History YMMV / BeverlyHills90210

* DracosInLeatherPants: Valerie Malone has this treatment by fans for her snarky, hilarious, seductive and manipulative ways. It also helps the fact she was played by Tiffani Thiessen and she was also sexually abused by her father and her mother blaming her for Valerie's rape. While Kelly gets a RonTheDeathEater treatment.

* DracosInLeathersPants: Valerie Malone has this treatment by fans for her snarky, hilarious, seductive and manipulative ways. It also helps the fact she was played by Tiffani Thiessen and she was also sexually abused by her father and her mother blaming her for Valerie's rape. While Kelly gets a RonTheDeathEater treatment.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Mark. At least, people who comment on him consider him one of the most interesting minor characters, and have shown that they want him to appear more - maybe that's why he still is.

* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Ryan O'Neal as Teddy's douchebag father? Considering how good of a father he is in Real Life, that is just wrong.
** Music/{{Brandy}} as a Congressional candidate? Seriously?

* OlderThanTheyThink: The iconic theme song associated with season 2 onwards actually made its debut in the pilot, set to a very lengthy montage of West Beverly High and the establishing shots of each character.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/StephenAmell played a presumed dead guy who returns after being lost at sea. One year later, he plays the same type of character as his breakthrough role, Oliver Queen on Series/{{Arrow}}.

* RetroactiveRecognition: In the original series:

** In the sequel series: Creator/StephenAmell played a presumed dead guy who returns after being lost at sea. One year later, he plays the same type of character as his breakthrough role, Oliver Queen on Series/{{Arrow}}.

** Dylan had a con artist dad and a runaway New Age hippy mom, was TheAlcoholic and a drug addict prone to relapses, [[spoiler:his dad was killed in a bombing in front of him (though this was later [[{{Retcon}} retconned]])]], he lost his fortune to his father's ex-mistress who then took her daughter (Dylan's half-sister) to Brazil, he lived homeless for a while, and [[spoiler: lost his wife in a drive-by shooting meant for him, ordered by the woman's father]].

* CompleteMonster: [[SerialRapist Douglas Atherton]] is a wanted rapist from England. He comes to America, renames himself Miles Cannon, and becomes a teacher to find new victims. At the end of season 2 he rapes Naomi Clark, even telling her that because she lied about him sexually harassing her earlier, no one will believe her about her rape. After he is found out, he flees his apartment, only to confront Naomi later and threaten her with a knife.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: After single handedly killing Jamie Walters' music career via turning his character, without any warning or build-up, into a spousal abuser the show brought Walters back twice to salvage the character. The first one established that the character had started therapy to deal with his anger issues and had him making peace with Donna. The second one has him discover David in the throes of addiction, after David was drugged and robbed by hookers he had met during a trip to Vegas with several of the characters, and seeking Ray's help to cover up what had happen to him. Ray contacts Donna and convinces her that David needs serious help dealing with his drug problem; resulting in the main cast forcing David into rehab after spending the season up to that point oblivious to David's problems.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Zig-zagged. The show, especially in Seasons 1 and 2, was very topical - addressing issues such as racism, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. in a manner like Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh or [[Series/AfterSchoolSpecial after-school specials]]. In some episodes, these issues were handled very well. In others... to call them heavy-handed would be a ''massive'' understatement.

%%ZCE
* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Emily Valentine's clinginess, mixed in with her fixation with Brandon and self-destructive behavior (at one point, threatening to set herself on fire in Brandon's family's driveway), points to possible borderline UsefulNotes/{{personality disorder|s}} though an exact diagnosis is never made explicit. She gets better, though.

** The one-shot AlphaBitch Amanda's freakout in the season 1 episode "Slumber Party"when the girls discover diet pills in her purse. Mostly because it comes about after most of the episode dealt with the other girls’ insecurities and traumas, and Amanda’s problem isn’t so as much as hinted at before the final five minutes where the pills just accidentally fall out of her purse when Brenda is trying to give it to her, making it appear shoehorned in for topicality purposes.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: In later seasons, Kelly gets more hate than Valerie. Even if Kelly is supposed to be a LovableAlphaBitch who is loved by everone, fans often see her as a self-righteous hypocrite who has no problem stealing her best friend's boyfriend. Valerie, on the other hand, is a slutty and manipulative FemmeFatale who likes to make everyone miserable... and fans basically worship her because she's a cool and entertaining "queen".

** The one-shot AlphaBitch Amanda's freakout in the season 1 episode ''Slumber Party'' when the girls discover diet pills in her purse. Mostly because it comes about after most of the episode dealt with the other girls’ insecurities and traumas, and Amanda’s problem isn’t so as much as hinted at before the final five minutes where the pills just accidentally fall out of her purse when Brenda is trying to give it to her, making it appear shoehorned in for topicality purposes.
** The scene where Scott accidentally shoots himself and dies in front of his best friend is supposed to be a sad moment which teaches a lesson about how careless use of firearms can have tragic consequences. But Scott being TooDumbToLive makes the scene so ridiculous that it comes off as funny instead, to BlackComedy levels.

** Creator/JessicaAlba, pre-''Series/DarkAngel'', in the episodes "Making Amends" and "Nature and Nurture" (both in season 8).

* OlderThanTheyThink: The iconic theme song associated with season 2 onwards actually made it's debut in the pilot, set to a very lengthy montage of West Beverly High and the establishing shots of each character.

** Because TPTB decided to write in Gabrielle Cateris' RealLife pregnancy, but didn't want her to get pregnant by the first guy she slept with, Andrea abruptly dumped Dan, was rushed into a relationship with Jesse, got pregnant not two minutes after that—one of the very reasons she was considering an abortion—and married him not two minutes after ''that''. We're supposed to believe that they're madly in love and ready to spend the rest of their lives together when they've only been dating a few weeks and would have likely never discussed marriage had she not been pregnant.

* ValuesResonance: The topic of the season 2 episode “Ashes to Ashes” deals with the topic of anti-Black racism, specifically “walking while Black”, which comes off as eerily resonant in the 2010s and 2020s, as systematic racism and its effects on communities of color are being brought to the forefront of national conversation.

* BizarroEpisode: ''The Time Has Come Today'' in Season 4. In the episode, Brenda finds a journal in the floorboards of her room; the book was written by a girl who lived in the house during the '60s who was having friendship issues around the same time as the Vietnam War. Brenda connects with the girl because she is also at a rough spot with her friends at the time, and then goes on to imagine the girl Wendy and her friends as her and her friends. It's an odd episode because ''none'' of the characters look right as a '60s character (e.g. Steve in a Nehru jacket or Dylan as your typical hippie), and is basically an excuse for the writers to [[AuthorTract belt out their feelings about the Vietnam War, which none of the show's audience would really connect with]]. Also counts as ContrivedCoincidence and PlotParallel.

** Ray pushing Donna down a flight of stairs. It's supposed to be a terrifying and horrible instance of DomesticAbuse, but the ridiculousness of the scene itself. The dialogue and her ObviousStuntDouble takes away much of the drama of the situation.