Am I the only one who was aghast at seeing, just four minutes into last night’s premiere of 90210, two teens having oral sex in the school parking lot? Okay, we didn’t actually see a sex act, but we saw newly arrived Kansan emigré Annie spotting her old beau Ethan (Dustin Milligan, pictured) through the windshield of his parked car as he sat in the driver’s seat, and then we witnessed Annie’s horror as she saw his partner’s head popping up from below the dashboard. (This was the pilot episode’s "We’re Not in Kansas Anymore" moment — which, not coincidentally, was the episode’s title.)
Now, I realize the new 90210 has to make a splash on the CW, a network that also airs Gossip Girl (and in this regard, it seems to have succeeded, according to early ratings estimates, drawing better numbers than the GG season 2 premiere the night before and holding most of its audience for all two hours of the pilot). And I realize that the show’s creators must have wanted a "This is not your parents’ 90210" moment in there in order to seem cutting edge. (Even returning 90210 alumnae Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty told EW they found the moment shocking enough to make original 90210 producer Aaron Spelling spin in his grave.) Still, this scene was kinda gratuitous, no? For plot purposes, Annie needed to see Ethan cheating on his girlfriend Naomi, but spotting the illicit pair making out would have worked just as well, as illustrated later in the episode where Naomi seeks revenge merely by kissing Ethan’s lacrosse teammate. Besides, the offending incident aired just minutes after 8 p.m. (Or, for many viewers, 7 p.m.) Here’s a show clearly designed to attract both kids and their parents who watched the original show back in the Mesozoic Era 1990s, and here was a situation that would surely make both kids and their parents wince and squirm if they were watching together.
Am I being a Parents Television Council prude here? Is this really no big deal, just a matter-of-fact depiction of the way many teens start off their school day? Or were you taken aback as well? And do you think the shock tactics will continue past the pilot, or have the writers made their point, leaving only relatively tame content, in the vein of the pilot’s second hour, from now on?
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Considering that 90210 didn’t air until midnight in the Chicagoland market (stupid Cubs game), it wasn’t a problem here, time-slot wise. Honestly, you’re not being a prude – I already long for the comparatively innocent 90210 1.0.
It wasn’t only that, but also the language and the fact that they ran through a half season’s worth of episodes in 1/2 hour that was pretty disgusting.
The second hour was better though.
They are trying way too hard.
I probably got somewhat too excited about the Brenda/Kelly reunion.
Whoops — link! http://www.entertonement.com/collections/2875/The-Jet-Set
I agree with you — totally and unnecessarily gratuitous.
I won’t pretend that “blowjob” TV bothers me; it doesn’t. Recycled material popping up on television and movie screens – that’s another story!
I agree. Not necessary. I only hope that if parents were watching it with their kids, that they took the opportunity as what my mother would call a “teaching moment.” And seriously… where was the morning oral when I was in high school? I hardly think this is representative of the majority of American teens and if it IS, then this country never ceases to amaze me.
“Here was a situation that would surely make both kids and their parents wince and squirm if they were watching together.” THAT’S the biggest issue, for sure! I think kids today certainly know of such things (moreso than we did watching the original back in the day)… but no, you’re not being a prude at all.
dudes in high school get head nowadays. it’s reality. i thought it was funny.
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You’re not being a prude. It was completely gratuitous and unnecessary, as well as being a blatant attempt to be as “edgy” as Gossip Girl. I think that’s the problem I had with the whole pilot – it wasn’t cheesy enough to be original flavor 90210 and not bitchy enough to be Gossip Girl. The result was a solid “meh”. I’m thinking I’ll only be watching through the Brenda episodes, and will turn it back on for the inevitable Dylan appearance around sweeps and I’ll get my 90210 fix from the SoapNet reruns.
No, you’re no prude. The original certainly pushed it’s own boundaries, but I agree, a makeout scene would have sufficed. I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to even think about what teenagers do to each other. That being said…I thoroughly enjoyed the pilot. It completely sucked me in (no pun intended).
I forgot this was on last night and watched the rerun of House’s season finale. I’m out of my apartment and stuck at Dad’s for three days. If that had popped on while I was watching with him? I would have been mortified. Mortified. And I’m 32.
I think the bigger issue is the scary anorexia of every major female character in the show. Not doing oral to your high school boyfriend is something that is easy to teach–self-esteem and anti-eating disorders is not. Producers of 90210–let those girls put some weight on.
I think the bigger issue is the scary anorexia of every major female character in the show. Not doing oral to your high school boyfriend is something that is easy to teach–self-esteem and anti-eating disorders is not. Producers of 90210–let those girls put some weight on.
You are not a prude. 90210 should be something parents and teens can watch together – I don’t care if it’s 2008.
I was more shocked by how frail Annie and Silver are. Can I buy them a sandwich?
The BJ was implied, not gratutious (this isn’t QAF) and actually the scene itself was quite funny. Much ado about nothing but there is no publicity like the Shock! Horror! and Outrage! that the sex obsessed prudes at the PTC give which is pobably why the scene was written that way.
Is it any surprise at all that writers of the new 90210 would try to go beyond where the old 90210 left off at? Thumbs down to the writers, directors & producers of this show, and two thumbs down to the CW for airing it. However, unlike most people who will comment about the new 90210, I’m actually doing something about it, by creating my own future Christian Teen Movie, with more on the way, and with a 1-hour Christian Teen Drama TV series also in the future. Although were in our crude stages now, you can get an idea of what I plan to do by viewing my video clips at http://www.youtube.com/author .
I think the concern here isn’t the BJ itself (really the US needs to stop being so Puritanical) but the fact that these are teenagers. Let’s leave the racy stuff to adults on adult shows and stop telling teens its OK to do that sort of thing (at least they could have flashed USE A CONDOM TEENS on the screen or something!)
I loved it… it was a nice mix of the new cast and was nice to see some of the old cast… still not a brenda lover i see.. liked how silver ended up being kelly’s sister and the hanna was andrea’s little kid.. good job and lets hope the see more of the good old gang…
I agree with the posters who mentioned the superskinniness of the some of these girls. Annie and Silver look sick.
You are not a prude. And please note that these characters are 15 YEARS OLD — not, say 18. They act like they’ve been fooling around in cars like that for ages. That scares me. (As does the skeletal lead character. Did you see the 50-calorie “salad” she had in the lunchroom? Good God. Nice message for viewers.)
You are so NOT a prude, I DVR’d the show and caught this moment when I was flipping through the channels and I found it ridiculous. And a very bad example to set for our teenagers. We know they are doing things sexual at this age unfortunately but this was completely unnecessary. As you mentioned there were plenty of other ways to show Ethan cheating on his girlfriend that did not require broad day light school parking lot oral sex. I mean really. I am no prude myself and no I did not wait until I got married but there is such a thing as discretion. I have a 1 yr old daughter and though my sex talk is years away I have every intention to teach her how to respect her body and if she chooses to have sex to use protection from STDS as well as pregancy. Sorry to ramble on this kind of stuff gets me going sending out these terrible messages to our young people. Jennifer
i was shocked and was watching it with my husband. i’m 28 and really didn’t care for it. if they’re going for the younger teen crowd, they may have them. but if you’re going for the original watchers of 90210, it’s got to grow up a little bit and involove more of the ‘old timers’. welcome back shanneon and jennie!
I did not see the episode last night, but after reading all of the comments, I agree with some of the individuals here. I do have an almost one year old daughter, but I think the only thing in poor taste was the fact that they were like 15. Other than that, who cares, it is t.v. and the responsibility is on the parents to teach their kids to be safe, because if you think they are not doing that, you are in major denial. I will have to catch the re-run of it and I’ll probably laugh my butt off. Oh and I want to start a walk a thon to raise money to buy these kids some food. Good gawd.
I agree that Annie’s ridiculously paltry lunch of a tiny Styrofoam bowl with a few lettuce leaves in it (not one of which she ate on-screen!) is the real problem here.
The problem here is that the fans who were teenagers when the original premiered are a full 18 years older than the kids who are watching it now are. I know a lot of the 30/40+ people are shocked by this, but you’re forgetting that explicit sexual talk is a formative aspect of our generation. We were 12 years old when the Lewinsky scandal happened so oral sex is as American as apple pie to us. Add to that the premiere of “Sex and the City,” the final word on uninhibited female sexual expression, which also coincided with the start of our teenage years and you have an entire generation to whom sexual depiction and discussion is mundane.
I didn’t watch it because I knew about that scene beforehand. Gross. And if it’s “ok” to be skanky, than it’s certainly ok to be a prude.
this is way out of line. Real life or not – and this is mostly not – the fact is if we are to ever imagine there is a future for this country and our kids, we need to stop this kind of hedonistic instant gratifiication brain-washing BS. TV may imitate life, but kids imitate tv, and this is wrong. The network should be spanked Hard.
I am saddened that this is what is being marketed to kids these days. Edgy does not mean shocking. Let’s have a little bit of responsibility in TV land and cut out the gratuitous sex acts. What a shame on the CW. You’re a trash heap of stupid, sexed-up garbage.