loveslullaby

Idk if this has been posted before, but I came across interesting musings from an interview 3 years ago. I felt the same way about his last ep.

Quote:

Priestley does his best not to sound bitter – it doesn't fit with his practised, good-guy, upbeat charm – but there is a long pause when I ask for his most memorable, or surreal, experience of working on 90210. "When I left the show, it was so anticlimactic, it just left a bad taste in my mouth." He grimaces. "It was the fourth episode of the ninth season. I did the first scene of the morning – literally with this actor who was brought in to replace me – and that was it. I hugged the crew, picked up my box of stuff, went to my car and drove away. There was no party, no nothing. I felt like I'd wasted nine years of my life."

Quote:

In the world of teen TV, where Freaks and Geeks now enjoys a cult legacy and critical adoration for My So-Called Life and Party of Five remains, Beverly Hills 90210 was the bombastic outlier. It pulled in more viewers (20m per week at its peak) than those three teen shows combined. Critically, it bombed hard after the first couple of years but still simpered through 10 full seasons, launching Hilary Swank's career in the process. The 2008 reboot, which arrived with a new cast, lasted half as long. "That show never reached the heights of success our show did, not even close, it pulled just 1m viewers." Priestley was invited to direct an episode and couldn't get over the disparity in production. "They had all the toys and all the money. They shot in a real studio; we shot in converted warehouses with rats everywhere. Our show was the most ghetto show ever. To watch it, it looked glitzy but it was totally ghetto. We shot so far away from Beverly Hills we were shooting in El Segundo."

Quote:

Yet, Priestley admits, "It's a much more dangerous world for a young famous person now, it's mayhem. You can understand why so many of them have bodyguards." But the new 90210 kids wouldn't get away with a fraction of the off-set behaviour he and his co-stars did either, I suggest. "That's not my problem – that's Bieber's problem. I'm 44 years old, happily married with two beautiful kids. Thank God it's not my problem!" Plus, he points out: "It was Shannen who was out partying, getting in bar fights – not me." -source