Garth reunites with former Beverly Hills 90210 costars Brian Austin Green, Gabrielle Carteris, and Ian Ziering over the weekend at 90s Con 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida for a panel about the iconic show’s lasting legacy.
Beverly Hills, 90210 is a franchise that just keeps giving, but that doesn’t mean it’s OG stars are all in equal support of all its iterations. Only three from the original cast joined The CW’s 2008 reboot — and one admits she wishes she hadn’t.
Jennie Garth was joined by Brian Austin Green, Gabrielle Carteris, and Ian Ziering at 90s Con 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida, where she did not hesitate to say she regretted taking part in the sequel series, which ran for five season.
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“I wish I hadn’t done it. No offense to them,” Garth said, per People, after Green admitted he kind of “liked” the show’s concept. Garth then went on to explain how she came to be involved, and what she learned from the experience.
“The producer was a friend of a friend, and I remember he came over in my living room, sat me down, [billed it as] this chance of a lifetime. He asked me to do it and I didn’t know how to say no then. But the people were very nice and all the best to them.”
Carteris said she was “shocked” at the time to even hear they were looking at a reboot of the show, saying, “I never wanted to [do it].”
“I was like, ‘Is it, like, they long so much you’re just going to try to reinvent it over and over?” she asked.
Green agreed, saying that after 10 years of Beverly Hills, 90210, “It’s like, okay, done.”
Neither of them took part in that particular reboot. In fact, only Garth, Tori Spelling and Shannen Doherty participated in the show, which mostly featured a new young cast.
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Remembering BH90210
That wasn’t at all the case a few years later when the entire OG cast did agree to come back for yet another revival — albeit this time with a very different format.
BH90210 was extremely self-aware, featuring almost the entire main cast — save the late Luke Perry, who passed way in March 2019. In some ways, the series, which premiered in August, 2019, was a way for the tight group to process the loss of one of their own; something they’re again doing after Shannen Doherty’s recent death.
This new series starred the cast as heightened version of themselves as Hollywood actors looking to kick off a reboot of the original series. Storyline and drama were inspired — and exaggerated — from their real relationships and life journeys.
Ziering said that his intention for that series was to “give the audience what they want: comfort food.” Carteris called the whole experience of making the short-lived series “cathartic.”
“It felt full circle, to be together as adults, having had our children, being able to work together,” she said. “I thought it was probably one of the most impactful moments of my life.”
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Remembering Beverly Hills, 90210
The high school drama that came to define a generation continues to hold a special place in the hearts of its fan, and its cast. It’s also a snapshot into a much simpler time — before the internet changed everything.
“We were bringing a piece of the world that was famous that no one had really seen,” said Green, noting that “no one was walking around videotaping everything.” As such, shows like theirs could shine a spotlight on a way of life very few outside of that bubble would be familiar with.
“Because there wasn’t access to it, people really enjoyed what it is we did,” he said. “I honestly don’t feel now, this time it would have the same impact it did back then.”
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At the same time, the cast was able to laugh at some of their show’s sillier moments, with Garth admitting, “We had a lot of jump the shark moments but I enjoyed them. Just watching the show back, we get more and more outlandish.”
A lot of that, of course, is a product of the time as the ’80s and ’90s was a time of PSAs injected into “very special episodes” of shows targeted toward younger audiences. But even when they were a little “heavy-handed,” as Ziering believes one episode about skin cancer was, they still might have connected with someone.
Speaking to the audience at their panel, Carteris said she appreciated that their show didn’t shy away from those real topics kids were facing. And that’s something that continues to come back to the cast, with Carteris saying she’s “touched” by fans who talk to her about how the show “connected with you and who you were.”
“That is the biggest tribute you can give,” she added. “It’s moving every time.”
