S01.E05: One on One

[Primetimer]

Brandon's misguided attempt to try out for the school basketball team brings out his unconscious racism. It's not cute.

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[StatMom]

The Brenda storyline was so boring that I had no memory of it from the doubtless multiple times I've seen this episode. This time I noticed the lazy, hacky ending to the story...

"Hey, Brenda, aren't those your keys?" CUT! That's one way to end the scene, I guess. Did they ever let us know if Brenda had misdirected the gas station guy, or was it just towed before they got there? Not that it matters. Brenda is a screw-up, we get it!

I had to rewind twice during this episode: to make sure I heard Nat's "can't be too specific..." correctly, because that shit made no sense at all, and a rewind/pause to double-check that shirt you screencapped here. Very edgy, 90210.

These early episodes also make it clear how far they rehabbed Kelly into the saint/scholar later. Here, she is an awful "friend" including spying on someone in the privacy of their bedroom. Keep your exquisitely rhinoplastied nose in your own business, Kelly. And stop with the kissy-lips.

[sinkwriter]

You guys are awesome. I can't stop laughing at these podcasts about 90210. (And you make me question my sanity - how on earth did I ever watch this show with a straight face back in the day? LOL.)

[sinkwriter]

I think one of my favorite comments came from Sarah: "If you have actual articulated words that can touch the hem of that ridiculous statement's garment, I will look forward to worshipping with you."

HAAAAAAA! LOL. 

Edited June 25, 2015 by sinkwriter

[David T. Cole]

FYI, we figured out why the clips were so 'crunchy' this and last episode so last week... normal volume clips.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Thanks, @sink. It's the truth.

[Narla]

Ohhh God. This show is so horrifying. And I loved it when I was 14. LOVED it.

Was never a Brandon fan, though. So I have that going for me.

BTW, last week's episode -- I listened several times and Dave's "eeeeeew!" response to Brandon saying he'd never had anyone to protect did not get old. Every time, I felt like it was speaking directly to my soul.

[KateeBar]

I'd kind of forgotten how early in the series Jason Priestley mastered his self-righteous face. Good lord.

[FozzyBear]

Ugg

Brandon: I'm not rich!

The rest of the world: yes you are!

God I could not stand the way the show tried to present the Walsh's as anything other than rich.

[MostlyC]

I have zero memory of this episode...did they bother to air this on soapnet?  

 

Fashion Disasters aside, this seems to be one of the most inane episodes ever.  Brandon's sanctimonious moralizing made me wince, and I wish  that James (?) wasn't a one episode character.  

 

Now I'm going to have  deep "With mayonnaise, You can't be too specific" thoughts for the next week. Is miracle whip a mayonnaise? Can it be mayonnaise if it's vegan? Do all condiments count, if we're not being too specific?  Thanks Nat.  Thanks Bunting and Tara.

 

I wonder if they shot this before they decided to have a "mad bad and dangerous to know" Dylan on the show?

 

Did they ever explain why Brandon had a job and Brenda didn't?  Jim Walsh 90210 sexism at play to keep the little girl at home?

[bilgistic]

Those bangs and those eyebrows on Brenda make me angry.

Last week with the pacing outside Brandon's bedroom and this week showing up at the gym--take a step back, Jimbo. I don't remember Jim being such a creeper.

Edited June 26, 2015 by bilgistic

[gpgurl50]

Was it ever explained how Kelly got home? Also, got to love that moment when Brandon learns he can quit his job if he makes the basketball team, which is the kind of special treatment he was railing against all episode. Hypocrisy is one of the more prevalent themes of this show.

[DaBigDave]

Re:Basketball, Steve liking the Celtics and racism:

The show doing this is amazingly on the nose, and terrible...

It's a shorthand for Steve's racism, not just for the team names - but also because the Lakers' biggest stars of the time were black (Kareem, Magic Johnson, James Worth) and the Celtics big stars (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge) are white. The 1980s "showtime" Lakers teams were also among the most fun teams in NBA history.

Now, the idea that Steve is a big fan of the Lakers, except for when they play the Celtics ludicrous. At the time this aired, the teams had met in the finals 10 times (one, the other, or both were in every NBA final between 1980 and 1989) and it was something of a blood feud...

To a basketball fan... an LA guy like Steve saying he likes the Celtics over the Lakers is almost the equivalent of wearing a Klan hood...

[helent]

If Brenda can't drive and isn't allowed to drive, why does she have keys to Brandon's car on her key ring?

In Australia you can't drive on your own until you get a full license, and any teenager spotted driving would get pulled over without fail, so this is one of those 'only in America'-type moments that always stood out to me.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

@helent, same is true for most of the States, I think. (Some have a farm-family exemption where you can drive equipment earlier, like at 14? Don't quote me.) (Why would you. hee.) My timeline on drivers' ed is so weird -- grew up in Jersey where driving age is relatively high (17); skipped a grade, so I took the written course with my classmates but had to wait another year for the practical; school did not have dedicated D.E. teacher -- that I have no basis for comparison.

That this is Brenda's fatal flaw in a Los Angeles-based show is dumb, but...the show is dumb.

[rab01]

To add to DaBigDave's point, the Celtics' whiteness was such a prevalent theme in the culture at the time of this show that talk show hosts joked about thinking the color control  on their TVs was broken when the Celtics played and Dennis Rodman created a media firestorm when he said that Larry Bird would be just another good player if he were black.

[helent]

@helent, same is true for most of the States, I think. (Some have a farm-family exemption where you can drive equipment earlier, like at 14? Don't quote me.) (Why would you. hee.) My timeline on drivers' ed is so weird -- grew up in Jersey where driving age is relatively high (17); skipped a grade, so I took the written course with my classmates but had to wait another year for the practical; school did not have dedicated D.E. teacher -- that I have no basis for comparison.

That this is Brenda's fatal flaw in a Los Angeles-based show is dumb, but...the show is dumb.

Weird, thanks for the clarification. I thought this was something I had seen enough times in tv/movies to believe was actually the case, but I'm probably over-generalising from seeing this once or twice (like the scene in Clueless where Cher, a virgin who can't drive, swipes a parked car while driving with her friends).

 

Also though, you say 'in Jersey where the driving age is relatively high (17)' - in Australia this is low, most states it's 18. So I'm just not use to seeing teenagers driving full stop.

 

This has been today's edition of  'Tedious details that no one else cares about'.

[rab01]

Weird, thanks for the clarification. I thought this was something I had seen enough times in tv/movies to believe was actually the case, but I'm probably over-generalising from seeing this once or twice (like the scene in Clueless where Cher, a virgin who can't drive, swipes a parked car while driving with her friends).

In Clueless, you probably didn't quite get the byplay with her father in the movie when she gets home (because it's using U.S. terminology).  He says to Cher something like "two learner's permits don't add up to one license."  In lots of places in the U.S., teenagers first apply for a learner's permit that allows them to drive a car with a licensed adult sitting next to them. You aren't allowed to drive a car without an adult until you have a license. In other words, Cher was driving illegally when she had that accident in the movie and her Dad was chastising her but recklessly not stopping it.

[JocelynCavanaugh]

In Clueless, you probably didn't quite get the byplay with her father in the movie when she gets home (because it's using U.S. terminology).  He says to Cher something like "two learner's permits don't add up to one license."  In lots of places in the U.S., teenagers first apply for a learner's permit that allows them to drive a car with a licensed adult sitting next to them. You aren't allowed to drive a car without an adult until you have a license. In other words, Cher was driving illegally when she had that accident in the movie and her Dad was chastising her but recklessly not stopping it.

 

It's "two permits do not equal a license!" -- sorry, have that movie memorized, may or may not have written MA thesis on it… ;)  But your general point is right on!

[DaBigDave]

When I was a teen, Maryland had a three step process... Learner's Permit, Provisional License, License. Under the provisional, you could drive legally but you couldn't drive alone after dark basically... It's been 20 years, I don't remember exactly...

[bilgistic]

I think the process has changed in NC, too. My 16-year-old niece just got...something. It was a piece of paper in her picture on Facebook, so I think it was provisional. When I was a kid a bagrillion years ago, one was able to get a permit at 15 and was only able to drive with a licensed parent, I think--not just Joe Licensed Driver, because then kids who were 15 would be able to drive with 16-year-old licensed drivers. As I just implied, one could get a full license at 16.

 

Seems like there was talk about school dropouts under age 18 having their licensed suspended, but that might be something that never passed. I could look it up. Or not.

[Bastet]

Since I was in high school in Los Angeles around the same time as the 90210 gang, here's how it worked:

 

You could get a learner’s permit at 15 (or maybe 15-1/2).  Somewhere in here was a required Driver's Education class (high schools offered it) -- I don't remember if you had to complete it before getting your permit, or if there was an additional written test at the DMV.  (It seems logical you'd have to complete Driver's Ed first, but I have only vague memories of the process of getting the permit; I just remember having it.) 

 

With that permit, you were eligible for the next required step, Driver’s Training, which was X number of hours driving with an official instructor -- it was a low number of hours.  Not all schools offered it, but there were tons of private driving instructors. 

 

With your permit, you could also drive with a licensed driver of a certain age (I don’t think it had to be a parent, although that's possible -- whatever the rule, you definitely couldn’t be driving with your 18-year-old friend as the passenger).  Most of us learned from our parents, with Driver's Training being something perfunctory we did only because it was required.

 

So long as you’d completed Driver’s Training, you became eligible at 16 to take the driving test to get your license.  If you passed, there were no restrictions on it – you were a licensed driver like anyone else.  I got mine the morning of my sixteenth birthday.

[bilgistic]

It was the same thing here back when I was a kid. I left out a few steps above. There have been budget cuts in recent years, so not all school systems have driver's training. In my niece's rural area, she couldn't get an appointment until three months after her 16th birthday to get a (now provisional?) license because there are not enough people working at the DMV...? I don't know.

All of these memories have made me feel old. My mom was a terrible driving instructor. Thank the gods that my stepdad came along about that time. He would just sit in the car and let me drive, not scream every time I pulled out into traffic, MOM. My dad was in Vietnam, so most everyday things roll off his back.

I'm so far off topic. Don't ban me!

[AndySmith]

I don't remember Jim being such a creeper.

 

Good to know Jim was living vicariously through Brandon even from early season 1. It does explain his hypocrisy with regards to how he treated Brandon and Brenda. I'm not saying it justified nor excuses it, just makes it understandable.

[Tara Ariano]

I just watched the next one and it gets even creepier, if you can believe it.

[runforcover]

Who do I thank for recovering the words DEBBIE DILLMAN and MOM'S BODY CAST from their previous oblivion?

[swimmyfish]

Oh my god, I could only get through half of this podcast, due to Brandon's overwhelming terribleness. I mean, "free ride"? Isn't it a public high school? Doesn't everyone there technically get a free ride?

I know we're only getting clips, but does Brandon ever express concern that these student athletes are being denied an education? That the issue is not them taking advantage of a program, but that the program is explicitly letting them down? Or, I guess, is there ever confirmation from a source other than Steve that these students are actually getting the 'free ride'?

[txhorns79]

Oh my god, I could only get through half of this podcast, due to Brandon's overwhelming terribleness. I mean, "free ride"? Isn't it a public high school? Doesn't everyone there technically get a free ride?

 

I think the logic is that your taxes go to pay for your own school district, so if you live out of district, the taxpayers of that school district are paying for you to attend school there.  I very much look forward to the upcoming excitement of that episode where Andrea's scheme is figured out, if only because I enjoy that the people who score that episode go to the trouble of giving her what I call "the sad-sounding violins of broken Jewish families."      

[Pogojoco]

This episode should've been called "Petulant Manbabies and their White Privilege."

[bilgistic]

My boss's whole schtick can be called that, too.

[Tara Ariano]

I know we're only getting clips, but does Brandon ever express concern that these student athletes are being denied an education? That the issue is not them taking advantage of a program, but that the program is explicitly letting them down? Or, I guess, is there ever confirmation from a source other than Steve that these students are actually getting the 'free ride'?

 

To your last question: haha, of course not. To the former: he pays some lip service to this idea in order to convince Andrea to investigate the ALOP, but one doesn't QUITE get the sense that this is his greatest problem with it.

[bilgistic]

Thanks to these posts, I dreamed about BH90210 last night. Somehow I was on the show but also watching. There was a party or something and two black teenagers were there. I commented upon how later in the show, there would be no black people. Thanks, Previously.tv!

[rab01]

I wonder if it's still possible to find clips of Arsenio's old show?  In one episode he interviewed Jason Priestly and asked why no black people lived in Beverly Hills and there's a wonderfully uncomfortable moment or two before Arsenio lets him off the hook and moves on.

[AndySmith]

Did a group of kids randomly get together with the 2 black kids and dance the Electric Slide to End Racism in your dream too? ;)

Edited June 28, 2015 by AndySmith

[bilgistic]

Oh, dear god. How have I repressed all of the memories of the show? I don't know what part of that clip caused me the most second-hand embarrassment, but David Silver's "rapping" is a serious contender.

[MostlyC]

@andysmith  Sssssh!  Spoilers!

 

 

If they don't recap through their senior year, I will cry bitter tears. And offer to help them with their netflix bill if they will.

 

(goes off to practice the electric slide that ends racism)

[AndySmith]

OMG I just realised someone needs to enter that in KODTMT!!!

Edited June 28, 2015 by AndySmith

[SCS]

Oh, dear god. How have I repressed all of the memories of the show? I don't know what part of that clip caused me the most second-hand embarrassment, but David Silver's "rapping" is a serious contender.

I'm still reconciling the fact that I watched that scene on its first run and found nothing odd about it. And the wardrobe! Brenda's socks! Donna's crotch skimmer! And Andrea, dressed like the Welcome Wagon Lady. Oy.

[bilgistic]

I KNOW. I floved this show back then. We all did.

I'm concerned about the directing choice for the camera to focus in on Brenda's clingy-white-dress-covered ass. She's supposed to be a teenager. I'm concerned about Steve's mullet, too.

[FozzyBear]

Oh my god, I could only get through half of this podcast, due to Brandon's overwhelming terribleness. I mean, "free ride"? Isn't it a public high school? Doesn't everyone there technically get a free ride?

I know we're only getting clips, but does Brandon ever express concern that these student athletes are being denied an education? That the issue is not them taking advantage of a program, but that the program is explicitly letting them down? Or, I guess, is there ever confirmation from a source other than Steve that these students are actually getting the 'free ride'?

.

My favorite part of that little rant was Brandon's concerns about if the guy "even has the minimum requirements to go here!" Just no. No Brandon, you must stop now. I know it's *gasp* Beverly Hills *gasp*, but it's still a public school in California in the early 1990s. The minimum requirements were pretty much alive and in the general area.

[lottiedottie]

James' smack down of King of Sanctimonious Mountain, Brandon Walsh, was divine.

 

As I rewatch this show, I do not remember it being so ham-fisted when it originally aired. It's almost causing me physical pain to watch these episodes, but I shall power through it.

[Ambrose]

Wasn't being a Celtics fan used as a shorthand for racism in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing"? I remember a white guy wearing a Celtics shirt being hassled by the Bed-Stuy locals pretty much for that alone.

[shouldbedancing]

Isn't public school free? I got confused with this. I love me some Steve but yeah, he was a big douche 75% of the time.

[Tara Ariano]

Isn't public school free? I got confused with this.

 

It is free, but a district that has a wealthier tax base will have better schools, while the opposite tends to be true of less affluent districts. That's why Andrea has registered at West Beverly with her grandmother's Beverly Hills address -- so she can go there and not to her shitty Valley school. (This is still a concern for parents in Los Angeles, btw: I know a few who bought homes in certain areas knowing the school was good, whereas others have moved further afield so that the savings on their home could be applied to their children's private school tuitions.)

[DanaDane]

Sorry if this has been asked before but I can't figure out what bray means. Just getting started here. Love the forum and podcast!

[Tara Ariano]

6 hours ago, DanaDane said:

Sorry if this has been asked before but I can't figure out what bray means. Just getting started here. Love the forum and podcast!

It's not a word we invented; we use it in accordance with its dictionary definition: "the loud, harsh cry of a donkey or mule." (Thanks for joining us and keep listening!)

[yousetmeupyoucrud]

"cry of a donkey or mule" LOL

[DanaDane]

Ok....got it! And that is perfect. Tennis bray. ?? I'm actually on my second run rewatching the series since it became available on Hulu. It's a lot more fun following along with you guys! The visual aids and the descriptions and commentary on them have me in tears. This show has always been a favorite of mine to make fun of. Especially since I graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1990. Which I guess could compare to West Beverly a bit.(although it was nothing like the show apart from the fashion) AND I have since moved to Minnesota. ? I'm so excited I found you guys! 

[oakville]

On 6/29/2015 at 6:15 PM, lottiedottie said:

James' smack down of King of Sanctimonious Mountain, Brandon Walsh, was divine.

As I rewatch this show, I do not remember it being so ham-fisted when it originally aired. It's almost causing me physical pain to watch these episodes, but I shall power through it.

That was my favorite scene in the episode. Brandon is such an over the top know it all. I am surprised he didn't get beat up on each show.