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Fun With Sideburns, Stunts, And Zip Codes

Again, thanks to my issues with one hour TV drama's relating to bedtime, I never really got into 90210 but this show came out at a time where I was able to pick up on many of the key points through pop culture references and parodies. One of the main things that I knew was that Jason Priestley was actually fun when not involved with the melodramatic acting that was required of him so I was looking forward to this show.

Part of me feels that most of the cast of 90210 were extra fun outside of the show to compensate for the fact that they were clearly pushing thirty while portraying a bunch of teens. In Priestley's case, I think he also had a little help in the humor department simply because of his Canadian roots.

I know this connection between Canada and comedy is a cultural stereotype but it's a good one when it turns out to be true which turned out to be the case with tonight's episode. Right out the gate, I was pretty impressed with Priestley throwing himself around on the ice while performing his own stunts all for the sake of the joke.

This intro was enough to provide evidence that funny or not Jason Priestley was going to give it his all which is often enough to make an otherwise average show into something that's really fun. I would say this was the case with tonight's episode because I didn't really find anything to be all that excited but I also found that I never got bored and stayed focused right up to the final goodnights without ever checking my phone.

With that, I've run out of things to say about this experience so it's now time to move on and share what I actually saw, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with parody coverage of Olympic Skating with Jason Priestly playing a male figure skater and isn't as bad as far as the ice skating goes but his jumps are a complete disaster. After a few falls, he started to struggle with every aspect of the routine landing him a combined score of 0.9 from the judges. When asked how he thought the performance went Priestly announced, "Live from New York..."
Jason Priestly then officially opened the show with a monolog about how different working in New York is compared to the time he's spent working in the 90210 zip code. He then went on to introduce several winners from a Beverly Hills 90210 fan-based contest where all of the winners were disappointed that they didn't win time with Luke Perry instead.
This was followed by a fake ad for the Jiffy Pop Airbag which as the name suggests was a car airbag that fills with popcorn in order to provide a snack for you after an accident while you wait for the ambulance to arrive.
The Life And Times of Johnny Hildo was a profile docu-drama of a sketch that followed the life of Johnny Hildo who was bullied his entire life because his name is so close to dildo. The bullying goes on until he was pushed to the point where he killed seven people and landed in jail. His cellmate, played by Kevin Nealon, turned out to be the first person to call Hildo by his proper name which we learn is because his name is Larry Vagina.
Sprockets then returned for another installment. This time Dieter hosted a Valentine Special by introducing a game called Love Werks which was pretty much a parody of Love Connection only playing off of the quirks of German's serious personalities and quirkier sexual perversions.
We then got a parody of The Arsenio Hall Show where Chris Rock as Arsenio interviewed "The New Kids On The Block" following a controversial period where they were accused of lip-syncing at their concerts. The sketch concluded with a live performance where Priestly and the cast as the band actually sing what they claimed to be their latest hit and of course it sounded absolutely awful.
This was followed by another installment of Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shares how he calms himself when he's overcome by homicidal rage.
Teenage Fanclub then took to the stage to perform The Concept.
Once again, Kevin Nealon gave us the news. This week, David Spade dropped in to discuss animal abuse after a recent incident that involved a circus elephant that had to be put down after acting up and stampeding the crowd. At first, this seems to be anti-animal cruelty until we learned that Spade was against the use of guns because he felt he could've taken the animal down with his bare hands.
We then got a parody of Beverly Hills 90210 where the collection of thirty-year-old high school students get called into the auditorium to discuss the new sideburn rules in the dress code before getting to the big news that the 90210 zip code is being cut due to the struggles from the recession and the new postal could would be 90218 linking these spoiled brats to the people of North Hollywood. Following the assembly, we went to The Peach Pit to witness the "kids" as they coped with this horrible news.
La Tour And Johnson then made their debut with Tim Meadows and Ellen Cleghorne as a pair of Peaches And Herb-style performers who pitched their latest album Strong And Lasting Love filled with love songs for dysfunctional lovers.
We then followed Jason Priestley as he met with Fiancee's Father to ask for his blessing in his plan to marry his daughter only to get denied. This didn't stop Priestley which turned out to be one of the father's many tests that continue on while walking a fine line of falling into the creepy zone. That's is until the end where the test started became unquestionably dark and weird.
This was followed by another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared a wish to be able to save himself from both Superman and Dracula at the same exact time.
Teenage Fanclub then returned to the stage to perform What You Do To Me and the song Pet Rock back to back.
Racist Robbery was a sketch that took place in a bank in the middle of a black community where Jason Priestley and Dana Carvey entered to rob the joint only to be called out as racist when they just wanted to commit the crime.
This was followed by one more Deep Thoughts By Jack Handy where Jack pondered the connection between powerlifting and peeing when it comes to the sport's rules.
Finally, Jason Priestley closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

I'm excited that this season has turned out to be pretty solid thanks to solid episodes like tonight's which was made up of these from of my favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the Love Werks game because I'm just a huge fan of Sprockets and all of Dieter's quirks. Next, I really liked the Racist Robbery because not only did I like the commentary that was made but I loved the special appearance from Warren Hutcherson even though it was a tiny role. Finally, I was a fan of the opening Men's Figure Skating sketch because I loved how Jason Priestley did his own stunt which was extra impressive when I was a kid and remembered it being more extreme.