S01.E21: Spring Dance

[sinkwriter]

Sarah, I don't know why but I giggle incessantly when you talk about Dead Scott in his "tux-ahh-do." It's just the way you say that word that cracks me up. I had to rewind it twice and hear it again. :D

[Halo]

It is true that some dress similar to this black and white bow-riddled travesty was on every third girl at my homecoming and prom. 

The version I wore to the winter ball in 90 had a strapless, sweetheart black velvet bodice and a white satin MINI-BUBBLE SKIRT. It was fairly risqué for my high school at the time. Spoiler: I didn't get deflowered at that dance by a stick insect (or anybody else).  

[lottiedottie]

You guys, I have a scrapbook from my senior (?) year of high school. It might include my junior year, too. At any rate, I have a cut out of a dress VERY similar to the one Brenda/Kelly wore that was my prom 'inspiration' dress in it. I'm too lazy to get it out and confirm if it is the exact dress, but it is definitely design-adjacent to that dress. 

 

Did anyone else catch the lyrics to the song (the one that was the last dance of the evening? That was some deep shit. I ROFL @ the visual aids remark/picture of Lili Taylor's brother. Spot on!

 

Oh, I wanted to add...I seem to remember Brenda losing her virginity as a much bigger deal than it actually ended up being? Is there another dance scenario in another season were S-E-X is a much bigger deal? Is there a prom or something?  I feel like there was a BFD made out of Brenda and Dylan sex at some point.

Edited August 25, 2015 by lottiedottie

[Bastet]

Oh, just wait a few episodes and it will come back to you.  The nice little moment where a teenage girl has sex with her boyfriend and is happy and giggly with her friends afterward sent a bunch of pearl-clutching parents on a letter-writing campaign (note, please, this did not happen earlier when Brandon boned his ex-girlfriend down the hall from his family), so the show veered down a path of doubt and consequences.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Bastet

[FozzyBear]

Jesus Christ, that dress they put Andrea in. That's just...it's a bad wedding dress! Ok guys I feel like we need to have a real honest talk about a few things, because I had forgotten how out of control that dress is. I'll be the bitch that just lays it on the table; GC is not an exceptionally beautiful woman, especially not in the heightened world of actresses. And even at that she doesn't look young, not even by TV show everybody is really 30 standards. She was never going to be the easiest of the actors to dress, but...what the ever living fuck, Costume Department! I mean, seriously! What the fuck did she do at the first table reading to piss off wardrobe so much they spent the next 6 years sartorially torturing her? What could a person do to deserve that dress? Did she dump pigs blood on someone? Run over a puppy? Ask Tori why her head is so disproportionately large? What? She's not an unattractive woman! It can't be this hard.

I'm ashamed to admit how much of the last 25 years I have spent puzzling this out. I think she's really miscast and I'm always surprised they didn't replace her after the pilot or just drop the character, but we are where we are. So why can't they dress her? I'm 39 and I think her clothes are frumpy. There had to be someway of making her look a little young, or just making her look 30 instead of 50.

[sinnerforhire]

I know this a ridiculously tiny nit to pick, but the Bobbsey twins are two sets of boy-girl fraternal twins, like the Walsh kids. Yes, I did spend my entire childhood in the public library, how did you know?

Edited August 26, 2015 by sinnerforhire

[txhorns79]

I wore that exact dress to Homecoming in 1990. Which I want to be VERY CLEAR, was BEFORE this episode aired. You can imagine my excitement when I watched this episode a few months later. I have to say, for how bad things could have been during that sartorial era...I'm less embarassed about wearing this dress than about some of my other fashion choices.

 

I think for the time period, the dress isn't that bad, and the prom dress Brenda wears in Andrea's murder fantasy appears to actually be cute, and could possibly be worn today with some alterations. 

[STOPSHOUTING]

That black and white dress was my fashion nirvana for waaaaay too long. I believe this was the first 90210 episode I actually watched, based solely on the televised promise of virginity loss which, as a 13-year-old girl, seemed a much more relevant and edgy topic than any of the drugs-suicide-rape-drunk driving-etc., after school special-esque topics the show had brayed about up until then.

Oh and, speaking of edgy shows, you should honor Tara's homeland and do an Again With This for classic Degrassi. I would love to hear your take on Claude's (CLO-de) famous bathroom suicide, where his striped socks peeked out from under the stall like the Wicked Witch of the West to haunt Caitlyn forever.

Oh and, I really, REALLY wish Luke Perry would have refused to come out of his trailer before saying "enjoyed his other" ... "Best 30 seconds of your life, babe," would have been a much funnier, and more high school accurate, line read.

[Halo]

I know this a ridiculously tiny nit to pick, but the Bobbsey twins are two sets of boy-girl fraternal twins, like the Walsh kids. Yes, I did spend my entire childhood in the public library, how did you know?

I was totally thinking that. He should have called them the Doublemint Twins or something like that. 

[FozzyBear]

I was totally thinking that. He should have called them the Doublemint Twins or something like that.

Sweet Valley twins for the win!

[STOPSHOUTING]

"Fozzybear" I couldn't agree more with every single thing you said. And not only did I covet Brenda and Kelly's lookalike prom dress for the entirety of my teens, the memory of Dylan saying "it looks like two people had a really good time there" regarding the unmade bed was seared into my 13-year-old brain even though I'm positive I've only seen that scene once in my life. And "enjoy each other" is the grossest of gross phrases. It's worse than "moist."

[Cekrypton1]

I looked up on IMBD and saw that Eckhouse was 6 years younger than I am now filming this season, and he STILL looks older than me.

[Cekrypton1]

I love that based on the cab, Ohn-drea came to the prom from New York City?

[LucyHoneychrrch]

I think I had the same dress as Kelly and Brenda for my junior prom.

It's possibly worth noting that I was neither de-virginized, nor crowned queen that night; instead, my date drank too much peppermint schnapps (I KNOW) and passed out, and I had to be driven home by a guy whose date literally stood him up for prom.

[kfree9]

So true that dress was the shit back in the day. At Homecoming the Fall after this episode aired, I remember pretty much every girl had on a similar style. Same kind of neckline and sleeves (are those sleeves?) for sure.

It's embarrassing that as a 14 year old, I legit thought Dylan was SO sweet and romantic getting them a room. I figured my first time would be similar- HAHAHAHAHAHA

[bilgistic]

Cough. My boyfriend and I *might have* gone to a motel one year after the prom for a few hours. He was a pretty great boyfriend and my parents loved him (still do--he goes to their church but is married to a chick he long-distance dated in college while he and I were FWB, so she won't even speak to my parents. I'm like, honey, it's not them you need to be mad at--it's your husband. ANYWAY.), but I told him I'd never marry a cop b/c that's what my "birth father" is, and that's what he wanted to be, and is. We were very close for a long time--throughout college--and I had lots of fun hanging out with him and his guy friends. Anytime we drove by the motel, it was laughs galore.

I feel like I need to justify my whoring by saying I was at least 17 (as was he) because we were in the same grade and prom was only junior and senior years.

Edited September 2, 2015 by bilgistic

[queenbee9b]

I am just rewatching this for the first time in years. I always thought of myself as Andrea and sadly the scene where she is sitting in her sweatshirt with a pint of ice cream watching that movie instead of being at the dance sounds like a perfect Saturday night for me :)

[shouldbedancing]

Steve's storyline was so random really. Why were they trying to shoehorning in sympathy for him? But I love Steve and David, I have terrible taste.

[RalyWilmy]

I'm late to the party but I must say these podcasts are everything. I listened to this one at the gym. I got major side-eye as I giggled and snorted. When Dylan told Brenda in the clip "I would have had you up here months ago" and Sara said "F@ck off", God as my witness I almost fell off the treadmill. The workout flew by. Please keep making these and I have no doubt I'll meet my goal weight. Bravo.

[CeeBeeGee]

On 8/24/2015 at 11:13 AM, YoSaffBridge said:

Oh, good, I'm here in time to tell Steve to shut his whiny fucking piehole. What a shitbird. The bitch of it is I like Ziering, but when they try to give him feelings, I don't want to be there. This so easily could have just been him being slimy with Donna and I probably would have been amused. Glad they realized crying wasn't in Steve's wheelhouse so much.

Fucking Dylan owes me money for teeth erosion for the barfing in my mouth "enjoying each other" has made me do. I'm with Tara, he's cute in this one overall, but c'mon, dude, don't say that shit in front of people.

Steve was the WORST with his diatribe to Kelly. She apologized at least three times and he kept whining about why she hadn't reached out to him. The thing is, I don't even think that is much like Steve. He is rarely if ever that openly self-pitying. I like that they introduced the adoption storyline for him, fleshes out his character a bit but that wasn't well-handled.

Oh God! "Enjoying each other," VOMIT. Dylan usually isn't that sleazy!

Brenda's cat-got-the-cream smile afterward was adorable.

Poor Donna. Ridic dress or not, she deserved a date who wanted to dance. Her hesitance was obviously well-founded!

Brandon and Ohnnnnndrea's stilted discussion about the political and gendered overtones about prom was hilarious. ".....Is that a yes or a no?"

Kelly's kind of young to be the prom Queen, no? Don't you have to be a senior for that honor?

[MCMLXXVII]

Kelly was Spring Princess, then Spring Queen. I guess it was kept vague since they went on to do a second junior year, and then had prom as seniors. 

[TriggyLA]

This was the. best. episode. EVER!! As a HUGE 90210 fan from waaay, waaay back I love this podcast cause I realize just how ridiculous I was to have been so crazed about this show but hey it was the 90s.