the take

Will We Hate the New ‘90210’ As Much As Jennie and Shannen Do?

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Courtesy of EW

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty talk about their appearances on the new 90210. Their interview — and the fact that it’s them on the cover of EW promoting 90210, not any of the young and hot cast members playing teens — makes us wonder if 90210 doesn’t have a real marketing problem.

There are two possible audiences for this show: current teens who want to watch a show about hot teens, and former teens who want to watch Shannen and Jennie and (eventually, right?) Jason and Luke.

Current teens are seeing article after article and promo after promo that focuses on Garth and Doherty and the old 90210 — actors and a show they don’t care about at all. Former teens are being pulled in by this marketing, but once they watch the series , will they like it? Will it remind them of their old favorite? Doherty and Garth seem not to think so. In fact, they seem to have a real problem with the show they’re ostensibly promoting:

te>GARTH: When [producers] told me some of the things they were doing, I was like, â€Whoa. That is not 90210, people.†They were trying to educate me [about] how teens are in high school today. It was so shocking to me that I thought I should bring a positive spin somehow. Of course, I have yet to guide or counsel anyone.
DOHERTY: I think they must have told you the same things they told me.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What kinds of things?
DOHERTY: All I know is there’s a girl giving a guy a blow job in the first episode.
GARTH: When they told me that, I thought, Aaron Spelling is rolling over in his grave right now.

So viewers our age aren’t going to like the show because it’s trashy and “not 90210.†Teenage viewers aren’t even going to watch the show because for all they know its stars are a 36-year-old guidance counselor and a 37-year-old drama teacher. Are we wrong to think that maybe 90210 is in serious trouble?

’90210â€s Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth: The EW Reunion [EW]
Related: It Was Only a Matter of Time… [NYM]