The original Beverly Hills, 90210 crew is reuniting for a very meta revival on Fox
Sweep the cobwebs out of the Peach Pit, put a fresh coat of paint on the Beverly Hills Beach Club, and for god’s sake, nobody let Donna Martin get too near a flight of stairs: Beverly Hills, 90210 is coming back to television, and most of the original cast is on board. Cue the guitar riff!
Yes, the most famous students of West Beverly High are returning for a revival of sorts, though it’s not exactly a straightforward one, so we’d forgive Brian Austin Green’s David Silver for getting confused. Variety reports Green, Tori Spelling, Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, and Gabrielle Carteris are all set to reprise their roles as David, Donna, Brendan, Kelly, and good old Andrea Zuckerman—though those “roles” will be part of the new show. In a meta twist à la the Seinfeld reunion in Curb Your Enthusiasm, the actors will be playing heightened versions of themselves. As the article explains, “Having gone their separate ways since the original series ended 19 years ago, Jason, Jennie, Ian, Gabrielle, Brian and Tori reunite when one of them suggests it’s time to get a Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot up and running.” One would venture to guess they will run into all sorts of wacky and unexpected difficulties in this endeavor, though nothing will presumably be as challenging as ensuring Donna Martin graduates.
Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler, both vets of the CW’s 90210 reboot a decade ago, are set to write and exec produce the new series, which they developed with Garth and Spelling. The show is set to premiere this summer, which is only fitting, seeing as how no one gave much of a shit about the original series until it made the decision to air special summer episodes in advance of its second and third seasons, at which point basically everyone in the country seemed to have watched at least a few episodes.
Notably absent from this initial announcement are Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry, a.k.a. Brenda Walsh and Dylan McKay. Perry is probably a little too busy as a series regular on the CW’s Riverdale to return, but Doherty’s lack of participation is less clear, given her seemingly everything-is-forgiven appearances on the reboot in its first season. Perhaps the all-powerful influence of the I Hate Brenda newsletter carries on to this day.