S08.E09: Friends, Lovers and Children

[Primetimer]

Remember when Erica was a sweet little goon reading Hemingway and getting her period? Well, now she's turning tricks.

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[Primetimer]

We've collected the most important imagery from 'Friends, Lovers And Children'!

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[TimeyWimey52]

Are y'all going to do the new Jason Priestley series, Private Eyes, which FB keeps showing me as one of their ads? We have to know if he's learned to use pockets now! And if he still brays!

PS: I haven't been able to comment on anything unless I comment through the forum. But if I click directly on the visual aids link and try to post at the bottom, it won't let me. It freezes. 

[Kerfuffler]

9 minutes ago, TimeyWimey52 said:

PS: I haven't been able to comment on anything unless I comment through the forum. But if I click directly on the visual aids link and try to post at the bottom, it won't let me. It freezes. 

I've been having the same problem.

[Cekrypton1]

Ah, Carly's house, which became The Gang's Other House. I believe after Carly, David, Gina, and Dylan all lived there. It's like Mark's Canyon Rental 2.0.

[Kerfuffler]

Whoa, Kelly actually sounded like the voice of reason there! Telling Brandon that they don't understand what it's like to be Erica, and that maybe she and Brandon shouldn't try to act like they can solve her problems for her? Usually she feeds into his savior complex.

[TeeVee329]

Having not rewatched the episode, is there a reason why the exposition re: Erica being in LA had to come from Brenda versus coming directly from Dylan considering they're both off-screen?

Why didn't they make the random chick Steve "knocked up" that floozy waitress he went on a date with in the premiere?

Isn't Zach on (Erin) Silver's soccer team?  Did this show deny us Mel in a jersey?

[BBHN]

Quote

Turns out Steve briefly dated Jody when he was offscreen for the summer

I'm guessing he met her while shopping at the Plot Contrivance Outlet Mall.

[yousetmeupyoucrud]

According to IMDB the og Erica has acting credits up to 1998 so she definitely didn’t quit the biz. 

Does anyone else remember how Kelly was always cunty to Erica and how Erica was Team Brenda? She’s probably like “oh great, this bitch!”

[ZeroDiscipline]

So this is only the 9th episode of this new regime of 90210, and already we're all thinking "END THIS SHOW". Yet, it goes on for 3 more years, and never ever gets better. I am beginning to think this production was a front for a very successful Hollywood coke ring.  And oh my God, Mozzart. Of all the famous composers, I think we can agree that Mozart might be the absolute most well-known, along with Beethoven and Bach. Vincent Young must be so very stupid, but regardless, wouldn't someone speak up about the pronunciation, so that they could try another take to protect Vincent Young's idiocy?

Edited February 12, 2018 by ZeroDiscipline

[Molly Cule]

2 hours ago, BBHN said:

I'm guessing he met her while shopping at the Plot Contrivance Outlet Mall.

That must be where he's finding his deeply discounted ladies' cap-sleeved blouses.

[MerisWetBar]

Awww hell yes, my user-submitted challenge! Thanks guys!

[bilgistic]

Quote

Swarthy Louis C.K.

So...regular Louis C.K.?

Quote

In the '90s, retailers had machines that could instantly tell if you were trying to bounce a cheque on them...apparently? Your Canadian correspondent doesn't recall this, and usually Canadian banking practices are much more advanced than America's (really!), but then maybe we didn't need machines like this because we went straight to debit cards. Thanks for joining us for Cheque Talk!

While in college in the mid-1990s, I was a cashier at Best Buy. We had registers that had those check...checkers...attached to them. The check checker was a solid block about the size of half a brick. It had just the arc through which the check was fed. I think it verified the account and routing numbers along the bottom of the checks, although now that I think about it, could that technology have existed then?

I do remember it hooked up via phone line, so it stands to reason that they were tele-verified, just as credit cards were (remember the modem sound during credit card charges back in the day?). I can't remember checks not passing the verification but I can certainly remember credit cards being declined. And the ensuing calls I would have to make to American Express while my line backed up and people got progressively madder and madder at me.

And this has been Check Talk with your U.S. correspondent! Back to you, @Tara Ariano and @Sarah D. Bunting!

[dwarmed]

4 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Quote

Swarthy Louis C.K.

So...regular Louis C.K.?

Swarthy means dark-skinned or olive-skinned, so no. 

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, dwarmed said:

Swarthy means dark-skinned or olive-skinned, so no. 

I did a little bit of reading on it to clarify the definition in my mind and get an unofficial internet consensus.

I may have conflated "swarthy" and "smarmy". LCK is definitely smarmy. Swarthy in color he isn't.

It seems that the word swarthy carries a negative connotation to some people, which is likely due to race issues. I've only ever heard swarthy used for people who are "dark and dangerous": pirates and mobsters, for example.

I learned something today.

[helent]

So, deep pull from my youf here, but Ricky up there looks very much like Timothy Hutton, especially in a dumb gangster film he did with David Duchovny and baby Angelina Jolie, in which his hair was peroxide blonde and terrible:

[benteen]

I must have listened to the Mozzart line a half dozen times, it made me laugh so much.  Thanks for that!

Dylan and Dylan's mom did a great job with Erica.

[Cekrypton1]

So, I had to go into my bank this morning to deposit a check at the counter as I had forgotten my ATM card and I laughed outloud when I saw that they ran the check through the exact same scanner in this episode Bank technology has advanced so much in 25 years, guys!

[Jax7917]

I don't buy that in just 3 years, Erica went from really sweet, nice girl with no attitude to a full on bitchy prostitute. Not saying things can't change in a couple of years, I just thought her character did a 180 as a person.

[ZeroDiscipline]

2 hours ago, benteen said:

Dylan and Dylan's mom did a great job with Erica.

Yeah, it seems that Iris is 2 for 2 in turning out troubled youth, and Dylan is as useless as ever.

[CurlyATX]

I'm not a social worker, but maybe someone can tell me how Erica really end up living with Iris?  Ok, Suzanne is in prison.  Let's assume she has no other blood relatives.  Kevin's family is a no?   Dylan is (supposedly) her half-brother.  But we are supposed to assume that the courts would allow a minor to live with a non-relative who is the estranged mother of her supposed half-brother, in another state?  She isn't a dog! 

To chime in on check-talk, my dad had a small business and used something even in the early 90's called "Tele-Check" to make sure that the checks didn't bounce.  He sold very expensive mountain bikes. I remember having to call this service to ensure that the check would clear.  Of course, this doesn't take into account any other checks that haven't been cashed yet that would draw on the account.   There is a bit that Seinfeld does about checks, how they are basically a note saying "I swear I'm good for this, trust me, I can pay". 

I'm also REALLY confused how Kelly recognized Erica.  My son is 13 and there are some classmates of his I haven't seen in 3 years.  I'm not sure I could recognize them on the street.  

[Tara Ariano]

23 hours ago, TimeyWimey52 said:

Are y'all going to do the new Jason Priestley series, Private Eyes, which FB keeps showing me as one of their ads? We have to know if he's learned to use pockets now! And if he still brays!

PS: I haven't been able to comment on anything unless I comment through the forum. But if I click directly on the visual aids link and try to post at the bottom, it won't let me. It freezes. 

1. I must implore you all to stop asking us this. We don't want to watch it and you can't make us!

2. I'll let @GlarkTheUser know.

[TimeyWimey52]

1 hour ago, Tara Ariano said:

1. I must implore you all to stop asking us this. We don't want to watch it and you can't make us!

2. I'll let @GlarkTheUser know.

1. LOL! C'mon Tara! Just one episode! One would be enough to answer all these questions! :D You know you kind of want to....

2. Thank youuuuuu

[maxineofarc]

Brandon is the worst. Brandon is THE WOOOOORRRRSSSSTTTTT. Brandon is privilege personified. "Well, have you considered NOT being a prostitute?"

[ZeroDiscipline]

I know! Like, Brandon, have you considered not being a sanctimonious blowhard?

[Flamingo]

I spent most of the ‘90s and part of the early ‘00s working in various service industries and in none of them did we ever run checks through to verify available funds.  The hotel I worked at didn’t take checks.  I had many awkward credit card declines to handle though.   I also worked for a national chain restaurant. We still took checks and did not run them through anything.  We were still doing the write the person’s driver’s license and phone number on the check thing.  Then I worked retail at another national chain in the early 2000s, our registers had something for the checks that sounds similar to the one @bilgistic describes but it didn't verify available funds.  We were still writing license numbers and phone numbers down.  The only thing the register did was imprint the deposit information for the store.  People constantly bounced checks. 

Are we supposed to feel sympathy for Noah for killing his girlfriend?  One beer and being reckless because you had to get away from your parents, who may be jerks but weren’t harming you, is not really stirring up any sympathy from me.  I can’t have compassion particularly since it appears he got away scot-free.

How many times can these bros say “man” to each other?

I haven't actually seen any of these episodes.  They sound horrible and I can't thank Tara and Sarah enough for watching them for us. Their anger and disgust are so entertaining.

“She’s not answering the coconut.”   LOL

[bilgistic]

We had to run checks through the machine AND write down all the customers' info (phone number, license number, and two other things I can't recall) on the check. People got really pissed about it. I wanted to say, "Hey, you are the one writing a check!"

[MCMLXXVII]

14 hours ago, helent said:

So, deep pull from my youf here, but Ricky up there looks very much like Timothy Hutton, especially in a dumb gangster film he did with David Duchovny and baby Angelina Jolie, in which his hair was peroxide blonde and terrible:

Yes! I love that awful movie. Playing God. Ha ha ha. Duchovny’s the disgraced surgeon who becomes a mob doctor. I was an “X-Files” fan and it was supposed to be his big  starmaking foray into cinema. Tee hee. 

[bethster2000]

Super 90s Sighting: I think that in the scene where Donna is going through her checks, she is rockin' OPI"s I'm Not Really A Waitress!

[benteen]

20 hours ago, ZeroDiscipline said:

Yeah, it seems that Iris is 2 for 2 in turning out troubled youth, and Dylan is as useless as ever.

It's his PAIN!  He has too much PAIN...

Ugh.  Even when he's not on this show, Dylan is the worst.

To answer another poster, I have no idea how Erica ended up with Iris, who is not a blood relative at all.

[Qoass]

Not only does hooker Erica look nothing like child Erica, she does bear a striking resemblance to Claire!

[TimeyWimey52]

I honestly thought the pimp was Scott Baio until I listened to the Podcast. 

[MCMLXXVII]

16 hours ago, bethster2000 said:

Super 90s Sighting: I think that in the scene where Donna is going through her checks, she is rockin' OPI"s I'm Not Really A Waitress!

Good eye. I was reading Uma Thurman’s NY Times interview on Weinstein last week and noted that she seemed to be wearing Mia Wallace’s trademark Vamp/Rouge Noir in the accompanying photo, so I got my nails done in the Essie longwear version closest to that shade instead of my usual red or pink tones. My hands feel 18 again!

Edited February 14, 2018 by MCMLXXVII

[Halo]

On 2/12/2018 at 4:52 PM, bilgistic said:

So...regular Louis C.K.?

While in college in the mid-1990s, I was a cashier at Best Buy. We had registers that had those check...checkers...attached to them. The check checker was a solid block about the size of half a brick. It had just the arc through which the check was fed. I think it verified the account and routing numbers along the bottom of the checks, although now that I think about it, could that technology have existed then?

I do remember it hooked up via phone line, so it stands to reason that they were tele-verified, just as credit cards were (remember the modem sound during credit card charges back in the day?). I can't remember checks not passing the verification but I can certainly remember credit cards being declined. And the ensuing calls I would have to make to American Express while my line backed up and people got progressively madder and madder at me.

And this has been Check Talk with your U.S. correspondent! Back to you, @Tara Ariano and @Sarah D. Bunting!

I was going to say basically this. It was a HUGE deal when the independent pharmacy where I worked got a fancy computerized cash register in about 1996 that would verify checks electronically as well as run credit cards. Up to then we had been doing MANUAL credit card impressions and calling into Visa, MC, etc. after closing each night to use touchtone to run the card. So many declined charges! 

[atlanticslide]

On 2/13/2018 at 12:09 PM, CurlyATX said:

I'm not a social worker, but maybe someone can tell me how Erica really end up living with Iris?  Ok, Suzanne is in prison.  Let's assume she has no other blood relatives.  Kevin's family is a no?   Dylan is (supposedly) her half-brother.  But we are supposed to assume that the courts would allow a minor to live with a non-relative who is the estranged mother of her supposed half-brother, in another state?  She isn't a dog! 

Wasn't there a big change in the writing staff between Seasons 4 and 5? It almost feels like the Season 4 writers loved the Scamily and had plans for Erica to stick around and be parented by Dylan, but then the Season 5 writers took over and were like "fuck that" and wrapped the Samily storyline up in one episode, shipped Erica off to the nearest available semi-viable parental figure, never to be seen again, just so that they wouldn't have to deal with her. They didn't even mention her (or Iris, for that matter) on Dylan's wedding day. 

Edited February 15, 2018 by atlanticslide

[CurlyATX]

I did hear that Jack was always written to "return" to 90210 but with Dylan's departure, that idea took a turn.  It also seems that the writers didn't watch any of the show in past seasons.   By the later seasons (like when Dylan returns) it seems that the writers were plucked off the street and had never even seen the show.  

[CurlyATX]

On 2/13/2018 at 1:26 PM, Flamingo said:

“She’s not answering the coconut.”   LOL

But doesn't Iris live in a treehouse or something? I thought when Jack died it was really hard to contact Iris too.  I don't get this at all.  My grandparents lived in India and even we could call and get basic info (like who died, got married, etc) on the phone when I was a kid, in the 80s.  

Can I say that your talk about Carly's shoes really brought back memories of all my Nine West blocky monstrosities? I remember rocking a pair of black, microfiber 3 1/2 inch heels.  Though sadly, now I still wear block heels because they are 100 times easier for me that stilettos. 

[ZeroDiscipline]

3 hours ago, CurlyATX said:

I did hear that Jack was always written to "return" to 90210 but with Dylan's departure, that idea took a turn.

They tried that later though-- turned out Jack was in witness protection this whole time and didn't blow up in the car we all saw him blow up in. By then it was like the writers had not ever seen the show, and were writing it sort of mad libs style.

[ZeroDiscipline]

On 2/13/2018 at 1:48 PM, bilgistic said:

We had to run checks through the machine AND write down all the customers' info (phone number, license number, and two other things I can't recall) on the check. People got really pissed about it. I wanted to say, "Hey, you are the one writing a check!"

We had to do that at The Limited too- I worked there 1991-1995. Our awful manager also came up with a code for us to use to write down a brief description of the customer. Like "BW" meant "black woman". Oh yeah, she went there. Racist POS. Plus, how can a description of the customer possibly be necessary when we already wrote down their license number, which has a photo right on it? But aside from that, I vividly remember a white lady yelling at me that she was just going to give me a fake phone number and how dare I ask for her personal information. I just smiled and said "Okay".

[bilgistic]

I'm trying to remember what all we had to write. We had to draw a grid like this:

---------+---------

And each of the four quadrants had info we wrote from the ID. I definitely remember license/state ID number and phone number (if not pre-printed on check we had to ask, and some people were assholes and wouldn't give it. Again, these jackasses didn't get that they were the ones writing checks and the burden of proof of funds was on them.). The other two were probably date of birth and...??? Maybe ID expiration? I don't know why that would matter. Maybe it was race and gender from ID. I just can't recall. Age is a bitch.

I do recall wearing my tumbled brown leather Doc Martens to work and they really are awesome work boots for standing on your feet for 12 hours.

Edited February 15, 2018 by bilgistic

[Pink-n-Green]

Oh my gosh!  That pimp is Lujack from Early to mid-eighties Guiding Light!

[benteen]

18 hours ago, ZeroDiscipline said:

They tried that later though-- turned out Jack was in witness protection this whole time and didn't blow up in the car we all saw him blow up in. By then it was like the writers had not ever seen the show, and were writing it sort of mad libs style.

I thankfully never saw that but I know the whole Antonia storyline wasn't mentioned when Dylan's father returned.

[Jax7917]

12 hours ago, benteen said:

I thankfully never saw that but I know the whole Antonia storyline wasn't mentioned when Dylan's father returned.

This !! Antonia died essentially because Of Jack and nothing was mentioned about it when he returned and he and Dylan had various conversations 

[Klaw]

On 2/13/2018 at 8:26 PM, Flamingo said:

I haven't actually seen any of these episodes.  They sound horrible and I can't thank Tara and Sarah enough for watching them for us. Their anger and disgust are so entertaining.

I can not rewatch these. I just can't ... they are just so so so bad and unbelievably, they get much worse, especially when Gina and Dylan 2.0 return. Terrible. But the podcast and the furious aggravation Tara and Sarah unleash is comedy gold.

Ah, remember the early days of the show/podcast when it was, as usual, bad, but good bad (Brenda! Cult!Kelly! etc). Not just bad bad, like now?

[BBHN]

Quote

Dylan 2.0

Which is what Noah was supposed to be...

[yousetmeupyoucrud]

I forgot all about the Jack in Witness Protection garbage. I’m pretty sure that when Dylan returns too he says all this shit about not having lived with Brenda for years and traveling the world and stuff, like the writers forgot all about how Erica goes to live with him, IN LONDON, WITH BRENDA.

I really should’ve gone into TV writing cuz if later seasons of 90210 are any indication it’s super fucking easy and requires no talent.

[Jax7917]

And how apparently he traveled the world only to realize that Kelly was the love of his life . I don't get it . Kelly and him hated each other !! Even when they were in a relationship , Dylan chose Brenda over her time and time again. These writers are terrible 

[benteen]

Kelly was his true love at the end because she was the only one left on the show.  So by default.

Edited February 21, 2018 by benteen

[yousetmeupyoucrud]

I just realized something too. If Kelly had amnesia and had to relearn shit, how did she recognize Erica on the street?

[GrahamV]

On 2/12/2018 at 2:30 PM, yousetmeupyoucrud said:

Does anyone else remember how Kelly was always cunty to Erica and how Erica was Team Brenda? She’s probably like “oh great, this bitch!”

That was literally the first thing I thought of! The show acts like we're supposed to sympathize with Kelly and Brandon's plight in trying to save Erica but, like her, we really just want them to mind their own damn business (for once).