I found a surprise waiting for me when I flipped on my Tivo this evening.  “Beverly Hills, 90210: The Final Goodbye” was in my Now Playing list. As many of you probably know, there’s been a lot of hype recently about the fact that there’s a new 90210 starting in September.  90210 for the next generation, I guess you could say. In any case, this seems to have brought about a spike in reruns and other spots featuring the original show… The one that I and many others over the age of 30 grew up with.

Laughing to myself, I instructed Tivo to play “The Final Goodbye” and found myself sucked into watching an hour of Kelly, Donna, Brandon, David, Dylan, Andrea, and others reminisce about the show which ended in 2000 after a 10-year run.

“Beverly Hills, 90210” was a show of the 90’s – a decade which served partially as a transition from the big hair, neon clothing, and leggings of the 80’s to the more sophisticated less concerning styles of the new millennium, but it was also the decade where my friends and I more or less grew from teenagers into adults and 90210 was the show that grew with us.

We were technically a year older than the 90210 class who graduated in 1993, while we all threw our caps in 1992. But for all intents and purposes, we went through high school, college, and even a chunk of our 20s with that show. Most of my friends and I were at least 24 when it finally had its last curtain call.

One of the things I loved about the show was that it had been a constant for me through a lot of change. During the 90210 decade, I had graduated from high school, moved to Tennessee, Alaska, and Manhattan. No matter where I was, dealing with the adjustment and change was always a little easier when I knew that I could see some familiar faces every Wednesday night. Sounds crazy I suppose, but when you’re surrounded by change, the littlest (and strangest) things can sometimes serve to help make you feel more at home. The show actually ended only a couple of months before my move to England so it came at a good time since I wouldn’t have been able to watch any current episodes had there even been any.

After the college days, there had begun an email list comprised of 90210 addicts. Most of whom had been classmates of Esther’s at Wheaton, but some were my friends as well. For those of you who remember, Wednesday was 90210 night so first thing Thursday morning, someone would get the ball rolling and we would bat around emails between us discussing what we thought of Donna’s latest hairstyle, Kelly’s newest boyfriend, or whatever the current love triangle was involving Dylan. It was frivolous. It was silly. And it was fun.

Feeling particularly nostalgic after watching the “Goodbye” special, I decided to pull out the Outlook archives and see what (if any) emails I might have kept from that era. I was shocked to find a number of them and thought I’d share a bit.

Just to give an example, below is a portion of a letter I sent dated 22 Sept 1995 where I commented on some 90210 observations that Es had first made about the 1995 season premier (I guess that would have been Season 5, right?). Even if you didn’t watch the show, or did but can’t remember all of the storylines, this is something of an amusing read anyway…

Okay, I have some observations on your observations of 90210:
1. I don’t like Kelly’s hair either.
2. Donna’s I do.
3. I hate the pumpkin-smashing Ray. He looks like some sort of rodent. He needs to pluck his eyebrows and get bigger eyes. He always looks like he’s staring at the sun.
4. The plane scene was a complete and total “When A Man Loves A Woman” take off!
5. Kelly’s guy: Potential jerk and what’s with his haircut?
6. Never too much of Donna’s mid-drift can be shown, it seems.
7. Claire’s hair: Definite 80’s style anyway but at least the stupid little barrette thing is over.
8. No concert I’ve ever been to has served dinner up front….then again, I’ve never been to an elevator music concert, so I wouldn’t know.
9. What I want to know is will they change the opening credits when Dylan leaves? (He won’t die.)
10. Jim and Cindy are clueless and really far away.

Hey, I also have a theory. I think that someone on the writing staff at 90210 is prejudiced against the East Coast. Valerie’s from New York and she’s a total bitch. Kelly’s new guy, Colin, also from New York and he’s turning out to be a jerk… I think I may be onto something here.

The show ran its series finale on 17 May 2000. We had one final round of emails on the following Thursday morning, but the one in particular I wanted to throw out there was from about a month before the end. If I remember correctly, I think we had only recently heard that this was going to be the last season of 90210…ever. The following is what Es sent around to the lot:

From: Esther Baird
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 10:41 AM
Subject: issues

Ok – I am just going to be very sad when it’s all over. I know it’s so cheesy but when they do those “How do you say goodbye” little blurbs during the 90201 commercials I get all choked up. I am just DYING for Kelly and Dylan to get together and David and Donna. I can’t wait. But I can’t believe it will be over soon. I loved all of Donna and Camille’s little backless tops. I want one this summer!

Also watched PO5 -which I’ve not been as into – but it’ll be sad to see them go too and there’s only two left of those.

On the 90210 front, I have NEVER liked Matt.  Sigh – I can’t let go because it’s such a tangible connection to our fun-filled easy care-free days.

What if 10 years from now they do a 90210 reunion and show everyone at age 35. Ha ha ha. We’ll be like our parents when they do those Cagney and Lacey or Mary and Rhoda reunions.

Well, we’re not quite at 10 years yet, but it has been over 8…and while the characters from 90210 would all be only 33 at this point, we are teetering on the edge of 35.  So with the next generation of 90210 about to air its first episode next month featuring some of the original cast (including Brenda, if you can believe that!), I think Esther’s email begs the question… IS this like Cagney & Lacy trying to make a comeback after a Rip Van Wrinkle-like slumber? Are the shows we watched growing up (and us by extension) really as old, pathetic, and archaic as those weird 70’s show reunions seemed to us?

Please say it isn’t so!