Generation 90210 Remembers

The 90210 episode wherein Kelly and Dylan cuddle to the sounds of Dinosaur Jr.

This clip warms Ramona's heart because while watching this particular episode (the one in which Donna Martin gets drunk at the prom in 1993, hence Donna Martin Graduates!) back when it aired, her ear was caught by the background music which is Dinosaur Jr.'s "Start Choppin'." Ramona got her mom to drive her on down to the local Sam Goody to buy the band's most recent cassette, Where You Been, the very next day, an album which remains a favorite to this day and was certainly instrumental in getting Ramona through tumultuous ninth and tenth grade years.

Happily, Miss Ramona is going to be getting her 1993 on tonight seeing Dinosaur Jr. at the Troubadour!

Now, let's talk Dylan and Kelly.

Having spent the better part of her professional life working with teenagers and kids in their early twenties, Miss Ramona has a pretty good idea about how kids look and act. Shows like 90210 always cast much older actors to play teenagers for one simple reason: these shows are sex-driven and if viewers saw what teenagers really looked like for the most part, they would be revolted at the idea of them having sex. Most teenagers are gangly, chubby, awkward, acne-prone, baby faced, and/or inarticulate. They look fucking young. Sit in an introductory college course and look around and what you see are children. They don't look old enough to know what sex is, much less to be having it.

Real teenagers are generally the least sexy beings on the planet.

John Francis Daley (Sam Weir), a real teenager on Freaks and Geeks, and Luke Perry (Dylan McKay) on 90210. Please compare and ask yourself who you feel more comfortable with booking a hotel room for himself and a lady friend.

Casting real teenagers might force viewers into an awkward instance of self-examination; is there not something odd about being totally engrossed by the sexual escapades of mini-people with braces and blackheads and peach fuzz?

The whole thing is more palatable if the teenagers in question look and act 25. Consider Kelly and Dylan in the clip as they feed each other strawberries in Dylan's craftsman bungalow in which he lives alone. The plan is to catch a flight to San Francisco after prom and stay in a hotel on Nob Hill for the weekend. And go to Chinatown!!

Wow, those were Miss Ramona's exact post-prom plans!

The whole thing would be really unsettling if not for Dylan's receeding hairline and sophisticated travel vocabulary. Because while most seniors can hardly get themselves to first period on time, apparently they can book and pay for private planes to expensive hotels