The last stand of the early 90’s

I was lying on my bed aimlessly flicking through the television channels when something made me shake my head and lean my head forward (as if this was going to unveil more). There in front of me was an advert for Beverly Hills 902010. Surely, this was some kind of mistake I thought turning up the volume so I could hear the deep voiced man from E4 give his synopsis. And there it all became apparent, Beverly Hills 90210 had be remade for 2009. 90210, as it is now called will have its work cut out to achieve the success of its predecessor. I mean, for a start in the early nineties they were all donning white t-shirts with waist coats and ripped jeans (perhaps a symbolic gesture to the 80s). Would this new show revolve around twins and their honest family, only for the female twin to embroil herself with the local bad boy who looked 30 when he was supposed to look 18? The male twin who was the grounded down to earth one would spend his time pursuing his journalism career with the geek (but secretly well fit when she took of her glasses and dropped her hair) Andrea who was constantly searching for some travesty to uncover at the local high school. Surely this new version cannot compete, I thought. Or was I just being nostalgic and forgetting that sometimes when things are remade they are actually better. But then I remembered David Silver, the guy who was a year younger than the ‘cool lot’ and even though he tried always failed to get in with the gang. That was until he ‘allegedly’ spent one summer taking extra lessons for extra credit and found himself in their year a few seasons later. From then on he became accepted by the cool gang, neglected his best friend who subsequently shot himself, and epitomised ‘cool’ which was typified by his keyboard playing skills. Now, how about that for a story line! There is no doubt that 902109 for 2009 has its work cut out but this isn’t just the reason why I’m writing this now.

What I then began to realise was just how much things come full circle. When the original 90210 came out on TV Great Britain was in a receding economic environment and as we are in one now a revamped version of the American high school drama has made its way on to our screens. OK, it’s a tenuous link but then Gladiators was remade last year and I think that was launched way back in the early nineties. They even recruited an ex-footballer just like they did with John Fashanu way back in the day. Could it be that television reacts to the repetitive economic climates by regurgitating old shows from when we were all in a trough? I tired to think about the relationship about music and the recession and during that time Nirvana seemed to typify the current mood but I can’t think of anyone right now that is doing the same. But still music is a good way of discovering the general feeling. When the recession in the early nineties ended we entered a new era in full steam with indie band Oasis spearheading the ‘Britpop’ scene where it seemed everyone loved this type of music (well apart from America). It then moulded into ‘Cool Britannia’ and then the country was on a high for some apparent reason.

So this leaves me musing that in a couple of years time, say 2012, indie will make a come back and the forever young Jarvis Cocker will rise once again to take his throne as Britain comes out of the gloom. By 2014 everyone will be feeling great about living in ol’ blighty. Although I doubt it’ll be dubbed ‘Cool Britannia’ but am sure someone else will find a term to capture the moment. And a few years on from that when the economy begins to creak once more and the recession looms I’ll keep and eye out for 90210 Generation X Style but how I wish they would remake Rising Damp.

In other news, this snow is pretty intense. I tried to take the laid back approach but since the snow has turned into ice and I fell over I don’t like it anymore. Here are some pics before it all turned to slush.