The show also became a forerunner of other teen soaps that followed, including introducing the strange heterosexual tribalism of girls choosing whether they were “Team Dylan” vs “Team Brandon.” When the show moved to Wednesday at the beginning of the third season, it became a high school mid-week staple. Brenda’s love affair with Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) became one of the most talked about love triangles of the decade when it began to include Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth). Suddenly, the show was a teenage phenomenon. And it somehow worked, with the second season finding an audience of middle-and-high schoolers with little to do but watch TV. It also increased the network order from 22 episodes to 28 and added some longer breaks between episodes (because Fox wasn’t quite ready to end a show before May sweeps). After a regular season run from October to May didn’t do much for ratings, Fox began airing season two smack in the middle of summer reruns, with a premiere just after July 4. Indeed, it might not have survived beyond a single season had not Fox, then a newcomer to the broadcast scene, decide to take a risk on it. Created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling, the latter of whom was known for exploitative silliness like “Charlie’s Angels” and “The Love Boat,” the show revolved around a pair of clean cut, fresh-faced Midwestern teens Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) experiencing the culture shock of one of California’s toniest communities. One of the very few teen-oriented dramas of the era, “Beverly Hills, 90210” seemed at first like an Americanized knockoff of the far more popular Canadian series “Degrassi High,” which had recently started running on PBS. This new revival attempts to bridge the divide between reality and teen soap by taking the original cast, throwing them back together and pretending to get “real” to keep up with the times.

90210 new cast