Hollywood Officially Runs out of Ideas

I’ve come to realize that for people of a certain age (roughly mid-30s) Beverly Hills, 90210 was and is the defining television show of their lifetime. I watched it sporadically myself (it came out when I was in elementary school so it was a little beyond me) and I totally had a poster of Luke Perry on my wall that I bought at a school book fair, but it never really captured my imagination that way it did for some.

Well, apparently that scrappy little network The CW is hoping it will capture the imaginations of a whole new generation because they are in the works to do a remake of the show. I’m not exactly clear on how it works: Will it be set in the early ‘90s, complete with high wasted, acid washed jeans and hammer pants? (Please God, say yes!) Will it have the same theme song? Will the cast include two twins named Brenda and Brandon Walsh, a “bad boy” named Dylan, a blond guy with a perm named Steve, a virgin named Donna, etc, etc, etc? If so, will Andrea Zuckerman be portrayed by a 35-year-old actress? Or will this be more of a "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" kind of thing? Remakes of movies happen all the time - sometimes it seems like that’s all Hollywood does lately – but I can’t recall any other remakes of scripted TV shows, so I don't know how this will work.

Also, with Gossip Girl, The Hills and all that other stuff, I’m not entirely sure a new 90210 is exactly called for. But then again, in these troubled times, a chant of “Donna Martin graduates!” might be just what the doctor ordered.

P.S.: The news story I linked to on this, from the New York Post, has a funny section where they tell you where the 90210 actors are now, and speculate where the characters are now as well. Good for a chuckle.