We're Not in Kansas Anymore
The development of a Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off by The CW was reported on March 13, 2008; four days later, a detailed breakdown of the pilot written by Thomas was released.
Reviews of the episode were mixed, and one critic explained, "it's not a great show but it's not a terrible teen drama, not by a long shot.
Annie hopes to hook up with a friend named Ethan Ward (Dustin Milligan), whom she met two summers ago.
When she arrives at school the next day, Annie spots Ethan in his car and makes eye contact, only to realize that he is receiving fellatio from a fellow student.
Annie discovers that she is dating Ethan, and meets her best friend, Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes), who is the lead in the school play Spring Awakening.
Harry goes to the party to find Annie, but is instead told by Tracy that they have a son together, whom she gave up for adoption over twenty years ago.
[4] The Beverly Hills, 90210 creator, Darren Star, was announced not to be involved with the project, as well as producer Aaron Spelling, who died in 2006.
[5] Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was in negotiations to write the pilot, and Mark Piznarski was in talks to direct.
[10] Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah were hired as the new executive producer and wrote a new version of the script in late April.
[12] The pair changed the surname of the family from Mills to Wilson, and told reporters that they would be adding their "comedic impulses" to the script.
[12] 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.
[16] Rob Estes, the last actor to join the series, was a previous cast member of the first Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off, Melrose Place.
"[16] Following rumors of cast members from Beverly Hills, 90210 appearing on the spin-off, The CW confirmed that Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling and Joe E. Tata would be returning in recurring roles as their original characters.
[21] After reading the script, Spelling expressed interest in returning, and the writers decided to give her character her own fashion line.
[27] One week prior to the pilot's broadcast, it was confirmed that filming was still taking place, as the producers wanted to reshoot scenes and add extra ones.
We're not hiding anything... simply keeping a lid on 90210 until 9.02, riding the curiosity and anticipation into premiere night, and letting all our constituents see it at the same time.
"[29] Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV speculated that the decision was an indication of the low quality of the episodes, but pointed out that the pilot may not have been finished in time for a screener release,[29] which was later confirmed to be the case.
[31] 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.
[3] Adam Buckman of the New York Post commented on the crude language used by the characters, and found there was nothing new that could have surprised him with watching the episode.
[32] Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Reporter found that despite The CW's decision not to send out screeners to critics, the pilot was "[not] so horrible after all".
[33] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger found that while 90210 was neither "trainwreck nor masterpiece", it remained remarkably faithful in tone and spirit to the original series.
Sepinwall questioned The CW's intended audience, saying that while the music and styles were reminiscent of Gossip Girl, those who had not seen the original series would not have cared for the returning characters.
[34] Verne Gay of Newsday described 90210 as a "perfectly competent and reasonably seamless revival", with enough contemporary touchstones to attract new viewers.
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.
The reviewer criticized the writers for their "unimaginative material", exemplified by the risqué anal sex scene which he opined would no longer be considered outrageous for a series targeted at teenagers.
Gilbert claimed that the characters lacked depth and distinction, especially Naomi, whom he compared negatively to Gossip Girl's Blair Waldorf.
[36] 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.
[37] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the pilot as "corny but trying to be hip, crammed with subplots until the producers figure out which ones the audience responds to."
Tucker praised Walters acting as a "slashing panache that no one else on screen approaches", and found the only time he laughed with pleasure throughout the pilot was when her character exclaimed, "I'm gonna call Dan Tana's for some takeout!".
