Melrose Place alum Grant Present is aware of that his and Jennie Garth’s Beverly Hills, 90210 love story would “now be unlawful.”
Present, 62, was the inaugural visitor on the Melrose Place rewatch podcast, “Nonetheless the Place,” the place he mentioned his tenure on the long-lasting highschool collection.
“They forged me for Melrose Place figuring out that they had been going to place that character on 90210 form of to springboard Melrose Place,” Present mentioned on the Monday, July 29, podcast episode. “It wasn’t the spinoff [or] any of that type of factor. It was, like, they knew this all moving into. After which I did three episodes of 90210 [as] Jake.”
As Present recalled, Jake Hanson initially got here onto 90210 as a handyman employed to construct “a gazebo for Kelly’s household in her yard.” Garth additionally appeared on the pilot of Melrose Place, the place she shared a kiss with Present.
“[It] what would now be unlawful and, like, [part of the] Me Too [movement],” Present quipped. “I feel we solely kissed, however nonetheless, you recognize, not good. … How odd is it that we’re extra, form of, prudish now than 30 years in the past?”
Whereas Garth, now 52, performed an adolescent to Jake’s 25-year-old, she was over 18 in actual life. As Present put it, they had been “comparatively contemporaries” since they had been “truly each adults.”
Jennie Garth and Grant Present MoviesStillsDB
“That’s not that loopy in actual life [but] it’s figuring out that it’s highschool,” Present mentioned. “Now, you place it in these phrases [of the age gap], that’s creepy.”
On the time, Present didn’t take into consideration the now-weird age distinction.
“She was a grown-up, skilled actress,” he mentioned. “I didn’t actually assume a lot of it on the time we had been taking pictures. Once I watched it, I used to be like, ‘Oh yeah, take a look at that.’ … It’s completely different.”
Forward of the podcast episode, the “Nonetheless the Place” cohosts completely informed Us Weekly that the Jake-Kelly love story was “painful” to rewatch.
“I used to be watching it pondering, effectively certainly they’re gonna virtually kiss then not fairly. And I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, they’re kissing, they’re kissing!’” Courtney Thorne-Smith informed Us earlier this month. “It simply didn’t age effectively. Grant is such a simple, moral man that he would by no means do this right this moment. However on the time it was romantic. We neglect how badly these issues age.”
Daphne Zuniga and Laura Leighton concurred, noting the story line feels “completely different” in right this moment’s world.
General, Present favored Melrose Place in its first season, referring to the pilot as “type of corny and slightly hokey in locations.”
“For essentially the most half, I assumed it was a very stable episode,” he added, noting that later seasons of the present turned vastly “completely different.”
Garth didn’t recur on Melrose Place after the Might-December romance fizzled out. Her character primarily was concerned in a 90210 love triangle with Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry). Whereas Kelly was typically torn between her two classmates, it was “slightly bizarre” for Garth to movie love scenes with Priestley, now 54.
“It was slightly bizarre as a result of Jason is sort of a brother to me, however once we crawled into the pores and skin of the characters, it actually did make sense,” Garth completely informed Us in March. “I like watching Kelly and Brandon collectively. What they’d was very nice and I’m a fan of it.”
Kelly and Brandon practically acquired married onscreen earlier than calling off the nuptials on the alter. By the collection finale, Kelly selected Dylan. Within the 2008 revival on The CW, it’s revealed that Kelly and Dylan are not collectively however share a son.
