Why can’t Hollywood ever just let the past be? How many times must they soil the reputation of classics by making remakes or updates of yesterday’s favorites. “Psycho“, “Plant Of The Apes“, “Can’t Buy Me Love“, you name it. In lieu of an original idea let’s just remake something that worked the first time. What about the whole classic tv show made awful full length movie sub-genre? “Brady Bunch”, “Adams Family”, “Bewitched”, “dukes Of Hazzard”, “Transformers”, the list is quite long.  Now the TV industry is getting in on the action too.

The CW network, born from the ashes of the failed WB and UPN Networks, is almost 100% teen drama shows. “Gossip Girl”, “One Tree Hill”, “Smallville”, “Privileged”, etc. If you haven’t heard of any of these shows before, chances are you are above the age of 17. I had to google “CW” just to find that info. Anyhow, the suits at C-dub came up with this great idea for a new fall tv drama. It would be about teens and the sexy struggles they go through on a day to day basis. Doesn’t that show already exist, you ask? Yes. It’s called “Gossipgirlonetreehillsmallvillepriviledgedetc”. It airs every night on the CW. But here’s the brilliant twist. This new show would be called 90210. Get it? Just like the matriarch of the teen drama genre “Beverly Hills 90210“.

I’m proud of my 9-0 love. You can laugh all you want but I don’t care. It was a revolutionary show for its time. Fox decided to go after an audience that hadn’t been targeted in primetime yet, teens. And I was one of them. I was the same age as the West Beverly gang. Only my high school sucked. That was the point. Your high school sucks, this one is shiny and attractive and oh by the way, we deal with the same issues you do. 90210 always addressed the issues of the day in a mix of “ABC afterschool special” meets “Dynasty” kind of way. Glamorous cheese.

Gen X-ers everywhere went into young adult tizzys upon hearing this news. Could it be true? Brandon, Brenda, Kelly, Steve, David, Valerie, and Dillon back together again??? Don’t mess with my head here. If this is a joke it isn’t funny. It’s only like the greatest show ever. Could the mothership be returning home to my tv?

The answer is, sort of. Tonight at 8pm on the CW (Rochester Time Warner channel 16) 90210 returns to the airwaves with a recognition of the past but an eye on a new generation of tv viewers. Brenda and Kelly make their triumphant return to the zip code they made famous.  For 4 episodes. I imagine their roles minor at best. The only other link to yesteryear is the character of Erin Silver now all grown up. Erin was the child David’s dad and Kelly’s mom had during their brief marriage.

I have very mixed emotions on this one. This show could have been called anything and worked. Why does it have to be called 90210? That show ruled in its day. You can’t gank its name like that. It takes more than an abbreviated subplot from Kelly and Brenda for that to happen. If you’re gonna call this show 90210 then bring pack the cast, the whole cast. They’re not doing anything. Brian Austin Green has hooked up with “Terminator: The Sara Conner Chronicles” but that’s it. No one else is working. They’d be stupid to turn down the work. Ian Zering is not a dancer. He is Steve Freakin Sanders.

How brilliant an idea is that? An adult teen drama. We bring back the 90210 gang and follow their lives through their 30s. Tell me old school fans wouldn’t eat that up. C’mon, please.

So I’ll be watching tonight but I don’t know if my heart will be into it. Let’s see if they’re worthy of the name of 9-0.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm and is filed under celebs, tv. 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.