90210: You can’t go home again

I admit it. “90210″ was a big deal when I was in high school. I actually grew up in Beverly Hills (at 709 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills) just a few blocks from the real Beverly Hills High. My beach club as a kid (the now defunct “Sand & Sea”) was actually the set for 90210’s Beverly Hills Beach Club. And I went to high school with Tori Spelling. Although our high school wasn’t nearly as vacuous (nor as much fun) as 90210’s West Beverly, we were still extremely into the show, and several of my friends did have curiously large sideburns to emulate Dylan… Ah, good times. So yes, I’ll sheepishly admit that my wife watched the first episode of the new 90210.

But, either the Zillow marketing department is too old for the new version, or it was just not as good as the original.

After the first episode last night, we’re leaning toward “not as good as the original.” We missed Brandon, Brenda, Kelly, etc., and felt really sorry for Nat when he was trying to make espresso in the revamped Peach Pit. The new real estate was pretty spectacular, but we liked it when, back in 1990, the Walshes were humble Midwesterners living in toney Beverly Hills in a very nice, but not-too-flashy home. (OK, that home wasn’t actually in 90210, but the premise was nice.)

The characters in my old hometown may have changed since Kelly Taylor hung up her stilletos on that sad day in May 2000, but what about the Beverly Hills real estate market? Well the Zillow Home Value Index for Beverly Hills was about $1 million back then, and today Beverly Hills home prices are averaging over $3.2 million, up 12 percent year over year (versus a 10 percent decline nationally in US home prices). Looks like Kelly (sporting a teacher’s salary in the new show) might want to consider renting…