To be honest, Shannen Doherty’s diva behavior certainly put her on a short leash, but it was not what got her fired – it was actually her hair. She got her hair cut during the filming of a season finale, which meant the show’s continuity was all off.
This meant that plenty of work had to be done for it to make sense. Doherty herself has admitted it was one of the big reasons for her firing and even ended up saying that the producers were right to do so. Ultimately though, Doherty ended up in “Charmed,” so all was well with the world.
How the Gulf War Helped Ratings
The show may be well-known because of the young antics of its high school characters, but it began as a family drama, mainly about Brandon and Brenda. Soon enough, exterior factors played a part in the show's rise to success - most notably, the Gulf War.
In a strange twist of fate, the first episode to focus more on the high school characters was aired the day the Gulf War began. While most networks covered the conflict, Fox – at the time, of course – had no news shows, and so "Beverly Hills 90210" was one of the few primetime shows on TV. Ratings skyrocketed.
The Age of Innocence
We already know that producer Aaron Spelling had nothing to do with Tori Spelling's casting, but he exerted plenty of fatherly pressure on the show. Fellow producers have said that he demanded Tori's character Donna to stay a virgin until she – Donna – graduated from college. Seemed like a reasonable request, right?
Aaron also had Donna's abusive boyfriend Ray written out of the show before the actor's contract ended. Plenty of people had been saying Donna should not be with him, and apparently, Aaron agreed. We can only hope and pray that he did it all out of fatherly love.
Going to School With Buffy
Torrance High School in California is famous. Not only did "Beverly Hills 90210" film there, but so did a number of other shows, including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Medium," and "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." It's a real classic L.A. TV show location.
It even had appearances in several movies, such as "The Wild Life," "Not Another Teen Movie," "Cursed," and "Bruce Almighty." While not many shots were taken inside the building, the grounds and facade are often featured. Imagine "Buffy" meeting the cast of "90210" – now that's a crossover event for the ages. Which "90210" character works best as a vampire?
The Walshes' Real Home
The whole point of the show is the idea of a couple of midwest kids – Brandon and Brenda from Minneapolis, Minnesota – feeling out of place among the cream of the crop. That's what "Beverly Hills 90210" is all about when you get down to brass tacks.
However, information gleaned from exterior shots of their home makes it seem like the Walshes actually live in Altadena, California — more than thirty miles away. We can forgive the producers a little bit of fudging, though. After all, "Altadena 91001" doesn't exactly have the same kind of pop when we're talking about titles.