90210
Beverly Hills 90210
October 15, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
In the Summer of 1991, FOX showed us what high school students do during summer vacation.
They work.
They party.
They go to summer school.
Beverly Hills 90210 premiered in the Fall of 1990.
During its freshman season, 90210 added value to the youth-oriented programming on FOX. But the show about privileged kids in the country’s most famous zip code did not overwhelm the competition with its counter-programming content.
Enter the summer.
A time when networks traditionally burn off unsold pilots, episodes of unsold shows, and regular programming in reruns for a third broadcast.
But FOX is not a traditional network. And it certainly wasn’t a traditional network in its nascent days.
When FOX started in 1986, it was not airing a full slate of programming, so it legally, logically, and historically could not be called a “television network.”
In any case, FOX saw an opening in the summer schedule.
Airing new episodes of 90210 in the summer would be true counter-programming.
Original episodes against burned off pilots and reruns.
And perfectly logical.
High school students have lives from late June to early September.
90210 reflected that reality.
Summer relationships.
Summer jobs.
Summer vacation.
The six original episodes of 90210 in the Summer of 1991 helped launch the show into the stratosphere.
It helped stretch story lines across multiple episodes, contrary to the self-contained episodic story line format in the first season.
And it helped open up new story lines for the second season.
The programming exercise was successful and FOX repeated it in the Summer of 1992 with six new episodes.
By this time, 90210 was a Goliath.
It also spawned a spinoff in the Summer of 1992 -- Melrose Place.
The CW presently airs revived versions of both shows.
david@davidkrell.com
In the Summer of 1991, FOX showed us what high school students do during summer vacation.
They work.
They party.
They go to summer school.
Beverly Hills 90210 premiered in the Fall of 1990.
During its freshman season, 90210 added value to the youth-oriented programming on FOX. But the show about privileged kids in the country’s most famous zip code did not overwhelm the competition with its counter-programming content.
Enter the summer.
A time when networks traditionally burn off unsold pilots, episodes of unsold shows, and regular programming in reruns for a third broadcast.
But FOX is not a traditional network. And it certainly wasn’t a traditional network in its nascent days.
When FOX started in 1986, it was not airing a full slate of programming, so it legally, logically, and historically could not be called a “television network.”
In any case, FOX saw an opening in the summer schedule.
Airing new episodes of 90210 in the summer would be true counter-programming.
Original episodes against burned off pilots and reruns.
And perfectly logical.
High school students have lives from late June to early September.
90210 reflected that reality.
Summer relationships.
Summer jobs.
Summer vacation.
The six original episodes of 90210 in the Summer of 1991 helped launch the show into the stratosphere.
It helped stretch story lines across multiple episodes, contrary to the self-contained episodic story line format in the first season.
And it helped open up new story lines for the second season.
The programming exercise was successful and FOX repeated it in the Summer of 1992 with six new episodes.
By this time, 90210 was a Goliath.
It also spawned a spinoff in the Summer of 1992 -- Melrose Place.
The CW presently airs revived versions of both shows.