The new class

THe most famous zip code in television is back with a all new cast and have dropped the Beverly Hills address from their name and now just call their show 90210.

Beverly Hills 90210 was a television show, produced by Aaron Spelling that ran from 1990 to 2000. It followed the lives and loves of rich kids in Beverly Hills and their exploits at West Beverly High School. That was the original show. Now there are a new crop of kids walking the halls of Beverly Hills High. The links and comparisons between the original show and this show are definitely there for all to see.

The show started with the Wilson family moving to Beverly Hills from Kansas, much like the Walsh family did by moving from Minnesota to Beverly Hills in the original series. Harry Wilson, the father actually attended West Beverly High School when he was younger so for him he is moving home. Harry was an old class mate of Kelly Taylor but as far as I can recollect he was never a member of the original show. Harry is married to Debbie and has two children, Annie and Dixon who now both have to attend West Beverly High School. Initially they both struggle to fit in with the cool rich kids but eventually they get into their stride and make friendships with a bunch of new kids. Annie is their biological daughter but Dixon is adopted and African American whereas they are white. I think it's interesting to see this dynamic and it's nice to see how well they all get on as a family.

Quite a few of the actors from the original series are in this show which I like although it's quite scary to see the characters that were the same ages as you now all grown up and playing the parent and teacher roles instead of the high school kid roles, it makes you feel very old!! Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) is back and now works as a guidance counsellor at the school. She also has custody of her younger sister, Silver who is one of the main girl characters now at school. She was initially in the original show but as a baby so she has grown up a bit since then. Donna (Tori Spelling) also came back in Season 1 for a few episodes. She is now a fashion designer and lives and works in Japan. She is still married to David (Silver's half brother) but they are having problems. Brenda (Shannon Doherty) also came back for a few episodes in Season 1 to help out with the school play.

Annie makes friends with the popular girls in school but in true 90210 fashion there are hair pulling and fights over guys all the time. Naomi is one of Annie's good friends but they fall out over a boy and Naomi then texts naked photos of Annie to everyone in school. Adrianna is another good friend. She is an actress and has a drug problem quite a lot throughout the series.

What I found interesting about this show compared to the original show is that they both started off very tame, the biggest problems for the girls were what to wear, when to go to the beach etc but as soon as they get a very episodes in the problems turn to drug abuse, murder, teen pregnancy, etc.

Dixon makes friends with some of the boys and girls too. He and Silver have a relationship but then breakup later in the series. Dixon is friends with Navid who works on the school paper (like Brandon Walsh) and who goes on to date Adrianna.

Some of the girls have, in real life, been criticised for being too skinny and yes, I agree, the girls are tiny but I don't think any of them could be called anorexic thankfully. Once again, the beautiful Pacific coast of California is featured a lot in this show because they all hang out at the Beverly Hills beach club and are part of the surf team.

I loved the original 90210 as the kids were my ages but by watching this show it's like I'm reliving my high school years again!