90210 : Network Execs Demanded Brenda Regret Sex With Dylan

[hewontgo]

'Beverly Hills, 90210' Creator Says Network Execs "Demanded" Brenda Regret Sex With Dylan https://t.co/DXLnS7VFQY
- Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) August 17, 2024
Darren Star attempted to lead the teen sex revolution in the early ’90s, and it was almost televised

Comments

[anyaroses]

Slate did an article about this back in 2006 that talked about how nobody cared when Brandon lost his virginity.

https://slate.com/culture/2006/12/the-revolutionary-first-season-of-beverly-hills-90210.html

[joy_scenic]

Yeah. At least the mom brought it up to the dad that he was being hypocritical.

[silverstarry]

It's wild to me that Judy Blume wrote Forever way back in 1975 because her daughter asked for a book where two teenagers have sex and nothing terrible happens to them, yet even in 1991, network execs felt that a teenage girl had to be shown expressing regret that she had sex with her boyfriend. Like how dare she have sex, enjoy it, and just go on living her life?

[alwayspolaris]

There was so much controversy over that book though, it was on so many banned lists. But like the teenagers were smart and talked about things and mutually decided to go forward with that step, it was such a healthy portrayal. Way better than all the fear mongering. All these parents clutching their pearls should heed the advice not to not participate in anything they can't discuss maturely.

[cogenthoughts]

It's still on banned lists in some school libraries. Shows some things never change. Sigh.

[archersangel]

Like how dare she have sex, enjoy it, and just go on living her life?

My guess it was because of the rate of Teen pregnancies at the time. From what I can find; "The estimated rate for 1990, 116.8 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years, was the highest ever reported over the period 1976-2002. Put another way, the 1990 rate of 116.8 means that 11.7 percent of U.S. teenagers were pregnant in 1990 compared with 7.6 percent in 2002."
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/teenpreg1990-2002/teenpreg1990-2002.htm

Which is not super high, but it was on the minds of a lot of parents at the time. So, the network didn't want to look like they were encouraging Teen girls to have sex by showing it in a positive light.

[yurasama_love]

It always shocks people how prudish and puritan the US is

[joy_scenic]

Already knew this from the Lifetime movie 😌

[luvthatdrtywata]

This just made it click in my brain that Dylan and Brenda are both dead….Jesus Christ. 😞