satisfy the crave

*Lori89*

Thanks for the new thread. Can I be added to the list?

Black mamba

Thanks for the new thread Cris

Welcome Lori

SMUSH

I love the title! David definitely grew into his looks by the time the series was over. He was rocking the buzz cut and didn't look so nerdy with that wanna-be New Kids on the Block step-cut...

ride the lightning

Can I be added to the list?

Loved Brian/David, he defintely ended up being the hottest male

satisfy the crave

Added you guys.

Black mamba

Here's a pic :



Classic David look back then (hm, season 3/4 I think )

Btw, I'm late but welcome on this thread Courtz_BV

playgroundDiaries

Looks like S4 to me. Great pic, too. It's like a mix of early-David apprehensiveness and later-David confidence. And right in the middle of the series.

I still need to be added to the ship list.

worldsnakreem

When the show first started, it was a toss-up between David and Scott Scanlon. The camera loved both their faces, both were appealing, funny characters, and then - I don't know what happened - why Scott ever "went to Oklahoma" for the summer, but once he came back wearing that hat, with handsful of country music CDs that he wanted David, who in the meantime had discovered the bootstrap by which he would hoist himself up to the Holy Grail of Popularity, to play for the ultra-hip West Beverly teens, it was clear that Scott's days were numbered, one way or another, after of course, a suitable interlude of the awkwardness of David's new relationship with his childhood best friend.

And by this time, David had isolated the weakest of the herd, so to speak, Donna being the kindest one of the cool kids, and therefore the first - and the only one, for some time, who even tolerated David, much less forgave him the unforgiveable sin of having been born a year or so later than the rest of them, OR the heavens had spoken and decreed that he and Donna were To Be...

Whichever (or both) ways you want to look at it, Young David was as good as In with the In crowd, and as he slowly gained purchase, in the form, at first, of eye-rolling grudging tolerance for Donna's sake, which soon matured into a disgusted sense of resignation as the Mel-Jackie romance bloomed.

By that time, tragedy had conveniently and mercifully removed a Scott Scanlon who we later learned, would not only Never Fit In, but was also the victim of abuse so terrible that he would likely have ended up a pretty hot mess anyway, and Young David was steadily climbing the charts with a bullet.

The experts here probably have elaborate Excel files charting episode minutes devoted to plotlines starring the various characters, and they can say if it is true or not, but it seemed to me that from then on, David got distinctly increasingly more "show" than the others, and by the time they were in college, someone tuning in for the first time might well assume that the concept of the entire series was based on the Adventures of David Silver, and once those caps had gone sailing through the air, he was, to my mind, unquestionably the Principal Character, Brandon by this time having been essentially iconized and the development of his character pasteurized and frozen.

With Jim and Cindy in Hong Kong, Brandon was relegated to Symbolic Keeper of the Mystical Walsh Rays, his own adventures, right down to every line out of his mouth, as predictable and processed as the speeches of an insecure freshman congressman, his most exciting activities centered around two consecutive girlfriends who were both old before their time and both of whom bore an uncanny - and somewhat disturbing - resemblance to Cindy.

By contrast, David travelled up and down just about every imaginable road to Personal Growth and Change. He made bad choices, he suffered consequences, he recovered, made more bad choices, he bickered with Mel, he got mixed up with the Wrong Kind of Girl, in short, he did all the things that real kids, both in Beverly Hills and far from it, do on the way to Young Adulthood.

And if the Young Adulthood David had finally attained by show's end was just a smoosh idealized, the series finale was nevertheless all about David's wedding to his True Love - Brandon having been even further downgraded to a video greeting from a character who had failed to find True Love and Moved Away.

So, I am not going to opine on the very subjective question of David's "hotness" at show's end, but the series that had begun life as a show about the tribulations of Brandon and Brenda ended undeniably as a show about the triumph of David Silver!

playgroundDiaries

Scott was assumed to know about Sue's abuse (thus, him suddenly hating his Uncle), but I don't think it's stated or implied that he was a direct victim as well.

Well, you don't need excel charts to see that David got more and more screentime once Scott was no more. But the principal character, starting in S4? I don't see that at all. And I'd be apt to say Brandon did most of his growing the same year, but that's for another thread.
Whoa. I was actually afraid people thought he was sort of 'forgotten' in later years. I mean, his character had huge prominence in S6 and S7, but after that ... not so much. I've never considered him the lead character. I don't even think there was a lead (male or female) after awhile.

worldsnakreem

Really? Maybe somebody who has a DVD with the episode can shed some more light, but I remember getting the distinct impression that Scott had also been a victim.

Well, remember that I operate on the simplified 90210 for Dummies 3 season format: high school, college, and after college, and it was sometime during the "college season" that I began feeling it as leaning decidedly David-ward.

I'm sure at least part of that is because David is my favoritest character, and also, and independently from that, he got what were to me the most interesting story lines, so I also perceived that as him being "favored" though obviously that is starting out with a very subjective opinion to begin with, and it is entirely possible that the story lines that most people thought were more interesting were non-David ones, but hey, my principalest is still less subjective than hottest.

And despite my view of the latter college and post years as being largely the David show, I can also see the no principal character view, in fact, I don't really disagree with it, by then the show had evolved into these separate little stories and subplots, only very loosely connected, and the connection was more often than not somehow related to the After Dark, which was really just the Peach Pit Grown Up, and if I were to argue that such a connection constituted a David-related story, I would have to acknowledge that it was just as much Valerie-related!

And I could easily see most people perceiving the show as being "about" their favorite character more than the others, which is yet another compliment to the writers.

I just like seeing it as being about David - and it did end up being about the David-Donna entity!

playgroundDiaries

I have all the episodes, but I think the only line related directly to Scott was when David, after learning of Donna's suspicions about Sue, commented that it would explain why Scott was angry/stopped talking to his Uncle over the summer and demoted him from his 'favorite' list. If you want to watch, S1-S4 are currently uploaded to YouTube. The title is "A Presumption of Innocence", S3.



So, why was he your favorite, do you think? And which storylines of his did you find interesting?

Was not a fan of that.

yulan

I'm not sure if there was a reference to it, probably not, but poor guy seemed like he could be a victim of child abuse. I would totally buy that.

worldsnakreem

Yes, I remember that, and I interpreted it as Scott also having been a victim, but I can see how it could be taken as him just being aware of the sister, I guess we can chalk it up as ambiguous.

I also agree with yulan that he just seemed like he could be, it is not a big jump, once we are aware of a predator in the family...
I'll have you know that my Authentic Estate Sale Quality Vintage computer is much too dignified and venerable to load videos.
That question deserves a better answer than I am able to give. On the days (yes, that's right, the days...) that David is my favorite, I think what I am drawn to is his sweetness, an odd juxtapositions of utter lack of guile but without naivete, at once innocent and not, he is capable of complete selflessness but never loses his own sense of self. He has a uniqueness, a purity of spirit that comes off at once childlike and wise. Intriguingly, it is those quirks that make him the most "real" of all the kids.

In the parents thread, I described Mel as "bumbling," and David also bumbles through his adolescence, sort of stumbles across the threshold of young manhood almost accidentally, and we sense that no one is more surprised than he - pretty true to life, to the manner in which many young people propel themselves through it all.

And even at the show's end, when we behold the "all grown up" David, we can also see that that wide-eyed goofy kid.

I enjoyed his various dabblings in the music business, and the story of his mother, and the illness he shared with her, was fascinating, and of course, a good thing in terms of using a bully pulpit as a public education tool, but I think the things I enjoyed most were all the various David Makes Bad Choices subplots, because they were so real, and so reflective of the mistakes that most of us make - and learn from - as we navigate that treacherous path from adolescence to young adulthood!

And who doesn't love the Donna-David romance?

playgroundDiaries

You know what? That's exactly what I'd say. Sometimes I try and figure out what made his relationship with Donna what it is and I always go back to this sincerity, this directness ... it was simple. In large part, because of their mutual sweetness.