Back in 1991, readers of Teen magazine voted Beverly Hills 90210 the show they most wanted to live in. When I started watching 90210 the summer after seventh grade, I felt the same way. For me, the show, which I watched obsessively for the subsequent year, brought with it a kind of queasy yearning that I now — in a happy adult relationship — recognize as symptomatic of profound loneliness. In retrospect, I think all I wanted was a girlfriend. All my fantasies about being Dylan McKay probably boiled down to the fact that this sincere badass never had any trouble with the ladies.
In any case, years removed from that unhappy, hunched adolescent-self, I jumped at the chance to revisit the zip code of my youth with 90210's first DVD set, and I'm pleased to report that watching these old episodes was a blast. My God, they have aged — and for the better. Where 90210 was merely a fun TV show in the early '90s, it is now a fascinating bit of anthropology. You may not realize just how much time has passed since 1990 until you scope out teen idol Jason Priestley in 90210's pilot episode. . . and then see him turn around to reveal a shaggy mullet.
To this end, the producers of the set have done history a disservice by swapping out much of the original music; apparently, there were problems procuring the rights. Having remembered for more than a decade hearing Concrete Blonde's "Joey" in the episode where Brandon dates a girl with a baby (named Joey, naturally) I was disappointed to find the song missing. And while the song that replaces it is at least of its time, other replacements are not so well-matched. It is distressing to catch chunks of distinctly anachronistic, late-'90s pop-punk in the midst of a sweet and unspoiled nostalgia trip. For a release mainly valuable for offering a kind of time travel, more attention to detail would've been nice.
But on the whole, it's an embarrassment of riches (actually, it's kind of embarrassing how much I like it... still). Shannen Doherty, for all that people complained about her at the time, makes the most believable teenager of the show (with deep grooves in his enormous forehead, then-twenty-six-year-old Luke Perry is not as convincing). Ian Ziering as Steve Sanders is actually, so help me, hilarious. And there's an oddly pervasive '50s subtext in the convertibles, Peach Pit burgers and James Dean haircuts — not to mention the morally grounded parents — which just adds to the comfort-food quality of the show. It's like nostalgia stuffed with nostalgia; my girlfriend and I watched much of the set with the accompaniment of hot chocolate, to enormously warming effect. And now that it's over, I miss it. Let us simply hope that Season Two is on the way. — Peter Smith
DVD Extras: Extras on this set are skimpy, but those that are present — vintage interviews, profiles and FOX network promos — are so delightfully of-their-time that I wish there were more. This is, after all, the show that built FOX; you'd think they'd have a little more in the vaults. Commentary tracks by series creator Darren Star are thin to the point of non-existent; I twice had to check that I was on the right audio track, since Star is silent for minutes at a time. (Good thing the episodes themselves are so awesome.)