90210 Characters and their addictions

[tommie]

Seriously.

When the show starts Dylan is already addicted to alcohol to the point he has to go to AA meetings. At the age of 16.

Then Brandon is a gambling addict.

Then David has issues with addiction.

Then Kelly starts using coke which results in her having bad make-up.

Then Donna has a hilarious pill addiction.

Then Noah.

Then Dylan again who now has a heroin addiction, because alcohol wasn't enough.

Did I forget someone?

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Donna had a drug addition, I think the only characters that had no addictions whatsoever were Brenda, Steve & Andrea

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Oops realised you mentioned Donna.

90210 was made in a very vastly different era, compared to the teen soaps that came after in the 2000s onwards, it is now very dated in its issues, I don't think 90210 ever even had a regular LGBT character or PoC character, sure we had Janet but she was the only one of colour (Half oriental I think)

My point is is that drug and addiction issues seemed to be the only daring issues 90210 could come up with in those days, its hard to think that its first episode is 28 years old and its last episode being 18 years ago.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Lest we forget Kelly's coke loving, boozehound mother Jackie

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Seriously.

When the show starts Dylan is already addicted to alcohol to the point he has to go to AA meetings. At the age of 16.

Then Brandon is a gambling addict.

Then David has issues with addiction.

Then Kelly starts using coke which results in her having bad make-up.

Then Donna has a hilarious pill addiction.

Then Noah.

Then Dylan again who now has a heroin addiction, because alcohol wasn't enough.

Did I forget someone?

It's quite OTT when you seem them all listed together like that. I suppose on Melrose, they all had multiple divorces while on 90210, there were multiple addictions. Kelly's coke addiction is the one that I remember best whereas I'd completely forgotten about Dylan's heroin use. I don't know if it was just an easy arc to throw at a character on a long running soap or if they were trying to make it like a kind of PG version of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero.

Oops realised you mentioned Donna.

90210 was made in a very vastly different era, compared to the teen soaps that came after in the 2000s onwards, it is now very dated in its issues, I don't think 90210 ever even had a regular LGBT character or PoC character, sure we had Janet but she was the only one of colour (Half oriental I think)

My point is is that drug and addiction issues seemed to be the only daring issues 90210 could come up with in those days, its hard to think that its first episode is 28 years old and its last episode being 18 years ago.

Gay characters on Beverly Hills 90210 were few and far between. I remember Kelly getting trapped in a burning building with a lesbian who subsequently fell in love with her. But from what I recall, LGBT characters only stuck around for a couple of episodes before moving on. You could take all the drugs you wanted on a FOX soap in the 90's but you couldn't really be gay. And if you were gay, you just weren't seen that often.

 

[tommie]

It's funny - because in later seasons they forgot all about those addictions as it fitted the storyline!

Gee, I would almost... nah. There were gay kids on 90210! We problem. Kelly the Skank helped one of them. (but she's still a horrible person)

 

[Marika]

I don't think 90210 ever even had a regular LGBT character or PoC character, sure we had Janet but she was the only one of colour (Half oriental I think)

Janet was supposed to be Japanese. Her parents appeared a few times and they were both played by Asian American actors.

Jesse, Andrea's husband, was Mexican.

The show also had two Jewish main characters in Andrea and David. I don't think any other Spelling soap had characters that were not supposed to be Christians or Atheists.

The only Spelling production that had quite a diverse cast was Sunset Beach.

 

[tommie]

God, Kelly being a coke addict is still funny.

 

[ABrown]

Dylan's drug/alcohol addictions were some of 90210's best story lines. I found most of the other character's addictions to be pretty boring.