Shannen Doherty Was ‘Horrified’ by Her ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ Love Triangle Story Line
Shannen Doherty is making it clear she was not a fan of the infamous Brenda, Dylan and Kelly love triangle on Beverly Hills, 90210.
“I was horrified,” Shannen, 52, who portrayed Brenda Walsh on the first four seasons of the teen soap, shared during the latest episode of her “Let’s Be Clear” podcast. “I was so not into that because I just thought Brenda and Dylan were the best things ever so I didn’t understand anyone wanting to mess up that story line.”
Brenda and Dylan, portrayed by Luke Perry, were an instant fan favorite couple when Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered in 1990. Season 3, however, saw Dylan getting closer to Brenda’s best friend Kelly (Jennie Garth) while Brenda was overseas in Paris for the summer. The girls’ friendship gets increasingly torn apart as they fight for Dylan’s love before he ultimately chooses Kelly, leaving Brenda heartbroken and alone.
“To have someone’s best friend sleep with her boyfriend is such a betrayal that I don’t even know how Brenda recovered from that,” Doherty continued. “I don’t think she did recover, personally. So I wasn’t thrilled with it, but I didn’t have much say so I went with it.”
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Although Beverly Hills, 90210 ran on Fox for 10 seasons before wrapping up in 2000, Doherty exited the series in 1994, with viewers learning that Brenda had decided to pursue acting school in England at the start of season 5. Her departure came amid onscreen tension between her and her costars, leading to speculation that she had been fired by executive producer Aaron Spelling.
After decades of rumors, Doherty confirmed in January during an episode of “Let’s Be Clear” that she had been let go from the show. She explained that she had been in a “really horrible marriage” at the time that made it difficult for her “to consistently be on time for work.” (Doherty wed Ashley Hamilton in October 1993 and filed for divorce in April 1994.)
The actress admitted her constant lateness became a “big issue” for her costars who were then forced to work even longer hours. She admitted that she “probably wasn’t” transparent at the time with the struggles she was facing, adding that no one knew her dad was “super sick” or that her husband was a “massive drug addict,” who she alleged would become “incredibly violent at times.”
“It wasn’t anybody’s responsibility but mine, but I certainly wish that I had been sort of sat down and sort of looked at and said, ‘Listen, the end result is going to be this, you are going to get fired because none of us are willing to put up with it anymore,'” she said of the show’s producers. “‘And I understand that you have an issue in your personal life, but that also can’t bleed into work, you also have to get your s–t together.’”
While Doherty credited her tumultuous marriage for why she was fired, she also found herself butting heads with Garth, 51, during their time on the show. In February, Doherty recalled when the duo almost got into a physical altercation while on set.
“[Jennie] was doing, she was calling it ‘Pants-Down Day,’ where she would pull the pants on some of the crew members in a funny way,” Doherty explained while chatting with their former castmate Brian Austin Green on her “Let’s Be Clear” podcast. “But some of them were getting pretty annoyed with it.”
In response, Doherty said she “reversed” Garth’s onset antics with a “Skirt-Up Day,” noting, “[Garth] always wore the men’s Calvin Klein boxer shorts under her clothes, so I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. And so I did ‘Skirt-Up Day’ and oh, my God, she lost it on me, and I was just not in the mood to back down.”
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Green, who played David Silver on the series, remembered the altercation as a “huge moment” for the entire cast, claiming that he and Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders) had to step in “the middle of it to keep it from escalating.”
“I remember it got really rough and competitive for you all; That was not an easy situation to watch,” he said, to which Doherty agreed. “It was always awesome to me that the boys got along so well,” she said. “You guys were always very supportive of each other and congratulating each other, and it wasn’t necessarily the same with the girls.”
