REACTION: 9021OMG Episode 20
Monday’s “9021OMG” covered one of the most serious episodes in the first season of “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
The focus was on the series’ 18th episode, “It’s Only a Test,” which was written by show creator Darren Star and directed by Charles Braverman (the same pair who also did “Slumber Party”). While everyone is focused on preparing for the SATs, Brenda (Shannen Doherty) discovers a lump in her breast. Most of the characters are pulled into Brenda’s crisis, but there is a secondary storyline with Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) and Steve (Ian Ziering) having a study session that turns into a makeout sesh.
The episode’s message about the importance of early detection, even amongst teens, is as relevant today as it was when it aired in 1991. Sadly, there’s also an unfortunate layer of “art imitating life” now because of Doherty’s real-life breast cancer battle. Perhaps needless to say, but I was very curious what Jennie Garth (Kelly) and Tori Spelling (Donna) would say about all this.
9021OMG Episode 20, “Ladies, Get ‘em Checked”
Tori: “Thank you so much, you guys. The outpouring of love for our podcast has been amazing and I’m just gonna say it: Thanks for all of our stars! You like us, you really like us!”
Jennie: “It’s nice that you guys like us and we’re trying, we’re trying really hard to do a good podcast for you guys and we show up every week, we do our homework, and Sisanie’s always so happy to see us and we’re happy to see you guys.”
What a different message and tone from last week.
Sisanie said her weeks of pregnancy are lining up with the episode number they’re on — she’s 18 weeks pregnant and they’re discussing episode 18.
Jennie called it a “sign” that Sisanie’s where she’s “supposed to be.”
Tori: “Thank your husband for shootin’ it that day.”
It took them only just over three minutes to get to the episode, even with a drop of chit-chat at the top. See, it can be done: You can have friendly greetings and still get to the actual purpose of the podcast in a timely manner.
They gave the episode title and synopsis but did NOT name the writer (or director). I guess the streak is over. Maybe they figured since they can’t get it right, they shouldn’t mention it at all… which is not the right solution.
Jennie explained the dual meaning of “test” — first in regard to the SATs and then in regard to Brenda’s cancer scare — and thought it was “interesting how they wove these two storylines together.”
Tori called it “very clever.”
Tori: “I’m not gonna lie to you guys. This was the episode I was kind of dreading coming up for obvious reasons with Shannen. I know everyone thought about it when she had cancer.”
She still HAS cancer. Present tense. Sadly.
Jennie said it was “hard” to watch and she had to wipe away tears while doing so.
Jennie: “It was just too close, man. Too weirdly synced in a not good way.”
Jennie and Tori thought it was “foreshadowing.” It was really just an eerie, tragic coincidence.
Tori called Shannen “resilient” and a “fighter” and said Brenda is a “fighter” too and “those things lined up in a positive way.”
Tori: “We’ve never talked to Shannen about it, but I can’t help but know she must’ve thought, ‘Oh my gosh, 30 years ago, gosh, who would’ve thought that this would come true 30 years later?’”
Jennie: “We’ve never really said, ‘Can you believe this episode where Brenda thought she had a lump and now…’ We’ve never really addressed that. We should.”
Tori: “And of all the characters. I mean, obviously it lines up that they would’ve done it with Brenda, one of the twins. Just the way it worked out, it’s shocking.”
Jennie said the episode was “dramatic” and “serious” even without the present-day connection to Shannen.
Jennie was grateful for the “comedic relief” with Steve and Andrea.
Tori: “Thank you, Ian Ziering, for always supplying us with that.”
Jennie: “He was very, very excited to plant his lips on Andrea.”
Tori said she was 17 when this was filmed and it was a wake-up call for her that women that age should be doing self-exams.
Tori: “After that, I always checked from that day forward, and I think it’s important, teenagers watching this today, that are finding ‘90210’ now, it’s relevant. It’s never too early to start and it’s such a great message and I just think it’s so important as women.”
Jennie: “We were young and I’m sure doing that on the bed, Kelly and Donna and Brenda, was really awkward. You know, the crew guys all standing around. I’m sure that was uncomfortable but very helpful… Hopefully the show just really helped a lot of people with this episode.”
Coincidentally last week I shared this article in “Teen Drama Links” that uses “90210” and its breast cancer storyline with Silver as an example: “A very special episode: how TV shows can be powerful tools for public health.”
Sisanie thought it was “creative” the way the test came up from Kelly reading a magazine.
Tori: “Keep in mind, you guys, we were three teenage girls… Imagine doing this in front of, predominantly at the time, a male crew.”
Jennie was “really nervous” rewatching Kelly unbutton her shirt in the scene and told herself to “grow up.”
Jennie: “We were probably super-uncomfortable. We all did a really good job of not laughing — there was a little levity in it with your line, Tor, about ‘aren’t you glad you wear deodorant?’ or something, but I felt like we delivered the message as well as we could in that moment.”
Tori: “There were probably some giggles off-camera. We’re teen girls having to touch our boobs on camera.”
They estimated about 20 people would’ve been on set during the scene.
Tori: “I would cringe doing it in front of a crew at 47 years old. I can’t imagine at 17 doing it.”
Sisanie wondered if it was “more awkward than a love scene in a bed.” Tori thought yes, Jennie thought no, though they acknowledged neither of them had really done a “love scene” to date at that point.
Jennie mocked the artwork Kelly had of herself on her bedroom walls.
Jennie called Steve and Andrea’s makeout “interesting.”
Tori said when they were doing “BH90210,” the writers had brought up this moment between Steve and Andrea and they, Tori and Jennie, hadn’t remembered it.
Jennie wondered if it “goes further and Andrea and Steve hook up again.” Tori: “I don’t think so. I think it was one and done.”
Tori cracked that they liked “limited special events” and worked in an allusion to “BH90210” and their recent discussion about that being a limited event series.
Jennie thought Andrea looked “cute” on the bed and Tori called it a “hot-for-teacher look.”
Jennie said Steve was “manly” and “confident.” She said she would’ve been interested in him at that age and said he was “hot in that scene.” Tori said it was “sexy” and called Andrea “super sexy.”
Sisanie thought Steve’s room was “so cool.”
Jennie said Ian and Steve are “so blended to me” because Ian brought “so much of his humor and his lovability to that character, to the role.”
Superfan Sisanie reiterated that she “really wants to meet him” and “really wants him to come on the podcast.” Jennie: “We want you to too. You’ll love him so much.” Tori: “He says he’s in. He says he wants to do it.”
So what happened with the live show? Still not going to address that, huh?
Sisanie pointed out that Ian is “active on social media” and brought up his recent lunch video, which Tori said she watched too. Their gushing made Jennie want to watch it: “Now I know how I’m going to spend the rest of my afternoon. Thanks, guys.”
But it turned into a full-on tangent. Jennie: “Can we please stop talking about the fucking avocado toast video? I’m done with it.” Tori: “Remember we were talking about all those five stars we had and all the people, we just lost them just like that. Anyhoo. Back to the show. Sorry, I’m hungry.”
Jennie wanted to talk about the show’s opening and a background actor in it having the “biggest, weirdest contraption on his lap” and thought it might’ve been a “caveman laptop.”
Jennie also pointed out Cindy using a “ginormous” Yellow Pages and asked, “Where did all the phone books go?” That started another small tangent.
Jennie and Tori disagreed with Brandon saying you can’t study for the SATs. Tori said she did “horrible” on hers and at the time “hoped this acting thing works out.”
Jennie noted how a lot of colleges aren’t using SAT scores as entrance metrics anymore, explaining that her daughter just applied. Tori said she and Sisanie should “take notes” for when they reach that stage.
Tori then said how her eldest, Liam, just turned 14 and she’s “having a real hard time with it.” Cue another tangent. I did not take notes on it. The bottom line is Tori is “emotional” and is having a hard time seeing her kids grow up, to which Jennie can relate.
Somehow they got on the topic of what Tori will one day be called as a grandma. Jennie suggested “Ta-ta” and Tori pointed out that “ta-tas” usually refer to boobs and added, “This is probably not the right episode to be talking about boobies, sorry.”
Sisanie: “Let’s regroup. Get some tissue. And let’s come back. We still need to cover more of the SAT storyline and then I have questions about when Brenda went to the doctor and the doctor just like poo-pooed the mom and was like, ‘I need to talk to your underage daughter alone.’”
After a break, Jennie brought up the “1 out of 9” stat about women getting breast cancer that was said in the show and revealed that in 2021 it was now 1 out of 8. “So there’s that.”
Sisanie: “That’s worse, right?”
Yes, Sisanie. That’s worse.
They lamented that the odds got worse even though people are more informed today.
Sisanie reiterated that she thought it was “so weird” that the doctor made Cindy leave the room. She wanted to know, “Does that happen?” Jennie confirmed it does (and it did with me when I started reaching a certain age), shocking Sisanie and Tori. This turned into another tangent as well that included how Jennie had to ask her male manager to help her find a gynecologist.
Tori noted that during the hospital scene, you could hear “Paging Dr. Rosin” in the background “because our executive producer was Chuck Rosin.” Superfan Sisanie called it a “fun fact.”
Superfan Sisanie then pointed out that they were taking the SATs as juniors but then they were juniors again in season 2: “I’m curious to see if we’ll see the SATs happen again.”
Yeah, you’re definitely not a superfan, Sis.
Tori: “Are you sure we weren’t sophomores when we started and David was a freshman?” Sisanie: “I fact-checked it because I was so thrown off by it.”
Tori and Jennie were now thrown off themselves and Sisanie referred to unnamed “articles” that explain “you were all juniors but they basically wanted to milk the high school years as much as possible so they just repeated the junior year for season 3.”
I’m assuming she meant for season 2. In season 3 they’re seniors.
Tori: “We were juniors again and David was suddenly a junior with us.” Sisanie: “He moves up.”
No. You were juniors again and then you became seniors and he became a junior. And then he took extra classes to graduate early with you. Clearly some more fact-checking is in order.
Tori then brought up SORAS (soap opera rapid aging syndrome, though she didn’t call it that) and how young kids on soaps will suddenly be aged and have their own storylines, “but I digress.”
Tori wanted to know why Dylan said he would take the SATs senior year and how that would be allowed. Jennie and Sisanie assured her that he would be allowed to take them at the beginning of senior year, to which Tori said, “He must’ve been a smarty pants then.”
Tori said she would get “panicked” by tests like the SATs and doesn’t think it’s a fair way to judge people. This started another tangent.
Jennie shared the “calm” approach she takes with her daughters when it comes to exams, which prompted Sisanie to remind everyone, “It’s only a test, people.”
Jennie called Tori a “dirty little cheater” after Tori admitted she would write key information on her hands and legs when she had a test. Tori then said she was being “dramatic” and “embellished” the anecdote… naturally.
Jennie didn’t remember ever cheating on a test but said she did take one hungover, adding, “I hope my kids don’t listen to this one.”
Jennie brought up Brenda’s dream and she and Tori both said how “beautiful” she looked.
Jennie: “Such a beautiful casket. The casket thing is weird, though. It looked very comfortable. I wouldn’t mind taking a nap in there, but I don’t know about being in that forever.”
Tori said it was “freaky” when she had to lay in a casket for a TV movie.
Tori “liked the little bit of foreshadowing” when, in the dream, Kelly wanted to “take” Brenda’s boyfriend — “not that you ‘took’ him; you can’t take a boyfriend.” But despite calling it “foreshadowing” twice, she then wondered if “they knew they were going to put Kelly and Dylan together.”
Jennie: “I’m sure there were a lot of seeds… I feel like they definitely knew at some point all of the characters were going to be intertwined with each other because there’s only so many characters.”
Yeah, I don’t think so. Chuck has said many, many times now that there was no intention of putting Kelly and Dylan together until Luke expressed an interest in working with Jennie. That was quite a while after this point in season 1. The dream was just meant to represent Brenda’s fears and it is understandable that fear in particular would be in her subconscious given what Kelly revealed a few episodes prior in “Slumber Party.” But intentional seed-planting or foreshadowing it was not.
Also, I would guess Sisanie made some kind of facial reaction because Jennie immediately apologized, saying they’re not supposed to spoil people.
They all agreed no one saw Andrea and Steve’s kiss coming.
Jennie thought the scene where Brenda was talking to Brandon about their aunt’s death was “sweet.”
Tori, however, said it “freaked” her out because of Shannen’s real-life situation, and the fact that the aunt’s name was “Sheila” was tripping her out because it is (to Tori, at least) similar to “Shannen.”
To me the only interesting thing about the character being named Sheila is that they would go on to use that name again for David’s mom.
Jennie said the dialogue about how the aunt became lonely and isolated “got” her and “made me want to reach out.”
To Shannen?
Jennie noted that even with the increased odds of being diagnosed with breast cancer today (as they discussed earlier), the likelihood of death has decreased, in her words, 40 percent, “so great strides are being made and we should definitely acknowledge that. It’s so important.”
Jennie went on, “But it’s all about the early detection with anything. Not to be too serious, but you have to be your own health advocate. You have to be the CEO of you in every respect and you need to take stock in your health and pay attention because you’re the only one that’s going to… It’s best to do it now. Like start today… If you know you have genetic, pre-existing risk factors, start there… Start with an annual check-up of that specific thing and target your attention so that you guys are taking care of yourselves because I want you to.”
Jennie then said she’d “stop preaching,” but Tori reassured her, “Everything you’re saying is so right on.”
For people who think 16 is too young to consider such matters, Tori said, “Look at Brenda. She did have a tumor. It worked out, but you just never know.”
Sisanie noted Brenda had “a lot of support,” even though Kelly and Donna struggled with what to say. They all laughed over the big gift basket they brought Brenda.
Jennie thought Kelly and Donna’s reaction was “pretty accurate,” though, because teens wouldn’t automatically know how to handle that situation.
Tori: “I loved Brandon in this episode.” Jennie: “He was so thoughtful.”
Jennie wanted to know if the scene between Brandon and Brenda toward the end made Tori miss her brother. Tori: “That sounded wrong, ‘cause he’s not dead.”
Tori did say, though, that she does miss Randy “all the time” because he lives in Portland.
Randy was on the “Beverly Hills 90210 Show” podcast earlier this month, not long after Tori herself was on. No idea if Tori knows that.
Tori: “The note there is don’t wait until it’s something [that] could be life or death to tell someone ‘I love you.’”
Jennie: “I love a gooey Brandon moment.” Tori: “Me too.”
They marveled over Dylan telling Brenda he loves her and her phone call to him saying the same.
This led to a tangent about answering machines and voicemails, with Tori sharing that Jennie’s voicemail makes it sound like she’s answering the phone. To prove it, Sisanie called Jennie right then and played her voicemail message on the podcast, but Tori thought it was changed and said the old one would “fool” her “all the time.” Jennie, however, said she couldn’t remember the last time Tori left her a message.
Tori and Jennie went on to reveal they both “hate” talking on the phone and have a “phobia,” and Tori thought it’s “weird we have that in common too.”
Tori then announced Jennie has been “slidin’ into my DMs.” Jennie: “Why are you bringing this up?!”
Good question, Jennie.
Tori said she was bringing it up “because I feel like DMing is very relevant right now” and she said she thinks the phrasing is “dirty.”
Relevant to what? Certainly not to this podcast.
Tori has proved time and again how “dirty” she can be, including earlier in this very podcast. Suddenly it’s a problem?
Jennie: “These are very important conversations, everybody.”
Tori: “DM is also Donna Martin.”
Sisanie threw to a break (during which one of the ads was in Spanish, bizarrely), saying they still had to talk fashion and get to emails, but when they returned, she brought up how The Rembrandts were playing during Steve and Andrea’s kissing scene and said they should talk to them, prompting Jennie to announce they had “Phil Solem on the line, one half of The Rembrandts.”
Jennie drew a parallel between Phil working with his music partner, Danny Wilde, for decades to her and Tori. She asked him what the “secret” is to such a successful relationship.
Phil: “If there’s a secret, somebody please tell me.” He went on to give a more serious answer about there being something “intrinsic” between them.
Jennie said she loves their “melodic” music and that she thought the song used in the scene, “That’s Just the Way It Is, Baby,” was their breakout. After playing a snippet, Phil said that was the first song they recorded together before they even called themselves The Rembrandts.
Tori: “How did we get so lucky to have it on the show? We had your music several times on the show.” Phil: “How did we get so lucky to be on the show?”
Tori insisted it was “so big” and “major” to have The Rembrandts on the show and Phil in turn insisted it was “more major” for them to be on it. Jennie: “We both benefited in a good way then.”
Tori: “Can we get to the ‘Friends’ theme song now?” Phil: “What would you like to know?”
A snippet of “I’ll Be There for You” was played, but in both cases of these snippets, it wasn’t clear if they were playing them live with Phil on the line or if they were edited into the conversation in post-production.
Phil explained how the track was originally just 42 seconds long and created with the “Friends” music director for its opening. When people loved it, they were told to write more verses and make it a full song for their album.
Jennie: “I have a crazy question. Do you get paid every time that song comes on?” Tori: “Jennie Garth! Phil, do you?!” Phil: “We get a little slice. I think they’re saving it and they’re gonna surprise us one year.”
Tori said her 12-year-old and 9-year-old are “obsessed” with “Friends” and don’t realize how far back it goes.
Tori wanted to know how Phil reacts when he’s out somewhere and hears one of their songs. His answer: “My internal calculator starts adding up how many pennies I’m going to get.”
Asked what they’re up to now, Phil said they put an album out at the end of 2019, but their tour plans were canceled because of the pandemic.
Tori: “If you ever go back out, we could be your groupies.”
After they came back from another break (without Phil), Jennie was talking about love languages without any context, so it seems like there was some choppy / sloppy editing done there.
Jennie was saying that she and her husband are poor communicators, but whenever she goes away, he makes her a playlist that shows how he’s really feeling.
Tori: “Oh my god, I’m crushing on Dave right now!” Jennie: “He’ll make you one… It’ll have a different theme.” Tori: “I’m going to slip into Dave’s DMs.”
Tori went on to call Jennie’s husband “the most supportive friend ever” and said he’s always on her Instagram. Jennie wondered if that just meant he spends too much time on Instagram.
Still have no idea how they got on this subject in the first place since something was cut, but it turned into Tori talking about Dave eating peanut butter from a can and how she took it as a sign that he’s missing Jennie while she’s away filming.
Tori: “Should we talk fashion?” Jennie: “We didn’t? Oh, we didn’t.”
Jennie didn’t have any “standout” fashion moments for this episode.
Tori thought Dylan was wearing a “Steve blouse” and Jennie cracked that they went to the “blouse barn.”
Jennie and Sisanie really liked Cindy’s outfits, but Tori didn’t. They did all think it was more “Beverly Hills.” Tori thought she looked “older” too.
Tori’s favorite line was Brenda saying “hope for the best, expect the worst.”
Jennie didn’t like that one at all, saying she “philosophically” disagrees with it: “I don’t think you should expect the worst in any situation. You should always expect the best.”
Sisanie highlighted Kelly telling Brenda how she hopes it never happens to her breasts and how wrong that came out.
Jennie liked Brenda saying, “Guess my hormones are raging.”
The first fan question was, “Out of all the different seasons of ‘90210,’ have you ever been jealous or envious of someone else’s character or storyline at the time? Was there ever a story arc you wish your character would’ve gotten to experience?”
Jennie said the one that came to her mind “instantly” was when — “this is a spoiler alert, but I have to” — they were at Dylan and Toni’s wedding. Tori: “You wished it was you?” Jennie: “I did. I wished it was me getting married to Dylan.”
Jennie: “I wanted Kelly to be marrying Dylan and having that special, beautiful wedding.” Tori: “I’m biting my tongue, my lips, my everything. Because it’s so multi-layered.”
Jennie tried to change the subject by prodding Tori to give her own answer to the question.
Tori said she was kind of “jealous” in the beginning seeing the characters having more dialogue and storylines than Donna did. She and Jennie agreed, though, that “one-liners” can actually be “harder” to deliver.
Tori said she would dream of having fuller scenes for Donna. Jennie: “Your dreams came true!”
The next fan question: “How does this make you guys feel now watching the show and seeing Brenda with a scare and knowing Shannen is currently battling her second round of stage 4? Also, after Shannen left the show there was an estrangement as far as I know from the media between Jennie and Shannen. But when Shannen had cancer the first time, Jennie posted this wonderful tribute and created the best hashtag, #fightlikebrenda. It was so moving and wonderful to see the sisterhood and bond of the friendship reignited after all those years. How did that all come about?”
Jennie seemed to be somewhat at a loss for words before saying, “First I’ll address the beginning, I think. We already kind of talked about that in the beginning of the episode… who knew and now watching it back, it’s eerie and it’s not good. It’s not a good feeling.”
Tori said they “believe” in Shannen and she’s “such a strong, strong woman” and is “such an inspiration for women everywhere going through this.” She added, “It’s still hard to watch, though. I’ll be glad to get to the next episode.”
As for the other part of the question, Jennie said, “There was, you know, there was word out there that Shannen and I didn’t get along or we were ‘estranged,’ as you call it. I don’t think that’s the case, though. Shannen and I are two Aries women. I don’t need to say any more than that. We lock horns sometimes as rams do. I actually like that about her and she likes that about me. So we’ve never had a problem with our differences, I don’t think. There have been times when there have been feelings hurt and things have been said, but you’re sisters. At the end of the day, there’s a bond that we all have with one another, all the cast members have with one another, that’s like super-glue. You can never break that bond. So we’re all gonna be there to support each other at the end of the day no matter what any of us is going through. Whenever one of us truly needs the other one, I know they will be there for me like we are for Shannen.”
Tori: “I didn’t know you did that hashtag… I love that because it’s so true.” Jennie: “I made up a good hashtag that day. I might have a career in hashtags, you guys.” Tori: “If this podcast thing doesn’t work out, which it will, because we have five stars!”
Sisanie said the “homework assignment” is episode 19, “April is the Cruelest Month.”
This is how I want you to envision this edition of the podcast: Picture a bus traveling along a road. Suddenly, it looks like the wheels are coming off — but then, wait! Just as suddenly, it’s smooth sailing again. And then it happens once more. And another time after that. And then another. That was this installment.
Each time they veered off into tangent territory and seemed to have lost the plot (literally), they got back on track relatively quickly. There were quite a few tangents, but they were fairly short in comparison to some other ones we’ve had to sit through. I did start to fear we were permanently lost at sea (yes, I’m mixing metaphors now) when they came back from the last commercial break and were inexplicably talking about Jennie’s husband, but then they righted the ship again.
I appreciated the seriousness with which they discussed Brenda’s storyline, Shannen’s real-life cancer, and the importance of everyone taking care of their health. The ending was a bit of a downer to wrap up on, but I will take this edition any day of the week and twice on Sundays if it means never having to listen to an installment like we got last week again. They were totally night and day in comparison. Whether that’s because Jennie and Tori realized they screwed up last week (which wasn’t acknowledged at all today, though it was weird how they were celebrating fan love for the podcast now after pointing out all the hate last week) or because this fits what seems to be their pattern of a week or two of the podcast seemingly on track before things go off the rails again… well, that remains to be seen. But I truly would love to see them keep taking steps of improvement instead of one step forward and then two steps back.
Lastly, I just want to note that whatever public “estrangement” Jennie and Shannen may have had after Shannen left the show in 1994, they reunited in 2003 for the “Beverly Hills, 90210: 10-Year High School Reunion” special and then worked closely together on “90210” in 2008-2009. Shannen wasn’t diagnosed with cancer until 2015, so it’s not really accurate to suggest her health problems brought them back together and “reignited” their relationship. They had already mended fences a fair amount several years before then.
I think, as Jennie said, at the end of the day, the bond between the original core cast is there and it’s strong. Does it extend to every series regular the show had? Clearly not. But when not exploited, it can be a beautiful thing to witness.
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