Remember That Summer You Were Obsessed With 90210?

It seems impossible to believe now, but summer TV used to be sadder than a rained-out picnic. 

Reruns. B-list sports games. More reruns. Endless news and music videos. Did we mention the reruns? 

Then, on July 11, 1991, a group of well-to-do high schoolers decided to hit the Beverly Hills Beach Club over their break. Suddenly, the bleak programming landscape became a whole lot brighter. 

To be sure, Beverly Hills, 90210 wasn’t the first TV series to air original summertime episodes. (Seinfeld actually premiered on NBC in July 1989.) But the iconic Fox drama did forever prove that the traditional TV season didn’t have to go on vacation between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  

“Nobody was watching TV in the summer,” says Jennie Garth, who played quintessential California girl Kelly Taylor during the show’s entire 1990-2000 run. “I remember I used to hate it when a show I loved would just end and you had reruns. What’s the point? I’d already seen it and didn’t want to watch it again.”

And while the seven-episode arc featured plenty of fun in the sun — Kelly falls for a cute volleyball player and Brandon (Jason Priestley) tries to get a job as a lifeguard but ends up a cabana boy — there were serious stakes behind the scenes. In its first year, the show was struggling to find an audience and getting trounced in the ratings by its competition, NBC's Cheers. It was legendary producer Aaron Spelling who decided to get an early start on the second season, presuming that the barren TV schedule was there for the taking. 

Spelling was right. Young viewers clamored for the juicy melodrama, and the show’s popularity surged. “People started showing up to the beach where we were filming and just stayed there all day. They would watch us [film] and ask us to sign stuff,” Garth recalls. By the time the gang returned to their cabanas in July 1992, Beverly Hills, 90210 was a white-hot cultural phenomenon. And wouldn’t you know it: The Saved by the Bell characters spent that summer working at a beach club, too! 

Thirty-five years after the show’s big breakout summer, Garth — who recently released her memoir, I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose & Embracing Reinvention — looks back with the Television Academy.   

Television Academy: How did you react when you were informed that you would be working through the summer? 

Jennie Garth: I was excited! We wanted to find our audience and wanted the show to continue forward. So we were all on board for hanging out together over the summer at a beach club. Who doesn’t want to spend their summer on a beach? 

Did you sense the show was on the bubble?  

No, I wasn't invested in that side of it all. I wanted people to like it. I heard things through the rumor mill, but no one on the producing side ever told us that ratings weren’t good and we might get canceled. There was no doubt or fear in my mind. 

So did you film at the real Beverly Hills Beach Club? 

I actually don’t know if there’s a real Beverly Hills Beach Club, and I should! We filmed in Santa Monica at a club that had been shut down — we took it over. I remember it was where Sunset [Boulevard] ends at the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a little farther down from where Cirque du Soleil performs. It was perfect. 

Did it feel like you were on summer break or was it still work? 

No, it felt like we were on break. We’d be hanging out on the stairs of our trailers, looking at this gorgeous view of the ocean with the smells and the sounds. Everybody was just happy to be there. It was so much better than being, like, stuck in our soundstage in Van Nuys. 

Which cast member was the biggest beach bum? 

Mostly Ian [Ziering]. He already donned the cut-off tank tops and the short-shorts. So he fit right in. He would always get sunburned, though. 

What about Luke Perry? His Dylan character was a major surfer. 

[Luke] wasn’t into surfing at all. That was all a body double — he was a land lover. 

What do you remember about filming those episodes? 

I remember playing beach volleyball, and that was super-fun. I remember wearing a bikini for the first time on TV. I don't know why, at that age, that I felt nervous about it. I felt self-conscious. When I watch it back now, I'm like, “Wow, look at that bod!” 

Did you get a say in your own swimwear? 

Yes, they would always offer options — like a two-piece or a one-piece. I think Gabrielle [Carteris] didn't want to wear a bathing suit on TV for her own reasons. But I knew my character would be wearing a bathing suit and living her best life down there, so there was no getting out of it for me. But, I remember requesting a lot of cover-ups or sarongs. 

In terms of your popularity or the show’s, did you notice a distinct before-and-after feel once the summer episodes started airing? 

For sure! There were so many fans that we started having bodyguards walk us from our trailers to the set. I loved having a bodyguard. To this day, my daughter is like, “I want to have a bodyguard someday.” I definitely noticed that people noticed me more. It was like, What is happening to my life?!

Did you have those same good vibes when you filmed the next summer, or were you just exhausted? 

Speaking for myself, I liked it. I enjoyed the drive out there. It was beautiful, fresh, gorgeous air. But we did end up doing 32, 33 episodes a year. We weren’t just on the beaches; we were on our soundstages and other locations. We would be shooting two episodes at once, and had two entirely separate crews for one cast. We would get shuttled back and forth — we’d change our clothes, our hair, our makeup — and learn our material for two different episodes. It was tricky, but it was also major on-the-job training in being able to hustle. 

You mention in your book that you recently went back and rewatched all the episodes. What was your takeaway? 

It looked like a good time. I wanted to have a membership and hang out there. It also looked like something that fancy Beverly Hills people had access to, you know? Growing up, I had always seen other people have that kind of life. It was cool and fun to do it on TV. 

TV programming is now a year-round enterprise. Do you think 90210 played a role in the change?  

Definitely. It changed how people produce television, it changed the thinking at broadcast networks. People used to just think in terms of the three big [networks]. But here comes Fox, and we’re going to do TV in a much cooler way — and viewers are going to connect with it. It’s cool that the show actually contributed to television history. 

This interview was edited for length and clarity.