Darren Star Remembers Getting Backlash After Dylan and Brenda Had Sex on an Episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210”
Star, who created the iconic 1990s series, says the network had "a lot of notes" about the content of the show
Before Sex and the City or Emily in Paris, Darren Star first made a name for himself with Beverly Hills, 90210.
The show “was the biggest long shot ever,” he told Vulture in an interview published on Aug. 14., as “no one had written a show about teenagers from a teenage point of view.”
While the show would go on to be a hit for Fox — launching the careers of actors like Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, Luke Perry and Tori Spelling — over the first year, Star remembers being “always on the verge of cancellation.”
“I remember Aaron talking to the network, saying, ‘Just give us three more episodes.’ He was a fighter for the show,” he recalls of producer Aaron Spelling. “It limped along until the reruns started to do better. Then it came back in the summer and caught fire.”
As the show was gaining traction, it also received pushback from the network, he remembers, especially when it came to portraying the characters’ sexuality on screen.
“They had a lot of notes. Everything about sexuality was hard to deal with,” he told the outlet. “Initially, they were like, ‘Where are the parents? Where are the teachers?’ And I’m like, it’s not a show about parents and teachers. It’s a show about these friends who were there for each other, solving each other’s problems.”
Related: The Beverly Hills, 90210 Cast: Where Are They Now?
Toward the end of season 1, Star wrote and directed an episode that saw Doherty’s character Brenda Walsh and Perry’s character Dylan McKay have sex after their junior prom. After the episode aired on some of the network’s affiliates, feathers began to ruffle.
“When all these affiliates realized what they’d aired, a lot of them got bent out of shape. And it wasn’t just the fact that Brenda had sex but that she enjoyed it,” he said. “When we came back for the next season, they demanded there was an episode where she had remorse. I was like, 'I can’t believe I have to write this.' She had a pregnancy scare. She realized she was too young to have sex.”
Star added that while that was the episode that caught so much flack, there were “a lot of edgier” episodes that flew under the radar.
Reps for Fox did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Mark Sennet/Getty Images
Ian Ziering, Tori Spelling, Shannen Doherty, Brian Austin Green, Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Gabrielle Carteris and Luke Perry from 'Beverly Hills, 90210'Of working with Doherty, who died on July 13, 2024, Star said “what she brought inspired me to write toward Brenda even more.”
“She’s an incredibly special, dynamic person. I was thinking about Brenda and Shannen, and I feel like my career has been defined in so many ways by writing strong women,” he said remembering the actress. “Shannen gave Brenda so much spirit and determination and complication.”
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He added: “She was herself an independent spirit who felt everything deeply. She captured something about being a teenage girl who really was a powerful girl.”
After playing Brenda for four seasons, Doherty left the show in 1994 though later reprised the role with several guest appearances on the 2008 reboot 90210.
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