In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter 2 Watching Beverly Hills, 90210 They negotiated with brothers and sisters for shower time. They unplugged the phone. Some avoided Wednesday night college classes, no matter what the content; others simply left night class early. All the girls and young women I interviewed during the spring 1994 season of Beverly Hills, 90210 reported making an effort, sometimes a considerable one, to protect their viewing time. In a typical comment, one young viewer said that her planning on Wednesdays started "when I get home from school, so then I can make sure my homework's all done and stuff." Her usual school-night shower time was 8 p.m., but on Wednesday nights this had to be renegotiated to take into account the 90210 starting time. "So I get my shower before that. Like at 7 or 7:30." This required extra planning, first because she was a leisurely washer- "I take like a half an hour in the shower"and second because bargaining with siblings was a complicated affair- "Everybody's like, 'I'm first in the shower, I'm second in the shower.' We all fight who's first or who's second." Often, viewers insisted that friends learn their viewing schedule. As one older viewer said, "People usually know not to call if I'm home and it's a Wednesday night between 8 and 10." (The second hour was to watch Melrose Place.) This telephone restriction was a common pattern; viewers frequently reported that their friends "know not to call" if they just want to chat. However, in a solution common among younger viewers , whose mobility was limited on a school night, some developed the habit of watching 90210 and Melrose with a friend via the telephone- "We'd sit on the phone from 8 to 10 watching them together." Another viewer described detailed arrangements she made to preserve her viewing experience: "I want to be able to hear every word they say. Sometimes I tape it as I'm watching itjust in case anybody does walk in, urn, I can rewind it again later and replay that part. I turn my ringer off, I won't answer the phone, I mean-and people know. Sometimes I'll leave a message, I go, 'You know what I'm doing. Why are you calling?' " 14 Chapter 2 Two college students said they would "call in sick" to a sorority meeting in order to be able to watch the show. Others said the effort they made to watch involved important job choices and course selections: G: How hard do you try not to miss an episode? NICKY: We leave night school early. SHERRY: Very hard-yeah, we leave night school early to watch it. NICKY: I chose not to have a really good night job so I could. While this behavior will be examined from another viewpoint in the chapter on television effects, here I will note that reports in the popular press indicated these patterns were far from unusual. Beverly Hills, 90210 was part of a staggering number of girls' and young women's lives. And that was no accident: 90210 was a key element of a daring strategy in the network television wars. Its producers intentionally targeted a young audience as a way for the upstart Fox Network to gain a foothold in an intensely competitive marketplace. While this study is about viewers' discussion of the show, it is instructive to note that the girls and young women's attention was deliberately and consciously wooed by producers embroiled in a high-stakes contest. Further exploration of the theoretical connection between the show's content, the concurrent political economy, and advertising could certainly yield interesting insights (for a perceptive overview of the way advertising fuels television's recycling of consumer messages, cf. Jhally and Lewis 1992). This chapter works only to contextualize the viewers' experience and provide background so that readers unfamiliar with the show can more easily understand the subsequent analysis. This introduction overviews the genesis of the show and describes the growth of its popularity; points out some conventions inherent in the genre through a run-down on the characters and typical plots; positions the show in a history of women's depiction on television; and acknowledges my own "take" on 90210. The Fox Network and the Youthful Audience Debuting in October 1990, 90210 was a key part of the feisty young Fox Network's strategy to infiltrate the oligopoly of network television.! Though its...

Share