The Best One-And-Done 90210 Characters

[Primetimer]

Celebrating the people who left the zip too soon.

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[TeeVee329]

Great topic!

...but oooh, tougher than I thought.  I wanted to say Tom, the awesome "DUH, Rehearsal's over!" dude from Brenda's college play, but he might have popped up in briefly in the next episode...

...so I'll go with...Amanda Pacer from the sleepover episode!  Her bitchiness in that episode is a delight and we could have used more of her "Heathers" 'tude as they started softening Kelly and Donna.

Edited September 7, 2017 by TeeVee329

[Katy M]

I liked the homeless guy they invited for Thanksgiving.

I did not like the teen mother that Brandon was dating. She dumps the baby on Brandon with no warning, and he had no experience, and then called him irresponsible for feeding the baby ice cream. Then, she leaves the baby with her parents who specifically tell her to be back soon because they have to go to work (OK, soon isn't specific, but I'm assuming she knows her parents' schedule) and she blows them off. Yes, I'm sure it's hard to be a teen mother, so I do appreciate that the show showed that, instead of making it look super easy, but I still wanted to strangle her most of the time. this was your choice. Stop yelling at other people about it.

[GoRunner]

The clerk in the convenience store "I'd like to exchange an egg", because she was having none of it! Best deadpan ever. 

 

But to go go with someone who was in more than one scene, I too have to go with Charisse. Or Charisse's boyfriend. Both because they were having none of Brandon. 

"...Someone's been reading their Spike Lee handbook!"

[GoRunner]

Homeless vet was first in a summer beach club episode. He was annoyed by Brandon too though, which is always a plus. 

[gesundheit]

Charisse for sure, and also with TeeVee329 below on Amanda. They got so much better with having actors recur once they finished the high school years, but there were some gems before that.

[MerBearStare]

Ummmm, I don't want to be "that person," but it wasn't a ghost bus. It was a divine intervention bus. Duh. Ghost buses aren't a thing. :-)

[MCMLXXVII]

I have a soft spot for the shoplifting girl from "Every Dream Has It's Price Tag" (Noelle Parker) - decent acting, realistic teenage problem. She also went on to star in the better of the three Amy Fisher TV movies. 

[allicatexp]

Is it sad I am thinking really hard about this???

[benteen]

Great topic.  I only wish I could think of one...

I wish the gun that had shot Scott had returned for an encore...

[CurlyATX]

I LOVED the guy who was competing against Brandon in the basketball team- he tore "Brandon of Beverly Hills" a new one when B had incorrectly accused him of being a fake student.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Ooh, good one. 

[Surrealist]

16 hours ago, CurlyATX said:

I LOVED the guy who was competing against Brandon in the basketball team- he tore "Brandon of Beverly Hills" a new one when B had incorrectly accused him of being a fake student.

OMG. I was thinking the same thing when I saw the rerun last week. 

I would have liked Marianne Moore (from the pilot episode) to be a recurring character. She seemed like an interesting person given her backstory. She became even cooler when Brandon asked her out again, and she turned him down. 

[CurlyATX]

I was thinking of Marianne too, but I was a little annoyed by the whole "poor little rich girl"/ "you should leave something for the second date" thing.  And, well, anyone who would send Brandon flowers is just a bit weird.   I'd even have taken Cardio Funk guy. 

[sinnerforhire]

I vote for Isaiah, the kid that Donna "rescued"/followed home in the episode where she works in the convenience store. That kid was smarter, more mature, and more responsible than Donna ever has been, and basically had his sh*t together in a way she never has or ever will.

[MCMLXXVII]

If we'd had streaming services and a jillion cable channels back then they could have just spun off all the awesome Black characters into "Compton, 90220" and have Brandon and the gang stop by the hood every few weeks to get their  asses handed to them.

[Klaw]

On 9/14/2017 at 1:13 AM, MCMLXXVII said:

If we'd had streaming services and a jillion cable channels back then they could have just spun off all the awesome Black characters into "Compton, 90220" and have Brandon and the gang stop by the hood every few weeks to get their  asses handed to them.

I would've watched the shit out of this show. Even Isaiah's mom was all kind of awesome and I so wish she had kicked Donna and her privileged, whitesplaining ass out of her house like she had first intended.

On 9/9/2017 at 9:19 AM, Surrealist said:

On 9/8/2017 at 5:14 PM, CurlyATX said:

I LOVED the guy who was competing against Brandon in the basketball team- he tore "Brandon of Beverly Hills" a new one when B had incorrectly accused him of being a fake student.

OMG. I was thinking the same thing when I saw the rerun last week. 

I came here to nominate this guy, too. James? James was awesome and man, did he rip Brandon a new one. "I got NOTHING more to say to YOU." so, so, so good.

What about Shadowcaster? If anything, Sarah D. Bunting cracking up over "working Shadowcaster" was enough for me!

[Surrealist]

9 hours ago, Klaw said:

I came here to nominate this guy, too. James? James was awesome and man, did he rip Brandon a new one. "I got NOTHING more to say to YOU." so, so, so good.

 

I know that the show still has its following. Hell, I still watch the episodes in repeat. I think this show would have aged better, on some level, had the cast been more diverse. I'm guessing that not everyone who lives in Beverly Hills is a white person. I noticed that, in the first season, there seemed to be more diversity and attempts at culturally relevant storylines, before the show went full-on soap. 

For example, one of the episodes featured this past Friday, was the one where Brenda finds a breast lump. As a breast cancer survivor, I thought that Darren Star did a great job showing Brenda going through the right stages. I can't better express what I mean, but even the doctor's comments were accurate. Sometimes I don't think writers understand how to capture the feelings (anxiety, fear, etc.), unless they've gone through it themselves. Star also did the same in Sex and the City when Samantha is diagnosed with breast cancer. Interestingly, I related more to Brenda's reactions, and her character is way younger than me.

But I digress.

The first season showed a lot of promise. At least, I think it did. There were more one-off characters that I would have liked to have seen reappear in the series during the first season than in any other season.

 

Ha! Alice Krige as Shadowcaster's owner. I think that would have been an interesting recurring character too. She was more interesting than Lucinda Nichols, and I like Dina Meyer.

Also, another great recurring character (from the first season!) is Karla Montez. Her "aunt" was the Walshes' maid. She was incredibly intelligent and "woke," as they say. Karla used the Walshes' address and briefly attended West Beverly because she had witnessed someone die in crossfire. She put Brandon in his place several times in that episode.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Surrealist

[CurlyATX]

15 hours ago, Surrealist said:

Also, another great recurring character (from the first season!) is Karla Montez. Her "aunt" was the Walshes' maid. She was incredibly intelligent and "woke," as they say. Karla used the Walshes' address and briefly attended West Beverly because she had witnessed someone die in crossfire. She put Brandon in his place several times in that episode.

I almost nominated her too, but since she actually was a romantic interest of B's, that made me question her. 

I was bored this weekend and was re-listening to early podcasts, including the Halloween episode (including the raisin cookie debate- count me as -1 raisin) and the Summer of Deception.  The show was so much better back then!

[Klaw]

3 hours ago, CurlyATX said:

re-listening to early podcasts

When my liberal snowflake self can't take anymore hard news, I listen to old podcasts. I love them. Like meeting with old friends...not to mention, of course, the superiority of the episodes back then to the dreck we're enduring now. sigh...

[benteen]

After Dylan's departure, I still don't know how Sarah and Tara can get through the absolute DRECK that is the final couple of seasons. 

[Surrealist]

4 hours ago, CurlyATX said:

I almost nominated her too, but since she actually was a romantic interest of B's, that made me question her. 

That's a fair point. I took that into consideration before nominating her, but ultimately, they didn't get together. So there's that.  ;-)