Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

I always thought it would take a monumental event to get Bob and I to write on one post.  Only I thought it would be something to do with Maryland.  But alas, the calendar reads 9/02/10,  or for those of us who were fans of the show 90210.   With that being said here is Bob and I’s ode to Beverly Hills.

It is finally here!  90210 Day.  The day where the calendar proclaims to the world what it’s favorite TV program is.  For us here at Turtledroppings.com, this is a very special day.  I have often joked to Chris on certain anniversary’s of the website’s founding that “I can’t believe we’ve made it this long and haven’t switched over to writing exclusively about 90210”.  It has been tough to say the least, but on this day it is our civic duty to celebrate the greatest show in all of TV history.

Today’s post is going to be a two parter.  First I am going to recall my top 3 favorite moments of BH 90210, and we will follow that with Chris’s look back on his 90210 memories.  So grab your 90’s gear, pull up a seat and get ready to clap as we fire up the 90210 theme song in our heads.  By the way why does the new version of 90210 quickly gloss over the clap-clap, it was by far the best part of the whole song and should be punctuated by a sound worthy of its significance.  Anyway, before this post turns into War and Peace, we need to get going, so without further adieu, my top 3 moments:

Donna  Martin Graduates.  Is this the crown jewel of the franchise, oh God no!  If someone were to walk in on me watching this episode with everyone in the background chanting this, do I pretend the remote is broken…absolutely.  But can any phrase better sum up an entire episode?  To make this list you have to be a moment where, much like the Kennedy Assassination, or for our generation the Challenger Explosion, you know exactly where you were and who you were with when it happened.  Does Donna Martin Graduate fit that bill, indeed it does.  Donna Martin, you not only graduated, you came in 3^rd in my top 3 moments of 90210 history, and you didn’t even need to get pushed down the stairs!

DMG also get’s bonus points because it reminds me of a story a college roommate told us about working at a temp agency and having to walk around at a store opening singing Kool and the Gang’s “Celebrate”.  I always invision that story to look like the DMG episode.  By the way if I ever tell that Celebrate story without a smile on my face you will know I’m officially dead inside.

These last two moments are tough, it’s like picking which of my children I love most, but unfortunately in this case I have to make a decision.  Coming in at number two, is Dylan leaving after his wife, known as the Noxema commercial girl, gets killed.  Oh so sad.  It definitely meets the “Where was I when this happened” criteria, but not only that, there were actually people in the room who cried after that scene, and I’m not talking chicks here.  I will protect their identity because there actually are a few times a guy can cry.  For example, the end of Field of Dreams, and…well that may be the only other time.  Definitely a touching moment.

In addition Dylan gets extra credit for putting the cat carrier on his motorcycle.  Guys who are jerks would have left the cat, but having him ride off into the sunset with the cat carrier shows that he is macho, but also sensitive….sigh, where was I?  Sorry I sort of drifted off into some day dream.  Anyway, that’s my number 2 BH 90201 moment, which leads to…

The number 1 BH 90210 moment for me is Dylan and Kelly’s first kiss in the pool.  Much like Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg which proved to be the “High Water Mark of the Confederacy” this moment was the absolute zenith of the whole 90210 franchise.  This was the summer when Brenda and Donna went to Paris, and Dylan and Kelly started hanging out.  The whole summer was leading to this one moment and that scene did not disappoint.  There is a line in Field of Dreams (I know…I know one too many Field of Dreams references in this post) where James Earl Jones talks about America being “Built up, torn down, and built back up again”.  This was that moment for 90210, basically it was as if the show was written on a dry erase board and along came a wet cloth.  The show was turned upside down and would never be the same.  It marked the end of the beginning of the show and led us into those middle years where every week you could count on one solid episode after another.

This also passes the “Where were you when…” measuring stick as I was in my parent’s living room back in Elkton and watching it with my dad and sister.  My dad may never admit it, but even he was on the edge of his seat.  In fact, speaking of seats, I was sitting in the exact same spot a few years earlier when Gulf War I broke out, and that is only the second most historically significant event I witnessed from that local.  That’s how you know it was number 1!

So there you have it, I’m sure I stirred up some controversy, if you have other memories to share (and there are plenty!), please do in the comment section below.  I know the Navy game is just a couple short days away, but come 9/02/10 only comes around, well…once.  So as my old college roommate would sing “Celebrate!”.

When Bob asked me to write about Beverly Hills, I had some ideas.  Top shows.  That is kind of hard to pinpoint.  The list is virtually endless.  I began to think about why I liked the show.  First of all they were a year older (in character anyway).  So there was always that link to them as if they were class mates, or potential class mates anyway.  Then,  I began to think about it a little more, and it became clear I liked it more because things happened to them that weren’t happening to me.  So I figured I would put out a list of things that just didn’t happen to me, but I guess in some kind of made for TV drama world possibly could have.

My best friend didn’t blow his head off with a gun in his house by accident (David’s friend Scott).  I didn’t know anyone who got a nose job (Kelly).  My homecoming float wasn’t  burned down by a deranged ex-girlfriend, who I would later hunt down for a rondez-vouz in San Francisco (Brandon).   My father wasn’t killed by his enemy (Dylan), only to find out he wasn’t really dead.  My father didn’t marry the mother of the girl I essentially stalked when I was in high school (David).   My wife wasn’t killed by her father, who happened to be the supposed killer of my father (Dylan).  We didn’t surf in Elkton.  I didn’t develop a nasty gambling habit and have to have my boss bail me out from the bookie (Brandon).  I never had my Corvette stolen by some girls that looked like lingerie models (Steve).   I never had to steal and forge a check from my Girlfriend to cover the liquor bills at my club (David).  I didn’t become a parent and derail my chance at going to Yale (Andrea), and as Bob mentioned earlier, I didn’t need a stand in at the school committee to allow me to graduate after over indulging at my prom (Donna).

Here is where it gets really fun.  Kelly.  I didn’t get raped, shot, develop a coke addiction, get burned in a fire, have a coke head for a mother, have a father who never showed up when he said he would, I wasn’t portrayed as the rich kid born with a silver spoon on a local gossip show, abuse diet pills, or are you ready for the kicker? I Never joined a cult.  Wow that is a lot for a high schooler/college student to go through, and those are only the ones I remember.

In short, I think we all liked the idea of their lifestyle, but after putting this list together, I think I am quite happy with the way things turned out.

So if you wanted to how much 90201 mattered, think back to a time before DVR’s.  My four college roommates and I would position ourselves on the couch about a half an hour early to get the best spot on one of our four couches.  We would not under any circumstances take phone calls, and quite honestly would be very upset at anyone who would dare call.  That my friends,  is appointment television.  Let’s raise a glass to the late Aaron Spelling for giving us an hour a week where we would get together with friends, and get to take a good look at Valerie Malone (Tiffani Amber- Thiessen).  Happy 9-02-10 day!

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