, 11, Hattie, 7, Finn, 6, and Beau, 2. Garth, 47, has seen her love life dominate headlines in recent years. She has three kids with her second husband, Peter Facinelli — daughters Luca, 22, Lola, 16, and Fiona, 12 — and she’s on her third marriage, to actor Dave Abrams, 38, with whom she reconciled after he filed for divorce in 2018. “I’m working hard on making my marriage supersuccessful,” she’s told Us. “I don’t want to fail again.”
Doherty, meanwhile, continued her TV reign with three seasons on the hit series Charmed but faced a major health crisis when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2015.
The 48-year-old star — who’s been married to photographer Kurt Iswarienko, 45, for nearly eight years — has been in remission since 2017.
HAPPY REUNION
Spelling and Garth had been working together on a show called Mystery Girls when the idea for the
90210 reboot struck. They spent two years hammering out the details and getting it ready for the small screen. “There’s a 90210 group text,” reveals Spelling, and that’s where the two pitched it. Soon, the wheels started turning, and everyone was contributing ideas. (Now Garth and Spelling share cocreator and executive producer titles, while the rest of the main cast are credited as producers.)
They knew they had to make their die-hard fans happy. “We felt like, if we’re finally going to do this, we want to get it right,” Spelling says. Adds Ziering, 55, who’s been part of the cult-favorite Sharknado franchise since it started in 2013, “This is a follow-up to an iconic series, so I felt a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver something that not only rang true to what people remember from the past but also offered something new for people who never saw it.” But once they got down to business, most of the stress melted away. “During writing sessions and table reads, it takes no time for us to get right back into it,” Garth told
Us in May. On screen and off, they still gel. While filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, they hung out often, with Doherty, Carteris and Green staying in the same luxury apartment complex and Spelling and Doherty hitting up trendy dim sum spot Blossom in early July. And during a taped interview with Us on Aug. 8, Doherty, Green and Ziering couldn’t stop cracking each other up. “You’re getting a peek into our actual relationships,” a giggling Doherty
WE’RE LIKE BROTHERS AND SISTERS. WE’RE FAMILY.” JENNIE GARTH TO US
said. “This is how close we are. All the playing and joking around… you’re seeing our camaraderie.”
MISSING PIECE
Of course, this triumphant reunion is also a somber one. “There’s a big
hole,” says Garth about Luke Perry’s
absence, and they continue to rely on one other as they grieve. “When he passed, I had everyone come to my house,” Carteris told at the Bentonville Film Festival in May. “We’ve all been talking about him and sharing moments.”
Fans noted that the show was dedicated to him, and there were some quiet nods throughout the premiere episode. “We don’t want to glorify his passing to make the show a success,” says Carteris, who’s served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild since 2016. “I don’t think Luke would want that. We tilt our head to the loss in a very respectful way.” Adds Garth: “I know that he loves what he’s seeing now.”
ART IMITATING LIFE
The show is full of humor, and the lighthearted take is helping the group heal. Viewers are left to wonder what’s real and what isn’t as the actors mercilessly poke fun at themselves (see above box) and try to cling to their success as teen stars. But there’s no question about the authenticity of the cast’s bond. “Our relationships are so meaningful,” says Garth. “There’s no getting away from it. I can always count on them,” she adds. “They really are true friends.”