I didn’t want to make this public knowledge but I just had to. Besides, those who know me already suspected. I am a watcher of 90210 now that it has been revived on TV Tropolis. We recently upgraded our digital cable box with a PVR so now we (yes, someone else in the household also watches it religiously) can tape it and watch it over dinnertime.
When I watched the show the first time it was aired back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was a wee young lad in my late teens. I was able to ‘relate’ to the issues the gang was up against and also could look up to the admirable qualities of such respectable characters as Brandon and Andrea and to a lesser extent, good ole Steve Saunders.
I would always ‘side’ with the kids whenever they were ratted out or caught by their parents doing something immoral like drinking and driving, taking drugs, sleeping with Dylan. Things were unfair or blown way out of proportion when Jim Walsh would lay down the law. Or would be thinking “Old Man, you don’t know anything” when he would try to give advice to Brandon.
My how the worm has turned. Just the other night Jim was playing a little one-on-one basketball with Brandon and having a little heart to heart about pre-marital relations. Instead of siding with the wavy haired teen idol as I’m sure I did oh those 15 years ago, I found myself agreeing with my similarly coiffed friend “Old man Jim”. You see, he was saying things like: “Be careful” and “Think first”. Which appeals greatly to me now that I have a child.
This has happened to me during several shows and now Jimbo seems like a pretty good guy instead of a deadbeat. Ouch. See what getting old will do? Watching shows I used to watch in my teens and now picking out the moral story, agreeing with it and enjoying the punishment being doled out by those in power.
Some things haven’t changed though. For example, I still think that Jim should not have been married to Cindy. What did he see in her anyway? And Dylan: what a skinnly little weasel he was. And acted out by a skinnly little weasel.
One funny note: Whenever the theme song comes on, OGD is the first to run to the TV and catch the opening credits.