9021…oh, I thought…
Hi nerds! Did you all realize there is a new generation of “Beverly Hill 90210″ in the works for the CW? For those who don’t know, “90210″ was a huge hit TV show when having virgin high school student characters was still marginally believable. So, like 20 years ago. (Full disclosure: I own the “Beverly Hills 90210″ Soundtrack. I specifically wanted the Brian McKnight/Vanessa Williams song which I will still bang out to this day. Try me. I DARE YOU.)
I recently read that some gaggle of television producers thought it was a good idea to revisit the concept of following a group of rich white teenagers living their completely inaccessible and unrealistic-to-most-people TV lives. You know, because there haven’t been any shows like that on television since the first 90210 went off the air. Or have there? i haven’t been watching much TV over the past 12 years…
But this time it’s totally different, like there’s going to be a Black kid from the wrong side of the tracks. That’s a wholly original concept and I’m totes 
2 C it!
Oh, and there’s a character named Navid. Navid Shirazi in fact.
Well isn’t this interesting? Are we talking about an Iranian character on this show? The only Iranians I’ve seen on TV in recent memory are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and TJ Houshmandzadah of the Cincinnati Bengals. Not the most representative sample I guess.
But I’m intrigued, I mean, one of the lead characters is Iranian, meaning he’s not likely to be a terrorist mole or something. So now I’m getting curious, and I started looking for more information about the character, as well as the strapping young Iranian man - Michael Steger - who will play Navid.
But wait, there it is plain as day on IMDB.com:
He is of Ecuadorian, Austrian and Norwegian descent
I missed something right? Is “Austrian” an alternative spelling for Iranian?
Now…I got that info from IMDB, which I have found to be wrong on multiple occasions. But, somehow I think I’ll have to wait a little longer to see a third Iranian on TV.
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Tags: television.
I think in a lot of these shows there’s a major suspension of reality. Though, it’s a little depressing when in a show that takes place in Orange County, there are no Asian Americans. I think the only person of color that I saw on that show was the gardener that Marissa shacked up with.
Oh wait! Ryan’s girlfriend was also supposed to be Latina, and she is actually multi-racial Asian American.
I mean like, these are things I heard. I didn’t like watch every episode of anything.
remember steve sanders dated that japanese girl?
(was she hapa, or just a racially ambiguous ?)
i think they made her family to be ultra conservative.
yeah, it wasn’t the best portrayal, but they did include an api* character.
(though marginally.)
the actor was/is hapa, but the character was not.
i do remember catching the episode where her parents are setting her up with a nice japanese boy and steve sanders tries to come and make sure she isn’t feeling him and he sees this little geeky asian guy and he smirks and starts to walk away, but then he realizes he was looking at the wrong guy and her actual date was a hunky japanese guy. then steve sanders got mad insecure. but she reassured him that she only loved him. receding hairline and all.
On 90210, didn’t they have that episode where the white guy tells the Japanese father that HE’S the racist for wanting his daughter to be with a Japanese man?
Oh, love.