S05.E01: What I Did On My Summer Vacation And Other Stories

[Onfire444]

  On 8/29/2016 at 11:44 PM, Pogojoco said:

I did a little research, because I had vague recollection of this, but the new "Brenda" got a lot of press ahead of time for a few reasons. One- Doherty had gotten a tonne, so her replacement was going to be a story. Theissen was on Saved by the Bell (including the new "College Years" which I think aired the year before she was in 90210), so already a fixture in a bunch of teen mags (I saw pictures- I recalled her 'Teen cover and her YM cover from back in the day.) She was also dating Brian Austin Green, so a lot of the press was about the two of them and their triple names. (as mentioned above.) 

Here is a vintage and so bitchy interview with Tiffani from Sassy

Woah, I was expecting it to be an interview in which Tiffani is bitchy. Oh, no, it's an interview where the writer is bitchy. Like, insanely so. Is that what Sassy magazine was like?

Oh, awesome, I'm so excited you reminded me of this interview! I was a devoted Sassy reader, about 12 or 13 when I read it, and it totally blew my mind. All other "teen" mags were so conformist and goody goody, and I didn't identify with them at all. I hated make-up and didn't turn into a total simp when watching Dylan surf, and it was so refreshing to see a magazine that let teen girls be, well, interesting. And this interview made me so happy, made it feel ok for a girl to feel superior cause she was smart, not cause she was prettier or more popular. I loved the takedown of dull-as-rocks Kelly Kapowski. Basically, I was the perfect audience for the soon-to-come debut of My So Called Life.

Anyway, Sassy writers still watched 90210 as much as anyone did, and I remember they did a reader survey of which female character they wanted to be the most, and poor Ohhndrea got dead last and Sassy quoted one reader as saying they didn't want to be her cause she had "fat arms."

[Onfire444]

  On 8/31/2016 at 1:37 PM, Uncle JUICE said:

Why the hell is it so hard to make kids on TV look like they've smoked pot before? It always looks like something out of Reefer Madness. And did teens think pot smoking was THIS big a deal?

I was SUPER square, so this would have been a Big Deal to my 18 year old self at the time. Just Say No REALLY worked on me.

Yes, I agree, this was shocking at the time. Remember, it was very rare for TV to show a teen who had a good time drunk without getting punished for it later, let alone a teen enjoying an illegal substance. Nowadays, kids on TV are always drinking for fun, even on stuff like Modern Family.

[Onfire444]

I don't know if it's just that (as Tara once said...) "In my heart, it is always the 90s", but I ... still like the floral-ish (like... don't go Laura Ashley on me or anything) maxi-dress and combat boots.... 

But perhaps something is REALLY wrong with me, because I ... kinda like Dylan in that "Canadian tuxedo". Well, as long as it is in stills. I imagine rewatching him and his "O woe! I miss my Moneyz!" would ruin it for me. But livin' rough Dylan ... sort of? ... makes all those wrinkles make some sense. Since unlike Luke Perry, Dylan never worked on road crews, sleeping on the beach explains the extreme wrinklage. Some. 

 

VAL! While I'm sad about the end of the ShanDo years, I like a lot about Val. Revisiting this I'm thinking it's not necessarily that ShanDo left, not that Val is what replaced her, but that no-one else left. (Brandon? Move to DC and spread your "wisdom" among multiple task forces and think tanks? David? Go on tour with Babyface forever.) 

I also found Dylan hot in those screenshots.

[ZeroDiscipline]

Totally yesterday's news at this point, but I am just catching up. Lake Minnetonka is not really a vacation destination. It is in the twin cities suburb of Minnetonka, and populated by wealthy divorced people in McMansions on the lake. You take the freeway to get there. When a person "goes to the lake" for a vacation in Minnesota, it means they are going somewhere up north. Not to a major metropolitan area. A very minimal amount of research would have educated this writing staff about this.

[purist]

Non-American here (I'm Australian). Is/was 'avocado-head' a common insult in the US? I've never heard it before. Is it a reference to California? Guacamole?

[Ions Earring]

On 9/7/2016 at 3:13 PM, CurlyATX said:

In some later episode, Val gets in an argument with Kelly (who is slut shaming Val).

Oh she is totally drinking from Brandon's Inability-To-Be-Cool-Aid. Summer season before Season 3 Kelly woulda totally been galpals with Val. 

So far, she's like sophomore HS dating a college freshman level of righteousness. Can't wait until burns in a fire and joins Finley and the New Evolution

Edited September 28, 2016 by Ions Earring

[CurlyATX]

20 hours ago, Ions Earring said:

Oh she is totally drinking from Brandon's Inability-To-Be-Cool-Aid. Summer season before Season 3 Kelly woulda totally been galpals with Val. 

So far, she's like sophomore HS dating a college freshman level of righteousness. Can't wait until burns in a fire and joins Finley and the New Evolution

I wish Val and Kelly had become friends.  That would have been so much better.  Even if Val was the bad girl, it was tiring to have Kelly and Val constantly hating each other.  One note, there is this one random scene when Kelly is all coked up and the roommate have a garage sale (selling her stuff) and Clare puts Kelly's story on blast to the garage sale buyers and Val basically  tells her that it isn't cool. 

I know we were supposed to think that Kelly was this great judge of character (*cough Finley, Collin, Tara*) but she's just a mean ole twunt instead. 

[WhosThatGirl]

5 hours ago, Gabrielle Tracy said:

Is anyone still around?  I know there hasn't been any action on this thread in a long time, but does anyone have any idea why the Powers that Be have Valerie being from Buffalo instead of just having her living in Minnesota?

I mean.. yeah. Also there was that throwaway line in the season finale before this one after Brenda's play when Jim and Cindy asked an extra what part of New York they were from because they "had some friends from Buffalo" so.. perhaps the writers were thinking ahead? Either way.. it was dumb to have Val not just be from Minnesota, because.. yeah its confusing. Also.. even Val's backstory was so odd. I know they couldn't have made her a cousin because they needed kelly to be somewhat jealous of her, being a girl living with her boyfriend issues and I think the show always wanted to tease the possibilities of a Brandon/Val hookup. But yeah the whole random "she's form Buffalo " just got really stupid.

[RedbirdNelly]

Jason had to have facial hair for something else, right? Cause that doesn't look good. Not gonna lie but David's hair while really, really bad, I kind of like. It is so iconic and so 90's that it is awesome. 

Donna's hair not so much.

lol David. Got crabs. 

I'm too lazy to check but maybe it's because he was filming Tombstone? I think he had a goatee in that

[RedbirdNelly]

I'm here--now recording Pop reruns of this on Mondays--so will be making my way through season 5 in the weeks ahead.

[RedbirdNelly]

  On ‎9‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 6:09 PM, atlanticslide said:

The thing I had trouble with when it came to Val is that she was so up and down. I do feel like some of her vulnerable moments were well done, but there's no consistency to her or to them, so I never had any idea what she was really supposed to be going for. Did she want to be in with the 90210 crowd, or did she think they were lame avocado-heads? Did she want to be part of the Walsh family, or did she not really give a shit other than how much money she could grub from them? Some days she seemed like deep down she really did want to have this normal, perfect family life (isn't there a scene when Dylan accuses her of wanting to have a perfect little life and she tearfully replies "what's wrong with that?") and fit into Brenda's life, or that she really wanted to be friends with these people - she even went so far as to pay Ginger to help her gain their friendship - but then she does stuff like sleeping with Ray for no real reason other than the fact that she could.

You said it better than I did. The vulnerable moments were believable...but only for a few minutes, until she showed up again acting like an asshole. And the gang just...kept welcoming her back with open arms? Why? 

perfectly stated. Val was so over the place for me and at times you got why you should root for her--and then 10 minutes later she was back to being a jerk. And yet the "gang" all hung out.

[thesupremediva1]

On 8/29/2016 at 6:50 PM, MerBearStare said:

Seeing Kelly's new shorter hair has got me wondering, is she the Samson of Beverly Hills, 90210? In seasons 1-4 when she has long hair, the character is awesome and snarky and flawed but lovable. Then she cuts her hair and starts with that stupid baby voice and becomes sanctimonious and self-righteous and judgmental. Apparently all of her awesomeness is contained in her hair and, if I recall correctly, she never has long hair again. RIP Brenda and fun Kelly.

She gets her long hair back in season 9, just in time for Dylan's return. And that, IMO, is no accident. ;)

But ugh, these years. Brandon is smitten with her, Steve has determined she is the love of his life, and Dylan (God help me, I ship them so hard but she is awful to him this year) is pining away. Thank heavens David's her ex-step-brother or he'd have tried to sleep with her too!

With the long hair, I got it. Kelly was the actual teen dream. But the prissy attitude, dowdy beige clothes, and stupid haircut just make me laugh from this point forward because Valerie joins the crew and let's be real, TAT was the hottest thing going. No one would have given Kelly, Donna, or Claire a second glance with Val around. 

Val is such a breath of fresh air. Best move they ever made was getting her on the show. She and Dylan are all that make this show watchable for the next 1.5 years (I do not rewatch the non-Dylan years).

Edited November 17, 2018 by thesupremediva1

[Judi Sunshine]

On 9/3/2016 at 10:27 PM, ivygirl said:

Some writers were. In their attempt to distance themselves from normal sugary PR driven mags, they often struck a very snarky (and sometimes sour) tone that was VERY different from most mainstream media (snark was very rare on tv/in mags back then). They would slam people they thought weren't cool and act like someone put a gun to their head to feature these people. (They had a particular contempt for Milla Jovovich, and they didn't like Shannen, either.) I totally remember this article and feeling conflicted. I didn't really care for Tiffani (well... Really, her characters on both SBTB and 90210), usually loved Sassy's outsider stance, and even at that I felt it was too much. I would venture to guess that some of the ill treatment stemmed from her time as a YM model--and Sassy was definitely the opposite of YM at the time. This was also a magazine that issued a "Cute Band Alert" for Guided by Voices, so there's that.

I always thought Sassy thought it was just TOO cool for everyone else and disliked it for that reason. I'm 47, same as the people on 90210 and was their target audience, but found that magazine to be super annoying. I know a lot of people did and am happy they had it, and I rode a LOT of public transportation pre-Internet and loved having magazines for the bus (books for trains). But I still only read it if there was nothing else.

[suev3333]

Wow, this place has been dead for years lol.   Anyways ,  can Kelly get any more whinier?   And any more judgier (is that a word? lol)  I hate the way they made her character in these next yrs.   Anyways  Dylan's looking pretty hot though. Being broke suits him.      Btw,  I'm 54 yrs old and currently binging this show.  I can't believe it's been 30 some yrs since bev hills 90210!  Never gets old,  well not too much anyways. 

[nkotb]

Honestly, this is 1 of my very favorite episodes ever. Every single character (save for Steve) changed from the previous year. 
 

Brenda is out, Val is in.

Kelly & Dylan are out, Kelly & Brandon are in. 

Dylan is broke, lost Kelly, & lost his family. 

David & Donna are out, very soon Ray & Claire are in. 

Andrea is married with a baby.

Steve may have shorter hair, but he by far changed the least. 
 

Also, I’ve always thought I’m a Kelly/Dylan shipper, as unpopular as that is, but, honestly, I think I much prefer them pining for each other as opposed to being together. I loved them in the Summer of Deception, the Kelly vs Brenda over Dylan era, & right at the beginning of them dating. Then, I got bored, but I loved when Kelly was first dating Brandon & Dylan found out & tracked down “Blondie & the Boy Scout” at Donna’s debutante debut, boots on the table & all. Then, when Dylan offered the trip around the world, the “I choose me” episode, I loved them again. Just saying, when they weren’t together, but at least 1 was clearly pining, I’m all in