/ 20 August 2008

Teen angst for the 21st century

The spin-off on the fabled 1990s teen drama <i>Beverly Hills, 90210</i> premieres on September 2 in the United States.

”Gutter balls only, please!” someone yells during a rehearsal at the Lucky Strike bowling alley for the CW network’s new series 90210. So co-stars Jessica Stroup and Shenae Grimes downplay their bowling skills.

The spin-off on the fabled 1990s teen drama premieres on September 2 in the United States. If the show mimics the hot bodies, hip fashion and angst-ridden affluence of Beverly Hills, 90210, it will also play edgier and less preachy, says co-executive producer Gabe Sachs.

”Look, we’re not stupid,” Sachs says. ”We know people are probably expecting a cheese fest and that’s just not what we do.”

Sachs and partner Jeff Judah cut their teeth as producers on the quirky yet short-lived teen series Freaks and Geeks and Life as We Know It.

CW tapped the duo to produce its rich-kids reprise after Rob Thomas, creator of moody teen drama Veronica Mars, dropped the project.

”The truth is, Jeff and I write how we write,” Sachs says. ”Everything’s got to come out of real emotion. We want to deal with issues and show consequences, but not the issue of the week and pound you over the head.”

”But I can never ever knock the original 90210,” Sachs says of the series that ran from 1990 to 2000, trading on youth issues from addiction to pregnancy and amping the fortunes of the fledgling Fox network.

The original hooked a generation of viewers on trendy teen melodrama honed by creator Darren Star and executive producer Aaron Spelling.

To help spin the spin-off, original cast members Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley and Jennie Garth will reprise their roles as special guest stars on 90210. Joe E Tata will return as Peach Pit café owner Nat.

But despite her announced participation, Tori Spelling (yet another star in the original series as well as daughter of the late TV mogul) isn’t expected back.

”Earlier in the summer we anticipated that she was going to appear in the show, but those plans were postponed for personal reasons on Ms Spelling’s behalf,” CW spokesperson Paul McGuire said. In June, Spelling gave birth to her second child with husband Dean McDermott.

There currently are no plans for the 35-year-old actress to be part of the new series, according to McGuire and Spelling’s publicist, Meghan Prophet.

Heading into its third season, CW is aiming 90210 straight at its advertiser-coveted target audience, cool-conscious female viewers from 18 to 34 who buzz about CW’s Gossip Girl.

Like the original, 90210 is a fish-out-of-water tale about a Midwestern family transplanted to Los Angeles, the land of highway jams and perpetual tans.

Although the original series’s core family, the Walshes, were from Minnesota, the Wilson clan hails — with shades of Wizard of Ozian irony — from Kansas. Like siblings Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Doherty and Priestley), Annie Wilson (Grimes) and adopted brother Dixon (Tristan Wilds of The Wire) are gorgeous, yet more grounded than their classmates at West Beverly Hills High School.

Among Annie and Dixon’s new best friends are bad little rich girl Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord of Nip/Tuck) and top jock Ethan (Dustin Milligan). There’s Silver, a Gossip Girl type (Stroup), who produces her own tell-all video series on YouTube, and dirt-dishing, high-school newscaster Navid Shirazi (Michael Steger).

The Wilson parents (Rob Estes and Lori Laughlin) seem hip and handsome in ways the Walsh parents (Carol Potter and James Eckhouse) were not.

”This has the glitz of an Aaron [Spelling] show, but at the same time Gabe and Jeff have taken it and given it a sense of humour — they really flip it on its ear sometimes,” says Estes, who starred on Spelling’s Melrose Place from 1993 to 1999.

”And they’re also like 12-year-olds, you know?” Estes says. ”They completely understand the electronic world, like texting.”

The 90210 formula will also include product placement ”as long as it doesn’t hit you over the head”, Sachs says. ”I think it’s important to show what kids really use.”

But at the core of 90210, it’s all about fresh faces, and who will break big.

”Things can take a turn, and you can get a big head, or get jaded,” says Stroup of the fame game. ”The next two weeks, we’re going to be unveiling more and more ads and everybody that we talk to is saying, ‘Get ready, get ready.’ And we’re all like, ‘Where are we going to hide?”’ — Sapa-AP