Last year, Fox brought out its most sought after ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival. Unfortunately, the show did not stick around for more than one season. Here’s why!
Reboots and revivals have added the new bling to Hollywood. It was not surprising when ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ decided to break out reboots after reboots given the original popularity of the American drama. While the first reboot by The CW did not attract a lot of attention, the latest revival of ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ definitely made it into d-talks and not in a good way. Was the revival set for failure right from the beginning? We’re here to break it down for you.
Highlights —
- ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival is not a revival
- Fox cancelled the ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival
- The concept turned off the fans
‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival is not a revival
Last year, when FOX brought out the ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival (second in line), it raised quite a few eyebrows. Understandably, the revival wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea for the doozy concept it carried. Originally, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ made a place for itself in the 90s television scenario becoming America’s most popular teenage dramas. The show followed the Walsh siblings played by John Priestley and Shannen Doherty as their characters move into the titular location from Minneapolis. For a decade long, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ pushed on teenage issues like peer pressure, substance abuse, mental health, bullying, and sexual assault. It is a fresh and bold take that seems to have shaped most of Hollywood’s teenage dramas today.
A few years after ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ took leave from our screens, The CW brought a reboot of the show called ‘90210’, in 2008, which went on for five seasons. Notwithstanding that a reboot was already in place, FOX brought out yet another revival called ‘BH90210’. But what’s the catch? Right from the onset, ‘BH90210’ doesn’t traditionally serve as a revival of ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’. The concept behind the revival was crazy since it followed a sort of mockumentary regime. Actors from the original cast were present, of course, but they all played heightened and fictionalised versions of themselves, drawing the drama out of their own lives and relationships between their real selves and their reel selves from the original show. Extremely meta for a simple reboot! The revival was meant to be directed as a satire at the characters from the original cast.
Fox cancelled the ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival
Well, let’s just accept it! The concept of the Fox revival of ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ wasn’t really that simple. In fact, if you ask us, it was borderline weird! Naturally, the complicated and extremely meta premise did not quite take with the audience calling for the cancellation of the show. ‘BH90210’ was officially marked as a limited event-series, only six episodes long, and was cancelled before talks of a new season could even start. Apparently, however, the cast of the revival, and of the original ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’, hoped that there would more seasons for the revival as they get deeper into their heightened and fictionalized versions. Some even believed that the ending of the first season of the revival foreshadowed a second season. Well, nevermind!
Michael Thorn, the president of Fox Entertainment, spoke to “TVLine” explaining the cancellation of the ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival. He said,
“To sustain something that meta and heightened in the long-term is incredibly hard. We always kind of envisioned it as an event … So we felt like to do it as a short-term event where you could just catch up with these actors that you love and do something that was wildly different was a great way to honour the legacy of the show”.
The concept turned off the fans
To say the least, the ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival made the fans uncomfortable and we see why. It was one of those great-on-the-paper deals gone wrong, which really do not turn out great when executed. The revival came across as a rushed, not-thought-through, and messy rendition and for all reasons fair, people hate it when a reboot ruins it for the original. A fan said,
“This was a weird one. I watched it, and even though I found it somewhat enjoyable at times, I could tell a lot of people would probably be turned off by the concept. It’s one of those things that sounds good on paper but ends up being a mess on screen. Also, the show moved slow as hell. There were only 6 episode and barely anything happened”.
Another fan explained what could have been the real problem with the revival. He said,
“One of the bigger problems with the show was that the “heightened versions” were much closer to their television character’s personalities than they were of the actors/actresses real-life personalities, which ruins the whole gimmick and makes you think they should have just done a full-blown reboot”.
Agreed! What are your thoughts on the ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ revival? Let us know in the comments below!
