Jennie Garth, 51, and Tori Spelling, 50, talked about Tiffani Thiessen, 49, being added to Beverly Hills, 90210, in the latest episode of their rewatching podcast, 90210MG. The former costars were watching the premiere of the fifth season, when Shannen Doherty left the show and Tiffani entered, and Jennie admitted she didn’t understand why a new cast member was bring added.
“I remember, you know, then — not as I would think these ways now as an adult — but as a young girl, I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, why are they bringing this girl in? Like, we’re doing great. … Why is someone coming to fill the Brenda’s shoes?’ It just felt, like, I don’t know. … I didn’t get it,” Jennie said on the podcast. “And I was probably not that open to the concept. But it worked for my character, that’s for sure. … Kelly and Val never got along. … Kelly’s very intuitive about people and their character and she goes off her gut, and I feel like Kelly smelled a ratatouille.”
The actress’ cohost, Amy Sugarman, referred to Jennie’s feelings and the overall situation as “life imitates art again,” hinting at alleged tension between her and Tiffani. Tiffani previously spoke out about how she felt unwelcome when she started her job at Beverly Hills, 90210, in an open and honest interview with Howard Stern in 2012. “The girls were not very nice to me when I came onto the show,” she said with a laugh.
“Cause I kind of, sort of replaced Shannen Doherty, on the show when Shannen left,” she continued. When Howard asked if the other girls saw her as “a threat,” she admitted she didn’t know. “I think having somebody new come into an already successful, kind of, you know, show that’s run on its own, to have a new kind of energy was probably hard.”
Jennie, Tori, and Amy also reacted to watching Tiffani’s character, Valerie, move into Shannen’s character, Brenda’s bedroom on the show. “It just was really weird watching Valerie in Brenda’s bathroom like that. My overall gut instinct — as a viewer, watching it and being connected and attached to the original cast and to Brenda and to Brenda’s bedroom — I was like, ‘Well, I don’t like what’s happening. I don’t like what my eyes are seeing. I don’t understand this. It’s upsetting me,’” Jennie explained on the podcast. “And that she’s now going to be a bad girl instead of a main character that we love. But do people come to love Valerie? … Did anyone ever feel the way they felt about Brenda about Valerie?”
In addition to admitting she was “shunned” by some of her new costars, Tiffani, who has now moved on from the drama, said she turned to her mom for advice. Her mom told her to not focus on the reactions of her critics and “just do your job.”