As Brenda Walsh, Doherty was the engine of the series that set the template for what a modern teen drama would look like on television.
If you liked watching TV on Thursday nights in 1990, you could have spent your spring with Audrey Horne and Donna Hayward, in “Twin Peaks,” and your fall with Brenda Walsh in “Beverly Hills, 90210.” And Brenda, as played memorably by Shannen Doherty, who died on Saturday, knew who her peers were. When she dons a (hideous) hat in Season 1, she is met with derision. “Hippie witch is out,” sneers Kelly (Jennie Garth).
“It’s not hippie witch; it’s ‘Twin Peaks,’ and it’s very in,” Brenda snaps back. Ah, back then we were so rich in pouty, put-upon brunettes with brooding motorcycle boyfriends, fraught taste in companions and a desire to listen to the same song over and over.
No, Brenda’s outfit is not “Twin Peaks” in any way, but her affection and affectation create a fun hall of mirrors. Brenda herself was a character whose style many sought to emulate, though sadly, God blesses so few of us with such magnificent bangs. Still, it was far easier to incorporate a Walshian choker or silver belt buckle than to pull off an arch “Twin Peaks” saddle shoe.
Teens were all over prime-time in 1990. “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” also debuted that season, and shows like “Growing Pains,” “Who’s the Boss,” “A Different World” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.” were already airing.
But it was “Beverly Hills, 90210” that established the blueprint for what a modern teen drama would be: glossy, aspirational, tackling the topics of the day but bending inexorably — if they lasted — toward soapiness. It was a template followed by series like “Dawson’s Creek,” “One Tree Hill,” “Gossip Girl” and “The O.C.,” among many others.
And of all the young beautiful people who populated West Beverly Hills High, it was Brenda who made the show go. As she went from naïf to vixen, from humble Minnesotan to globe-trotting romantic, her transformations transformed the show itself. Grander tragedies befell other characters, but no one suffered heartbreak or betrayal with more intensity than Brenda, the show’s most authentically teenage character. In Doherty’s hands, Brenda was both vulnerable and vituperative, delivering the sharpest insults but in the most pain.
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Source: Television - nytimes.com
