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Goodbye Aaron Spelling
During our week away from work, I was very saddened to learn of the passing of television great Aaron Spelling. I know he produced several hit TV shows in his extensive career, but he was also the executive producer of my all-time favorite show during my adolescent years.This was a show that managed to successfully sum up many of life's hardest lessons, a show where you felt like you actually knew the characters, a television show that even today I fondly still quote and discuss with friends and co-workers from time to time.Yep, you guessed it: 'Beverly Hills 90210'.
So I realize it's not exactly normal to still be discussing a show that went off the air six years ago (especially since it was a teenage drama and I am nearing the age of 30). That being said, I will admit I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession. But I am not alone in this fixation.
With the wide array of teenage drama shows out there, you'd think my fellow 90210-obsessed peers and I would have been able to find some sort of suitable replacement over the years.Unfortunately, it just seems that most of these types of shows today lack depth. They don't entice me to keep watching nor do they really draw me in to the point where I become invested in the characters.
I admit it seems strange that living in the Heartland of America, my friends and I felt we could so easily relate to kids growing up in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.True, in many ways it was not reality compared to our lives. But the issues were real, and the writers managed to cover just about every pressing moral issue that exists in high school and college.From infidelity and drug use to parental death and teenage pregnancy, we watched eagerly to see how this group's problems would play out.Probably one of the biggest dilemmas over the show's ten-year run was Donna Martin wavering over the decision to give up her virginity to boyfriend David Silver due to religious beliefs (for the record, Donna relented in season 7).These types of predicaments at least made us realize that money does not buy happiness or prevent kids from encountering the same problems that teenagers are facing all over the country.
But gone are the days when my friends and I would fervently devote one hour a week to Dylan, Kelly, Brenda and the gang.This was more than simply a television show for us. This show brought about worthwhile conversations and made us think about the choices we were making in our own lives.Sadly, no show stirs up such discussion today, teenage drama or not. In some ways I feel like Aaron Spelling's passing has marked the end of an era.For me, at least, television will just not be the same without him.
God Bless you, Mr. Spelling. You will be missed.
- Monica Thomas
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