Teen Drama Links for April 23, 2024

Apr 23, 2024

We’ve already seen the “Beverly Hills, 90210” cast attempt to exploit the show, its name, and its place in pop culture with “BH90210.”

Now more recent efforts to profit off the series, including one announced just last week, have me enraged.

Last Tuesday, Jennie Garth (Kelly, Beverly Hills, 90210) announced she is hosting a new iHeartRadio podcast called “I Choose Me.” This comes more than three years after she launched sweatshirts with “I Choose Me” on them and less than a year after she rolled out a full merchandise line with the phrase.

The problem? Garth did not come up with “I Choose Me.” This is a line of dialogue from an episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210” written by executive producers Jessica Klein and Steve Wasserman. Prior to her passing in 2022, Klein spoke specifically about writing that line. Now Garth has co-opted it and turned it into her brand.

In other words, Garth is making money off a statement she didn’t create and the person who did create it does not get the same monetary benefits. Sure, before her death, Klein would get royalties for writing the episode and now, I assume, her estate does. But those residuals are tied to the episode being streamed, etc. Her estate is in no way compensated for the ways in which Garth has taken something Klein wrote and used it to sell merchandise and, now, a podcast.

This is no better than Tori Spelling (Donna, Beverly Hills, 90210) plastering “Donna Martin Graduates” on merchandise, as she did last year, and selling it for her own profit while the writers of that episode and line of dialogue, Klein and the late Wasserman (or rather, their heirs), get nothing in return.

I suppose a counter argument would be that neither line, “I Choose Me” nor “Donna Martin Graduates,” is trademarked. But they are part of copyrighted material that is Paramount’s intellectual property. I have approximately zero expertise on IP rights and the legalities of Garth and Spelling monetizing someone else’s intellectual property, but even if it’s all legal, I have to ask: Is it moral? Is it ethical?

I have, for years, highlighted on the original TeenDramaWhore, in this Substack newsletter, and on my social media the blatant attempts by the cast to capitalize on “Beverly Hills, 90210” for their own fame and financial gain. Frankly, it sickens me. They acted on the show. That belongs to them. Nothing else does — not the characters, not the dialogue.

As part of my day job, I spend hours and upon hours working on material designed to help entrepreneurs start their own businesses and side hustles. I have no problem with Garth, Spelling, or any other cast member developing their own business. Spelling recently launching her “MisSpelling” podcast is a good example of that. It’s totally her own thing. Same, for example, with the wine line launched by Jason Priestley (Brandon, Beverly Hills, 90210), and the cookbooks written by Tiffani Thiessen (Beverly Hills, 90210).

What I do have a problem with is them operating business endeavors based on something that, simply put, does not belong to them. All this to say: I think Garth should be ashamed.