The set of Beverly Hills, 90210, reruns airing right now on POP is epic.

Spring Dance

They burn through several episodes per day, so while Jessica and I are writing and troubleshooting and gossiping in the mornings, we’re also often shrieking about what a dipwad Brandon was, or how Brenda’s bangs are improving (for me, Paris Brenda is her peak hair), or how all those kids were really obsessed with making out in parked cars and yet somehow no one else was ever nearby doing the same thing.

And of course this:

David Silver Dancing

And GUESS WHAT’S COMING SOON. Possibly even today.

U4EA: It's 4 U and 4 Me

Yes, that’s right, the U4EA episode in which Emily drugs Brandon’s drink at a rave, and Steve and Andrea are stymied by the process of exchanging an egg.

Steve Smells An Egg

I have no idea why I never noticed before that Steve SNIFFS THE EGG when Emily gives it to him. (Maybe I did notice, but blocked it out because of the dramatic awesomeness that follows. This is the episode that always makes me sad Steve and Andrea never dated, and I think the show sort of agreed because it landed him rather brilliantly with Janet, who was in many ways a surrogate Andrea.)

Anyway, GIF parade aside: Obviously, the original 90210 was seminal TV for both of us. They are still my favorite references, and even despite all the ways those original episodes don’t hold up, my GOD, they still hold up. Most of Dawson’s Creek is hard for me to tolerate in reruns, but I can even watch the deadly 90210 episodes about David’s grandparents, Dylan’s informative heroin comas, or the one where it’s told by two angels in the sky on Christmas — or even the pilot, when they tried to make you care about the principal and the Spanish teacher having crushes on each other — and enjoy myself even as I cringe. They are vastly entertaining amid their many dated inadequacies, and I will probably quote them until the day I keel over dead due to my heart being fully replaced by a lump of coal. I’ve loved many shows, but only a handful spring to mind when I’m looking fondly back on places and times and people in my life. I saw my first episode in eighth grade health class in Miami — Brandon’s DUI — and I never missed a week thereafter, a standing date that spanned four more moves/cities/homes, a constant even when everything around me changed.

What is your formative TV moment — be it a series, a story arc, a single episode, or even one moment or line? Which ones zap you back to an exact moment in time that will never fade from your mind’s view, or hold up for you watch after watch after watch?

Brenda Is Meaningful

You did, Bren. YOU DID.