Rich & Gary

There’s something in the air. Is it a cool evening breeze? A desire to shop? Chalk dust? The need to buy the fall preview edition of TV Guide?

I haven’t been back to school for over 20 years, but every September, there it is. That strange feeling. That notion that I should be headed back to class…..And every school year, Hollywood comes up with some show or movie that does its best to capture what its like to be back at school.

Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter, 90210, Saved By The Bell, The Breakfast Club, Back To School, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty In Pink, To Sir With Love…….not a bad list, eh. That’s off the top of my head. No googling!!

It’s kinda cool that all of the above have a surprising innocence……….With one notable exception. An exception that has proven to me times have changed.

The latest reincarnation of Beverly Hills 90210 is not all that innocent. First, let me explain.

Throughout a good part of the 90’s, my wife and I lived in a small town. A town of less than 3,500. Because of that, on Wednesday nights at 8p.m., we got hooked on Beverly Hills 90210. Not obsessed, just hooked. We needed something to do on Wednesdays is all. From Brandon to Brenda to Donna to David to Dylan to Nat to Jackie to Kelly to Steve….and on and on and on.  We used to call it “The Stupid Show”. Who could forget Brenda and Dylan’s on-again off-again relationship. Steve always getting into trouble. Andrea being just a little too serious about running the school paper. The chant…”Donna Martin graduates, Donna Martin graduates!!”. The Walshes, The Peach Pit, Nat not really fitting in. By the way, did you ever notice that for about 3 seasons, no one ever drove to the Peach Pit? Even though it seemed that it was miles away from West Beverly High? In later shows, we see Dylan parking his car behind the Peach Pit, but somehow in a number of shows, everyone just seemed to magically meet there. Oh well. That’s life in the land of TV. But I digress.

The original 90210 had a silly, preachy, Aaron Spelling-kind- of-charm that made it watchable. It was about bad fashion and hair. There was usually a message about life’s little and/or big issues. We were told that rich kids have problems too, and when we got to the end of the show, everyone would hug.

Fast-forward to September 2008. Unfortunately, it looks like the new 90210 has lost some of its “stupid charm”.

This 90210 is not your big sister’s 90210. Back to class has gotten crass!!

The original was a show you could laugh at. This show is just harsh, obvious and quite frankly, should be on after 9p.m. The sets are the same, but the attitude seems way too edgy. (I’ll bet the network has gotten some complaints.) Its like the producers have tried to combine Degrassi, 90210 and Desperate Housewives. After about a half hour of the first episode, we gave up. Too bad. Because the first 3 minutes, when the new “Brandon and Brenda” arrive in Bev Hills from Kansas, looked promising. 

Looks like I’ll have to rent Dangerfield’s Back to School or find the channel that runs Happy Days and Welcome Back Kotter.

For old time sake, here’s a classic 90210 intro, made up of at least 3 different audio files and 6 different video files. Enjoy!

Got a favourite Back to School TV show or movie? Feel free to let us know about it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Thoughts from Rich & Gary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.