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Going by the accounts from both her and the creative team over the years, looks like it was pretty mutual. Writers hated writing around the kid, and Gabrielle was ready to explore other things. I mean Gabrielle radically changed her look halfway through season 5, in a very unAndrea way, and started booking TV movies totally against the Andrea type. I read years ago that basically all of them except Tori hated working on the show by season 5.

I’m actually pretty sure we saw Andrea more in both season 4 and season 5 then we did in season 3. She was really only isolated in season 5. In season 4 she was finally written as one of the girls. Had a lot more material with Kelly and Donna, had her own onscreen romances, the baby/early marriage story was the first front burner story she got and it got decent airtime. They threw her a couple short story arcs with Brenda and Steve too. Overall she went from more of a supporting character in high school to a lead who got her own writing. And she seemed to be close to everyone in the gang that season except Brenda and David. She wasn't reliant on Brandon as a connection anymore and was much more integrated. I think it’s season 5, after having her keep the baby and stay with Jesse, where the writer’s spite and total lack of imagination came out.

Emily Valentine had nothing to do with Brandon’s decision to take the road trip. He took the road trip to escape these Lucinda mess. He literally says that before we ever see Emily. He found Emily’s picture while he was packing. Again, after he already was leaving. He’s already on the road, heading nowhere in particular. Then he sees some blonde with a beret from the back. He thinks that’s Emily. It’s obviously not, but now he’s got Emily on his mind. He goes to her parents house. They moved and he assumed she moved with him. Then he decides to sightsee in San Francisco since he’s in the area. Where he runs into Emily by accident. They spend a week together. Both are in different places. She’s healthy, therefor removing the factor that killed them on round one. Brandon jokes about fire starter Emily. Emily says she loved him, but Brandon never said he loved her. Brandon agreed and says maybe he’s never been in love before. Emily says she loves him. Then, and only then, does Brandon say he loves Emily. After spending a week together bonding and him finally falling in love. The feelings were there before, but he wasn’t in love. That is how the story went. Em wasn’t the reason Brandon took the trip, he didn’t go searching for love, and never did he say that he loved Emily all along, or was quietly pining for her.

Shannen said her slight frame in season 4 was due to her Crohns Disease. Brandon never sought out Emily as the great love of his life. I just watched that story recently and that’s not at all what happened. The Emily/Brandon material has become a really bad game of telephone among the 90210 fandom.

BWAHAHA!!!! Never got into the OC. It premiered the year I graduated from college (not that I'm not capable of enjoying teen shows as an adult; I got into Degrassi TNG in my 20s and Skins in my 30s, long after it was off air). It's just funny that those of us in that weird old Gen Y/young Gen X group, now called Xennials, don't really have an angstly teen franchise with characters that fit right in our age group. 90210ers were like big brothers/sisters, Dawson's Creek's kids were a little younger than many of us, and My So Called Life got cancelled after one season. Oh well, I guess there's always Boy Meets World LOL.

I. Am. Deceased.

Those ratings for episode 2 are actually still strong. They were the top rated non-reality show for the night and did very well in the right demographic. The first episode had a ton of curiosity seekers so it was bound to see a big drop. If they can hold steady there it'll be considered a hit. Also the first episode apparently had huge DVR/streaming numbers, so this episode is definitely going to be viewed a lot more than 2.5 million people.

I think Emily's return in San Francisco is probably the most misquoted 90210 story I've ever seen. I watched it again recently and it really does take everything that happened in S2 into account. Emily admits she loved Brandon, but Brandon didn't love her. They talk about what happened between them and how Brandon only visited her that once in the hospital. No claims that he's been pining after her all those years. Or acting like he was madly in love with her. They just spent a lot of time together in San Francisco and Brandon fell in love with her then. She was healthy and they both were in different places in their lives. He did have feelings for her back in the day, but it just didn't become love until season 4. This show asks you to buy fast feelings between strangers all the time. Brandon and Emily are a lot more realistic than some of these other overnight couples. At least they did have a history before falling in love.

Celeste was amazing. I liked her with Steve. Really good chemistry. Wish she'd become a part of the gang. I do think Steve loved her. But he was also barely 18 years old and wasn't ready to settle down. He only stayed with her so long because he did love her, but didn't want to be honest about the fact that he didn't want to be tied down. If Celeste had come back into his life in say season 8? He prob would've married her in a heartbeat.

It's really only confusing when you try too hard to figure out what is real and what is not. This show is just as scripted as the original show. It's not a reality show. As for Andrea, no the show never hinted she was bi or gay. But some people did project that on to her. People read into all sorts of things. Like the not-that-small amount of Supernatural fans who think the brothers are hot for each other. Gabby has been with the same man since 1990, before the show even premiered.

Good grief do I feel bad for Tori Spelling. Fans have been giving her shit for her face since 1990. Long before she had her current treatments. The woman has always been damned if she does, damned if she’s doesn’t.

There is still some confusion here. This isn’t a reality show. None of these people are playing their “real” selves. This is just as scripted as the original show. I don’t think folks should be taking this all so literally. Christine wrote the Jeopardy episode in S5, the love potion episode in S6 and the Christmas episode in S7 when Kelly and Val are each other’s secret Santas.

When Brandon and Emily reunited in San Francisco that was the first time I feel like JP ever convincingly played Brandon in love with a girl. He poured himself into scenes with CE during both S4 and S5 that frankly made it tough for me to buy him with anyone else. And I wasn’t even a fan of Brandon with Emily during S2.

Surprised? No. I think quite a few 90210 series regulars are pretty good actors. I just think most 90210 writing, even in the hey day, was pretty damn shallow. With some notable exceptions, that show wasn’t exactly the showcase for the best of anyone’s talent and skill. Hell, look at Hilary Swank. It also helps if you followed some of their work elsewhere. Gabrielle did a lot richer work in some of the TV movies and guest work she booked during and after the show. That was definitely the case with Luke. Same with a few others.

Can’t ever forget. I always assumed the writers did that on purpose. Regardless, they definitely played on the whole Kelly Lapowski angle until the reefer madness reveal. It’s one of the few truly shocking 90210 moments. In the matter of seconds it shifted the whole tone of the show, tossed Brenda replacement assumptions right out the window, and reinvented TAT’s entire image. By the way, anyone know how old that trope is? I was watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents the other night and there’s a scene where we cut back to the overly sweet, wholesome girl now smoking a cigarette, with a total different cadence, talking on the phone with her accomplice and bitching about how she could barely keep up the goody good routine. And that was from the 1950s.

It’s more odd to me that people who don’t like Emily Valentine were always baffled by her returns, back in the day, and apparently up to the present. She’s arguably the most well known, impressionable guest star from the entire run. It speaks volumes that nearly 30 years later a girl who was on for a few months in season 2 and only made 2 short guest appearances later still stands out and, interestingly, still gets under folks skin. Emily was one of Brandon’s great loves and Christine wrote shows up until season 7. There’s nothing odd or off about her inclusion.

Perhaps it’s an inside nod to the fact that Christine is the only 90210er to serve behind the scenes as a show writer. She’s also a producer in real life too. Of, ironically, reality shows.

Because they’re still managing to give us shades of the characters even as “themselves”. And Jennie’s ice queen snark is more true to classic era Kelly than the judgmental, pseudo angelic bore she became halfway into the run. Several characters feel truer to the OG versions than what they became as the series crumbled on. And this format allows for that without being a slave to the inherent constraints of a traditional reboot.

Thanks a lot for hitting me right square in the FEELS. I think you nailed why this worked for so many of us. It's interesting to see those who are denouncing it for not making them laugh. And here, despite the humorous approach, I found it to be equal parts wistful, melancholy, and shockingly profound at points. The actors were game for taking pot shots at themselves/each other, and being 100% in on the snark, but they did manage to slip in some real emotional punch. I'm still shocked at Ian's comment to Tori about struggling to support her kids despite growing up with every advantage. And the look on her face? Some of the best acting I've ever seen from her. I loved me some OG 90210. But the approach, and writing, of this one episode is just head and shoulders above most of that show to me. And the format is wide enough to allow for a fully in character reunion, should they want to throw that little bauble to fans who still need to see Brenda and Kelly arguing over a 50 year old high school love triangle.

Dylan's suits in season 5 were a ridiculous choice for a "20" year old. And having him hanging out with 40 something, balding Charlie didn't help. Those scenes of Dylan giving Andrea freaking marital advice after she had an affair are 1000% Thirtysomething plot rip offs, just with much worse writing. With the exception of Clare, Val and Donna, I think everyone looked like a Melrose Place/Thirtysomething character starting in season 5. Maybe not every episode, but more than enough of them. Even babyfaced Val was wearing freaking power suits once the PPA got off the ground. It's 100% clear that by season 5 the writers were just really over writing a show about teens. Catching Andrea's goodbye on a rerun is oddly enough what made me a fan of the character. I think that goodbye was so emotional and well done because she was the first of the original gang to leave on good terms. Gabrielle was well liked by the cast and crew. Her exit wasn't dictated by scandal, and she wasn't hated by her coworkers. That goodbye is one of those times where it really felt like folks were talking to the actor, not necessarily the character.

Yeah, Gabby took a lot of hits even as Ian was literally balding before our eyes and Luke had railroad tracks running across this forehead. Hell, even now, Tori and Jennie are getting flack for whatever “help” they got, but Ian’s work and obvious hair "help" are rarely mentioned. I think the two oldest have aged the best. I don’t see the rest of this cast looking as good when they get to their ages. But for now I think, collectively, they look really good. It’s also brilliant that they’re all playing “themselves”, so everyone is finally free from the shackles of the age thing.

Ouch. No, I don’t think the cast looks “ancient”.

Yeah, as a big B&D fan back in the day (middle school LOL) I was pissed at Kelly. But I gotta admit, JG really did a good job at conveying Kelly's mixed emotions. She was a lot better actor in the first few seasons of 90210 than she gets credit for. Gabrielle looked gorgeous in the summer of 1992; glowing. She shot those episodes around the time she was getting married so I do wonder if that had anything to do with it. I actually think, for the most part, she was dressed age appropriate for the character that summer too (mostly her club uniform and fitted summer dresses). Andrea had good writing as well. She had a boyfriend, she had a good job, she was confident, she had Brandon interested, and best off, got to finally tell him to go to hell. How they handled her character at the beginning of season 3 should've been the template for the next couple seasons, but they blew it. I agree that her clothes got too mature during the rest of season 3. A lot of boxy blazers and REALLY unflattering glasses that season (when she still wore them). Then again I thought season 3 was waaaay too mature in general. A lot of the time even Tori looked like a grown woman with a career and a kid at home. I don't get the styling of season 3 at all. They often just did not look remotely like high school kids. The wardrobe was younger for season 4. A lot of season 3 just felt to me like they were writing a nighttime soap about young professionals. For the most part the high school setting felt arbitrary. To me the height of their bad parenting was rewarding Brenda with a trip to Paris for her massive disobedience and overall snotty behavior. As an adult I cringe at her attitude toward her parents. Back in elementary/middle school I was too busy being in love with Brenda to recognize what a little shit she could be. I would've waited until she turned 18 and left her right at Dylan's. And tell her good luck!

Meh. I thought the Gabrielle development was pitch perfect. Andrea was always the most adventurous dater of the bunch, the early touch stone for any diversity this white washed show would let slip in. She was a Jewish girl who dated a Black man, a Jewish Man, a REPUBLICAN and married a Hispanic man. Of course "Gabrielle" would be the one that gets this story. And, something that many of us weren't aware of, apparently a not too small contingent of viewers thought Andrea was bi or a Lesbian back in the day (though I actually more thought Kelly was). Of all the developments that unfolded on the first episode, how odd to single this one out as "cliche" and "gratuitous".

Yikes. I have never, and will never, get fans, 90210 or otherwise, that feel so passionately about the personal lives of actors and other celebs. I don’t know any of these people from Adam, Eve or Steve. I don’t give a damn what’s in their wallets, who’s in their beds, or how they like their eggs cooked. Tori Spelling is an actor. My interest in her begins and ends with her work. I would need to know her even causally to make commentary on her relationship with Candie, or anyone else. Moving on. I’m surprised to see Jennie called unrecognizable. She looks exactly like an older, more drawn in the face Kelly Taylor to me.