Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry: Brenda and Dylan were 90210’s ultimate couple

The first time Brenda and Dylan met on 90210, the James Dean-lookalike was standing by his locker. It was the bubbly blonde Kelly who instigated the encounter and Brenda was just tagging along.

“So, you’re Brandon’s sister?” Dylan says to Brenda, his eyes locking onto hers. The chemistry is immediately palpable and Kelly, who moments earlier had declared that she would love to date Dylan, notices, and glances between them. She’s uncomfortable, already the third wheel.

Dylan is still looking at Brenda and she smiles coyly and he, almost imperceptibly, cocks his right eyebrow.

Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered in 1990 and after a bumpy first season, the series catapulted into the zeitgeist. It was the show every young person was watching, in the US and around the world.

It had all the dramas of high school friendships and dating – but a little bit more glam and a little bit more grown up in the way that American teenagers on TV always seem to be. They had dances, a regular hangout spot (The Peach Pit), cars and seemingly limited parental supervision. Also, no homework.

For Gen X-ers, Beverly Hills, 90210 it was a cultural touchstone. 90210 was the postcode heard around the world.

The show had a large ensemble cast that included Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling but no one captured the public’s attention in the same way as Shannen Doherty, who died this past weekend at 53 after a years-long ordeal with cancer, and Luke Perry, who died in 2019 at 52 following a stroke.

Perry had the suave of a 1950s movie idol, all leather jackets and motorcycles. Doherty was a moxie brunette in a sea of wholesome Californian blondes. They had edge, both on and off-screen.

As a character, Brenda was the resident “bad girl” of the show, the one who defied her parents and niceties, broke rules and lied to get what she wanted. She had a fake ID, she had a temper and she had a pregnancy scare.

In Doherty’s hands, the character was complex and relatable. Brenda got up to “no good” but she was still a girl, trying to be popular and impressive, chaffing against expectations from others and herself. She lashed out and made mistakes – like any teenager trying to negotiate their place in the world.

With Dylan, her on-and-off again boyfriend, the two sizzled. They were easily the most compelling coupling on the series, especially as the writers eked out every bit of drama they could.

There were always obstacles between them – Brenda’s parents’ resistance, his struggles with alcohol, and, of course, Kelly, played by Garth.

When Brenda goes to Paris for a program, both start something with someone else — she with a random guy and he with Kelly. It’s a huge betrayal of both her boyfriend and her best friend.

Doherty revealed earlier this year on her podcast that she wasn’t a fan of the love triangle between the three characters. “I was horrified,” she said.

“I was so not into that because I just thought Brenda and Dylan were the best things ever so I didn’t understand anyone wanting to mess up that storyline.

“To have someone’s best friend sleep with her boyfriend is such a betrayal that I don’t even know how Brenda recovered from that. I don’t think she did recover, personally. So I wasn’t thrilled with it, but I didn’t have much say, so I went with it.”

The plot dominated the show’s third season and while the characters had an eventual reconciliation and a steamy on-screen kiss, fans never got to see them together again.

Brenda’s reputation as a “bad girl” blurred with the public perception of Doherty off-screen. Rumours swirled in media reports of tension and clashes between the actor and her co-stars and the show’s producers.

She was reportedly constantly late and tempestuous, which was later revealed to have been caused by an unhappy marriage (Doherty was married to Ashley Hamilton at the time) and family health issues.

Doherty said in 2019: “I have felt misunderstood my whole life. The only difference is that now I’m OK with it. But there have been moments where we’ve been able to talk about things.

“Somebody had a problem with me being late, but perhaps they didn’t know I was late because my dad was in the hospital, or maybe because I was in a horrible marriage. I didn’t share, or I wasn’t asked. I’m not saying it was all a misunderstanding, but a large portion of it was a misunderstanding.”

Misunderstanding or not, Doherty was fired from 90210 and Brenda was sent packing to London, off-screen.

Her name would come up again in the series, notably when Dylan would eventually move to England to reunite with Brenda, but by the time the series ended 10 years later, the characters had apparently separated, this time for good.

They weren’t each other’s endgame romance, at least not in the canon. In the minds of fans, they always will be.

Doherty deserved better. She paid the price for being a “difficult woman” who had opinions – and would again when she would be let go from Charmed after three seasons after clashing with co-star Alyssa Milano.

That defiant spirit which made her so entrancing on screen as Brenda, Heather Duke in Heathers, Prue Halliwell in Charmed and Rene in Mallrats, is what got her in trouble in an industry that wasn’t ready to contend with headstrong women.

Times change and attitudes shift, and like other women from that era who were maligned by their contemporaries, there has been a re-litigation of how female celebrities were criticised and cast out for not playing the nice girl.

Doherty’s legacy is more than just Brenda Walsh. She started working as a child actor on Little House on the Prairie and even in recent years, through her podcast, she has built a relationship with her fans through her openness and willingness to be authentically herself.

But for many, Brenda and Dylan will always be part of their coming-of-age. That both actors have died young will stir up something in those fans who grew up with them.

When Perry died in 2019, Doherty said of her co-star: “There is a special kind of love one has for each other when you experience the journey we did on 90210 and, of course, life in general.”

“Luke and I were working on show ideas for us. We wanted to work with each other again and create something special and meaningful for our fans at this stage in our lives. I will miss him every day. Every minute. Every second.”

Doherty and Perry have left an indelible mark on pop culture.

Beverly Hills, 90210 is streaming on Prime Video