90210 Season 2: A Fine Mix Of Teen Issues and Soap Opera Drama!

Beverley Hills 90210 is, without a doubt, the best television show of all time about teenagers played by twenty-somethings. Or, in the case of a few cast members, thirtysomethings. I’m looking at you, Luke Perry and Gabrielle Carteris.

The show enjoyed a ten year run from 1990-2000. As the title suggests, it takes place Beverley Hills, an affluent neighborhood in Los Angeles. While the show has an ensemble cast, the central characters are Brandon and Brenda Walsh (Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, teenaged twins who moved with their parents Jim and Cindy from Minneapolis to Beverley Hills. The first season focused on Brandon and Brenda adjusting to their new life and making friends with the locals, and by the second season, we start getting into some of the juicy storylines for which the show became famous.

Characters
Brandon and Brenda have a medium sized loyal group of friends:

Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) is a “typical” Beverley Hills girl. She lives with her single mother and drives a nice car. She is trying to overcome her bad reputation.

Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) is Brenda’s boyfriend. He likes surfing and moody broody looks. His father is in jail for money laundering/embezzling and Dylan lives all alone in his own house.

Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) is the son of a famous (fictional) sitcom star. He used to date Kelly before the start of Season 1 and he is still in love with her.

Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) is the daughter of a doctor. She is sweet and kind, but she is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

David Silver (Brian Austin Green) is a younger student who manages to infiltrate his way into the “gang”. He is a “hip” DJ and loves to dance.

Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris) is a very intelligent girl who works with Brandon on the school paper. She takes her work very seriously and sometimes needs to learn to loosen up a bit.

The Highlights of Beverley Hills 90210: Season 2
Chances are, if you actually want to see 90210, you’ve already seen it. But for the select few who are seeing the show for the first time on DVD, I want to warn you that there are spoilers ahead. I’ll warn you again right before the episode.

Season 2 actually begins during the summer after the first season. And, in a brilliant marketing move, they actually aired the episodes during the summer. They did this for two summers, and I remember that I went to day camp during the summer portion of season 3, and we used to love talking about “Nine-Oh” the day after the episode.

In any event, after a summer full of fun, the gang returns to West Beverley for another school year. I like to call this school year “Grade X”. You see, the kids were juniors during Season 1, but they were not seniors until Season 3. From what I understand, the producers wanted to keep the kids in high school, so I guess they hoped that we wouldn’t notice this inconsistency.

Naturally, because I was a tween/teen when the show was first on, I have a special place in my heart for good ol’ “Nine-Oh”. However, upon watching the show as an adult, there are some things that I now realize. The hairdos were ridiculous, the clothes were very silly, and watching the show requires complete suspension of disbelief because no one in the cast looks like they are actually in high school, except for David. But like I said, fond memories help me to overlook the general silliness.

SPOILERS!!
Here are some of the major plot points/classic storylines that occurred during Season 2:

Emily Valentine
A new girl arrives in town and ends up as Brandon’s girlfriend. They break up after she slips “euphoria” into his drink at a secret rave. After the breakup, she becomes obsessed with Brandon and calls his house constantly. She also sends threatening letters to the school paper and she destroys the Homecoming float that the gang worked so hard to assemble. She ends up in an in-patient facility.

One thing that I don’t understand is that Brandon goes to visit Emily around Christmastime, and he gives her his beloved Minnesota Twins jersey. She is supposed to be getting over being obsessed with him- how is his showing up and giving her a special personal possession going to help her deal with her issues?

Scott
In the first season, Scott was David’s best friend. But then Scott went away to Oklahoma for the summer, and when he came back, the boys had grown apart. David became friends with the “cool kids” and Scott developed an interest in guns. Scott accidentally shoots himself at his own birthday party because he is playing with a gun.

Steve’s Adoption
Steve Sanders sets out to New Mexico on a quest to find his biological mother.

Brenda and Dylan
Over the course of the season, Brenda has a pregnancy scare, breaks up with Dylan, gets back together with Dylan, and sneaks off on a Mexican vacation with Dylan only to find herself unable to reenter the country because she does not have identification.

Kelly’s Mom and David’s Dad?
Kelly’s mom meets David’s dad at the Beverley Hills Beach Club during the summer. The two hit it off and begin dating, much to Kelly’s dismay. The season ends with the couple getting married- and the bride is pregnant!

Andrea’s Big Secret
Brandon enters Andrea in a journalism contest, and she wins. But she lives out of district and is using her grandmother’s address to go to West Beverley. The district needs to send representatives over to her house, and Andrea is put in quite a pickle!

David and Donna
It is not a secret that David Silver is infatuated with Kelly, but Donna is always there for David. She is kind and supportive, and they eventually end up together. When David goes over to Donna’s house when her parents are not there, he thinks he is going to get lucky, but instead he learns of Donna’s intention to save herself for marriage.

Donna’s Mom
The gang sneaks into a hotel to try to meet Color Me Badd, and Donna catches her mother with another man.

END SPOILERS

In addition to the juicy teen soap storylines, there are also some hot topics. During Season 2, the gang tackles racism, date rape, raves, drug use, child abuse, post traumatic stress, and AIDS awareness/birth control. The presentation can be somewhat on the hokey side, but the issues were relevant teen topics when the show aired, and they still are today.

The DVD set
This box set comes with all 28 episodes from the second season, which began in the summer of 1991 and went until May 1992. There are 8 discs, and each disc has three or four episodes on it. The discs are stored in four plastic clamshells and the cases are stored in a sturdy cardboard case. The back of each clamshell has a short synopsis of the episodes contained on those discs. There is a printing error, and quite a few of the episodes have the wrong synopsis!

Also, they have changed the music in many of the episodes. I'm not sure if it's an issue of obtaining the rights/royalties, but the cool music is sorely missed.

There are fewer DVD “extras” that come with Season 2 than there were with Season 2, but each of the three extra features is a treat and a half. Two of the extra features are interview segments- one with James Echouse and Carol Potter (the Walsh parents) and another with Christine Elise, who played Emily Valentine. There is also a very funny segment with John Aboud and Michael Colton in which they take some good-natured shots at the show. Nothing is sacred and the duo has commentary about everything- Brandon and Dylan’s hair, David’s dancing, and Steve’s button down shirts that were always buttoned up all the way!

I have no complaints about the extras that they have included. They are head and shoulders above the awful extras from Season 1. But I am disappointed that they have not been able to round up some of the cast to do interviews or provide commentary.

Casual viewers can catch reruns of the show on television, but if you are a fan of the show, this is a must-have especially since this is one of the seasons when the show was really good.