Kelly Taylor (played by Jennie Garth)
Played by Jennie Garth, Kelly Taylor was everyone's favorite spoiled vixen teen who experienced the most drama out of everyone. Here's her 902010 resume:
In the famous "Slumber Party" episode, Kelly reveals in a game of "skeletons in the closet" that she was date-raped by a senior during her freshmen year in high school. This was Garth's biggest acting moment on the show and the moment when Kelly, Brenda, and the rest of the girls became a group. Great episode. This one struck a chord. Who didn't play g a game of skeletons in the closet after seeing one?
Has a summer fling with Brenda's (her best friend) boyfriend at the Beach Club while Brenda was away for the summer. I think out of all the famous TV moments on Bev, this is the most difficult to talk about. I can remember like it was yesterday. So uncomfortable to watch, to talk about. I think I watched with my hands over my face like I was watching a horror movie. I wanted to see, but I didn't. "Damn, I wish I was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins was playing in the scene. Dylan and Kelly kiss... and everything changed. Drama ensues. I remember the scene where they go on a walk with Brenda and tell her on the side of the road. REALLY? The side of the road? And they weren't even that sorry about it. They acted like they belonged together. Dylan and Brenda made sense. Rich girl Kelly and bad boy Dylan McKay did NOT. And for the rest of the series, they made Dylan and Kelly soulmates and I never bought into it. It will always be Dylan & Brenda to me.
Kelly's bi-polar,drug and alcohol-addicted mom, Jackie, marries David Silver's dad and they have a baby named Erin (who 16 years later becomes the lead character "Silver" on the new and not as good re-make "90210"). So Kelly is a big sister at age 17 and step-brother to David Silver who used to be in love with her. Weird. But in the latest season of "90210", Kelly and Silver's mom dies of cancer and it could've been one fo the top ten saddest moments I've watched on TV. Many tissues needed.
Got addicted to cocaine for a few episodes. Had a love affair with the much older Jake Hanson and was partly responsible for launching the success of another FOX hit, Melrose Place. Thank you, Kelly. She gets stuck in a fire at the KEG house (Steve Sanders' fraternity house) and has her face burned. Yet, her burns are gone over the course of maybe 5 episodes.
She gets tricked into a cult, gets amnesia, shoots her rapist in self-defense.
She becomes pregnant and has a miscarriage then finds out it would be difficult for her to have children because of a condition called endometriosis. It's okay, in the new "90210" she has a little boy named Sammy with baby-daddy Dylan. Still waiting for the return of Dylan McKay...two seasons of the new series underway and NOTHING. Womp. :(
Gets engaged to Brandon Walsh only to cancel the wedding the day of. That one was hard to watch. I really wanted those two walking down the aisle. As long as Kelly stays away from Dylan, I'm good.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe there was an eating disorder and a stalker involved in her life as well. But think I think that's enough for Kelly Taylor. How much can one girl take??
Donna Martin
Was a virgin until her 20's until she lost it to David Silver...however not before finding out David couldn't keep it in his pants and screwed Ariel in a limo, AFTER he performed with Babyface Edmunds of course. She waited for the guy she wanted to (and did) marry, but he didn't wait for her. Sucks.
Got pushed down the stairs by boyfriend Ray Pruitt played by actor Jamie Walters, also known from the short-lived series "The Heights" and the singer of the guilty-pleasure tune "How Do you Talk To an Angel". If you say you are not a fan of this song and you were a teen in the 90's, you are totally lying.
After getting a low SAT score, she finds out she has a learning disability.
Has one glass of champagne at the prom and gets wasted, has to be carried out by friends (maybe it's because you weigh 87 lbs Donna?!). She then gets expelled and gets told she can't graduate leading to the famous 90210 walk-out scene where Brandon starts the famous chant "Donna Martin Graduates!". Classic.
Dresses up as a cat for a Halloween frat party and almost gets sexually assaulted. Almost gets attacked again by a guy named Garrett at the beach house.
Held at gunpoint by Evan at the C.U. TV station.
Brandon Walsh
Gambling, gambling, gambling...If you remember Brandon for anything, it's gambling.
How can you forget the infamous party at the Walsh residence? Brandon throws a rager, drinks and drives, and gets into an accident. This was the first episode of 9-0 that I ever watched. My sister was in college at Villanova at the time and placed a call from the telephone in the hallway (early 90's) to specifically let me know I should be watching this show. I turned on FOX and fell in love. This show was to be moral compass for the next 10 years. Yep, moral compass. So dramatic. So true.
Gets slipped some ecstasy by former girlfriend and single white female, Emily Valentine. Emily goes crazy and burns the homecoming float - naturally the school's float is in the Walsh driveway, right? Not at the school for everybody else to work on. She goes away to a mental institution for awhile and we think the crazy girl goes home to never be seen again right? No, of course not. In the later years, Brandon realizes she's the "girl that got away" and flies to San Fran to win her back. Of course, the crazy float burner gets the guy to come back to her. Because that's real-life, right? That's television for you. Don't remember what happened after that, but EV never returned. A little sidenote: Emily Valentine was played by actress Christine Elise, who dated and was engaged to Jason Priestley for 5 years in the 90's. Looks like Priestley had a hand in bringing his lady back.
Brandon has an affair with Lucinda Nicholson, a married professor at CU. The school's basketball star D'Shawn Hardell, who Brandon was tutoring, found out about the affair and blackmailed Brandon by telling him he'd reveal their secret if Brandon did D'Shawn's school work. Also, involved in this mess is Claire Arnold (future series regular) who throws herself at Brandon, making the Brandon-Lucinda love triangle a little more complicated. Of course, she's in high school and the Chancellor's daughter. Of course.
Brandon's friend and CU President Josh Richland is killed in a car crash right after he wins the big election.
Was the love interest of fellow Beverly Beat writer, and most boring character, Andrea Zucherman.
Dylan McKay (played by the gorgeous Luke Perry)
Where do you even start with Dylan McKay? Dylan... the mysterious loner with a sensitive side. He was amazing then, he's amazing now. Before I hit his resume, I want to say I was lucky enough to meet Luke Perry a few years ago after a stage production of When Harry Met Sally in London...and he was beautiful and gracious. You instantly understood why he was a big TV star. A smile that could light up a room, the scar above the eye, gorgeous. He appreciated every fan that was there for him, took every picture with a fan, signed every autograph. Easily top 5 favorite celebrity. Ladies and Gentleman, Dylan McKay.....
Crashes his car after taking coke, heroin, and drinking. Many trips to AA.
Involved in the Kelly/Brenda/Dylan love triangle. I've already expressed my distaste for this storyline. I don't want to go there again. But I will for just a second...in the latest season of "90210", Brenda returns to Beverly Hills to visit Kelly and winds up sleeping with Ryan, Kelly's sometime boyfriend. Kelly turns around and says to her, "nothing's changed since high school, Brenda"? WTF? I almost threw my remote at the TV. HELLOOOO KELLY.... you stole your best friend's boyfriend when she was in Europe over the summer. You've got it all wrong. Team Brenda all the way here. That is never changing.
Drops out of school after being wrongly accused of cheating in an SAT test.
Dylan is led to believe his father, Jack Mckay (played by hottie DILF from the Hogan family, Mike Hogan and the great Roman Brady from Days of our Lives) dies in a car bomb explosion calculated by mob boss Tony Marchette. Turns out he didn't die and wound up in the witness protection program. Would've been nice if Dylan found out earlier. His life spiraled a bit out of control after the explosion. Like he wasn't messed up already. This was episode was on Soapnet the other day. Jackpot.
Seeks revenge again Marchette by getting to his daugher Antonia (Toni) Marchette (played by the famous 90's "noxema girl" Rebecca Gayheart) and in the process falls deeply in love with her. Dylan marries her and lives happily ever after. That is until the saddest episode of 9-0 of all time time when Toni Marchette was accidentally killed by a hitman who was hired by her father to kill Dylan the day after their wedding. There were tears. There were tissues. Even the men that watched this series will admit to that.
Dylan meets Erica, his half-sister, Jack's daughter, and her mother, Suzanne, and Kevin, her fiancé. Kevin convines Dylan and Jim Walsh to invest in his Environmental research company. After they succeed in that, they stole the cash and ran to Mexico, taking Erica with them...leaving Dylan broke only to spiral out of control once again. As you can see, for Dylan, there were many downward spirals. After a near-fatal crash, Dylan gets his act together, gets his money back, and renews his relationship with half-sister Erica. I kind of zoned out on this storyline. Not my favorite.
David Silver (Played by Brian Austin Green)
HUGE "B.A.G" fan. David Silver may have been on my top 5 list of hotties for years in the 90's.
Drives Steve's car without a licence, and crashes. I believe this happens in the Pilot...
David's best friend Scott Scanlon (and season one regular) dies from a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot. This was another one that was hard to watch. The first of the 9-0 tearjerkers.
Can't keep it in his pants to wait for girlfriend Donna Martin so has sex with Ariel Hunter in the back of a limo and gets busted. Whatever, he marries Donna anyway and they live happily ever after... until Donna shows up on the latest "90210" series and says they're having marital problems. Still waiting for my David Silver cameo on the new series.
Gets hooked on speed and crack in several episodes of the 4th season. And later gets hooked on gambling in season 7. I'm sorry David, did you learn anything from watching Brandon?
Steve Sanders (played by Dancing with the Stars finalist Ian Ziering)
Son of famous TV actress Samantha Sanders, Steve learns he's adopted. He looks for his birth mom over the holidays only to learn she has passed.
Is in love with Kelly Taylor for many years, spending most of the series pining over her, only to get rejected. Of course, he has to sit back and watch both of his best friends, Dylan and Brandon, date her, almost marry, and father her child. What happened to the bro code here??
Steve and his senior buddy break into the school and try to change Steve's grades as they search for the infamous "legacy key". Andrea finds out that Steve was in on it and forces Steve is confess. He faces expulsion, but gets away with it and walks at graduation. No "Steve Sanders Graduates"? Certainly doesn't have the same ring to it.
Steve joins a frat...Kappa Alpha Gamma (KEG, of course). Drama ensues from here. He cheats on girlfriend Celeste and is later wrongly accused of date rape. (Steve and Celeste break up.) Steve gets into a huge fight with KEG brother and rival John "You don't even know what the test is" Sears which results in John getting thrown out of the KEG house. John Sears.. one of the best male characters on the series. I was always jonesing for a good John Sears episode. For the younger generation, you may know him as One Tree Hill's douchebag dad, Dan Scott.
Steve throw a rave and a fire erupts....Steve goes to court.....gets probations, community service, and he is banned from the party business for several years.
Looking back, I think Stevie may have the worst legal issues of them all.
Brenda Walsh (played by "badgirl" Shannen Doherty)
I love Brenda Walsh. And I love Shannen Doherty. You can tell me all the "bad girl on the set" stories you want, but I'm still going to be in her corner. I don't care who she punched out at the Roxy in Hollywood. She's a badass. She was on Our House with Wilford Brimley. She was Maggie Malene in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, THE best 80's slumber party movie of all time as well as one of the Heathers in the movie Heathers. If only she was on the show more than the 4 seasons....sigh.
Anyways, here's her resume (would've been longer had she stuck around):
Part of the infamous love triangle with Kelly and Dylan we are seriously not talking about. "I hate you both! Never talk to me again!". Word, Brenda.
During Brenda and Dylan's forbidden romance, she runs off to Mexico for a romantic weekend with Dylan after being forbidden to do so by her father. She also loses her virginity to Dylan after the Spring dance. Great episode. This is where I officially become jealous of Brenda Walsh/Shannen D.
Brenda runs off to Vegas with her fiance, Stuart Carson. Brenda and Stuart make it all the way to the chapel before calling the whole thing off...right before Jim and Cindy Walsh show up in a panic.
She breaks into a research lab at California University to free the animals and gets arrested. She smokes some cigarettes after picking up the little habit in Paris over the summer. Big whoop. Andrea Zuckerman (played by Gabrielle Carteris) Gabrielle Carteris, the oldest of the 90210 cast members, was 29 playing a 16-year old high-schools student. Andrea's fun didn't start til after high school as she pined after Brandon most of high school. Met law student Jessie Vasquez and started dating .....She got pregnant, they married....and baby Hannah was born. Marital problems arose, both cheated on each other; Got back together; moved away to Connecticut so she could go to her dream school, Yale. Carteris left the series in the fifth season. Sadly, Andrea would later appear swhere we learn she and Jessie divorced. Carteris left the series in 1995. Remember that short-lived talk show she had? Yeah, neither do I. It was a fun 10 seasons in Beverly Hills. Cheers to my favorite series!! And Happy 90210 Day!
i love brenda/shannen, too!
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