OMG: 9021One-on-One with Jason Priestley!

0:02 It's 9021OMG with Jenny Garth and friends. I'm so excited. This is actually an OMG moment for all our OMGers out there. This is big, y'all. Do you know who's sitting across from me? Now you do. You can't giggle like that. That little chuckle. It's very identifiable. Jason Priestley is here. On OMG, this is the best day ever.

0:34 First of all, it's the best day ever because what did you say to me outside a few minutes ago?

0:40 In 37 years, I think this is the first time I've ever been to your house.

0:46 That makes me so sad. Like, I'm not very hospitable, apparently.

0:53 It's okay. Trust me, we saw each other enough. That's true.

0:58 Oh, my God. Well, I'm so happy that you're not only on the podcast, but that you're at my house.

1:03 Yeah, great.

1:04 Thank you. I'm very, very happy to see you. Wait, I wore this shirt for you.

1:10 I like that.

1:10 Do you like it?

1:11 Thank you. I appreciate that. Where did you get that?

1:14 At a con?

1:14 At a fan event? Yeah. Can you order that on Amazon? Like, where did that come from?

1:20 Yeah, this is called eBay, baby. This is special. This has been in somebody else's closet for years. And here I am wearing it.

1:28 Nice, good. I hope you watched it first.

1:32 I didn't.

1:33 You didn't?

1:34 No. You didn't have time? Oh, my gosh. Okay, so normally on the show, we bark. Normally on the show, we go over an episode. Like, we break it down.

1:46 Yeah.

1:46 You're familiar. So today we're not going to do that. Okay. We're just going to chat about the show. Okay. Because I know our listeners are going to love everything that you have to say. You've never been on OMG.

2:00 No, this is my maiden voyage.

2:03 I'm so happy you're here. It really makes me feel really good inside. So we're at the point in the show where Brandon and Kelly just called off the wedding during the wedding.

2:15 Right. So that's season eight.

2:17 End of season eight.

2:18 Yeah.

2:22 Have you ever watched the show, first of all?

2:25 Yeah. Yeah, a long time ago. I watched, I think I've seen them all.

2:31 Like back to back, in order? No.

2:34 No, I've never, no, I've never done that. I've never, I've never, I've never gone through what you've gone through for the last, how many years? It's been two, three years you've been doing this?

2:44 Four or five?

2:45 Yeah. Wow.

2:45 See, it took you that long to get through all, you're not even there yet. You're only at episode 200 or.

2:50 Yes. Right.

2:51 Something like that. And because there are so many episodes.

2:54 Yeah, we did. We made a lot of episodes. Yeah.

2:57 And, and I don't, I don't know. I think your memory is kind of like mine. Like they all just be, it became one giant episode at a certain point in time.

3:04 That's another reason I'm happy you're here because everyone gets mad at me about my memory about like, I don't remember stuff and blah, blah, blah. How could you don't remember stuff either?

3:15 Yeah. I don't remember stuff.

3:16 No, no, there's like, so I was, I, I, I had to watch an episode of the show and it was actually an episode that I directed that I was, I was like, Oh, I don't remember that at all. No, but then I was, and I, you know, I, I did it for, for a different podcast and I was talking to Chuck and Larry and all those guys. Um, and, uh, and I, I had to watch this episode and it was an episode about Brandon was like on a road trip and he stopped in this little town.

3:47 I know the episode.

3:48 Right?

3:48 You met the girl. The black girl.

3:50 Yeah, yeah.

3:51 And then there was all the dudes were mad at him.

3:53 Right. Racism.

3:55 Yeah, it was an episode about racism.

3:57 Big, big episode.

3:58 And I'm watching it and I see directed by Jason Breesley.

4:02 And I was like, what? When did we do that?

4:07 And then it all started coming back to me, right? Which I'm sure it's been like that for you on this podcast, right? And all of a sudden you go, oh, oh, oh, right.

4:17 It's such a trip.

4:17 And do you remember what was going on behind the scenes too?

4:20 That's harder. Oh, really? That's even harder for me. I mean, it's been really like sort of eye-opening and also very cathartic because going back and watching the first episode and then Watching them every week like an actual person that watched it back in the 90s. You can't like zoom ahead or binge or anything. So watching them has been just like this crazy window into what it was like to be a fan more so. Right. So I'm kind of like living as now a super fan of our show.

4:55 Right. And are you loving it?

4:58 Loving it.

4:59 Wow.

5:00 And like I... I wouldn't have ever sat down and watched it episode by episode, but that I, that now I understand the show. I understand why people loved it. I understand why they loved certain characters and hated certain characters. And I just, I feel like so much more, you know, involved somehow in this universe that we are a part of. Wow.

5:26 That's fascinating. And, and, and the, the production of the show wasn't like that for you. You were just, Did you feel like you were just like a hamster on the wheel and you just had to keep running as fast.

5:35 As you could? Yeah.

5:36 Didn't you feel that way?

5:38 I did. Yeah. Yeah, I did.

5:39 You know, there were, I mean, there were only a couple of years where it started to feel like a little overwhelming, but, uh, but it was, it was, it was, you know, it, it was, it was crazy days. Like it was nuts for us, like, you know, producing that many episodes every year and being there for 10 months a year.

5:59 How many hours do you think we were there a day? 14?

6:02 Yeah, 14.

6:05 Even on days when we only worked 11 or 12 hours, we were still there for 13, 14 hours.

6:11 Right.

6:12 No problem. Yeah.

6:13 How old were you when you started?

6:15 I was 21 when we started. Yeah. And you were 19.

6:19 I think I was 17.

6:20 You were 17.

6:22 Wait, how old are you now?

6:23 You couldn't have been. I'm 57.

6:26 I'm 54, so that makes sense. Right. Yeah. You were 18.

6:30 I don't do math. You must have been 18. You must have been 18 because hold on. So I'm assuming that because you're doing this with 90210, I'm assuming that you went back and watched every eight minute episode of Teen Angel Returns, which was the project that we actually met on.

6:48 Oh. Wait, do you remember when we met on that show? You don't. No. No, I don't either. Don't feel bad.

6:56 That was way too far back.

6:58 But I do remember, I have one picture of us from that set.

7:00 Right, yeah.

7:01 And you're behind me and we have a pink blanket over us.

7:04 Right.

7:05 Do you remember that picture?

7:05 I don't remember that.

7:06 Oh my God, I got to find it.

7:07 That's hilarious. I love that.

7:08 We must have really hit it off like immediately. Just as, the thing about our relationship is it's so weird to me because we played a boyfriend and girlfriend for years. Yeah. Like all these like crazy make out romping around in the bed scenes.

7:27 Yeah.

7:28 And you and I are friends. Like, like, I don't know. I never had the hots for you. No offense.

7:35 Right. None taken.

7:38 I had the hots for Brandon, but just you as a person, you felt always felt like such a brother to me. And then like an older brother.

7:46 Yeah.

7:46 Yeah. Yeah. But isn't that weird, though, to then, like, switch into, like, okay, action make out with your tongue in her mouth? Yeah, yeah.

7:54 Yeah, that stuff. That's always weird. It's always awkward.

7:58 But I think also it probably has to do with the fact that when we first met, when I did teenage, like, 19, 20 years old, you were just a kid.

8:07 You were, like, a kid in high school, right?

8:09 I still had my mom on set with me.

8:10 Yeah, that's right. I remember. Woo! Oh my God.

8:14 Yeah.

8:14 So there, so that, that, that's probably where the, the dynamic in our relationship was established.

8:19 Right. And so it just sort of, it just sort of stayed there.

8:22 And so wild and crazy and cool that we got to work together again. Yeah.

8:27 Yeah. It was cool.

8:28 I remember, I remember the day of walking into Aaron's house for that first table.

8:32 Read that we did.

8:33 One with the sunken living room. Yeah. Yep.

8:34 With all the cigarettes everywhere.

8:36 Never forget.

8:39 Yeah. It was awesome.

8:40 And, and I remember, and I remember seeing you and I was like, oh my God, Jenny Garth is amazing, right?

8:46 Pretty cool. It was a cool time.

8:48 Yeah. It was.

8:50 It was. Going back to your memory, I have questions.

8:53 Oh, boy. Okay. Okay.

8:55 I'm going to show you some pictures.

8:56 You know I've had a few concussions, right? Just to clarify.

8:59 We both have. It's fine. And P.S. Well, I'm just going to ask you.

9:04 Okay.

9:04 Do you remember this moment?

9:07 Oh, yeah.

9:09 You do?

9:10 Yeah.

9:11 That was one of the early... photo shoots that we did for the show, wasn't it?

9:16 No idea where this picture came from. Why are we standing on the stairs like that?

9:20 I have no idea. It seems like something... Wait, what is that shirt I'm wearing?

9:26 I can't believe you remember it. Are your sleeves rolled?

9:29 They are, of course they are.

9:30 Because look, I did that for you today.

9:31 Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you.

9:33 I rolled my sleeves just for you.

9:35 Oh my God. The nineties. They were dark days.

9:37 Okay. You remember that? I remember. Yeah. Yeah.

9:40 And I remember this was, I believe this was, uh, like in between, it was right when we first started the show because it was right before I cut my hair. I got rid of my mullet. Like I had a mullet in the pilot.

9:55 So it had to be the first season.

9:57 Yeah.

9:57 Like I had a mullet in the pilot and I think I lost the mullet right before we actually shot the show. So I think this must have happened between the pilot and us shooting the show.

10:09 But if that's so early on in the show, why would they have you and I doing a two-shot together?

10:13 I don't know. That's weird.

10:14 Like, did they know someday we were going to be Brandon and Kelly?

10:18 I don't know.

10:20 Okay, I have another one.

10:21 That's a crazy shot, though. I love that.

10:23 Do you remember this one?

10:25 Yes, of course.

10:26 You do?

10:27 Yeah, we were at the beach.

10:32 Duh, we're at the beach in the picture.

10:33 Yeah, we're at the beach, yeah.

10:36 Good memory.

10:37 This was for a magazine.

10:40 Maybe like YM or something.

10:42 Yeah, I believe it was. Yeah, it was YM. I think you're right.

10:44 Yeah. I'm remembering things.

10:45 Yeah, this was a photo shoot for a magazine.

10:47 This was a photo shoot that we did. Loved this photo shoot.

10:50 Oh, that was for Entertainment Weekly. I loved all those shots.

10:52 Those were so good.

10:53 Yeah, they were super cute, those shots.

10:55 So this was after Brandon and Kelly were like a thing.

10:58 Yes, very much so.

10:59 Oh my gosh.

11:00 Yeah.

11:01 Look how young you are.

11:02 This was the Entertainment Weekly piece we did, I think heading into the ninth season.

11:06 Look how sexy you are in that pic.

11:08 Yeah, well, thank you.

11:09 I mean, look.

11:10 At how young I was.

11:12 You know what I love about this picture, too, is that you kind of have like dark circles under your eyes. Like you look a little gritty. You don't look so brand and clean.

11:21 Yeah.

11:22 We're going to throw these pictures up on our social media so that everybody can see what we're talking about because you just have to see it. It's so good. Okay, what about this one? It's the last one. Do you remember this? No?

11:36 No. What is this from?

11:38 This is actually scaring me.

11:40 Is this from what I like about you?

11:41 No. This is scaring me that you don't remember this. This is actually the most recent thing we've done together.

11:46 Oh, of course. This was BH90210. Oh, my God.

11:50 How could I forget this?

11:51 That was hilarious that day.

11:53 Oh, my God.

11:53 That was super funny.

11:54 That was like the aftermath of us hooking up. Oh, God. What have we done? Right. You're married. Yeah. In the show.

12:00 Yes.

12:00 Oh my God. That was, and we had to, it was so weird because after all those years, we had never, we hadn't made out. Yeah. And then all of a sudden we had to like throw each other against the wall and like get really aggressive. Yeah. And then this was our reaction at the end. Like, uh oh.

12:15 Yeah, it was pretty funny.

12:16 Yeah, that was a good time.

12:17 That was pretty.

12:19 I think we shot that at like 12 a.m.

12:21 Yeah, that sounds about right.

12:23 That was like a crazy nighttime situation.

12:25 That whole shoot was pretty chaotic. I remember.

12:29 Yeah.

12:29 There was a lot of new pages flying around every day.

12:33 Every day.

12:34 There was a lot of chaos on that show.

12:37 Yeah. There were a lot of people's opinions from the network, from the producers, from all of us. Yeah. It was bonkers.

12:46 Yeah, it was.

12:47 I can't believe we actually even made six episodes.

12:51 They're actually pretty good episodes.

12:52 I actually love them.

12:53 Yeah, they're pretty good.

12:54 People either love that we did that or they hate it.

12:57 Or they hate it, yeah. It was very polarizing.

12:59 Yeah. I loved it. I thought it was fun.

13:02 You know what?

13:03 It was a big swing, right? Like we all took a pretty big swing. And like you said, some people loved it and some people didn't.

13:09 And I got to be honest, I don't think it should have gone more than six episodes or like a limited situation. Because can you imagine like all of us going back to that grind every day? You know? Yeah. I mean, you're back in the grind now because you're- you are on this, you, it's the same show. Tell me, okay.

13:30 Tell me about the show that you are doing now. Okay. Okay. So privatized West.

13:35 Coast, privatized West coast.

13:36 So it's, it's really, it's, it's like, it's like a spinoff of the original privatized that we did. Uh, the original show we shot for five seasons in Toronto.

13:45 Um, and was that ever on like American television?

13:48 Yeah, it was on, it was on, it was on, it was on ion. I think it was on ion. Um, And, uh, and so we did, we did five years and had a great time making it. Um, and then, you know, it got canceled as shows do. And then, uh, and then, and then they called us, uh, you know, about four, four years, about five years ago now. And, or no, about two years ago now. I mean, uh, and they said, what do you guys think about, uh, like doing a spinoff of the show and taking, you know, the, the lead characters, Matt and Matt and, uh, and Angie and moving them to a new city and, and, and doing, doing the show again. And so we, you know, we, we had to, we had to find the right showrunners and come up with the right idea and the right

14:32 outline for it. And in our, our new showrunners, Sarah Dodd and Jennifer Kasabian wrote an amazing script for us. And, and so we, we moved the, we took our two lead characters to Victoria in British Columbia, which is a very beautiful seaside place.

14:48 Yeah.

14:48 It's really nice. And we, and we do the show there now.

14:52 So when you say privatized West Coast, I was imagining you in California. I don't know why.

14:57 Right. No.

14:58 But you're in a more beautiful place.

14:59 Nothing shoots in California anymore.

15:01 Yes, you're right.

15:03 Privatized West Coast, they'd probably shoot in New Jersey because the tax credits are better.

15:07 That's so true. It's so sad. But it's so gorgeous. It is beautiful.

15:14 It's stunning.

15:15 The cinematography is gorgeous. Just the beautiful scenery of the location is wonderful. Another star of the show.

15:22 Yeah, very much so. Yeah, the location is definitely a character. And we, you know, and the show is different now in that, you know, originally the show was, you know, we set it up sort of like moonlighting and it was very much like will they, won't they.

15:35 Yes.

15:36 Get together type situation.

15:38 And now, you know, Shade and Angie are married and they work together and they have a baby. And so there's all new layers of complication that.

15:48 They found the cutest baby in the world.

15:50 Oh, my God, that baby. Well, they're twins, obviously, right? But both of them are amazing.

15:56 Their eyes look like they have your eyes.

15:58 Yeah.

15:58 I don't know how they did that. Because going in and I heard that you had a baby, I was like, oh, well, they're going to have to have his eyes.

16:06 Right.

16:06 Yeah.

16:07 Because your kids.

16:08 Both have your eyes. Yeah. Yeah.

16:11 Yeah. Yeah, they're good.

16:13 So I watched the show. I loved it.

16:15 Great. Thank you.

16:16 It's very fast-paced. Yeah. suspenseful and like, um, I love the like lightness of it too. The humor. It's all, I can see you throughout every scene, like your hand and everything.

16:31 Yeah.

16:31 Did you direct the first episode?

16:34 No, I directed, uh, episodes three and four of the first season, but I'm, you know, but I, I'm, you know, I, I, I was one of the producers who developed the show from the series of books that we optioned. And, uh, yeah, I do. I kind of, I do have kind of have my fingerprints all over it.

16:49 I could tell.

16:50 Yeah.

16:50 I could tell. I'm so happy for you, though. What a run.

16:53 Yeah, it's amazing to be going back and revisiting the show. Because it was on six seasons before?

17:01 Five seasons. Five seasons. Five seasons, 60 episodes.

17:04 And then we shot a 10-episode first season, and we're going back to shoot another season in the spring.

17:08 Yeah, it's crazy. It's an amazing gift to have another run at this.

17:16 I love it. And I love that you're just shooting in Canada and calling it Canada and not trying to hide it.

17:20 Yeah. Yeah. It's cool.

17:22 It's fun.

17:22 And we did that in the seasons we shot in Toronto too. We were like unabashedly, this is Toronto. And we wanted to show off all the cool stuff that's in Toronto that so many people don't want to show.

17:33 Because it's supposed to be Chicago or New York. Right.

17:35 They always try to make it somewhere else.

17:37 Yeah.

17:37 Which do you prefer? East coast, West coast, privatized?

17:40 Uh, that's a key. You know what? I, I, They're so different. I don't think I can, I couldn't, I couldn't choose one over the other.

17:47 Which one do you enjoy shooting more?

17:50 Ah, that's a good question.

17:51 Uh, well, you know, I mean, there's, there's, there was a lot I loved about shooting in Toronto because it was only an hour and a half from where I live. Uh, but, uh, but being back in British Columbia and shooting there is like, you know, that's where I'm from.

18:06 Right.

18:06 And those are, those are my people.

18:07 And it's so beautiful.

18:08 It's just really beautiful.

18:10 Well, I think that everybody's going to love the show. I know I did. Just seeing you back on camera, like, you know, I don't know. I just was, it made me so happy.

18:21 That's cool. Thanks.

18:22 I kind of wish it was me in the show with you though. I'm not going to lie. Oh, she, your, your co-star is wonderful, but yeah, I was like, Oh, that looks so fun.

18:34 You know, it is fun. We have a lot of fun making the show. Cindy and I, Cindy and I enjoy working together and, You know, we enjoy, you know, bringing up the comedy and everything.

18:43 Yeah.

18:44 Yeah. And she's really good. She can, you know, just waft back and forth between comedy and serious and, you know, action. She does it all very seamlessly.

18:54 Yes. She's great. You guys have a great chemistry, too. So everybody has to check this out. How can they find? It's on the CW.

19:01 It's on the CW. The episodes air Monday nights at 8 o'clock. Uh, but if you don't find it there, you can find it on the CW app. I think the show's available on Amazon now and Apple.

19:14 You said it airs every Monday night.

19:16 Like it's like every Monday.

19:17 Yeah. You have to wait for it.

19:18 Old school TV.

19:19 Yeah. Yeah. I can't binge it. No. Oh my God.

19:23 Yeah.

19:24 That's kind of cool. I think that people might be into that.

19:28 I think, you know, they've even started doing that on some on streaming services where the only release. Even if it's the first couple episodes and you have to wait every week.

19:35 Oh, I find that highly irritating. Yeah. I'm always so mad. Like, I'm into it. And by the time it comes on next week, I probably have forgotten everything that happened.

19:45 Right.

19:46 So thank God for the recaps. Right.

19:48 Thank God for the recaps.

19:49 I have some questions. from our fans. From our fans.

19:54 What do they call you? Like, you know, Taylor has her Swifties. What do you have your... Are they OMGs?

20:00 They're OMGers. They're OMGers, okay.

20:02 Yeah, just based on the podcast.

20:04 Yeah, copy.

20:05 But we don't have a name for, like, our fans. Like, our... Show fans?

20:09 Like 90210 fans?

20:10 No, we don't. We never had like a name for them.

20:12 That wasn't a thing back then.

20:13 No.

20:13 Nobody did that.

20:14 We didn't name them.

20:15 Maybe some of your fans could come up with some ideas of what 90210 fans could be called.

20:21 This is a great idea. Please tell us in the comments. Okay. Here's the first question. Do you think that Brandon and Kelly should have ended up together? Should they have gotten married? What do you think?

20:33 Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think so. I think that was the overall plan.

20:38 What happened?

20:40 I left.

20:42 Can't be married to Brandon if you're not there.

20:45 Can't be married to Brandon if he's in Washington, D.C.

20:47 Oh, man.

20:48 Okay.

20:48 So let's talk about that. Because you make a pretty abrupt departure in season nine. You take a job. Kelly and Brandon are falling apart.

20:57 Yeah.

20:58 Still love each other, but they need to go their separate ways. Yeah. I don't agree. But I was so pissed when they didn't get married. When I was watching the episode, I didn't remember what happened.

21:08 Right. Yeah.

21:09 And then they call off the wedding at the wedding.

21:12 Right.

21:12 And then act like everything's great.

21:14 Yeah.

21:15 It was, yeah, I was mad.

21:17 That was, well, that was, I mean, there was lots of crazy stuff that happened in that eighth season. That was John Eisendrath's first season as our showrunner. John was exceptionally talented writer, but, but, you know, we did, we did all kinds of crazy, you know, people were waking, you know, people were in comas and people were, people's twin brothers were coming to the hospital and, It started to feel very daytime-y in a way, that eight season.

21:41 That felt different, for sure. Yeah, it was definitely a departure.

21:44 I think that's everyone's consensus, too, is that season eight was a little off.

21:49 Yeah.

21:50 But we made it through all of the episodes of season eight. Thank God.

21:53 We made it through 32 episodes of it being crazy like that.

21:57 And did you know at the end of season eight that you wanted to leave?

22:01 Yes.

22:02 Had you been wanting to leave for a while?

22:04 No. Yeah.

22:05 For, I mean, I'm not, not too, too long, but, but the problem was I just, like, I couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel. And I kept talking to Aaron about it. And I was like, Aaron, man, let's, let's end this.

22:17 Let's go out on top.

22:18 The show's great. The numbers are still good. Let's, let's, let's do this. Let's call it.

22:23 Let's write, write to it, write to the ending that we want to see. And let's, let's stop the show. And, and Aaron just said, no, what are you talking about? They're going to pull me off this set in a body bag. You know, he was that guy.

22:36 That's pretty.

22:40 Good.

22:40 I pretended to have a pipe. Did you see that?

22:42 No, that was good.

22:43 And yeah, so he was, he just didn't, he said, never, I'm never ending the show. So I was like, well, I need to leave then. Like I can't, I want to go do other things with my, with my career and in my life.

22:55 Cause you already had films under your belt.

22:58 Yeah. And I, and I just wanted to go do some, some other stuff. And anyway, you know, it was unfortunate.

23:04 Like if, if I'd have known the show was only going to go for another year and a half after I left, I would have stayed.

23:08 Right. Yeah. Yeah. Because man, you, without you there. I don't know. I just, I haven't even gotten to when you, your character leaves yet. I'm not looking forward to it. Gotta be honest.

23:24 How would, like, how, how would, we've never, we've actually never talked about this. How was that last season and a half after I left?

23:30 Was it?

23:31 Oh, it was from, for me, it was, um, there were no, there were no rules. It kind of felt like it was like everybody was throwing spaghetti at the wall. a lot of people had more voices in the mix. Like a lot of the cast members kind of started running things. Right. Which I think kind of, you know, that's never a good idea. There's got to be one leader, one person driving the ship. And so I think it got a little wacky like that. And you were so missed with your presence because, you know, we didn't have, Brenda or Brandon anymore. So the show just became something else really trying to maintain what it would had always been.

24:14 And like I said, I haven't watched the rest of season nine yet. So I don't really know how I feel about it, but I just remember the feeling of just kind of being like willy nilly or like no, no leader, no one person in charge. And cause I think also because you weren't there and you were also such a, always such a, like a grounding force for the cast and, And your communication with the producers and with Aaron and the writers was you were always all over all of it. Right. And I kind of felt like protected in some way because you were so involved.

24:47 And then you were gone.

24:49 Right.

24:50 And I was mad at you. Oh, my God. I remember when you left, I was so pissed.

24:56 Really?

24:56 Do you remember? Did you ever feel it?

24:59 Yeah.

25:03 Man, I was going through so much tumult myself at that point in time.

25:07 It was tough. It was tough to leave. It was tough to leave.

25:11 I remember you driving away for the last time.

25:14 Oh, yeah. Up in Altadena.

25:16 I don't remember where it was. I feel like it was in Van Nuys.

25:20 I feel like it was at the Walsh House.

25:22 Okay.

25:23 And I got into my black Mustang convertible and I drove down the road in the opposite direction from Luke's house, if memory serves.

25:30 Dylan's house. Dylan's house, sorry.

25:34 You left and Dylan came back.

25:36 Yeah. How was that?

25:38 I don't know.

25:38 I never got a chance to.

25:41 No idea.

25:41 You don't remember?

25:43 Nope.

25:43 I mean, you'll see. You're almost there.

25:44 I'm almost there. I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Hopefully it will jog some of my.

25:48 You don't remember those episodes at all?

25:50 No.

25:50 No. Wow.

25:51 No idea what's going to happen in season nine. I'm not lying, you guys. No idea.

25:56 Wow.

25:56 I know I get a boyfriend named... Daniel, the lawyer. Matt Durning, attorney at law.

26:02 Matt Durning, yes. Daniel Cosgrove.

26:04 Daniel Cosgrove. So I think right after you leave, he comes in. Right.

26:08 Yes.

26:09 But I'm not really sure about what happens.

26:10 Right.

26:11 But it was never the same without him.

26:14 What happened?

26:16 Here's... One of the great sequences that I remember was when Kelly had that artist boyfriend.

26:23 Colin. Jason Wiles.

26:25 Colin.

26:28 And that whole.

26:28 those, you know, whatever that half season was where you guys got into doing blow and it was like cocaine everywhere. And it was, I just, I remember I directed a bunch of those episodes too. And I just, I just remember like, you know, the Fox executives calling me because I, because I'd have you guys actually like snorting lines on, on, on camera. And I get all these calls all the time.

26:53 You know, being like, dude, you can't do that. You can't show that. What standards of practice is going to be all over us? I was like, guys, I'm just doing it for the actors.

27:01 Like, relax. It was pretty funny.

27:03 It was wild. That was a wild storyline for sure.

27:06 It was nuts.

27:07 Out of nowhere, too. Yeah. Kelly.

27:11 Was that season eight or was that season seven? I feel like it was seven.

27:14 I think it might have been seven. Yeah. Yeah.

27:18 I mean. Maybe it was season eight. No.

27:20 Nope. Seven.

27:21 It was season seven, yeah.

27:22 Mm-hmm. I mean, do you remember that moment with the three of us? You, me, Luke. That's three. One, two, three. You, me, Luke. When Kelly says, I choose me.

27:34 Yes.

27:34 Do you remember filming it?

27:36 Yeah. I remember it was super windy that day, right? Like it was crazy windy that day.

27:41 And we were in like that kind of alley.

27:42 Yeah.

27:43 Between the two stages. Because we were outside the Peach Pit after dark. I thought we were outside.

27:48 I thought we were on the beach.

27:50 No.

27:50 At the beach club.

27:51 Are you serious? No, we're not at the beach club.

27:53 The I Choose News speech was outside the Peach Pit after dark?

27:56 100%.

27:57 Oh, my God. Mm-hmm.

27:59 Wow. I love it that you don't remember.

28:02 How am I misremembering that?

28:04 I feel so good about myself right now. I feel so vindicated somehow. This is so good.

28:09 So, hold on.

28:09 So, you and me and Luke are out in the parking lot outside the Peach Pit after dark.

28:14 Mm-hmm.

28:15 In... What a location. So glamorous.

28:21 Filthy.

28:22 Sexy.

28:23 Very Beverly Hills.

28:26 Yeah. Oh, yeah.

28:26 Very, very, very Beverly Hills. Very Arlita Hills. Yeah, I don't remember that at all. I thought it was a totally different time.

28:39 Oh, my God. Okay, I have another question. What was your favorite Brandon storyline? Did you have a favorite? Could you even pull one out of your butt right now?

29:00 No, I couldn't.

29:01 No.

29:01 I could not.

29:02 There's so many.

29:03 You know, because Brandon was like, you know, Brandon was like the, he was the moral compass of the show.

29:09 Or he tried to be.

29:11 He tried to be. He had, you know, so he sort of had to be the center of the eye of the storm, right? So everyone, all y'all were like doing all kinds of nutty stuff.

29:21 And Brandon was just sort of, you know, sitting there and. Looking at everybody and, you know, wagging his finger at everyone.

29:27 Be careful, kids. Someone might get hurt.

29:30 He was, he was, he, you know, especially after the wall, especially after Jim and Cindy left, I feel like, you know, Brandon became the parent of everybody.

29:40 On the show.

29:40 Yeah. But do you feel like that was kind of the way it was behind the scenes too?

29:45 I mean, I tried to be, I tried to be the, I tried to be the tent pole for everybody. Right. And, and hold everything together.

29:51 And, and I took my responsibilities as number one on the call sheet very seriously.

29:56 Mm-hmm.

29:57 Um, and, uh, and tried to, I, I, I tried to be that. I tried to be that, the, the, the, the calm at the, at the center of it for everybody.

30:06 Because coming in to that position in 1990, you really, that was, you were making it up as you were going. Like you did not have, you know, the experience of being the cornerstone of an entire ensemble cast. Yeah.

30:19 I'd never been number one on the call sheet before. Maybe I was on Teen Angel, but, uh, you know, that was, small potatoes compared to what we were doing.

30:28 Um, this was a grueling series. Yeah, it was months and months and months.

30:34 Yeah.

30:34 And it was, and it was important for me to, to be there and to, and to keep morale up and keep everybody on the same page and, you know, make sure that everybody was getting everything they needed. You know, that was a, yeah, that was something that was something I took very seriously. Now, you know, also I had tons of help, you know, Paul Wagner and our producers were all great. Chuck and Larry and all those guys.

30:55 And then when Betty Reardon came, Betty was a big help, I think, to a lot of us. So yeah, it was something I took very seriously.

31:04 It's so interesting, though, that it kind of was art imitating life.

31:09 Yeah. Yeah, it kind of was.

31:12 I mean, just within the context of our set and the dynamic. In those dressing rooms and, you know.

31:18 Remember that long hallway of dressing rooms?

31:20 Oh, yeah. Yeah. The blue carpet.

31:24 The blue carpet. Yeah.

31:26 Oh, and the video game room down at the end of the hallway where all of us, for people who don't know, all the guys were at like one end of the hallway. And we're at least me and Luke and Brian were all at.

31:36 The end of the hallway. Ian was in the middle of the hallway with you guys. But we were all down at the end of the hallway and there was an empty dressing room there. And so we started buying video games. like full-size arcade video games and putting them in that room. And so me and Luke and Brian would just be there playing video games all day.

31:53 All day.

31:54 Having the time of our lives.

31:55 Yeah.

31:55 Yeah, it was great. Super fun.

31:57 Do you miss those times?

31:59 I do, yeah. We had a great time making that show. I mean, I know we all talk a lot about the hours and how hard it was and how grueling the seasons were, but I just remember being at work and having fun all the time and all of us laughing. And, you know, and having a good time, you know, despite the, you know, whatever crazy storyline we were working on, I think we all had, I think we all had a lot of fun together, which, which, which, which I think is, is, is a reason that we've all remained friends all these years.

32:33 Like we all, we all really, like we, like we connected at work and we had a great time at work. But then we worked together for 12, 14 hours and then go out drinking and like hanging out.

32:42 Yeah. Right? I didn't. I mean, a few times.

32:45 You did later.

32:46 Yeah.

32:46 Earlier. Once you were of age.

32:49 No, I don't even think. Once I was of age, I was probably pregnant with my first kid. Yeah.

32:54 Well, yeah, that didn't take long.

32:56 No.

32:56 Yeah.

33:00 You were an early adopter. You were the earliest adopter of all of us. You were the first one to have a kid.

33:04 I think Gab was. Gab had a baby.

33:08 Oh, I know.

33:10 I know.

33:10 I know Gab did, but I thought that was the year six. Yeah.

33:14 I had my, yeah. She was the first.

33:16 Was, was, was your first pregnancy?

33:18 That one that I, that I had to hide in the, the, the, the episode we shot at the Wiltern theater where I always had you walking.

33:24 In and I was wearing a tent.

33:27 That was, that was Luca Bella. That was your first. Wow. Okay. So yeah, maybe Gab was first year. I think you're right.

33:33 But then she left.

33:35 Yeah.

33:35 So, Yeah, it was a little different. What do you think you learned from that? Like, I know for me, like in retrospect, looking back as a 54-year-old woman and like kind of taking stock of your life.

33:48 Yeah.

33:48 And those were 10 incredibly intense, pivotal years for us.

33:56 Yeah.

33:57 Formative years. Yeah. For so many of us, all of us, I think. What do you look back on and think like, wow, I'm... I could have done this better or I'm so proud of that.

34:08 Uh, I, I, I feel like I'm proud of, of the show that we made. And I feel like I'm, I I'm, I'm proud of the way that I, um, uh, conducted myself most of the time. Uh, you know, but no, nobody's perfect.

34:24 Unfortunately, but I.

34:26 Tried, I tried, I did. I definitely did my best. And so I, so I'm proud of, uh, of what we did and what we were able to accomplish. You know, you know, you know, uh, Sky Italia bought the rights to the original series and they air three episodes every Thursday in prime time, uh, in Italy. And, and apparently it's the number, our show, our show again now is the number one show in Italy.

34:50 Oh my God.

34:51 Isn't that insane?

34:52 I love that because I love, you know, our fans from Italy are the, you know, we have fans in France, Germany and Japan, like everywhere.

35:02 Yeah.

35:03 The global impact of the show was massive. And I don't know if that happens anymore.

35:10 No. And also for us to have these fans from 1990s, from the 1990s, that watch each of us and follow along with our work and our stories and as humans and, and actors, like those fans are so loyal. We have the best fans.

35:31 Yeah, we did. We had great fans.

35:33 They're still for us today. Yeah.

35:35 A hundred percent.

35:36 I'm sure those are the people that are watching privatized West coast. It's our fans from back in the day. And they, they have, they, you know, well, they sort of grew up with us, right? Like, although, although we weren't quite, quite as young as they were, you know, like we all sort of grew up together.

35:50 Right. Did you ever, ever anybody tell you, Oh my God, Watching 90210 was the reason I moved to America. Have you ever heard that?

36:00 I have heard that. Yes. I have heard that.

36:04 It makes sense.

36:05 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

36:06 Because nobody knew what it was like. Right. You know, in this crazy world that we showed them.

36:11 Yeah.

36:12 And it looks so good. I wanted to be a part of it. You know?

36:15 It looked so good. And yet, right? That's the magic of film.

36:19 That's the magic.

36:20 Magic of storytelling. I know.

36:21 We were in a... Warehouse and Van Nuys.

36:24 Yep, that's right.

36:25 No windows.

36:27 No windows.

36:29 But we did it.

36:30 We did it.

36:30 Okay, I'm going to do one more question.

36:34 From a fan. Yes.

36:36 You make a cameo in season 10 finale through a video appearance.

36:41 Yes.

36:41 Why didn't you come back in person?

36:45 I did that cameo via video because I was in London doing a play in the West End.

36:53 I couldn't, I couldn't leave. And so Missy Halperin flew to London and shot it with me and then flew back, flew back with her camcorder in her hand and away she went.

37:07 Oh my God. I mean, I feel like I could ask you girls. Okay. This is one more because it's funny. If you were a single girl watching the show, would you want to date Dylan or Brandon? Which one would you hide the hots for?

37:24 If I was a teenage girl.

37:25 Yeah. It's going to take some imagination.

37:28 If I was a teenage girl, I would, I'd be into bad boys. Yeah. So it'd be good for sure. Oh, yes.

37:36 That's so honest. I love it. Because that's what we do.

37:39 Yeah.

37:40 But I think, especially with Kelly and Brandon, like she, Kelly ultimately decided that stability and like less drama was better. That's why she went with Brandon, and I feel like that's why they should have gotten married.

37:57 Yes, but I also understand that Kelly wanted to go on a journey of self-discovery because she was with Steve Sanders, and then she went through all this stuff with Dylan. And I always felt like Kelly was sort of, grappling with that like who am i without a boyfriend who am i on my own it doesn't.

38:20 Even happen because she then goes gets another boyfriend yes right after she said i choose me right she goes with colin right the next episode there's there's no choosing me there whatsoever.

38:32 That was your journey of self-discovery yeah it was very cocaine is a powerful drug.

38:36 Kids Don't do it. Was it weird directing me doing cocaine when I was like, I've never done cocaine. I have no idea what this is like.

38:45 Yes.

38:46 Do you remember the episode where you guys went to this crazy drug house in Los Feliz?

38:51 With that creepy guy?

38:52 Yeah. Jamie Bozian was his name. He's an actor buddy of mine.

38:55 Yep.

38:56 And with Gordon Curry.

38:57 Yes, Gordon.

38:58 Top 40. Love him.

39:00 Yeah. I just remember shooting that night. I don't know how crazy it all got in there.

39:06 It was crazy.

39:07 Freaking awesome it was like it was like a drug den.

39:09 Oh yeah totally it totally was it was great our set deck guys did such a great job making that house look super sketchy it was really.

39:18 Fun oh we did we had the best crew yeah we did wait i i have one question i'm as a you know fan of the show who was your favorite girlfriend who was your favorite like female co-star to work with? You better say that. You were. No, just kidding.

39:33 Of course you were.

39:34 No, seriously. But, like, you had so many. You had the ice skater. You had Emily Valentine. You had the newspaper girl.

39:42 Jill.

39:42 Remember Jill?

39:43 Oh, Jill, yeah.

39:43 Then you had the, so many.

39:45 And the broad, the Emma Caulfield.

39:47 Uh-huh, Emma Caulfield.

39:48 Yeah, and Jill Novak. No, Vic. Yeah, there was a lot of them. But you were my favorite, always.

39:54 Aw. Have you ever talked about the porn?

40:06 The porn duplication facility next door? Yeah.

40:09 You've talked about it? Yeah.

40:10 Okay.

40:13 No, there was a... Because there was a porn... You're saying it was a duplication. What does that even mean? I thought they were shooting porn in there.

40:21 No, they weren't.

40:22 Okay. So there were many days when all the guys would go missing just for like lunch, whatever. Yeah. Couldn't find y'all anywhere.

40:30 Right.

40:31 Come to find out you were next door at what I always thought was a porn studio where they were actually filming porn. I'm so disappointed right now.

40:42 Yes.

40:43 Your, your version of it is far sexier than what was really happening. So, you know, as everybody in the world knows, Van Nuys is porn capital USA.

40:52 Yeah. If you don't know that, now you do.

40:54 Congratulations, Van Nuys.

40:59 Yay!

41:00 So right next door, it was right next, it shared a wall with the Peach Pit After Dark, actually.

41:05 Yeah.

41:05 Same building.

41:06 And it was a porno, it was a porn videotape duplication place. Oh, that's so boring. Oh my God.

41:12 It was just shelves and shelves and shelves of VCRs. And there'd be one VCR playing it and all, you know, a hundred VCRs re-recording it. And it was, yeah. And so we would go over there and all the girls who worked in the office, they were like, oh my God, it's tonight at 2-0, guys. And we go in there and they would just go, oh, have you seen this one?

41:29 Have you heard of this actress? And they would give us bags of porn. Like they couldn't give it to us fast enough. It was hilarious.

41:39 That's a much boring, much more boring visual for me. Yeah. I had... A lot of different stories.

41:44 You thought we were over there like having a smoke, watching it actually go down.

41:48 Hanging out, yeah.

41:49 Yeah, that would have been way more exciting.

41:52 But you got VHS tapes for free, so.

41:56 I got VHS tapes and I'm selling on Etsy right now.

42:00 Oh my God, people are rushing right now. Etsy.com, Jason Priestley porn tapes. Oh, I think we've covered so much. I could talk to you for the rest of my life. No.

42:13 I really could talk to you for that. You're going to have to, because like in November, we're going to be in Paris for four years.

42:19 I'm so glad you're coming. Yeah.

42:20 Yeah. That's good. That's good.

42:21 Also, I just want to talk to you about one thing about, you know, losing Luke and Shannon and the, did you come to this like harsh reality that I guess it's not a harsh reality. I guess it's a more of a realization that no matter what happens in any of our lives, when something upsetting, dramatic, tragic happens, we will all be part of that conversation. Like when something happens in my personal life, you would all be pulled into it somehow.

42:56 Yeah. Yeah. Because we are forever lashed together because of our shared experience. Right. And, and I think it's, it's also just a way for, for when those things get, get, get out in the media. It's a way for the media to like set the tent pole of, you know, of who that person is and what that person, what, what that person's contribution to society was.

43:25 How do you feel about that? Like I have mixed feelings about it. Part of me is really, I feel like a familial, it feels nice. There's something really comforting about it. But then there's also part of me that's like, that's just one chapter of my life.

43:44 Yes, it was, it was, it was, it was just one chapter for all of us. And I, but it's, I, I think that kind of thing is, is less about our experience and more about the fan experience and the people who, the people who watched our show for 10 years and are now sharing it with their kids, you know, like it's, it's, it's really for them.

44:06 Right. Yeah. I mean, I, I, like I said, our fans are the best.

44:12 Yeah.

44:13 We love still connecting with them and just making them happy or go back to that moment in their lives when things were easier, when they were able to sit down and watch an hour of TV without checking their phones.

44:26 Right.

44:26 Or when they were just so caught up in it.

44:29 Right.

44:30 I think, I think that's why the whole nineties nostalgia thing is happening right now.

44:34 Right.

44:34 Everyone just, everyone's, everyone's longing for a simpler life.

44:37 Like in fact, And that was kind of, you know, right before the dam burst and everything changed.

44:43 Yeah, right before the phones.

44:45 We had the phones and the internet and the smartphones and all that stuff. Like, it was really in its infancy back then. But then, you know, very quickly things changed.

44:54 Yeah. Would you go back to the 90s?

44:57 I loved the 90s. Are you kidding me? 90s were great. I remember the first....

45:04 I remember the first cell phone i bought it was like you know it's like a brick right it was with mitsubishi phone and antenna that didn't go down and it cost so much to use i would still pull over and use pay phones if if i could because you know i had my calling card i could like use my pay phone oh my god calling card calling cards.

45:22 Remember that um and i kind of just had the Kind of just had the cell phone for emergencies, I think.

45:30 Or just to look cool?

45:31 No, I didn't. It didn't look cool. It looked like it was holding a big black brick on my face.

45:37 I remember them.

45:39 Yeah, it was pretty funny.

45:42 If you could go back.

45:43 Way too sensible. Like, why was I so sensible?

45:45 You were very sensible.

45:46 Really?

45:47 You pulled over to use a payphone, really?

45:48 Yeah. When I had this perfectly good cell phone in my hand.

45:51 Beepity, beep, bracelet. The biggest heartthrob in the world.

45:57 Pulling over to use a payphone. Oh, my God.

46:03 Do your kids have any idea how big it was?

46:08 It was back then?

46:09 We were.

46:10 I think so.

46:11 They do.

46:12 It got, yeah.

46:13 Like, you know, when my daughter was in middle school, one of her middle school teachers, I was picking her up at school one day or something, and her middle school teacher was like, that's your dad. I used to have a poster of him up on my bed. And my daughter was like, what?

46:28 Why?

46:28 Why would you do that?

46:31 Your daughter had a 90210 themed birthday party, didn't she? Or no, it was a dance.

46:36 It was a 90s dance.

46:37 Uh-huh.

46:39 Yeah.

46:39 So, and I remember this. Yeah.

46:41 And she got all dressed up. She, she was really funny.

46:45 And there was, and then there was a, there was like this nineties, like a makeup palette that somebody didn't have.

46:52 I had all her pictures on it.

46:53 Right.

46:54 It was the 90210 nineties palette.

46:55 I have that.

46:56 And of course, you know, there's Ava, my daughter using all the colors.

47:03 That was hilarious. Yeah. It's really, it's really funny.

47:06 I feel like, um, When my kids were little, they didn't understand it all. You know, we'd be at the, you know, the Studio City Farmer's Market and people would come up and want to, you know, shake my hand or take a picture or something. And my kids were always like, Daddy, why do those people want a picture with you?

47:22 What's going on? And that was really fun. That was the most fun time.

47:26 And then my daughter decided that she wanted to watch 90210 with me. And so we sat down and we got through about a season and a half. We had through the first season and a half. And then she was like, yeah, dad, I think I'm done with this.

47:42 Oh, God. You're like, wait, I'm just getting into it. You're like, but it's so good.

47:48 What do you mean? What are you talking about, honey? She's like, yeah, the cars, the jeans.

47:55 Now she probably has a much different perspective. Yeah. Yeah.

47:59 She was like 13 or 14.

48:00 Now it's just cool. Now that she's an adult, I think she appreciates it a little differently.

48:07 Wow.

48:08 Adult.

48:08 That's crazy. Oh my God.

48:10 Speaking of adults, how old are your girls?

48:14 29. 29?

48:16 Yeah. How can that be?

48:18 I don't know. That's Luca. Oh my God. Wow. Yeah. That was the baby on set with us. Yeah.

48:26 I remember.

48:26 Then Lola was a baby on What I Like About You. Yeah. And you came on that show. And then Fiona was... So Lola's about to be 24, and Fiona is 20. Wow.

48:41 Happens way too fast, doesn't it?

48:42 Too fast.

48:43 Yeah.

48:44 I don't know what the hell we're going to do when.

48:46 I'm right there, too.

48:48 My son's got two more years with us, and then he's—not even two, like a year and a half.

48:52 Yeah.

48:53 Oh, it's like, oh, wow, yeah. Well, your house just starts to feel empty. Empty. And it's too quiet.

49:00 Like there's something about the chaos of being a parent.

49:04 That you— Yeah.

49:05 That you accept and it becomes the norm. And then when that goes away, I think that's what leads to a lot of these feelings of just nothingness, right? Because you're so used to fighting it out in the chaos. I can fix this.

49:19 I could be in two places at one time.

49:21 Everything.

49:22 And then it just stops.

49:23 It's like screeches to a halt.

49:27 Yeah.

49:27 And then they don't need you anymore. They don't, well, they need you, but they don't want you unless they want you. They ask you. Yes.

49:33 Yes. Unless they want money.

49:35 Oh, yeah. God dang Venmo. Apple Pay. You're killing me, Larry. Make it a little more difficult for my kid to ask for money.

49:44 Right.

49:47 Oh, Jason, I love you so much.

49:49 Thanks, Jenny. I love you, too. This has been fun.

49:50 I'm so happy you're here. Okay, that was so much fun. Guys, do not miss Jason's new series, Private Eyes West Coast. It's on Monday nights at 8 p.m. on The CW.