Beverly Hills, 90210 - Parodies

Parodies

The rap duo Insane Clown Posse released an EP titled Beverly Kills 50187 which featured a song titled "Beverly Kills" describing member Violent J killing the series' characters for being rich and prejudiced toward the "lower class".

Darren Star later produced a series Grosse Pointe, which satirized the production of a high-school soap opera being filmed in Los Angeles. The show was clearly a 90210-style show.

The short-lived The Ben Stiller Show did a parody of this show, The Heights and Melrose Place called Melrose Heights 90210-2420 that portrayed the cast as superficial, self-absorbed, and self-pitying. A typical episode's "issue" was a character getting a headache, which affected all the other characters. Each episode would end the same upbeat song (resembling The Heights hit single "How Do You Talk To An Angel") performed by the whole cast with new lyrics for each episode.

Another aspect of the show that was the subject of parody was the fact that a number of the show's cast members were in their mid-to-late 20s and not teenagers. In particular, Luke Perry and Gabrielle Carteris were singled out for most of the criticism regarding being too old to play teenage characters. Carteris was 29 during filming of the first season, Perry was 23, Jason Priestley turned 21 prior to the show's premiere, and Ian Ziering was 26. Brian Austin Green (then 17), Shannen Doherty (19), Tori Spelling (17) and Jennie Garth (18) were the only cast members to have started the show as teenagers who grow older later on in the show. This was the premise of the Family Guy parody, where Andrea is portrayed as a senile elderly woman.

Saturday Night Live did their own parody of the show when Jason Priestley hosted in 1992. In the episode, it is announced that the zip code 90210 would be changed to 90218. Several of the kids took offense to it and reacted in different ways (Kelly and Donna go shopping, Dylan gets drunk, Brandon keeps taking everyone's keys and putting them in a lock box feeling they are not able to drive, etc.). In the end, the zip code reverts to 90210 after protest.

The Fox sketch show The Edge did a parody of 90210 that mocked Tori Spelling. During the sketch, the character of Tori constantly says, "I can do whatever I want because this is my Daddy's show." Aaron Spelling took offense to this, and asked for an apology from the producers of the show.

The Mickey Mouse Club did a parody sketch called Beverly Hillbillies 90210, combining the characters of both 90210 and The Beverly Hillbillies. In 1999, Christina Aguilera from the Mickey Mouse Club made a cameo performance on Beverly Hills 90210 as herself performing at the PPAD for David Silver's surprise birthday party, season 10 episode 2: "Let's Eat Cake". Music from former MMC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez of 'N Sync also was originally used during several opening title sequences during the mid-to-late seasons of 90210.

MADtv made its own parodies of the show as Beverly Hills, 90210 B.C. set in prehistoric Beverly Hills. When Luke Perry made his high profile return to the series, MADtv did a second parody entitled Beverly Hills 9021-H20 which had the characters being stalked and killed off by Luke Perry (Pat Kilbane), who had rejoined the cast as a masked killer who was a parody of Michael Myers of the Halloween film series.

Czech TV Nova parody show Tele Tele made parody of the show known as "Heverly Debils". Three mini-episodes (about 10 minutes each) were filmed.

GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan released a song called "Killah Hills 10304", an ironic reference to the show's title in a song about crime and a rough neighborhood.

A VH1 promo for I Love the 90s featured Hal Sparks and Michael Ian Black sitting in the Peach Pit, with Beverly Hills, 90210's theme music playing. Joe E. Tata also appears in the promo as Nat.

In 2009, The Simpsons aired an episode called "Waverly Hills 9021-D'oh", which features Lisa wanting to go to a better school and finding it in the very posh town of Waverly Hills.

Actors Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green played parodies of themselves in director Tony Scott's film Domino, portraying themselves as stereotypical self-involved Hollywood actors.

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Famous quotes containing the word parodies:

    The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal.
    Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)