REACTION: 9021OMG Episode 11
Monday’s installment of the “9021OMG” podcast focused on “The Gentle Art of Listening.”
“The Gentle Art of Listening” is the ninth episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210” and it tackles one of the most serious topics: rape. When Brenda (Shannen Doherty) joins Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) as a volunteer at a teen help line, she’s drawn into the story of an anonymous caller (Bonnie, played by Lisa Dean Ryan of “Doogie Howser, M.D.”) who reveals she’s a victim of sexual assault. Meanwhile, Brandon (Jason Priestley) finds himself attracted to an older woman who happens to be a masseuse (Nina, played by Kim Gillingham) while a younger classmate (Lucy, played by Heather Hopper of “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”) is clearly crushing on him.
The episode was written by Charles Rosin, the show’s executive producer, and directed by Dan Attias, who also helmed one episode of “The O.C.” The hour was covered in great detail with Rosin and Attias on the “Beverly Hills 90210 Show” podcast back in August, so I was particularly eager for Jennie Garth (Kelly) and Tori Spelling (Donna) to give their own take.
9021OMG Episode 11, “Eyes Are the Window to the Soul”
Tori gave us an off-the-cuff rap to start things off: “You got the Jen to the T to the Sisanie.” They were all impressed.
Jennie said before discussing the episode, she wanted to talk about the death of John Reilly, who played Kelly’s father, Bill Taylor.
Jennie: “It’s just so sad. It’s so sad when we lose great people. I know he has a wife and five daughters and grandkids... Tor, you and I both know what it’s like to lose a dad. There’s nothing like it.”
Tori: “And nothing anyone says can make you feel any better. But he was a good man. He was nice. He was so nice. And I know you were close to him, worked a lot with him. But he was part of our family and it’s really hard for us to lose anyone in our family.”
Jennie noted that Kelly and Bill had a “tumultuous relationship,” while she had a “really great, amazing relationship” with her real-life father, so it was “really hard” for her to “play a character who had a dad who she didn’t really trust or get along with.”
It was also hard, Jennie said, because John was “so nice, just such a kind person. It was really hard to forget that when the cameras were rolling and be kind of angry all the time.”
Jennie pointed out his “huge body of work” and noted he was on “a ton of soaps” and did some other Aaron Spelling shows.
Tori thought John worked with Luke on something, but nothing as far as I can tell.
Jennie: “What a talented man and what a long, beautiful career he had. And beautiful family. Five daughters. They must miss him very much, so our hearts go out to all of them. Big hugs for everybody that knew and loved him.”
Jennie thought he died too young at 84 while Tori’s instinct was to say it was a “long life," before reconsidering and saying “90’s the new 80.”
They then transitioned into the episode at hand, with Tori giving the title, air date, and synopsis.
Tori joked that falling for an older character is a “running theme of our show. If it’s not one twin, it’s the other.”
Jennie thought the episode “started out fun” with the pep rally, especially for her since she didn’t go to high school for the most part.
Tori said it was an example of “the good grand things I got to do on TV more so than in my own high school.”
Tori wasn’t impressed by the cheerleaders, though: “It was no Bring It On.”
Jennie suggested they may have been nervous and Sisanie chimed in that they were “actually from Marina High School.” Tori asked how she knew that and Sisanie replied, “Because it’s in our notes, remember?”
I wonder who compiles those notes for them... and why they often seem to have gaping holes when it comes to the show’s specifics.
Sisanie suggested cheerleading wasn’t as evolved then compared to when she hit high school and it was taken more seriously.
Jennie brought up pyramids and Tori said, “Jen! Remember the pyramid we did on ‘Mystery Girls’ at lunch time?” Jennie: “I said pyramid and that just sent to you a whole ‘nother show.”
Jennie then recounted the story, with Tori declaring, “So random, but so us.”
Sisanie said seeing the cheerleaders made her realize that none of the characters were cheerleaders. Tori thought that was “weird” and that Kelly and Donna would have been cheerleaders.
Jennie said she was also trying to think why none of them were into sports, though Steve was “kind of a jock.” Tori: “Maybe they didn’t want to show that. There must’ve been a reason.”
Jennie speculated it might’ve been “too difficult to shoot” or that it would’ve limited how many of the core characters could be in the scene if just one person was on a sports team or something.
Well, it’s worth noting “One Tree Hill” did just fine with spotlighting basketball and cheerleading through multiple characters. Tori also brought up “Friday Night Lights,” which is another good example.
Jennie said Kelly and Donna’s outfits when they went to the pep rally were “on another planet.” Tori agreed, saying “another level.” They were also turned off by Brandon’s hat.
Tori noted Kelly and Donna were wearing sunglasses and said her dad “had a thing for sunglasses,” as in he was against them and believed “the eyes were the windows to your soul” and were how actors told their characters’ story: “He wanted to see the actors’ eyes. He never wanted it to get lost for the viewers. He wanted them to be able to show what they were feeling through their eyes. But we were wearing sunglasses. Bizarro.”
Jennie: “We weren’t cheerleaders because we were too busy shopping, apparently.”
In real life, Jennie finds shopping “exhausting” and rather shop online, while Tori finds it “healing” and wants to do it in person.
Tori said she’s a “big” fan of “Doogie Howser” and she and Jennie both liked Lisa Dean Ryan.
Superfan Sianie thought it was the first time we saw Brenda and Andrea in scenes together, which isn’t accurate, as they were together in “Perfect Mom,” which they just watched a whopping two weeks ago.
Jennie and Tori said they both felt “nervous” watching Brenda and Andrea interact, with Jennie asking, “Did that kick off — it wasn’t a love affair between the two of them?” Sisanie asked if she meant on or off camera, and Jennie said, “Both... it was palpable. You could feel there was beef between those two. I don’t know what it was.” Tori agreed: “I felt it too. If I came into this not knowing anything, I’d be like, ‘Ooh, a little tension.’”
Sisanie: “I thought it was just acting. Was it not just acting?” Jennie: “Maybe!” Sisanie: “The eyebrows tell me everything right now.”
Of course we can’t see the eyebrows.
They thought the teen help line was the “rap line,” and truthfully, that’s what I always interpreted it as, but Sisanie said it’s actually “wellness recovery action plan,” so “WRAP.” Hm.
Tori was bothered by Andrea being judgmental of Brenda and doubtful of her intentions: “She’s known her for nine episodes, you guys. How could she judge her? She doesn’t even know her!”
Tori further called Andrea an “extension of Brandon” in terms of their seriousness and noted how “opinionated” she was. Jennie thought Andrea being opinionated was a “good thing” and “defined her really nicely as a character.”
Tori thought Andrea “had a little bit of a different vibe” and “looked sexy” in the episode, but Jennie didn’t notice that at all.
Tori said Brenda’s “bangs were on point” and Jennie agreed she “looked great.”
Shock of shocks, Tori actually brought up the director. Have they been reading my reaction posts?!
She noted Dan Attias was one of their “longest-running directors” and did “so many episodes with us,” but this was his first.
He actually directed more episodes than anyone else for the series — 20 of them, but all in the first five seasons.
Tori: “I loved him.” Jennie: “He was great. Great director. Really fun to be with... He kind of acted like one of the kids.” Tori: “He was cool. We could talk to him and hang out. He just knew how to speak to actors and made you feel comfortable, which I think shows in this episode. Everyone looks like they’re having a lot of fun.”
Maybe it’s a fun episode for Brandon, but it certainly isn’t for Brenda or Andrea... or Bonnie, for that matter.
Jennie pointed out that The Peach Pit exterior at this point still wasn’t the one we eventually came to know for the rest of the series. Tori again brought up how The Apple Pan was the inspiration and told people to Google it.
Tori wanted to talk about Nat “getting some action in the back room.” Sisanie interrupted to say they’d take a break first.
Jennie after the break: “Who gets a massage in the back of the restaurant?! Was it weird to anyone else?” Sisanie: “It was so weird. All of it was. The whole storyline was very weird.”
In fact, Tori thought it was so weird that it felt “like something we would randomly drop into something we created. It was very not-‘90210.’ It was so out of place.”
Tori thought Nina “went on to be talked about or seen in multiple episodes,” which is entirely wrong, yet Sisanie and Jennie both took her word for it. Goodness gracious.
Sisanie thought that even though Nina had a partner, her wanting the “under 18” Brandon to be a “guinea pig” was “inappropriate.”
Jennie found Nina “intense” and was “uncomfortable watching it.” She said Brandon “looked like a 12-year-old boy” who was “enraptured” every time Nina spoke to him. Tori thought he was “really good in this episode.”
Sisanie was perplexed by Brandon opening up to Cindy early in the episode and then lying to her about his plans later in the episode.
Jennie on kids / teens: “They’ll tell you everything until they don’t want to tell you anything. Sorry to break it to you.” Tori: “Sage advice. Sisanie, take that. Literally write that down because you’re going to be dealing with that in like 15 years.” Sisanie: “No, I’m not ready for that.” Tori: “I’m not ready for that, but I need to listen to it soon.”
Sisanie asked if Jennie’s kids would “tell you everything and then at one point you turned into not the cool mom.” Jennie said she has to pull things out of her kids “each in different ways,” as all her daughters are “into being independent and proving to me they can handle all the things” until it gets “too weighty” and “it bubbles out” and they “need that talk time.” She said she tries to be “chill,” even though she’s excited they’re opening up to her. “I love those heart-to -heart talks with my kids for sure.”
Tori said she witnessed one with Jennie and her middle daughter Lola when they were in Vancouver for “BH90210” and called it “beautiful to see,” complimenting Jennie on striking the right “balance” with motherhood and friendship.
All three of them said they didn’t tell their parents anything. Jennie: “That’s why it’s so important to me now as a mom, to be somebody you can talk to, even if it’s stuff we’re not going to agree on, if it’s probably going to get you in trouble.”
Sisanie: “I think you end up in situations like a Bonnie in this episode when you don’t have that open communication with your parents. Because you start feeling insecure about yourself and you think the only way to feel wanted and loved is to give your body up or have sex or hook up. In her case, it was not that, but it’s how you go in that direction, I feel.”
We actually don’t know anything about Bonnie’s home life and I think it’s a big leap to suggest that that could have contributed to what led her to be raped repeatedly by classmates. Bonnie was the victim of a form of date rape and I just don’t see the connection to whether or not you open up to your parents.
Tori asked Jennie how she established open communication with her daughters after not having it with her own mom. Jennie said she explained to her girls how she wished she talked with her mom more when she was a kid and that seemed to impact them. She also pointed out that when one daughter doesn’t want to talk, she can lean on the other daughters to find out what’s going on or at least encourage them to talk to each other.
Tori said she likes that Jennie’s daughters talk to Jennie’s husband, their stepfather. Jennie joked that the girls relate to him more because he’s younger than her. Tori: “But she’s young in spirit... I couldn’t imagine you now with anyone your age or older.
Jennie then revealed she saw an older guy on the golf course last week and “immediately fell in love with him.” She joked, “I love the older men. I’m a little bit like Brenda.”
They returned to the topic of Brandon and Nina and Tori’s mind apparently went to a very dark place when it was said Brandon got a foot massage. “I’m a secret sicko,” she said.
Jennie said she and Tori have been “exposed to a lot of sexualness” and Sisanie wanted to know if she meant on the show or in real life. Jennie: “Just in general. Being on a set like that.” Tori: “Being teenage girls on a set with teenage and 20-something-year-old boys. It just was a different time, you know?”
Jennie and Tori rejected Sisanie’s suggestion that they grew up fast, but said there were “a lot of stories that we heard about things.” Tori: “We heard a lot from the boys. Oh my god. Our poor little ears. We would hear it all, them talking, like everything that happened in their personal life.”
They clarified that they sometimes wanted to listen in, and Jennie specifically recalled hearing “serious how-to” stories from Ian: “He could’ve had his own YouTube channel.” Tori: “Wait, I didn’t get that memo. Wait, wait, wait. Should I ask him for tips because I don’t remember that day?”
Sisanie: “Safe to say no one was a virgin when this show started?”
Neither responded directly, but Tori said she had “little virgin ears” when she would hear the guys using nicknames for things they did during sex. She said they didn’t know what they were talking about, but wanted to be “cool,” so they would pretend to understand it while “freaking out inside our brains or gagging.”
Tori: “Seeing them — imagine teenage boys, 20-something-year-old boys that have every girl in America wanting them, across the world, and they’re just like, ‘Woo, cool!’ and they’re talking about stuff freely in front of us because we’re like their sisters and like buddies, and we’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ but in our brains, we’re like teenage girls that were like, ‘Uh, we can’t compute, it’s too much to handle. Wait, is this what a man wants in a girl? Is this what we’re supposed to be like? We’re supposed to be sexy and show our bodies and show our worth?’ It happened, you know.”
Jennie: “It was an interesting road to navigate, trying to figure out what was real and what was created.”
Tori: “We were good girls, though. Like, thank goodness. It could’ve gone horribly wrong.” Jennie: “I think we were all really good girls. We all kind of always had a boyfriend. Everybody had like a significant other.” Tori: “Aw, I kind of love that. We were all romantics. We wanted the fairytale, all four girls.”
Jennie asked if their schools had help lines and neither Tori nor Sisanie remembered having one.
Tori then asked if such resources still exist and said she hopes they do when her kids get to high school. Jennie: “It’s called the world wide web.” Tori: “Google is like the worst. And Siri and Alexa, they're just not helpful. They’re not on our side.”
Jennie thought it was “dicey” for someone to call into the help line and expect to be anonymous knowing they were speaking with student volunteers — aka, their classmates. “That’s how Brenda put all the things together, ‘cause she’s a good little detective and figured out who it was.”
Sisanie said it felt “victorious” when it all came together in the end with the guys getting busted. Jennie said the dudes were “so creepy” and she “wanted to beat them up.”
Sisanie then said they were “getting confirmation” that RAINN is the “nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and does exist.”
Apparently Jennie doesn’t remember she did a RAINN PSA after Kelly was raped in season 9.
Sisanie asked if there would be a message after an episode like this aired and then Jennie said how they did PSAs, but still didn’t remember she herself worked with RAINN on one.
Jennie: “There was no internet then. There was no way to Google something or find out how to help yourself like that.”
I’d say the internet was definitely in use A LOT more in the last couple of seasons. I was certainly Googling about the show back then (shoutout to Rex’s Obsessed Fan Sanctuary and Watch with Wanda!) and surely you could look up other things too.
Jennie: “These storylines were about real things. This stuff was really happening. This stuff is really happening. So it was really cool to do that.”
They assumed this episode originally aired with a PSA.
Tori: “We’re not mad about it, we’re grateful for everything, but looking back, ‘90210’ — it addressed some really important topics, weekly, tackled stuff that no one was talking about and yet people weren’t like — the fans were great and loved it and they loved going through the experiences with us, but it’s just odd it never got the acclaim. No one wrote about that, like, ‘Here’s a show that’s really topically in tune with teens.’ And still to this day, it doesn’t get the accolades.
Jennie: “They were too blinded by the cute boys.” Tori: “The Aaron Spelling of it all? Is that what it is? It might’ve been. It’s sad.”
Jennie: “But in a way that’s good. It appealed to so many different people and what they wanted out of the show. The kids watched it because they could relate to it and because it looked — they’d never seen Beverly Hills, they had never seen what it was like in the beach in California, they had never seen all the things the show had. It was also these great topics that they were giving a voice to and then the parents would watch it with the kids and that was such a great sort of door-opening for parents and their kids to talk about stuff.”
Jennie started to share how she was watching “Cobra Kai” with her youngest daughter Fiona recently, but then got sidetracked and started gushing about “Johnny,” played by William Zabka. She said she got her picture taken with him once and Tori was shocked Jennie had the guts to approach him because apparently she’s “never” like that.
Jennie said they had a “heartfelt” moment, after which Sisanie chimed in that he’s “been with his wife for 33 years.” Jennie then clarified that she wasn’t trying to suggest any kind of sexual connection, but Tori was still fascinated by the story.
Back to the “Cobra Kai” story: Jennie said the guys on the show were using the “p-word a lot,” which Tori thought stood for “penis” before realizing it was the “kitty cat” synonym, and Jennie, who said she’s “conservative” when it comes to things like that, asked 14-year-old Fiona how she felt hearing it. Fiona didn’t interpret it the same way Jennie had and felt she “learned something” from her daughter.
Jennie: “The younger generation, the things they know now and the way they translate that in a different way than I did when I was their age... they think it through and they consider it and try it on. It’s really interesting.”
Back to the actual topic at hand (you know, “Beverly Hills, 90210”), Jennie found it “interesting” that both Steve and Dylan seemed to know “so much about women.” She said, “That’s kind of how it was in real life. They knew everything about ladies and the things.” Tori: “Why? Because they thought they knew it or they said it with such confidence that we believed they knew it?” Jennie: “Why wouldn’t we believe them? They acted like they knew everything.”
Sisanie: “Who was the player of all of them? Who went out with more girls?”
Tori: “Jason didn’t talk about it. We would hear convos but I didn’t feel from my perspective... we had to overhear these things; I didn't feel like I heard that a lot [from Jason]. Ian, I would hear convos. I don’t know if he dated a lot, but we would hear him talking.”
Jennie: “I would remember hearing them talking and try to walk in and be part of the conversation... the minute they saw me zeroing in, they kind of hushed up.” Tori: “Sometimes. There were a lot of high-fives, right? A lot of high-fives, a lot of [laughs], but it’s this weird, creepy boy laugh. A lot of ‘bro’ words used.”
Sisanie: “So it was pretty equal, aside from Jason not speaking about it?”
Jennie: “I wouldn’t say any of them were players. I wouldn’t say any of them were grody, like womanizing. They liked their girls, but a lot of them had girlfriends for a lot of the run, too. Wives, girlfriends, whatever.”
Tori: “I agree with that. They could’ve had anyone. I feel like they were all really respectful and always had girlfriends. I mean, not Brian when he was young. ‘Cause, you know, he was saving his heart for me, but other than that — I’m just kidding.”
Tori: “Ian had a girlfriend for a long time. Remember Sheri, his high school sweetheart?” Sisanie: “Could you imagine being his high school girlfriend and then he gets on this show and turns into this heartthrob? Obviously it didn’t last between them?” Tori: “It didn’t work. It’s kind of like Jason and Robyn Lively, same thing. It’s really hard to be the love of someone’s life and they get mega fame and it’s overwhelming as a young man. I can’t even imagine.”
Jennie: “We all had our fair share of suitors, though.” Tori: “Speak for yourself, sister.”
There was a tiny tangent: Jennie is a “Bridgerton” fan and called it “such a guilty pleasure.” Tori asked if they’ve watched “Riviera,” calling it a “modern-day ‘Dynasty’ but in the South of France.”
Jennie to Tori: “You had a few boyfriends. You had your fair share.” Tori: “I was always with a boy... looking back, no regrets. Looking back, we would go out and there were boys that would want to call us or date us and we were always in relationships so we said no, but looking back, there were some cute boy actors that I’m like, ‘Woah, that could've been me.’”
Jennie said there was “one boy, one actor” she liked that was Tori’s “love interest” who she won’t remember the name of til they get to the episode, but apparently he was a cowboy in real life. Tori: “I dated him. But just like a date. Not a boyfriend. It was the only place we met boys. You were always in hardcore relationships, but I had pockets.”
Tori thought Jennie was talking about Greg Vaughan, who played Cliff in season 7. Jennie: “I remember just staring at him in the makeup trailer.”
For the record, Jennie was with Peter Facinelli during this time.
After a break, Sisanie brought up the “small storyline” of Donna wanting a nose job in this episode when in real life she had already had one by this point.
It’s actually pretty surprising that it took nearly 45 minutes for them to get to this aspect of the episode. Yes, it was a very small part, but it was specifically related to Donna and Kelly.
Tori said she didn’t know “where this storyline came from,” because Candy was fully into her getting her nose done, unlike Donna’s (unseen) parents on the show.
Tori reiterated that the only episode she missed out of the 10 seasons was when she was getting her nose job during episode 2.
Sisanie wondered if her dad wanted to do this storyline as a way to send a message to his daughter, but Tori was doubtful.
Jennie: “I loved how it turned out [on the show]. Instead of getting you a nose job, they just bought you a new car.” Tori: “I wish I had gone that way in real life... That’s a lie. I was making a joke. I got both.”
Tori: “But I wish the nose hadn’t happened. You know I wish that. Because I feel like I was a 16-year-old girl. I wanted something, but I hadn’t grown into my face yet. I just wonder if five years from then, if I had that decision to make over, if I would’ve chosen that.”
Jennie: “It’s definitely advisable if you’re under 20 and you’re thinking about getting some sort of cosmetic surgery, I would advise waiting. Give it a few years. See how you feel about it in a few years... you might feel totally different about it.”
Tori: “That’s me and my boob job. I was all about the boob job in the ‘90s and now looking back, I’m like, ‘Ugh that was such a mistake.’” Because now they don’t wear clothes well.” Sisanie: “I think that would be boob job or not, truly. That’s just life.”
Tori stressed that she just thinks she would’ve looked better in the ‘90s and early 2000s “without those big boobs.”
Sisanie wanted to know what “season” she had them done and Tori said she didn’t know but would know “when we see it.” She knows it was during the college years, though, and based on her description of her appearance at the time, I would say it was season 5.
Tori recalled “hoping no one would notice.” She went on, “It was after a trip to Maui. I was with Shannen, my bad boyfriend at the time, and her — she got engaged at the time, one of her fiancés. We discussed boobs and I was thinking about getting them and she was really encouraging and talking me through it. I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds great.’ I came back, found a doctor, and said, ‘Sign me up.’”
Sisanie read an email from a fan who said Kelly / Dylan and Jennie / Luke fans get upset when Jennie says Kelly stole Dylan from Brenda and that she’s Team Brenda (as she’s said on recent podcasts). The fan defended Kelly and said she hoped that when they get to season 3, they’d see Kelly is a “decent person.”
Jennie and Tori both seemed touched by the email, with Tori exclaiming, “Well said,” and Jennie saying, “They think so much of more than I think of me.”
Tori: “First of all, you can’t steal somebody’s man. It’s not like you physically go in and you run off with them. They willingly go.”
THANK YOU, VICTORIA DAVEY SPELLING!!!
Jennie said she doesn’t disagree that Kelly was a “decent person,” but acknowledges she said she’s “pro-Brenda as a viewer watching the show back, but only because I was only Kelly when we were doing it. Now just being able to see all the things Brenda went through and kind of feel it in a different way, I have more of a likability there for her. But, I mean, I guess it was a little bit of an overstatement to say I’m Team Brenda. I guess I could never be fully Team Brenda. But I appreciate the concern with that.”
Sisanie: “Apparently we get a lot of emails about that specific topic in general.” Jennie: “Well, I look forward to getting into that stuff. Is it season 3? Because I don’t remember the specifics of it all.”
Sisanie said she’s heard Jennie say that Kelly stole Dylan, even though that isn’t really what happened, and Jennie offered, “I guess I said it because I maybe listened too much to the Brenda fans and I felt bad.”
Tori: “I mean, there’s two sides. As a female, you don’t want your friend to ever hook up with your boyfriend or even ex-boyfriend. There’s just the sacred ground. But the other side is, he pursued her, he wanted her, he was in love with Kelly, ultimately. And those are her feelings. It’s a touchy — that's a hard one. What’s meant to be is meant to be, but at what price, you know?”
Tori went on to say, “I feel like Dylan had two soulmates. It was always Brenda and Kelly in just very different ways. But they were still part of his journey... I love Dylan and Brenda, but ultimately I wanted Dylan and Kelly. It’s hard to give one up.”
Jennie: “But then he married someone else, so go figure.”
I am honestly blown away that Jennie remembered that.
Tori: “That was a whole different ball game.” Sisanie: “We’re gonna get there.” Tori: “Spoiler alert!” Sisanie: “We’re going to upset the fans who are watching the first time.”
Um, maybe you should’ve thought about that before you started discussing this topic to begin with, Sis. We went from discussing a season 1 episode to a season 3 storyline.
The next fan question was from Kristin, who wanted to know what 10 characters they would invite to a dinner party and what they would serve.
Kristin also asked Charles Rosin this question during our private Zoom chat for premium TDW subscribers last month!
Tori called it an “amazing” and “phenomenal” question while Jennie was taken aback by having to choose 10.
Jennie and Tori together said Kelly, Donna, Dylan, Nat (to bring peach pie), Cindy (she would do all the cooking), Brenda (for good conversation), Brandon, Steve, Andrea, and David.
Sisanie: “So basically it’s the eight of you, plus Nat and Cindy Walsh.” Tori: “Then Jim would feel upset. I’m gonna have to up it to 11 and let Jim Walsh come because now I feel weird.” Jennie: “We couldn’t leave somebody out.”
Jennie said Donna would bring a “penis-shaped cheese platter,” which was a reference to something Tori actually brought to Jennie’s Christmas party. Tori: “It was charcuterie reimagined.”
Naturally, they got off on a tangent about the party and Tori was all too happy to describe her creation, which she and Jennie have publicly discussed before.
Jennie: “Oh my god, this is too much. Let’s talk about fashion, you guys.”
Jennie reiterated that she liked Brenda’s outfits in this episode. She also mentioned Steve’s shirts, prompting Tori to ask, “What would a male blouse be [called]?”
Sisanie and Tori agreed Donna’s crop top wouldn’t “fly” at any real high school. Jennie thought it would at her kids’ “liberal” school, though she wouldn’t let them wear something like that.
Jennie’s notable lines included Donna saying about Kelly, “That’s not all she lost in the seventh grade.” They marveled over how young Kelly would’ve been then.
Tori: “Sometimes they insert — no pun intended — with this topic lines for Kelly, the throwaways that you're just like, ‘Woah!’ Because I don’t even think of her that way... but at first they were just navigating who she is as a character and there were all these little, for lack of better words, slutty innuendos.”
Jennie: “I think they were trying to establish that she didn’t have parents that were watching over her.”
Curious if they’ll reconsider this after watching “Slumber Party.”
Also, is the implication that the only slutty people are those without, as Jennie put it, “parentals on duty”?
Another line Jennie liked was Andrea saying to Brenda, “Ours is not to reason why. Ours is to listen and try not to cry.”
None of them realized that Andrea was quoting an actual poet.
Sisanie liked what Dylan would say to a woman the next morning: “Want some coffee?” Asked what she would’ve preferred him say, Sisanie said, “Don’t say anything and you just go at it again.” Tori: “Pretty much, but I didn’t think I could say that.”
I think Tori’s “TMI” nature might be rubbing off on Sisanie.
Tori: “You’re right. No one wants coffee from Dylan McKay. They want other things. Let’s be honest.” Sisanie: “You have no idea what I would make my Dylan McKay Barbie doll do with the other Barbies.” Tori: “I didn’t know where you were going with that. ‘You have no idea what I would make my Dylan McKay Barbie doll do.’ That’s where I thought you were going and I thought it was stopping and I was super scared.”
Jennie: “I don’t know if we want to know.” Sisanie: “Just use your imagination. I'm telling you, I learned a lot from watching ‘90210.’” Tori: “Did you make your ‘90210’ dolls sixty-nine?” Sisanie: “Pretty much. I think so.”
The “homework” is to watch the 10th episode of the series, “Isn’t It Romantic?”
Jennie: “Ooh, 10! I feel like we’ve done something big.” Sisanie: “Double-digits!”
Tori: “It’s going to be a good one. I remember that title. I can’t wait to watch it.”
But she seemed to be confusing the episode for another having to do with “the birds and the bees.”
Jennie: “Alright, everybody, thanks for hanging out with us. Hope you learned some things — maybe heard some things you didn’t want to hear.”
Tori: “Let me know if you want that DIY recipe for the penis-and-balls charcuterie platter. It’s meat and cheese all the time, heavy on the meat. I’m here all week, guys! Thanks!”
Next week should certainly be… interesting… with them watching the start of the Brenda-Dylan relationship. I expect Jennie and Tori to keep flip-flopping on which relationship they prefer, just as they’ve pretty much always done. I wish they cared less about making various fan groups happy and just gave their true opinions or none at all. At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what they think about the triangle, though, because it doesn’t change anything. What happened happened, and I can’t stand fans fighting about it, as I explained in today’s essay for TDW’s premium subscribers, “The Insanity of Warring Fandoms.”
I hoped for a more serious discussion about the storyline with Brenda, Andrea, and Bonnie, but as usual, it felt like they barely scratched the surface. I was fairly uncomfortable hearing Jennie and Tori talk about the sexual conversations they would overhear the guys having back in the day. It’s nothing to do with the topic itself or being a prude (kind of hard to be a prude and be a teen drama fan, if you ask me). It’s just… why are private conversations the guys had 20-30 years ago now Jennie and Tori’s stories to tell?
Consider the double standard: Imagine if Jason and Ian did a podcast where they discussed Jennie and Tori’s sex lives. Could you see that going over well? They would be vilified for being inappropriate, for sexualizing the women, for airing other people’s dirty laundry. So what business does Tori have bringing up Ian’s “high school sweetheart”? (And by no name, no less!) Tori also mentioned Jason and Robyn Lively, and it was after Robyn’s appearance on the podcast back in November that I first made this point — and again the following week — about what is and isn’t their place to talk about.
I’ve been saying all along that I think this podcast would’ve worked a lot better as simply a “girl chat” type of show, something where they could discuss sex, parenting, fashion, etc. This installment was further proof, but so is something else: While on YouTube the other day, I came across a video Jennie and Tori filmed last March for Tori’s “Tori Tried and True” YouTube series and it was a billion times more enjoyable to me than the “9021OMG” podcast. (Coincidentally, that’s also where they previously told the charcuterie story, complete with a picture of the meat-and-cheese plate in question.) Unlike this podcast, we could actually see Jennie and Tori engage with each other, and their tendency to jump from topic to topic was actually an asset there. They played off each other really well and I found myself laughing along. I would’ve much more enjoyed a weekly web series like that than a half-hearted, audio-only “Beverly Hills, 90210” rewatch. Oh, what could’ve been…
Even with them reaching the 10th episode of the series next week, it still remains to be seen how committed they are to this podcast in the long term. Jennie posted about their five-star rating on Instagram earlier today and insisted the “critical” feedback they receive is “helping us to improve.” She went on to write, “We try to stay on topic and focus on the episode, but admittedly sometimes we go off on tangents.” Yeah, no kidding. But I guess I’m a sucker: I keep listening regardless.
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