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One of this year's most anticipated TV event, sees the return to screen of our favourite teen dinosaurs' now on the verge of middle age.
Real estate downturns aside, “90210" is still a very good ZIP Code. The new version of the Aaron Spelling classic has dominated the entertainment media this pilot season this year like few other new television shows.
Of course, TV fans have been hungry to learn who will be cast as the new clique of rich kids, but they seem even more interested in which of the characters who left the prime-time schedule eight years ago might be stopping by West Beverly High or the Peach Pit. It's a challenge that executive producers Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (Freaks and Geeks) have welcomed as they try to appeal to fresh, young viewers as well as their parents, aunts and uncles.
“We see this as a totally fun thing," Sachs said. “It's not the same show, but we get to have the element of such a cool, big hit. It's an honour to do it or to be able to do it. We'd love to have anyone from the old cast that would like to be on it."
In fact, there's been so much reporting on casting that it has become difficult to keep track of who actually has committed to the new show. Sachs took a break during the filming of scenes at Hollywood's Boulevard 3 last week to fill in the blanks.
The show's first “get" came easily, Sachs said Jennie Garth, who jumped at the opportunity to reprise Kelly Taylor. Kelly will be working as a guidance counsellor at her alma mater and will appear in a few episodes during the season, said Sachs, who has known Garth for two decades. Viewers will first see her in the pilot.
Blasts from the past
“Jennie is one of those people that when she does something, she always wants for it to mean something," Sachs said. “She loves helping people. So I thought it was perfect: her as a guidance counsellor. Originally, we were going to put her on the school board but that was a mistake."
After reading the script, Tori Spelling expressed interest in updating viewers on Donna Martin's fashion-forward life.
Initially, Sachs' idea was to have Donna own a boutique, but now writers are playing with the idea of Donna having her own fashion line. Spelling, who recently had her second baby, will appear on the show later in the season.
“Tori wrote me an e-mail after she read the script and said, 'My dad would be really proud,'"Sachs said. “That was the biggest compliment we could ever get."
Joe E Tata, who played Nat, the owner of the Peach Pit, will appear behind the counter in the pilot and in episodes throughout the season. “Nat! My gosh. It was such an accident," Sachs said. “Someone said they saw Nat in a store, so I called casting and told them, 'Let's see if he'd like to do it.' He was ecstatic. It's going to be a big deal."
Brian Austin Green might be approached sometime soon, but producers have yet to reach out to Luke Perry, Jason Priestley or Ian Ziering. Silver, a funky character played by Jessica Stroup, might be related to David Silver (Green).
“I guess we'll have to stay tuned," Sachs said coyly. “There's a lot of Silvers in the phone book."
Return of trouble
Brenda Walsh is all grown-up and returning to Beverly Hills, 90210, this fall. But cast members of the new spin-off, 90210, are speculating whether Shannen Doherty will be equally mature when she reprises her role as Walsh.
“I have heard some of the stories," 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord said of the sometimes-volatile relationship between Doherty and co-star Jennie Garth on the original series, which aired from 1990-2000.
Garth is returning to her role as Kelly Taylor, now a school guidance counsellor, on 90210.
In the new series, Doherty's Walsh is now a famous theatre director invited back to West Beverly Hills High School to stage a musical, channel CW announced Saturday at a Television Critics Association meeting in, of course, Beverly Hills.
Her guest role plays out over multiple episodes, the network said. “If she and Jennie have it out while I'm there, OK, then, all right, so that's the story," McCord said of any possible discord during production.
“We're co-workers, we're going to be co-stars and I want to treat her (Doherty) with the respect that I would treat any other co-star," said McCord, who played the evil Eden on FX's Nip/Tuck.
Ryan Eggold, McCord's co-star, is betting the Doherty vibe “will be 100 per cent fine for us, for the new kids, because we have no history with her. We have no problems with her and I'm sure she's going to come to this with a wonderful attitude."
Added executive producer Gabe Sachs, “There isn't any tension. No one's been on the set yet but I think they'll be OK," he says of Garth and Doherty. Then he laughed. “I don't think they've gotten together and had dinner yet," he told The Associated Press.
Doherty's publicist did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.
McCord paid Doherty a compliment. “I love Shannen Doherty. She, from a very young age, had the 'it' factor. Shannen Doherty is the epitome of what a talented young actor was, back in the day," McCord said.
When Doherty left the original series in 1994, Doherty called it a mutual decision with the series' producer and said she was “miserable" working on the show. The young actress had captured headlines with off-screen escapades such as brawls.
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