‘BH90201’: Fox’s Michael Thorn Explains Cancellation

Fox entertainment chief Michael Thorn lauded the BH90210 quasi-revival as “ballsy” but explained why the network decided against bringing back the series for a second run.

The show, which featured the majority of the original cast, minus Luke Perry, was originally billed as a six-episode run and Thorn, who is president of entertainment at Fox told Deadline that the network wanted to “let it be”.

“I thought it was really brave for the actors. It was really ballsy,” he said. “To pull something off like that is such a high degree of difficulty and I think they did a terrific job but even six [episodes] was really challenging. The idea was to do it as a big event and it did really well for us, it did well in the ratings and was very satisfying for the fans and then let it be what it was, not turning it into something it wasn’t intended to be, which is a long running concept that was not sustainable.”

The idea was devised by Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth, in association with Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler. Ironically the final episode saw the group’s own 90210 reboot given the greenlight by Fox, albeit with certain caveats including a new writer, a pilot reshot in Canada and the loss of one of the original cast members. Fans, however, will never find out which of Garth, Spelling, Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris or Brian Austin Green that they would have cut.

Thorn lauded Garth and Spelling for their work. “Tori and Jenny put this idea together and they were obviously great in front of the camera but I was impressed with what they did. To pull that kind of an idea is hard,” he added.

BH90210 was produced by CBS TV Studios and Fox Entertainment. Alberghini, Chessler and Paul Sciarrotta were co-showrunners and executive produce alongside Carteris, Doherty, Garth, Green, Priestley, Spelling and Ziering.