90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah for The CW.

During the first two seasons, cast members from the original series made appearances, including Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty, Ann Gillespie, Tori Spelling and Joe E. Tata.

The series introduces the Wilson family moving to Beverly Hills and the kids Annie and Dixon adjusting to a new town and school.

[3] Rob Estes, the last actor to join the series, was a previous cast member of the first Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off, Melrose Place.

"[3] The CW confirmed that Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty, Tori Spelling and Joe E. Tata would be returning in recurring roles as their original characters.

[9] After reading the script, Spelling expressed interest in returning, and the writers decided to give her character her own fashion line.

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was in negotiations to write the pilot and Mark Piznarski was in talks to direct it.

Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah were hired as the new executive producers and wrote a new version of the script in late April.

[11] Since the producers were both fathers, they designed the script to include more prominent adult story lines and a strong point of view on parenting.

Judah was interested in focusing on how the family kept their moral center when moving to Beverly Hills, and the way the parents dealt with their teenagers.

The CW wanted the series to have a female perspective and focus more on teenage life and glamour; however, Judah and Sachs were more comfortable writing for men, featuring family stories.

The studio brought in Rebecca Rand Kirshner Sinclair, co-executive producer of the popular show Gilmore Girls, to revamp the failing 90210.

For the remainder of the first season, Judah worked in post-production, including editing and music supervision, while Sachs ran the production on set.

[14] In late February 2009, Sinclair signed a seven-figure deal with the producers to serve as executive producer/showrunner for the series' second and third seasons.

[19] It was later announced that former Life Unexpected executive producers Patti Carr and Lara Olsen had been hired to take over the series.

[26] Original series actors Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth and Joe E. Tata signed on for recurring roles during early production.

Over the next few weeks, they established Brenda's backstory as a 'name' stage actress and Doherty agreed to guest-star in several episodes,[11][6] appearing in the credits during the first half-season.

After reading the script, Tori Spelling expressed interest returning, and the writers decided to give Donna her own fashion line.

[29] The first actor to be cast was Dustin Milligan as lacrosse player Ethan Ward,[30] followed by AnnaLynne McCord as Naomi Clark.

[31] The role of aspiring actress Annie Wilson, won by Shenae Grimes, was originally offered to Hilary Duff, who turned it down due to dissatisfaction with the pilot script.

[32][4] Jessica Lowndes was selected to portray actress and singer Adrianna Tate-Duncan, introduced as a theater performer who once had a drug addiction,[33] and would also go through a teen pregnancy and many other serious conflicts as a dark character with many lovable aspects.

Michael Steger was cast as the school television news director and congenial very nice guy, Navid Shirazi who maintained the nice-guy status throughout all 114 episodes (2008-2013) of generally being walked on or victimized.

[35] Sinclair announced in March 2009 that the series' second season would rely less on 90210 alums like Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty to boost ratings.

It was also announced that Dustin Milligan ('Ethan Ward') would not be coming back for season two, while Matt Lanter would be joining the cast as a series regular.

In June 2009, the series was reportedly looking for an actor to play the recurring role of Teddy, a tennis champ returning to West Beverly.

[39] One of the show's locations was a complex on Waverly Drive in the Los Feliz neighborhood, designed by architect Bernard Maybeck in 1927 and best known as the convent of Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Gilbert said that the episode "seemed to take forever to set up some remarkably bland plotlines", which he found had been executed with more finesse by other teen soaps.

Gilbert claimed that the characters lacked depth and distinction throughout the pilot, especially Naomi, whom he compared negatively to Gossip Girl's Blair Waldorf.

[72] By contrast, Tom Gliatto of People magazine gave Naomi Clark a favorable review, but stated that he felt the cast as a whole had yet to gel.

[73] When compared to the original series, Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette felt that the spin-off covered the same themes—family, friends, teen melodrama, relationships—but with more humor.