Shannen Doherty died this week. The news rocked me back on my heels, and not only because she was only a few years older than I. Ms. Doherty was emblematic of Gen X culture in a major way, particularly to Minnesotans. You may or may not remember that the Walsh family from the television show Beverly HIlls, 90210 moved to that famed zip code from Minnesota. Brenda (played by Doherty) and her twin brother Brandon (Jason Priestly) were the down-to-earth teens from the Midwest, suddenly thrust into an environment of wealth and privilege. It was a big hit… but my family didn’t get the Fox channel at that time and so I never watched it.
Cut to my first year of college: most dormitories at Macalester College had co-ed floors, but mine (Doty) had single-sex floors. There weren’t any rules about being on other floors at any time, but floor 2 & 4 were boys, and 3 & 5 were girls. We all had lounges on our floors, but only ONE floor — Doty 4 — had a television.
This Doty 4 television was used most regularly from 5-6pm on weekdays, when there were back-to-back reruns of The Simpsons. The Doty crew arrived at dinner as soon as it opened, gobbled a tray of whatever Kagin Commons served that day, and then we all rushed back to Doty 4 in time to sing "The Simpsons..." along with the opening credits. When the shows were over at 6pm, we all dispersed to do homework or go to play rehearsal or whatever it was that 18-year-old first-year college kids were doing.
Except on Wednesdays.
Almost immediately after we were settled into the semester, my friend Lehto — a last-name-only friend with whom I attended Kindergarten through college — realized he didn’t have class on Thursday, and decided that Wednesday nights would be for beer drinking. St. Paul was home to the legendary Pig's Eye Brewing Company, and the liquor store down the street happily sold cases of returnables to enthusiastic college kids. Wednesday night was Pig’s Eye Night on Doty 4.
Wednesday also happened to be the day that Beverly Hills, 90210 aired. As I said, I was not a viewer/fan of the show up until that point, but someone dragged me into the Doty 4 lounge one week, and the rest was history. I hazard a guess that we are the only group of people in the world who married the glories of 90210 and Pig’s Eye together.
Oddly, the year I began watching 90210 was the first season WITHOUT Shannen Doherty. Her character, “Brenda” had earned a scholarship to study acting in London, and she was gone. I did at some point catch a marathon over a summer break, and caught up on most of the Brenda backstory. But for me, the show was about high school friends who went to college, and stumbled around trying to become adults. I could relate.
My two best college friends — Martha and Elly — joined me in avid 90210 watching. We were suspicious of Valerie and hated Ray Pruit (even before his song made us all roll our eyes), and debated whether Kelly should pick Brandon or Dylan to be her boyfriend… until she blew all of our minds by choosing herself.
Sophomore year had the three of us in separate dorms — Martha in Wallace, Elly in Dupre, and me in Turck. None of the three of us remember where we watched the show that year, but I know that junior year we watched in the basement of Dupre. Senior year, Martha and I were living together with Elly nearly right across the street, so we watched at our apartment on a 13” TV with a rabbit ear antennae.
None of us claims that Beverly Hills, 90210 was incredible television. But as Elly points out, they were pretty much our age. They were making the same decisions as we were. They were struggling with similar issues. They pulled us together every week, even as the three of us were mired deeper into our majors and away from each other. This show will always be meaningful to me because it was meaningful to US.
Drinks at the Peach Pit After Dark, anyone?
Thanks for reading.
Love, Susie
