REACTION: 9021OMG Episode 19

The “9021OMG” podcast on Monday was focused on “Stand (Up) and Deliver,” but, as usual, other topics overshadowed the discussion.

“Stand (Up) and Deliver” is the 17th of “Beverly Hills, 90210” and was written by Amy Spies, who worked on a number of episodes that first season. It was directed by Burt Brinckerhoff, who helmed five episodes overall for the series, including two others during this inaugural year.

There are two main plots: Brandon (Jason Priestley) is urged to run for class president, with Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) and Kelly (Jennie Garth) butting heads over his campaign, while Brenda (Shannen Doherty) explores moving out and following an older crew into the world of stand-up comedy.

The “Beverly Hills 90210 Show” podcast discussed this episode last November, timed to the presidential election. Scott Fults, who played Brandon’s opponent Michael, took part in the discussion. So naturally I wondered, what would Jennie and Tori Spelling (Donna) have to contribute?

I was certainly more intrigued after reading the description for this installment of their podcast…

“Tori actually doesn’t love this particular episode of the tv show...find out why. What do you think? Then, Tori and Jennie have received some criticism from you...and they are talking about it. Can they take a little construction criticism...find out! Tori and Jennie also address recent comments Vanessa Marcil made in the news. Plus, Tori and Jennie reveal what they think Donna and Kelly are up to today.”

I’d spend more time being annoyed about how poorly and unprofessionally that description was written, but, well, things only got worse from there.

9021OMG Episode 19, “It’s Getting Hot in Here”

• Jennie started things off and said it didn’t look like Tori felt well, not that we could see.

• Tori said she was dealing with sinus stuff and might sound nasally… and then wondered if she actually sounds “sexy.”

• Tori, strongly: “Let’s just jump right into this recap because that’s what everyone wants.”

• Jennie: “We should, Sis. We’ve gotten a lot of flack. People don’t like it when we talk. So let’s talk about the show. That’s all we’re gonna talk about.”

• Tori: “We can’t talk. We can’t have a friendship. This isn’t our time as well.” Jennie: “We can’t have fun.”

  • It sounds like Jennie and Tori got a talking-to, perhaps by Sisanie or someone from iHeart, before they recorded. They certainly have attitudes and tones that I can’t adequately convey simply by typing what they said. 

  • You’d think they want to learn and grow, which requires being receptive to feedback. But if this is going to be how they’re going to behave…

• Sisanie: “We’ll do it this way and see if you really like it this way. Because you know what, I thought maybe it would be nice to have a little chit-chat before the episode but apparently...”

• Tori: “A little girl time.” Jennie: “We’ll save it for later, maybe.”

• Jennie then gave the episode title, air date, director, and… again got the writing credit wrong. She said it was “written by Darren Star and Amy Spies.” It was actually written just by Amy; Darren’s credit is for creating the show — the same credit he has on every episode. 

  • Who is it that is giving them incorrect writer information two weeks in a row?! It reflects poorly on that person, but also on Jennie, Tori, and Sisanie.

  • In journalism we have a saying: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” In other words, fact-check everything. Question everything. Take nothing for granted. Just because someone tells you the episode was written by Darren Star and Amy Spies, don’t assume that’s accurate. Research it yourself.

• Tori read the synopsis and this is the first time it seemed to come word-for-word from IMDb. If that’s the case, they should’ve seen right there that Amy is the episode’s writer and Darren is just listed as the show’s creator.

• The next episode, Darren actually wrote, which is why he is credited twice — as the show creator AND the episode’s writer. C’mon, guys. This isn’t rocket science.

• Sisanie asked what they thought about the episode and Jennie laughed before saying, “Go ahead, Tor. Tell them how you feel about this episode.”

• Tori then said, “Watching just as a fan, I wanted to literally rip each and every one of my eyelashes out and stab my eyeballs with them. Not a fan.”

• Jennie: “So you’re saying you didn’t like this episode.”

• Tori: “I’m saying I did not like this episode. I’m sorry. I love watching the gang, but it was boring to me. A little too much class president stuff for me.”

• Sisanie: “See, that stuff I didn’t mind. It was the coffee house that was the boring part for me.”

  • And if you know executive producer Charles Rosin (and / or listened to the “Beverly Hills 90210 Show” podcast when this episode was discussed), you’d know he actually feels the same way.

• Tori: “It was the whole shebang.”

• Jennie: “It was just weirdly divided. It felt like a different show this week.”

• Tori: “It felt off-point, right?”

• Jennie, like Sisanie, didn’t mind the school stuff, but said, “I did not like Kelly in this episode at all. I felt like, ‘Who is this character I’m playing?! What are these words I’m saying?’ She was just like conniving and manipulative… She should be the president, I guess. She should’ve run for president herself.”

• Sisanie: “I liked it, though. We got a first taste of what you and Brandon would be like as a team.”

• Tori: “I liked that. That’s the part I liked.”

• Jennie noted it was the first episode in which Kelly and Brandon work together closely while Brenda was “off on her own.” She added, “I don’t even know what the heck — where’d she go? What got into her? She got a bee in her bonnet or something. Isn’t that the expression? A bee in her butt.”

• Sisanie: “But Kelly and Donna did ditch her for Brandon.” Jennie: “This is true. Well, that happened. I forgot about that.”

• Jennie said Kelly was a “bitch-eroonie” when they went to the comedy club: “She was so rude. I hated her. I hated myself.”

• Tori: “Stand-up comedy, why that?” 

• Jennie: “No offense to the writers whatsoever. We’re just talking here as viewers and fans of the show. But I didn’t think any of the comedy was funny either. I didn’t have a chuckle at all. Wasn’t that the whole point of going to a comedy club? To have a laugh, but I didn’t have any.”

• Sisanie: “Maybe it was funny back then.” Tori: “Maybe that was the thing, to be cool and artsy in a coffee house and deliver comedy that’s not really comedy but esoteric.”

• Jennie thought it was weird that Sky did her set on a couch but thought the actress, Carrie Hamilton, was “great” and pointed out that she was the daughter of Carol Burnett. 

  • Sadly, Carrie died of cancer in 2002.

• Jennie: “She just didn’t have enough to do.”

• Jennie and Tori recalled liking Carrie / Sky during filming, though.

• Superfan Sisanie wanted to know if the club was a set or an actual club they went to. 

• Tori said it was a set and Jennie speculated it was “the Peach Pit After Dark before the Peach Pit After Dark existed.” Tori: “I totally feel you’re right… That is it, you’re right.”

• Jennie said it was the “warehouse next door to the jail cells where we lived” and thought it had been used for several different sets before it became the PPAD.

• Sisanie: “Fun fact.” Tori: “How do you like that, recap fans? There’s a little Easter Egg.”

  • Tori’s attitude was back.

• Jennie: “And maybe the coffee house / comedy situation was intended to be our new hangout or something. Maybe it was gonna be more. Because they went to great, you know, trouble and expense to build that set out… and then it didn’t work so they moved on to something else.”

• Tori: “It could’ve been our Central Perk. Who knew?”

• Jennie: “But I did feel bad a little bit for Brenda. She just felt sort of ostracized and not really in the groove with everybody and to have her friends flat leave her like that for her brother was like ‘ouch.’”

• Sisanie: “The minute Brandon was going to be running for class president, it instantly made him hotter in a weird way, especially to Donna and Kelly.”

• Jennie teased Tori about “plant[ing] your big, juicy lips” on Brandon’s cheek.

• Tori: “I mean, his little suit jackets looked good in this episode. It worked. He had the whole thing going on.”

• Jennie: “This poor Andrea. He’s up and down with her, back and forth, like ‘I’m into you, I’m flirting with you, no, we’re just friends.’ Every episode, I feel like they have a different thing going. In this one, he was really flirty with her in the very beginning.”

• Jennie said Kelly “burst [Andrea’s] bubble just a tad.” She further cracked of Kelly, “I don’t know what was written on that clipboard I was carrying around, but it must’ve been really good stuff.”

• Sisanie and Tori didn’t think Kelly’s campaign plan of just having Brandon look hot was a bad one, but Jennie thought Kelly knew nothing about politics.

• Tori: “She knew how to create the image of the man.” Jennie: “She’s the woman behind the man. There’s always the woman behind the man. That’s what they say at least.”

• Jennie: “How did you feel about Brandon’s video campaign? I guess David cut it together.” Tori: “Sexy!”

• They were amused that the video was made up of clips from the show.

• Jennie: “How did David Silver get his hands in Aaron Spelling’s vault of video footage? How did he have access to that stuff to make that montage?” Tori: “Because he’s David Silver. He can get in touch with anyone.” Jennie: “Apparently. Debbie Gibson.”

  • Except David wasn’t trying to get in touch with Debbie Gibson. He was trying to reach MC Hammer and got Debbie by mistake.

• Jennie thought Brenda was “very impressionable,” but that it made sense for her age, “and I guess this was just another thing she was checking out to see if this made her feel complete somehow.”

• Tori: “I like that she tries stuff. This is the time in your life, [your] formative years.”

• Sisanie thought it was “badass for being 16” when Brenda stuck up for Kelly when the comedian was picking on her.

• Jennie liked Brenda’s hair in the episode while Sisanie liked Kelly’s hair.

• Superfan Sisanie wanted to know if it was Jennie’s real hair in this episode or if she was wearing extensions because it “looked so full.” Jennie: “We didn’t wear extensions back then. That wasn’t a thing.” Tori: “Never.”

• Jennie: “Would you ever do stand-up? Oh, wait, wait, sorry. We can’t talk about ourselves. We have to just talk about the show.”

• Sisanie: “No, wait, c’mon! You totally can!”

• Jennie: “Let’s just address that, okay. A lot of viewers are saying how they feel about the show, which is what we asked for. We asked for you guys to listen and to comment and to give us your opinions and your advice and we love that and we’re so grateful. And I read it and I do take the constructive criticism and we do try to make adjustments to things that work. But there was a whole like argument, I guess, I’m not sure where it ended up, on what platform, but some people are saying how they love when we chit-chat and banter and go off-topic and some people really don’t like it.”

• Sisanie: “I think it was more specific to when we start the podcast. Some were arguing that they would like it if we just jumped into the episode right away versus having our chit-chat at the top of the show.”

• Tori: “I mean, my thing about that is this is our lives too. I mean, we’re seeing each other — we’re on Zoom, we’re not together, unfortunately. We’re all friends, so when we see each other, we want to say hi and see how everyone’s week is. I don’t know.”

  • Sure. But you can do that before you start recording. And having this podcast be about your “lives” is not what you marketed “9021OMG” as. You marketed it as a recap podcast. Now you’re upset that fans want you to get to the recap portion sooner in each edition?

• Jennie: “And also, like our listeners, they feel like our friends. I feel like we can talk about anything with our listeners, the people that love us and want to hang out with us for an hour. I feel like we’re talking to girlfriends or guy friends.”

  • Then, as I’ve said all along, you should’ve done a “girl talk” podcast or a podcast that was designed and marketed as more of a chat fest.

• Tori: “We just want to give you a little appetizer before the entree. You can’t jump right into the entree.”

• Sisanie: “So today we did and it felt unnatural.”

• Tori: “It did! It felt weird. I wanted to say hi to you guys and I couldn’t.”

• Sisanie: “This is how I look at it. There are thousands of people that listen to this podcast and it’s growing every single week and there’s just a very, very small handful that decide to write a comment on Instagram of those thousands of people who are probably just enjoying it as is. So I would say take it with a grain of salt, but always open to suggestions.”

  • Well, they certainly aren’t talking about me. I don’t use Instagram.

  • But you’re taking issue with people writing feedback in an Instagram comment when that’s literally what you asked them to do?

  • And if it’s really just a “small handful” of people who have that feedback, why are you all so bent out of shape and even spending precious time addressing it on the podcast for the entire audience?

• Jennie: “I agree with you. I’m just messing with you, guys. Like it doesn’t really bother me. Everybody has an opinion, obviously. And now everybody can voice their opinion.”

  • Really? ‘Cause it seems like it’s bothering you quite a bit.

  • Again, if you only read my reaction posts each week and don’t actually listen to the podcast, I urge you all to listen to this one. Just writing what they’re saying isn’t doing it justice because it’s not conveying the attitude they’re giving.

• Sisanie then said she was actually “scared” to do the podcast with Jennie and Tori when they started because “I felt all this pressure of being a fan of the show and trying to ask the right questions and of course, first two or three episodes in, people are attacking me, like, ‘You’re not a real superfan!’”

  • Well, you’re not, Sis. Give up the charade.

• Sisanie: “There are a lot of different levels of fans out there. And you’re right, maybe I’m not as much as a superfan as you are, but I’m a fan. It’s also been many years and I forget things.”

  • That’s just it — if you were a superfan, it wouldn’t have been “many years” and you wouldn’t have forgotten things.

• Jennie: “We have some super loyal, very specific fans.” Tori: “You can see it in their eyes.” Jennie: “God bless ‘em. I love them and they’re so helpful and informative because they know way more than we do.”

• Sisanie: “Don’t put me in that category [of superfans]. You guys are on a whole ‘nother level.” Tori: “You’re just Super Sis.” Sisanie: “Super Sis. That likes the show. A fan of the show.”

  • ...and that’s exactly how they should’ve portrayed Sisanie from the start. It was their choice to falsely depict her as a superfan. If they just presented her as a casual fan rewatching the show for the first time in years, real superfans wouldn’t be objecting.

• Jennie: “Well, whatever. If you like it, listen; if you don’t, that’s your choice.”

• Sisanie: “There’s another bit of drama if you guys want to address it.”

• Jennie: “Wait, are we not talking about the show anymore?” Tori: “Oh, thank god… I’m over it, let’s go to fashion.” Jennie: “Spoiler alert: Brandon doesn’t end up winning president.” Sisanie: “We can come back to the episode in a little bit.” Tori: “Maybe.”

• Sisanie: “I did want to bring up something that was, I guess, in the news about Vanessa Marcil.” Tori: “I just saw that article.” Jennie: “I only saw the article because you guys sent it to me because how would I have ever seen it? Where was it published? Was it an interview or was it an Instagram Live? I’m very confused.”

• Sisanie is referring to this, which I shared in “Teen Drama Links” earlier this month. She wrongly calls it an “interview published to Instagram Live” when it was actually an interview conducted live ON, well, Instagram Live. 

• Tori: “A video interview by who published to Instagram? She posted it?” Sisanie: “That I don’t know.”

  • Because heaven forbid you do any research, Sisanie. It was an interview conducted by a fan with whom Vanessa has become friendly. And again, it was done live on, yes, Instagram Live. It was advertised in advance and everything.

• Jennie and Tori claimed they weren’t “aware” Vanessa chose to leave the show, as she asserted in the interview.

• Tori: “Maybe I remember wrong. Rarely.” Jennie: “I’m not even sure what season it was. It’s all a blur. All the seasons blend together. We haven’t gotten to those episodes yet.”

  • You are literally years away from getting to “those episodes,” which are seasons 9 and 10. At the rate you’re going, and based on how well you’re handling listener feedback, it’s a safe bet you’ll never get there.

• Tori described Gina as “Donna’s cousin,” either not remembering they are half-sisters or not wanting to spoil people. I suppose I should give her the benefit of the doubt, but…

• Jennie: “This is what’s crazy. [Vanessa] really vividly recalls something I said to her.” Tori: “Which is interesting because what she claims you said, I can’t picture you ever saying that. That doesn’t sound like something you would ever say.”

• Jennie actually thought it was something she would say “now,” with Tori calling it a “very evolved” perspective.

• Jennie: “I can’t imagine young Jennie, off-set, being so presumptive or bold to say like, ‘I know what you should do.’”

• Sisanie: “Do you want to say what she said you said?”

  • Yes, let’s do a full-on she-said, she-said. Because that’s real mature.

• Tori: “I’m gonna go on record. I hung out with Vanessa a lot. She was always great to me, always very nice, very professional. I don’t remember her having a bad time or a hard go at it or even presenting problems. She was very well-liked. She’s the type of girl that has no problem fitting in anywhere.”

• Jennie: “She’s very confident… This [interview] made it seem like she really had a bad experience on the show and everyone was super-catty… I didn’t really know what that meant. Who was being catty? I wasn’t clear on that. It doesn’t really matter. Maybe it was just the energy. A lot of other female cast members.”

• Tori: “Well, at that point, there were only three other female cast members left — it was you, me, and Lindsay.” Jennie: “Hm. Okay.” Sisanie: “Well, maybe the boys were catty, you don’t know!”

• Jennie: “Was Vanessa at that time in a relationship with Brian Green or was that after?” Tori: “Her relationship with Brian happened right after… They met on the show, I remember he liked her but she didn’t like him back, and after the show ended, they started going out.”

  • Since when does Jennie refer to him as “Brian Green”?

• Jennie: “Well, that’s nice. I’m happy there was a love match there and they made a beautiful baby together. Kassius.”

• Sisanie, clearly wanting to fan the flames at this point, then read directly from the article I linked above to prompt Jennie and Tori into giving their reaction. 

• Jennie then “acted out” saying the alleged quote in a bitchy way and saying it in an empathetic way. Tori: “You know what? Neither of those sound good and neither of those sound like you. I’m gonna go on record and say you didn’t say that.” Jennie: “You don’t know that! You weren’t there! I was there apparently and I don’t know!”

  • Good on Jennie for not flat-out denying it and shame on Tori for wanting to deny something she may not have even witnessed.

• Tori thinks the alleged quote has a “negative connotation” and said to Jennie, “First of all, you and Vanessa weren’t that close.” Jennie: “We didn’t really work together that much.” Tori: “No, she played my cousin. I worked a lot with her. I don’t remember you guys having that many interactions.”

  • Are they serious right now? Kelly and Gina had A TON of interaction, primarily because they were rivals and in a freakin’ love triangle together. Jennie and Vanessa worked together in SO MANY episodes. There could be a whole installment of the “Beverly Hills 90210 Show” podcast just focused on the Kelly-Gina dynamic. This is like saying Kelly and Valerie didn’t have many scenes together. It’s preposterous, so easily disproved, and demonstrates how unbelievably clueless they are.

• Jennie: “However it was meant and however it was taken, it is good advice. It is sound advice if you think about it because we do walk around sometimes thinking everything’s about us and we do walk around taking everything everyone says personally and that for me as a grown woman has been a huge thing to learn and a huge thing to start practicing. Especially in our business and what we do and what we’ve done since we were so young, it’s always about are we good enough? Do people like us? Am I what they want right at this moment? There’s always been this energy of… a competitive environment amongst, especially, women. That has shifted now in a beautiful way and now the messaging is much different and women are allowed somehow in a different way to support each other and be each other’s cheerleaders. I just feel like… that’s why it sounds like something I would say now rather as a young person. It’s a good message. I don’t know.”

  • Well, based on how Jennie and Tori acted earlier in the podcast regarding listener feedback and what fans may or may not want, it seems this is actually a lesson they still need to learn. They clearly still aren’t okay with possibly being not what people want and possibly being disliked. If they were okay with it, they wouldn’t have been as defensive as they were.

• Tori: “Jessica Alba said something, now Vanessa Marcil is saying something. I would love the opportunity to go back and be like, ‘How did you see it? Here’s how we saw it.’ And then talk it out because the truth is somewhere in the middle. We were all young, finding our ways. Who knows what truly transpired or what each of us were feeling.”

  • If the truth is in the middle, Tori, why did you only minutes prior flat-out say on Jennie’s behalf that she never said what Vanessa claimed? If the truth is in the middle, why did you also deny Jessica’s claims? And if you want to extend olive branches to people and hear them out and come to a middle ground, this is not the way to do it.

• Tori: “From my perception, Vanessa was a kick-ass girl. Like she came in confident, beautiful, good actress, professional, always showed up. I don’t remember her having a bad time, but I don’t know what was going on inside. Maybe she didn’t divulge that.”

• Jennie went on to empathize with Vanessa based on what she “gleaned from the article.”

  • Why are you even relying on this article? Why not watch the video for yourselves and see what Vanessa said straight from her mouth? That would be a far better way to react to her comments than what a third party wrote in an article.

  • They did the same thing with Jessica Alba’s comments — they relied on news reports instead of watching the actual video interview she did.

• Jennie brought up the book The Four Agreements and how one of the agreements is “don’t take anything personally.”

  • Again, that seems to be something she still struggles with — as evident by this discussion, the earlier discussion about fan feedback, and even the other week when she and Tori were all insulted they weren’t included in Brian’s lunch with Ian and Jason. No one is perfect and growth is a continual process… but it’s like they talk out of both sides of their mouths. They say and do one thing and then later argue the opposite.

• Jennie next brought up the doctor she has been promoting on Instagram as she gets treatment for her memory issues and paraphrased him saying how at 18, you think everyone is talking about you, at 40, you don’t care if anyone is talking about you, and at 60, you realize nobody was ever talking about you. Tori and Sisanie laughed and thought this was genius, as if this doctor invented that maxim and it hasn’t been around for generations.

• At just over 27 minutes, Sisanie told Tori to “hold that thought” so they could take a break. Tori: “I’m still riled.”

• After the break, Tori said: “I’m still fired up about this Vanessa situation. Because I thought we were friends. I felt like we all got along well. I think we should have her on the show and kind of talk her through her experience. I want to hear honestly what her experience was like.” Jennie: “100 percent. Me too. I would love that opportunity to see what she meant by her comment.”

  • Why on earth would Vanessa want to come on to the podcast now? Why would she want to plead her case with you guys and let you “talk her through her experience” after you essentially just simultaneously bashed and praised her? Wouldn’t the smart and considerate thing been to have reached out to her privately first before ever speaking about any of this on air?

• Tori called Vanessa “spiritual” and “enlightened,” to which Jennie said, “And she loves growth. Let’s all grow through something. I don’t know. It’d be fun. Let’s do it. Please, Vanessa, come on the show.”

  • “Fun” isn’t the word that comes to mind.

• Jennie then suggested they get back to the episode at hand and Tori reiterated that she “hated” it and said she would “pull a few more eyelashes out and stab my eyeballs.” Jennie: “It wasn’t my favorite episode either.”

• Sisanie said Kelly and Brenda had a “classy” way of fighting. 

• Jennie: “Kelly is a bitch in this episode.” Sisanie: “Kelly had her moments of bitchiness throughout the season, throughout the series.” Jennie: “That’s what they hired me to do! I was just doing my job.” Sisanie: “I don’t know why you’re surprised when you see yourself in a bitchy episode. That was kind of your character.” Jennie: “I know. Life imitates art, people.”

• Jennie speculated it was just decided Kelly would be Brenda’s “antagonist” in the episode.

• Tori and Jennie marveled over Brenda moving out and how that was “allowed.” Tori called it “weird.”

• Jennie thought Brenda and Jack might hook up and there would be a “love thing.”

• Tori: “Politics and stand-up comedy, oh my gosh, you guys, get me to the next episode. I can’t.”

  • Tori not liking something comedy-driven is pretty rich given her own comedy work (and how some people like me feel about it).

• Sisanie said that the image thumbnail for this episode on Amazon Prime was Kelly and Donna in their campaign outfits, prompting Jennie to ask: “Why do they call it a thumbnail?”

  • ...And they wonder why people just want them to stick to the episodes…

• Tori: “I wasn’t even into the fashion this episode.”

• Jennie liked Brenda’s “costume” and the daisy on Donna’s outfit.

• Superfan Sisanie: “It’s a real bummer you guys weren’t able to keep the clothes from every episode. It makes no sense to me.”

  • A lot of things about how TV and movies work don’t make sense to Sisanie.

• Tori said the clothes were auctioned off and Sisanie said they should’ve had “first dibs.”

• Tori insisted Ian has “pieces” of Steve’s wardrobe and said that after “BH90210,” he advised them to buy some of the clothing to have in their “arsenal.” 

• Sisanie: “I want to meet him so bad.” Jennie: “We’d love to meet him too. I mean, have him on the show. Hasn’t worked out.”

  • Is this you addressing but not actually addressing Ian not being on the live podcast after you said he would be? 

• Sisanie: “I feel like you guys bring him up the most.” Tori: “Where the hell is Ian Ziering?” Jennie: “He’s like the big brother you always wanted.” Sisanie wanted to know “why” they feel that way.

• Jennie and Tori said he’s funny, a “good guy,” and “accessible” and “available.”

  • Apparently he’s not accessible or available for the podcast, huh?

• Jennie gushed about Ian as a father, then added, “So, yeah, c’mon on the show, jeez.”

  • Another enticing invitation.

• Sisanie suggested they send him a clip of what they just said and show how much they talk about him. Tori then fake-begged. Jennie: “Maybe if we stopped talking about him, he would get mad and then he would come on.”

• Jennie: “Yeah, it wasn’t a good fashion episode, but there were some good one-liners throughout. Some really great lines.”

• Tori liked Brenda saying, “Have you ever felt like a phone call that’s been disconnected?” 

  • I’m surprised Tori liked anything given how much she “hated” the episode.

• Jennie liked Andrea saying, “It’s perfect! No one knows you well enough to hate you.”

• Jennie: “We’re screwed because people know us too well. They get to love us or hate us.”

  • Does Jennie not realize how much of that hate they bring upon themselves? They really have no self-awareness.

• Sisanie liked Brenda saying, “You raised me so well, I’m ahead of myself.” She also liked Kelly saying, “The photo place closes soon,” because it was a sign of how old the series was.

• There was a small tangent on how it was better not having “instant gratification” the way there is with photos today and how photos were more intentionally taken back then.

• Sisanie: “We have a few emails from some listeners. I think we should take a break and come back with those.”

• After the break, Sisanie read a comment from a fan who is “loving” the podcast, prompting them to “woohoo” that someone is happy. The listener wanted to know, “Where would each character be in 2021?”

• Jennie thought this was a “great question” that required “some thought.” She had a quick answer, though, saying Steve is “all [grown] up” and has a customizing shop for fancy Corvettes, like “Sanders Automotives.”

• Tori said this came up with her and Ian at a convention once and Ian said Steve was a big entrepreneur and speaker with his own island and he was single. 

  • Poor Janet.

• Jennie thought Andrea went on “to become the first female president of SAG-AFTRA and she plans to run for president of the United States in 2024.” Sisanie: “I can see it happening.”

  • For the record, Gabrielle is not SAG’s first female president. Not by a longshot.

• Tori said she would be “sappy” and said David and Donna are still married and in love and have a “ton of kids.” She also “hoped Donna still is into fashion, though, because that was really important to her.”

• Sisanie: “I feel like Donna still keeps it very interesting in the bedroom for David as well.” Tori: “Where’d that come from?!... America’s most famous virgin is now into BDSM.”

• Jennie said she wishes Donna and Kelly went off to live in New York together and brought up “Sex and the City.”

  • She did not mention that “SATC” was created by Darren.

• Tori: “Kelly and Donna Take Manhattan? Is it too late?” Sisanie: “No.” Jennie: “I’m pretty sure Manhattan’s already been taken.”

  • Including by the Kardashians. That was one of their spinoffs.

• Jennie suggested Brandon “moved back to Minnesota and runs a cattle farm.” Sisanie: “I think he ends up running for president too.” Jennie: “Against Andrea!”

• Tori could see Brandon returning to his “old stomping grounds and being a school teacher.”

• They agreed Brenda was “still overseas,” with Sisanie saying, “She’s married and has kids and runs a theater.”

• Jennie said David would be producing for Jay-Z and Rihanna. She then said Kelly moved to New York and is running an empire related to women’s rights.

• The next fan question was, “Was there ever a time during the show you wanted to call it quits or at least take a break for a season or two?”

• Tori insisted no for her. She said Luke was “up in arms” when David Caruso quit his show and even reached out to him, with the “message,” as Tori interpreted it, being that you don’t give up a “gift.”

  • Uh, why then did Luke himself leave in season 6? And that exit was long-planned, not spur of the moment.

• Tori: “We had a gift and it was a great show and it made us want to stay. There wasn’t a time — 10 years is a long time. I don’t think there was a time I hated going to work… There wasn’t a day where I was like, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to do this anymore.’”

  • Before it was announced “Beverly Hills, 90210” would be ending / was canceled, it was reported that Tori and Brian wanted to leave the show. Just putting that out there.

• Jennie agreed with Tori, saying, “I don’t think I ever felt like I took it for granted because I knew I was really lucky to be there and I knew that I was being given an opportunity that a lot of people hadn’t been given… Also, we got to grow up there in kind of a bubble, which was really cool in some ways. I got to have a baby on that show and be pregnant and have a child and bring my child to work every day. I was never chomping to leave, no.”

• Superfan Sisanie: “Was there ever a time, like maybe season 6 or 7, were the ratings ever bad? Or were they always solid, always good and you felt secure in that sense?” Tori: “I think they were always good. With any show, there’s a decline as it goes on. It’s just inevitable, the evolution of it.”

• Tori said they would talk about wanting to end the show befor3 it “jumped the shark,” but “people have a different perception when each show jumps the shark.”

• Superfan Sisanie: “Was that season 10 then or do you think it could’ve gone for up to 15 seasons?”

• Tori reiterated about ending the show before jumping the shark but added, “Looking back now, that was a damn good job. We should’ve stayed for 15 seasons.”

  • In addition to Tori and Brian wanting to leave, the other reason reported at the time for ending the show was the increasingly exorbitant cost of making it, which was said to be an expensive $1 million per episode (if I’m recalling the dollar amount correctly).

• Jennie: “I don’t know who made the decision exactly, but it was a little hasty.”

• Superfan Sisanie: “So you guys went into season 10 knowing it was the last season or you were told within that season?”

• Neither of them remembered, but I do: It was not known going into season 10 that it would be the last. It was decided after the season was already underway. Then once decided, a farewell marketing campaign began.

• Jennie called it “devastating even though we knew about it and were prepared for it and were working towards it,” adding, “I feel like it was still really hard for us to wrap our heads around.” 

  • That jives. The “Final Goodbye” special very much conveyed that.

• Tori said after the show wrapped, it initially felt like they were on their usual “summer break” and “then all of a sudden it just wasn’t.” She went on, “Then it was like a whole chapter of your life was just done. That was the most startling part. Like when it was all over, after you sat in that for like a month.”

• Jennie: “Now we can go back and watch a decade of our lives on camera and fill in all the blanks and fill in all the spaces and remember so much of it and see it all so vividly because of the show. It’s like forever in history.”

• Tori: “Not many people can say they have that and we do.”

• Sisanie: “And luckily with this podcast, we’re just in the first season so there’s so much more!” Tori: “We get to do it all over again!”

• Sisanie gave episode 18’s title, “It’s Only A Test,” and Tori asked, “There’s no politics in it?” Sisanie: “I don’t know, but there might be a test.” Jennie: “She’s not going to like that either.”

  • Of course superfan Sisanie doesn’t remember what the episode is about.

• Jennie: “Have a great week. We love you.” Tori: “We love you!”

I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling very loved. That was kind of a sweet, moving ending, though, to what was otherwise a disastrous and downright infuriating podcast installment.

So let’s take this in pieces, starting with their over-the-top reaction to negative fan feedback. In terms of criticism about the podcast format, for me, it’s not just about the pointless chit-chat at the top of the show, though it was mind-boggling a few weeks back when it took about 20 minutes and a commercial break before they even got to the episode. It’s all of the off-topic stuff through each edition. It’s about the incorrect facts. It’s about the cluelessness. It’s about not acknowledging other key players. It’s about being unwilling to mention another podcast with some of those key players discussing some of these same episodes.

And in terms of wasted time, they certainly wasted time today bitching about fans’ feedback. Instead of being gracious and respectful, they were defensive. They still haven’t acknowledged the money people paid for the live podcast (or the money that was supposedly raised for charity), but still want us to buy their merch, and tune in each week, and leave five-star reviews. Then they can’t handle it when they get the comments they themselves asked for.

If they’re really committed to this podcast for the long haul and if they truly want to improve, they should take the time to do, say, a listener survey where fans can anonymously share what they like and dislike. You can’t possibly grow if you’re not willing to let people point out your weak points. At the very least, they could privately reach out to the fans leaving critical comments on Instagram and pick their brains. Instead of essentially ripping them, as they did here, why not engage them?

Frankly, their clear anger over the negative feedback never even should’ve been discussed on air. They always claim they want to be real, but there is a difference between being real and being rude. I can’t imagine any PR professional listening to today’s podcast and thinking Jennie and Tori handled themselves professionally, appropriately, or in any way that would benefit their careers. And then they made things even worse with the Vanessa stuff.

When Jennie and Tori talk about others sometimes, they don’t seem to realize how they can come off as “mean girls.” But why not take the high road? Why even address Vanessa’s comments that way at all? You could’ve just said something like, “Yeah, I did see that article with Vanessa’s comments, but I didn’t see the interview itself. I was disappointed to learn her feelings and am sorry if I did anything that was taken poorly at the time. I plan on reaching out to her to clear the air because I would hate for there to be any bad feelings.”

Instead, they basically dumped on her and already the media (like Us Weekly and E! Online) is picking it up and turning it into a bigger deal than it needed to be. Vanessa is entitled to her recollections, just as Jennie and Tori are entitled to theirs. We, as fans, will never know the truth simply because we weren't there. We are only getting their biased perspectives. And there are three sides to every story: hers, theirs, and the truth. So what is the point of playing this all out in the media? Plus, given that you care for Brian so much and that Vanessa is the mother of his child, maybe just have enough respect for his family to not air this dirty laundry, even if Vanessa is the one who started it. Why stoop to that level?

I really hope someone Jennie and Tori trust gives them a wake-up call before next week’s podcast. Who thought putting out an installment bashing fans and a co-star was a good idea? Next week should be an apology to both — listeners and Vanessa — acknowledging they let their emotions, ego, and pride get the better of them.

Jennie was always my favorite cast member, in large part because Kelly is my favorite character. But this “9021OMG” experience (after the trainwreck that was “BH90210”) has been incredibly disappointing. It’s been such a let-down to see sides of her that are embarrassing and indefensible. I’ve already written about finding out your idols are flawed humans and realizing they aren’t meant to be worshiped. But I certainly wanted better than this.

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