Pop Culture Flashback

When I was in fourth grade everyone in my class had to do a project about statistics as part of math class. We all interviewed our classmates on some topic and then made a graph representing the results. I studied people’s sandwich preferences, but the most controversial survey was about television. Down to the last minute, the class divided as to whether “Beverly Hills, 90210” or “Full House” was a better TV show. “90210” eventually won by two votes.

Many parents would be horrified to learn that a group of nine- and 10-year-olds were not only watching “90210,” but also calling it their favorite show. Every Wednesday for 10 years, impressionable youngsters were shown everything parents don’t want their kids seeing: sex, violence and drinking. Making a soap opera designed specifically for a younger crowd is a little like using Joe Camel to sell cigarettes to teenagers and I have no doubt that creator Aaron Spelling aired the show for no other reasons than further fame and fortune.

While I would have a hard time arguing that Spelling imbedded some greater moral message in his series, the show had a lot to offer its teen and pre-teen audience in terms of life education, especially during its early years when nothing else like it existed. Dramas that incorporated children showed them only as they related to the adults in their lives—they weren’t people, they were props to develop the adult characters. Sitcoms like “Full House,” “Saved By The Bell” and “Blossom” showed more about kids and teens, but only in short plots that were wrapped up with a hug and a happy ending in 30 minutes. “90210” was the first show to put adolescents in serious situations and show them from their perspective.

“Beverly Hills, 90210” was not a completely realistic show, clearly, but it certainly gave teenagers (and those preparing to be teenagers) a warning of what could happen during their high school years. Granted, the show took place in one of the richest neighborhoods in the country, and more melodrama occurred in one week than went on during my entire high school career, but aspects of the show were realistic, and it brought up issues for me that I might never have thought about until I faced them in real life.

The show discussed very serious teen issues—like eating disorders, alcohol abuse, safe sex and academic pressure—that young viewers had never seen before. It was the first time I had seen teenage pregnancy, and through Brenda I saw how frightening it can be telling a boyfriend that he might be a father. What an incentive to use birth control! Drinking, which had never crossed my mind in middle school, became something I was vaguely aware of, with all its potential problems and decisions. I even remember asking my mother what the SATs were, since the goody-goody Walsh twins were always so worried about them.

The teen-centricism of the show was exaggerated by the fact that “90210” had no parents as cast members except for Jim and Cindy Walsh. As a result, the teens had to turn to friends for advice, companionship and rides in the absence of supportive parents. Brandon constantly took responsibility for Dylan, his alcoholic best friend, and for Steve, the spoiled rich “kid” (Ian Ziering, the actor who played Steve, was over a decade older than his character) who often didn’t know what was best for him, thanks to his absent corporate father and movie star mom. Divorce is everywhere in the show, as it is everywhere in real life—and in the absence of constancy in the home, members of the increasingly incestuous “gang” were each other’s true families.

“Beverly Hills, 90210” has become a cliché now, due to many years of popularity and the dozens of shows that have followed in its wake, from early Fox imitators like “The Heights” to present-day soaps like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Despite the teen drama’s many permutations in the last dozen years, culminating in its recent ubiquity on the WB, it’s a shame that the genre has never successfully looked beyond beautiful, affluent and white subjects. But without “90210,” teen dramas would never have a place in prime time—even if the actors are still much older than their characters.