Are You More Excited For 90210's Old Cast or New Cast?

BuzzSugar — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:00:40 -0700

Admittedly, I was thrilled to read Entertainment Weekly's dishy interview with Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth about their reunion on the set of the new 90210. It's a great flashback to the love triangles and backbiting of the earlier series, and it helps explain why the two of them have decided to reunite on the new show.

But it also got me thinking again: Is it a bad thing that when 90210 lands on the cover of EW, it's because of its old cast members and not its new ones? I actually asked executive producer Gabe Sachs about that back at TCA, and he said they'd take publicity any way they could get it, even if it came in the form of buzz about the old cast. That will work for a while, I'm sure - but can it turn the series into a hit?

What do you think? If you're planning to watch 90210, are you watching for the new folks or for the vintage flashbacks?

Source and courtesy of The CW

90210 + Freaks and Geeks: A Match Made in Heaven?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:30:00 -0700

At first glance, Freaks and Geeks and 90210 wouldn't appear to have a lot in common. One was a hyper-realistic drama that told quiet stories about high school life and was canceled after a handful of episodes. The other was a massively popular soap that looked at teenage years through a glamorous lens.

But Freaks and this Fall's bright, shiny reboot of 90210 share one big thing: their writers. Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah made a splash on Freaks and created the little-seen (but much loved, at least by me) Life as We Know It for ABC. Now, at the helm of one of this Fall's most highly anticipated shows, the two are looking to reinvent the teen show yet again.

At the TCA press tour, Sachs and Judah talked about what compelled them to take on the project and how they'll try to keep this round of Beverly Hills stories grounded in reality. Can they pull it off? I'm now more excited than ever to see them try. To see what they had to say about how they plan to meld their style with the CW's fast-paced glam, just read more.

How do two Freaks and Geeks guys end up at the helm of a majorly promoted show that, if it does well, could possibly get credit for saving an entire network? Did they have to change their style to fit in? "Somebody had to adapt," quipped Rob Estes, who plays Beverly Hills High principal Harry Wilson. "But I don't think it was them."

Nobody was more concerned about the adjustment than Sachs and Judah themselves. Sachs (pictured at right) said the two of them spent a long time talking about whether they could pull off the project, but in the end, they just wanted to go for it. "Our writing's not going to change," Sachs said. "This is how we write, and this is how we create stories."

Sure, some of the characters might seem over-the-top at first, but Sachs and Judah, who also previously worked on What About Brian, want us to learn why, by meeting their parents and learning about their values. "We're trying to put as much - we've said it a thousand times - reality into it [as possible]," Sachs said.

And we can expect some serious awkwardness mixed in with all the glitz. "We shot something the other day - it's just a tiny, one-second line, but it's one of many Freaks and Geeks lines that we're trying to put in," Judah said. "There are moments in this show that would have fit in Freaks and Geeks."

Do you think it can work? Are you excited to see where two guys from the Judd Apatow universe can take the 90210 franchise? Or does that just seem like an unholy union?

Photos courtesy of The CW and Source