REACTION: 9021OMG Episode 17

After taking a week off, “A Fling in Palm Springs” was the subject of Monday’s “9021OMG” podcast.

This is the 15th episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and it aired on February 21, 1991. It’s President’s Weekend and some of the gang travels to Palm Springs to spend the holiday at David’s (Brian Austin Green) grandparents house, believing they’re out of town.

Meanwhile, Brenda (Shannen Doherty) is supposed to meet Dylan (Luke Perry) at a hotel for some… intimate time… but ends up at the wrong locale. She makes friends with a bell hop played by David Gail, who returns in season 4 as an entirely different character. And Brandon (Jason Priestley) opts to stay in Beverly Hills and work at The Peach Pit, where he learns the tragic reason a boy who frequents the eatery is always ravenously hungry.

The episode was written by Jordan Budde, who also worked on “90210,” and directed by Jefferson Kibbee, who also helmed some great hours in seasons 2, 4, and 7.

I had expected this installment to be covered last Monday. But apparently, in the wake of their live “9021OMG” podcast on February 17, they decided to take February 22 off. So here we are on March 1, and you know Jennie Garth (Kelly) and Tori Spelling (Donna) had a lot to say… unfortunately, most of it wasn’t about the episode.

9021OMG Episode 17, “Have A Fling”

• In kicking off the podcast, Tori said “it’s the three of us — plus one” because Sisanie is pregnant.

• Tori and Jennie teased Sisanie about keeping it a secret from them.

• Tori said now she feels guilty for pressuring Sisanie to drink during the podcast and not getting why she would turn them down.

• Tori: “Who’s really the dad? Jen or me?” Sisanie: “Both of you. You guys don’t remember?”

• Sisanie is having a girl, if you care.

• Jennie: “Sisanie, I want that baby!... You’re making my ovaries hurt.” Tori: “Oh my god, shut up. Our ovaries are literally dust at this point. Our days are gone... Do you think we have any eggs left?”

  • Uh, there’s plenty of women having kids in their late 40s these days, especially celebrities.

• Sisanie asked them if they would have another. Jennie said she wants to “so bad,” especially because her husband is younger and doesn’t have kids of his own. They’ve “tried for a while,” but it hasn’t happened. “I think I’ll just take yours,” she quipped.

• Tori said that when she had her youngest, Beau, they talked about her having a baby FOR Jennie. Jennie: “I don’t want your eggs. No thanks… Your eggs are definitely C eggs by now.” Tori: “Are you calling my eggs C-list? What are you talking about right now? I’m so offended.”

• When Sisanie suggested Jennie freeze her eggs and do IVF, Jennie revealed, “I’ve tried it all. Just haven’t really talked about it publicly.”

  • That is a pretty big thing to share. I wonder if media outlets will pick it up. Soooo many stars go to the tabloids about this. Props to Jennie for not doing that.

• Tori pointed out Janet Jackson had a baby at 50. Jennie was sure she had to have some assistance.

• Then Tori started talking about her periods syncing with Jennie’s.

• Sisanie marveled over Tori not even realizing she was pregnant with Beau until like three and a half months in.

• Sisanie: “Maybe my little baby dust fever will awaken your guys’ ovaries and your eggs and you all will be making an announcement.” Tori: “Throw it her way. I have enough.”

• Jennie asked Tori if she “had an exciting day today” and Sisanie prodded her to share what she told them before they started recording.

• Tori said the community she lives in is large and there are cops patrolling, so she’s been warned by others to drive carefully. She was on her way to a friend’s to do a radio broadcast and was listening to Sisanie and Ryan Seacrest on the radio and did a “California stop,” a rolling stop. She was pulled over by an officer who saw her and the cop also said she was going a little over the speed limit. 

• Tori said she had a clean record before this — got one speeding ticket when she was 17 and nothing else. She said her husband even says she drives “like a grandma.”

• So when she was pulled over, Tori said she panicked and tried (but failed) to cry on cue. She struggled explaining why her name is Tori Spelling but her legal name is “Victoria” and tried to pull the “actress” card. She didn’t even have her insurance or license on her. She said she was profusely apologetic, told the cop how she has five kids and her husband usually drives, blah, blah, blah. And she was only feet from the community’s exit gate. So close to freedom, yet so far.

• Jennie: “So much for that clean record.”

• Sisanie wondered if Tori will have to go to traffic school and if that’s still a thing. Jennie said she thinks it’s done online now and you can “cheat.”

  • Unsurprisingly, none of them mentioned that Steve and Clare went to traffic school in season 6.

• Sisanie: “Have you guys seen each other since we’ve started this podcast?” They confirmed they’ve seen each other once.

• Sisanie: “Because I saw that the boys had a little bit of a reunion.”

  • Here we go…

• Tori: “That popped up on my People.com on my phone, on my Instagram this morning. Maybe that was why I was a little riled up as well. Because Jen and I, our invitations got lost.”

• Jennie: “Wait, they had lunch without us?”

• Tori: “Aren’t we the ones usually organizing these reunions?”

• Jennie said it bothers Tori when others organize and exclude her because she has “FOMO.” Tori said it bothers Jennie too but she was just pretending otherwise.

• Jennie: “They had lunch without us. That’s nice. Okay.”

• Tori: “That was the same day — I know you get FOMO because you texted me and you said, ‘Did Brian ask you to tweet for ‘Masked Dancer’ that he’s one of the judges tonight?’ And I got upset too. And you said, ‘Well, Jason and Ian have tweeted for him.’ So that was the same day. The same day they had lunch. Because we’re good detectives.”

• Jennie: “It’s all coming together. They don’t want to hang out with us anymore, I guess.”

• Tori: “I’m gonna call bullcrap here. I don’t think they were just having a friendly lunch. I think they got something under wraps. I think they got a show under wraps without us.”

• Jennie: “Well, let’s hope. Let’s hope they’re doing something.”

• Sisanie wanted to know if they would still be bothered if it was an all-guys show and they weren’t included. Tori conceded that she wouldn’t be in that case and said they looked “super-cute” out together. She even said the group hug brought “tears” to her eyes.

• Jennie: “It was just missing a few people.”

  • As if they aren’t allowed to hang out just the guys? Or in any combination they want?

• Jennie and Tori were also perplexed about them dining out at all, given the pandemic, especially at that restaurant in particular because Tori wasn’t familiar with them having outdoor seating. Which, Sisanie explained, now they do. 

• Jennie: “Well, I’m glad they had a nice lunch. I hope it was fun, boys. Next time invite us.” Tori: “Because we miss you guys too. Now that we can go outdoors, we can have lunch or dinner sometime.”

• Jennie is still in Toronto for a project and Sisanie asked her how she’s “holding up,” as if she’s in some horrible situation.

• Jennie said she’s doing good “but it’s just always snowing here” and she’s not used to the snow and the cold.

• Tori said she’s heard the colder it is, the less people age because it tightens the face. They were intrigued by that.

• Tori recalled Jennie gifting her a humidifier mister to sleep with as another anti-aging technique and said she was insulted at first. Jennie said Tori needed to be hydrated, but she used one herself too and would wake up drenched from the mister. 

• Sisanie said Tori was wearing daisies — not that we could see, of course — and Tori said they hadn’t gotten to that part of the episode yet.

  • Uh, or any part of the episode yet? It’s nearly 15 minutes in to the podcast and this is the first it’s come up.

• Tori then said this was the episode where Donna started wearing “the daisy flower trend.” She said the dress Donna wore in the episode was even the one on the Donna Barbie doll.

• Tori said that to this day, whenever she sees daisy things, it “feels right” to her to buy it.

• Superfan Sisanie asked if they still have their dolls — she only had Dylan’s. Tori said she has one and Jennie said she has none.

• Tori said her kids don’t understand why she keeps the doll in a box and won’t let them open it.

• Jennie: “Because someday it’ll be worth $5 instead of $4.” Tori joked that it’s probably worth $2.50. 

  • Ebay suggests otherwise…

• Jennie said she loved the dolls… but I guess not enough to keep them.

• Jennie asked Tori if she remembered when she dressed in daisies for the Teen Choice Awards a couple of years ago. Tori corrected her that it was sunflowers, but said that it was a modern-day version of Donna’s flower look and that Jennie wore a modern-day take on Kelly’s wardrobe.

• Tori said they felt hot that day and thought they looked good until they got onto the red carpet.

• They got the invite while they were filming “BH90210” in Vancouver and Jennie was initially against going, feeling they were too old.

• Jennie: “You made me do it. We flew back and we did it.”

• Tori thought they were going to “own it” and had the photographers’ attention until Taylor Swift showed up. Jennie: “[They] dropped us like a hot potato… But we kind of stopped too. We turned around and took a good gander.”

• Jennie recalled messing up their presentation during the show and Tori confirmed Jennie was frazzled. Apparently they were thrown off by their in-audience location for the bit (versus being on stage) and Jennie was “panicked” about being around so many people.

• Tori joked that the young audience was like, “Who the F are these people?!” Then big lights were set up, further unnerving them, and even though Jennie knew her lines and there was a teleprompter, she “completely froze” and spoke “gibberish.” 

• Jennie to Tori: “God bless you. I elbowed you and you just kept going. You just covered like it didn’t happen.”

• Tori didn’t recall being elbowed and instead attributed her ability to cover for Jennie’s flub to them being best friends and able to sense what’s going on with the other.

• Jennie said they usually protect one another, but on the live podcast, when she mistakenly called Debbie Gibson “Tiffany,” Tori “shouted that out to the world.”

  • It took them 21 minutes to mention the live podcast.

• Jennie said if Tori hadn’t said something, no one would’ve noticed, but Tori and Sisanie disagreed. Tori further said that the only reason she called it out was because she thought it was “so adorable and relatable to everyone out there because you had a fangirl moment. It’s not like you called her ‘Darla’ or something, instead of Debbie.”

• Jennie: “I think you need to get a new partner. I think I’m losing it. First the Teen Choice Awards and now that.”

  • Much more than that, actually, but Jennie is apparently continuing to work on her memory issues, which I note in tomorrow’s Teen Drama Links.

• Tori also insisted that when watching the Teen Choice clip, you can’t tell anything went wrong. Jennie disagreed: “I watched it and peed my pants laughing.” Sisanie was determined to find the footage.

• Sisanie: “Okay, we need to go to break, ladies, and eventually discuss this episode.”

  • Yeah, eventually. That is the purpose of this podcast, right?

• The ad that followed was about buying bras. Tori: “Trust us, we know boobs.”

• So after more than 25 minutes, they finally decided to “get down” to the episode.

• Jennie gave the episode title and air date, and also named the writer and director (glad that’s finally becoming a weekly staple… these episodes didn’t write and direct themselves). Tori read the synopsis.

• Sisanie: “I loved this episode.”

• Jennie: “How cute were the grandparents?... I just wanted to hang out with her. She was like Mrs. Roper.”

• Tori asked Jennie if she remembered filming the scene where they were driving. Jennie said she doesn’t remember filming “anything” from the episode. Tori said she remembers a lot of it.

• Jennie was surprised when Tori said they didn’t actually shoot in Palm Springs for this episode, but did in later seasons.

  • Namely the season 5 finale.

• Jennie: “I was really bummed that I couldn’t remember anything [but] I enjoyed the episode.”

• Sisanie thought it was “fun” that everyone was together, except for Brandon.

• They all thought the little boy was “adorable” and “so cute.”

• Sisanie: “He gave me Macauley Culkin vibes.”

• Jennie was “upset” by Brandon “using the dirtiest rag ever” to clean The Peach Pit counters. Tori: “We should never eat there again.” Jennie: “These are the things I notice. I don’t remember any of it, but I noticed the rag.”

• Tori: “While that storyline was great, can we go back to the Palm Springs storyline?”

  • Sure, let’s just barely discuss a storyline that covered important issues like homelessness, poverty, and malnutrition among children.

• Jennie: “David was so cute in this episode!” Tori: “How cute was my Bri? Now do you see why I liked him?!”

• Jennie liked when David was filming from his “giant video camera” in Steve’s car.

• Tori: “That was like a running theme through all the seasons, that David videotaped things, right?” Jennie: “Where did all the videos go? I really want to see all those videos.” Tori: “Wouldn’t that be great?”

• Jennie said she loves watching scenes with mirrors in them to see what she can see in the reflection. In this episode, when the camera panned across a mirror, she said there was a “crew member crouched down in the corner trying to hide.”

• Tori: “I noticed David Gail just ‘cause he played Brenda’s boyfriend later on.” Superfan Sisanie: “A completely different guy as well.”

• Tori noted how David Gail went on to have a lead role in “Savannah,” which her father also produced, saying it was an example of how Aaron was loyal to actors.

• Jennie didn’t know about David Gail having two roles on the show and superfan Sisanie falsely claimed that, as Stuart, he was on the show for “two seasons, maybe, three.”

  • Try less than one, Sis. Stuart debuted in episode 4.06 and was last seen in episode 4.21, with a fair amount of gaps in between. In fact, he was only in seven episodes of season 4 (plus this one in season 1 for a grand total of eight episodes out of nearly 300).

• Jennie: “Well, he was super-nice. I liked the guy. I liked Tom.”

  • Wait til she meets Stuart. All that likability is gone. And wait til she meets Valerie’s Tom in season 7.

• Sisanie was creeped out by Tom offering Brenda a place to stay at his house. Jennie thought that would’ve been a “good storyline” if Brenda accepted: “You never know what would’ve happened. But Brenda’s very sensible and she did not go to a stranger’s house. She decided to sleep in the broom closet.”

• Sisanie thought it was “so wrong” that Dylan brought his childhood friend into his hotel room. Jennie: “Right, ‘childhood friend.’”

• Jennie liked Brenda throwing the friend’s purse out the door, calling it “ballsy.” Sisanie called it a “girl power move”... which, um, is actually the opposite of what happened. “Girl power” doesn’t usually have to do with girls fighting with one another.

• They marveled over the phones from this time period and Brenda being “stranded” because she (obviously) didn’t have a cell phone back then.

• Tori noted how they had to remember people’s phone numbers back then and Jennie asked if Tori remembered hers. Tori said it’s 818-something and then bragged, somewhat jokingly, about having a 310 area code for herself.

• Jennie really liked the bikini she had to wear and misses “that tummy a lot.” Tori and Sisanie insisted she still has it a bit.

• Jennie said watching the episode made her get up and check herself out in the mirror… and then do sit-ups.

• Tori: “See, rewatching the show is paying off! Encouraging you to do your workouts! That’s good.”

• Jennie said the spring break experience looked “fun” and she never got to have one herself.

• Tori said she did, in Palm Springs actually, and it’s where that aforementioned ticket happened.

• Tori said the car Donna had on the show was the same car model she had in real life: “I drove all my friends to Palm Springs and got a speeding ticket. But we had that major party in Palm Springs at 17, which seems so young.”

• Tori and Jennie both said they wouldn’t let their kids do that today. Jennie also thought Jim and Cindy shouldn’t have let Brenda go.

• Sisanie pointed out that David’s grandparents were there… but Jennie countered that they weren’t exactly strict.

• Jennie: “They were wild and so sweet to host all those wild heathens in their pool for their grandson. When David was mean to his grandma in the kitchen, it made me want to cry.”

• Sisanie admitted she was “so mean” to her parents at that age and thought they were really “embarrassing.”

• Sisanie brought up Dylan pressuring Brenda about sex and Jennie said he was “really aggressive.”

• One of Jennie’s favorite lines from the episode was “Don’t be sorry, be friendly.” She confessed, “I got a little angry at Dylan for a second and I don’t usually get mad at him. ‘Be friendly.’ Is that what the kids call it now?”

• Sisanie said there was a lot of pressure about sex when she was in high school and Tori said there wasn’t for her… but then added she went to an all-girls school.

• Jennie doesn’t remember people “talking about their sexual escapades in the hallway or anything.”

• Tori worries “that it happens younger and younger” now. Jennie said it doesn’t seem important or significant to her kids, though, especially since they’re “so exposed” to things these days.

  • Coincidentally, I’m actually writing an essay for TDW premium subscribers next month on how the teen dramas handled characters losing their virginity.

• Tori: “I was boy crazy when I was my older kids’ age… Stella, she never mentions boys… I guess it just depends on the kid.” Jennie: “My 14-year-old likes the boys, oof.”

• Jennie named Timothee Chalamet, young Leonardo DiCaprio, and Johnny from “Cobra Kai” as her daughter’s crushes — even though the adult actor who plays Johnny is around their age. Tori: “You have a Brenda on your hands. She likes the older men.”

• Sisanie thought it was “so awkward” when Dylan told Brandon that Brenda was supposed to be staying at the hotel with him.

• They joked that Brandon got the short end of the stick by not getting to go to Palm Springs. Tori speculated that Jason possibly only had to work one day to film his scenes for this episode.

• Jennie: “Did you notice how foxy Ian’s legs are? He has got some good gams.” Tori: “He was always proud of his legs.”

• Sisanie said she thought Kelly was going to take Steve back but she “teased him.” Jennie said she didn’t think it was teasing but did say it was “sad.” She added, “But he moves on. He recovers. He’s fine.”

• Jennie: “For one of the first times in the series so far, I felt like I really like Brandon. He was so tender and sweet with that kid. I like that Brandon and it just kind of made me think of him now as a dad. [Jason] has a son and how natural that instinct was for him as a teenager basically. A young 20s guy, he was really good with kids.”

• Jennie cracked that Tori only loved the fashion in this episode because of the daisy dress.

• Tori loved that Donna matched her headband to her dress. But she questioned why Donna changed her outfit for the trip while Brenda and Kelly didn’t.

• Sisanie: “We haven’t discussed Tuesday and her friends.” Jennie: “I liked them. I wanted to hang out with them.”

• Tori: “When we filmed that episode, I remember being jealous in the house because Brian had to kiss her.” 

• Sisanie: “Oh my god, the crushing was so early on for you!”

• They all laughed over David and Tuesday kissing with the birds in the background. Tori called it “so random” and wondered if they were already living at the house as pets and it was decided to just leave them in the scene.

• Jennie: “When I stand in front of a giant bird cage, it always makes me feel frisky too.”

• Tori called Tuesday and her friends “seedy.”

• Jennie thought it was “so stereotypical that the show used their looks to put them in a different class or something. That really irritates me watching the show back. But that’s how it was in the ‘90s. There was no ‘equality for all’ kind of thing. ‘They must be bad girls because they have tattoos and they wear black.’”

• Sisanie liked that by the end of the episode, they were “being kids again with the charades and eating ice cream. The bougie-ness of Beverly Hills kind of got taken away from all of you and it showed that you guys were truly teenagers at the end of the day.”

• Jennie: “Yeah. Grandparents bring out the best in you… It was nice to see the kids just having fun with them.”

• Tori didn’t remember why Scott wasn’t there and, when reminded, declared it was the start of Scott and David being separated because David wanted to be with the “cooler kids.”

• Tori said they were “all trapped in that house we were filming in,” but “we all really bonded outside.” For her, it was the first time she felt like she really got to know her castmates, especially Ian.

• Naturally, Jennie had no recollection, but Tori assured her she had a good time hanging out with her and Shannen. Jennie: “Thank you for filling me in.”

• After another break, they again discussed how they really didn’t go to Palm Springs to shoot the episode, despite what viewers — and Jennie — thought. Jennie: “Thanks for ruining that for me.”

• Jennie said her favorite outfit was Donna’s daisy dress and matching headband… and then she made Tori pick something else for her favorite. Tori: “That’s not fair!” But she went with the grandmother’s caftans.

• Sisanie: “I hate to do this, but I go back to Steve’s blouses.” Jennie: “Oh my god. I thought we discussed this. Can you stop calling them blouses?”

• Sisanie and Tori insisted they are “man blouses.” Sisanie wondered where all those shirts are now. Tori: “Knowing Ian, he probably has all of them.”

• Sisanie also said David was “wearing a Steve Sanders-eseque shirt” and wondered if that was David’s attempt to fit in.

• As for favorite lines, Sisanie liked Brenda telling Dylan, “I never want to see you again.” She explained, “It was so genuine and like a teenager thing to say. Obviously you’re going to see him again.”

• Tori’s favorite line was Brenda saying, “Dylan, stop talking and take off your clothes.” She added, “Sounds like such a boy thing to say to a girl… You would expect a dude to say that to a girl… I just loved that a woman said it.”

• Jennie’s favorite line was David saying to Tuesday, “Earlier today I really wanted to lick your shoulder.” She wondered if that’s a legit “come-on” line.

• The birds came back up and Tori said she has “parrot trauma” because of a bird she got in Maui with Shannen. It was named Charlie and Tori explained that when she’d get home from work, she’d usually take the bird out of the cage, but after one 17-hour day, the bird instead stuck its beak through the cage and bit her nose “so bad that it split it open.” 

  • Tori’s first husband was named Charlie. Weird coincidence.

• Tori went on to say she had to get stitches and added, “We’ll get to this episode eventually because I couldn’t work.” Jennie remembered everyone having to “scramble” and figure out which scenes they could shoot without her “because you got your nose bit off by a parrot — that’s what we were told.”

• Tori said she has a “major scar, but it could’ve been worse.” And since she couldn’t be taken out of the episode, she said Donna has a bandage on her nose and they address it in the episode by blaming it on the dog nipping her.

  • I have no recollection of Donna wearing a nose bandage at all. If anyone remembers which episode this was, please comment! Sounds like it would’ve been during season 4. But perhaps the scene was cut and / or the bandage was edited out in post-production.

  • Superfan Sisanie didn’t even remember there being a dog on the show.

  • Also LOL that Tori actually thinks they’re going to get to that episode on the podcast. At the rate they’re going...

  • This also begs the question: How did Tori feel about the damn bird in season 6?

• Tori said she ended up giving the parrot to her makeup artist “who I think still has it.”

• Sisanie: “I was not expecting that story.”

  • Are we ever expecting Tori’s crazy stories?

• A fan wrote in asking, “Do you have a favorite memory of a blooper or major mishap on set specifically?”

• Tori: “You have a traumatic one.” Jennie: “I’ll save that one for later.”

  • Referring to the jet ski accident, maybe?

• Jennie then recalled a scene in which she and Luke had to make out in Dylan’s car and how using Binaca was a “pre-kiss ritual,” but they were in a fight that day — she doesn’t remember why she was “pissed” but said Luke was “loving it” — and she took the Binaca and sprayed it “right into his face.” As Luke was in visible pain, everyone freaked out and “thought I blinded Luke Perry.” She clarified, “I didn’t mean to blind him. I just meant to shut him up.”

  • Both Jennie and Luke have shared this story over the years. 

• Tori called it a “terrible story but such a teen girl story… you would never hurt him in a million years.” Jennie: “But he had a way of pushing me to the edge… just to see what I would do. And that was one of those moments and I wasn’t thinking too clearly and I sprayed Binaca right in his eyeball.”

• Tori said she recalled Luke being mad at Shannen once and eating a whole thing of onions or garlic before a kissing scene: “There were so many moments like that that happened.”

• Jennie: “I love it how we were fighting with our co-stars and then having to do makeout scenes with them.”

• Tori said something also went down with a lunch bag but didn’t provide details.

• Sisanie: “It sounds like Luke was involved in most of these scenarios.”

• Tori: “He would start so much crap with you and Shannen.” Jennie: “He loved to stir the pot.” Tori: “He would get you so riled up.”

  • They did not acknowledge that this Wednesday will mark two years since Luke’s passing. Here is the post I wrote last fall about how his death affected me.

• Another fan wanted to know: “After all the famous guest stars and Peach Pit performers, like Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5, etc., you had on the show, who do you think is the biggest name you had on ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’?”

  • Technically Kara’s Flowers was on the show, not Maroon 5. Guess they’re still not bothering with fact-checkers.

• Jennie said Christina Aguilera and recalled how “exciting” it was when she performed at the Peach Pit After Dark before she was hugely famous.

• Tori pushed Jennie to imitate the way Christina would wave her fingers while singing “Genie in a Bottle,” but of course we couldn’t see that.

• Tori said she’s “not a music person so there were huge people on music-wise and I never knew who they were, which sounds terrible.”

• Tori asked if they remembered Jeremy Jordan and neither Jennie nor superfan Sisanie did. So she explained how she had to do the bit where she hit the jukebox and exclaimed, “Jeremy Jordan, alright!”

• Tori claimed Jeremy asked her out and she said no because she was crushing on Brian, but now she looks back and thinks she should’ve gone out with him.

• Tori brought up Color Me Badd and then stopped herself because the question was about Peach Pit performers. Apparently she doesn’t remember the group singing a capella in The Peach Pit at the end of that episode.

  • Jeremy and Color Me Badd are both on one of the show’s soundtracks, which I’ll be writing about at length later this month.

• They then tried to remember who else performed on the show so they could shout them out. Jennie repeated Maroon 5 and mentioned Barenaked Ladies, with whom Tori pointed out Jason was friends.

• Superfan Sisanie: “Will we get to hear all that music or is it going to be dubbed over?” Tori: “How can you dub it over, though, if you’re literally showing the people? It’s going to be interesting to rewatch that.” Jennie: “When we get to the Peach Pit After Dark I guess we’ll find out.”

  • Again, LOL that they think they’ll make it that far.

  • Also, this isn’t some mystery. Many of the performance scenes are cut out on the DVDs and streaming. If you bothered to do any research about your own show, you would know that already.

• Tori: “Of course my favorite performer at the Peach Pit After Dark was Jamie Walters.”

• Tori and Jennie gushed about his music and Jennie brought up how they included him in “BH90210.” Tori: “That came full circle with him. I love that.”

• Jennie: “Thanks for the questions, guys. We love questions. Ask us more.”

• They told everyone to do their “homework” and watch “Fame Is Where You Find It” for next week.

So after the live podcast a week and a half ago, Jennie posted on Instagram about how they had “so much fun,” adding, “I feel like we should always do them live, what do you think? Thanks to everyone who joined us. WE LOVE YOU GUYS.” You’d think after an event like that, they’d want to seize the momentum and keep all the excitement going. Instead, they inexplicably took a week off and never announced they were doing so. And now that they were back today, they didn’t even acknowledge the week off and only mentioned the virtual event exactly ONCE, when they were talking about Jennie’s “Tiffany” flub.

Why aren’t you talking up how great the event was? Why aren’t you thanking fans for shelling out money for tickets, meet and greets, and merch? Why aren’t you revealing how much money was raised for Save Our Stages? Why are you acting like it never even happened?

As for the stuff about Brian, Ian, and Jason getting together without them, well, as I wrote in Teen Drama Links last week, that was indeed suspicious. I think it’s entirely possible the guys are working on a project together. I think it’s entirely possible they’re working on nothing together and just wanted to have a public hangout and get paparazzi attention (which they did). I have no doubt Brian purposely asked Jason and Ian to promote “The Masked Dancer.”

But what Jennie, Tori, and Sisanie didn’t address was that the get-together was on the very same day of their live podcast — which Ian was supposed to be on and we still have no explanation as to why he wasn’t. I don’t think the timing was a coincidence, as I laid out in Teen Drama Links. It was a choice. And it certainly was a choice for Jennie and Tori to talk about the guys hanging out without them on the podcast. I expect one of the next things that’ll happen will be one of the cast members saying everything is swell between them all and the hangout was totally innocent and Jennie and Tori were just joking about being upset. Sure.

Even taking all of that out of the equation of today’s podcast, they spent — what? — less than 30 minutes discussing the actual episode? I just don’t get what they’re doing. They have a major media company behind them (iHeart) and yet there seems to be no strategy here. Someone even commented on the podcast’s Instagram today, “Seriously? It took over 20 mins for you to start talking about the episode? And the character of stu was only In 7 episodes- not 2-3 seasons! Please do some research before the podcasts!”

So a researcher, a fact-checker, a producer, a marketer… what else could the “9021OMG” podcast use? There has to be a better recipe for success than this.

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