In 2016, Gabrielle Carteris became the president of the SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actor’s Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. One of her very first causes was to sponsor California Bill AB 1687, which would require entertainment websites and databases to remove actors’ ages if they request it.
The bill would help to prevent age discrimination in Hollywood and other areas. We can’t help but think this has something to do with all the ribbing she took acting someone half her age. Not to mention the other age discrepancies that actors faced while on the show “Beverly Hills 90210.”
The Curse of 90210
The cast has seen many tragedies: Luke Perry died of a fatal stroke the very same day the reboot version of the show was announced. Shannen Doherty has been battling breast cancer. Tori Spelling has had developed wild spending habits, and was hilariously forced to reign them in when her husband Dean McDermott was unable to afford a vasectomy.
Jason Priestly got into a bad car crash while driving under the influence, Jennie Garth was diagnosed with a leaky heart valve, and Brian Austin Green had a tumultuous separation. Ian Ziering has also broken up with a few of his significant others. They have been through a lot.
Young Character, Old Actors
While some cast members played a character much younger than themselves, others really were near high school age. The youngest of them was Doug Emerson, who was sixteen. Then there were Tori Spelling and Brian Austin Green, who were both seventeen when the show started, which is bizarre when you think about it.
Jennie Garth was eighteen, Shannen Doherty was nineteen, and then things start to go off the rails. Jason Priestly was twenty-one, and Luke Perry was twenty-three. For reference, the actor and actress playing the Walsh parents were thirty-five (James Eckhouse) and forty-two (Carol Potter). So they did take some aging liberties.
Why So Serious?
As the show went on, Luke Perry smiled less and less in the opening credits. In the first season, the credits only used stock footage from the filmed episodes, and in the second and third seasons, Luke Perry is sporting an ear-to-ear smile.
In the fourth season, Perry has a small grin with a closed mouth, and in season five his character is giving the camera an approving yet unsmiling look. He's changed to a poker face by season six. Some have suspected that this gradual change may be a foreshadowing of Perry's leaving the show for more serious roles.
The Inspiration
Darren Star, the creator of "Beverly Hills, 90210", was only twenty-seven years old when Fox told him they wanted to create a series about teenagers in Beverly Hills. Surely enough, like any talented filmmaker, he took inspiration from other shows and films that came before.
Star wanted the show to focus on real issues teenagers faced and used a few famous pieces of media to build his framework. The first was "Thirtysomething," which featured issues involving teens and their lives. The other was John Hughes movies such as "The Breakfast Club," which had teens' points of view as they worked out their own problems.