Beverly Hills 90210: The Complete First Season and Melrose Place: The Complete First Season
Studio: Paramount Home Video
WorkNameSort: Beverly Hills 90210: The Complete First Season and Melrose Place: The Complete First Season
The rise and fall of generations can now be measured simply: When its most shameful and ridiculous television shows bring on warm nostalgia. That the stars of 90210 were considered glamorous, and the naughty soapiness of Melrose Place was seen as the absolute end point of television trashiness is laughable in retrospect. Now that the ’90s are the new ’80s and ‘retrospectâ?� is what it’s all about, a look back at the first season of these shows reveals both how awful they are in comparison to television today and how awful they are in comparison to their own later seasons. The hair-pulling, multiple-identity insanity that marked Melrose‘s last couple of years seems miles away from the awkward exposition of these early shows. Though Amanda (Heather Locklear) does show up to breathe life into Melrose near the end of this first season, it wasn’t until the next year that the show assumed the mind-bending unreality that made it so excellent. Likewise, the Ridgemont High-for-yuppies culture clashes and cute romances of the initial episodes of 90210 give little clue as to the drug-dealing-at-the-Peach Pit ludicrousness that would come with the Tiffani-Amber Thiessen era. But hey, Jennie Garth in polka-dot spandex is its own kind of crazy. A small disclaimer in the box’s art notes states that ‘music has been changed for this home entertainment version,â?� which is proven to be true; in the 90210 pilot, ‘One to Remember,â?� by Orlando’s own Spacebar, is the new background music for the pool-party scene.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2006.