"Beverly Hills, 90210" Flashback: "The First Time"
Posted August 14th, 2008 by Rich Heldenfels
Paula Irvine played Sheryl, the first girl Brandon Walsh slept with. But where is she now?
Season 1, Episode 4, "The First Time." Premiered Oct. 25, 1990. Brandon has sex, Brenda's hot for teacher. Dylan wears some tragic pants. Synopsis and comments after the jump.
Synopsis: Brandon is missing Minneapolis, complaining about the lack of fall in California, too much heat, no leaves changing color. Then he gets a phone call from "Minneapolis Sheryl" (Paula Irvine), his ex-girlfriend from back home. She's coming to visit. Word spreads at school, and Brandon has conversations about it with Andrea, Dylan and David Silver (basically a complete stranger to Brandon, introducing himself as "Steve Sanders' friend.") Meanwhile, Brenda, Kelly and Donna are all fascinated with their handsome algebra teacher, Matt Brody (Tim Dunigan). Matt asks to talk to Brenda after class; she fantasizes, but he just wants her to babysit.
Brandon and Brenda get home to discover that Sheryl has arrived early. The reunion is warm. That night, Brandon asks Sheryl to sneak into his room. She is hesitant, but late at night does so. Cindy, suspicious, hears the doors and knows something is up. She asks Jim to talk to Brandon; he agrees, but the next morning Brandon and Sheryl go out to see the sights before Jim can have The Talk.
All is going well until Brandon takes Sheryl to lunch at the Bel Age so she can meet Dylan. She is intrigued by his glamorous life and his offer to get them into Contact, a hot club (which ends up looking like every other club on "90210" so far). Sheryl asks Brenda about Dylan, who says he's "a bit of a wild child." That night, Sheryl asks to ride in Dylan's Porsche while Brandon takes Brenda to babysit.
Dylan and Sheryl have preceded Brandon into the club, and Brandon has had trouble getting past the bouncer. He also finds the other two dancing close. Confrontation ensues, Dylan says Sheryl hit on him, Brandon punching Dylan. "You better figure out who your friends are," Dylan warns. Brandon confronts Sheryl, who tells him that she had sex before. She takes off in a cab.
Meanwhile, Brenda is learning that hunky teacher is a mess at home — bitchy wife, bratty kids. It kills her crush. When she gets home, Brenda finds Cindy going through Sheryl's things; turns out Sheryl has run away from home.
Brandon goes the Bel Age to talk to Dylan; Sheryl is there. "The girl's got problems," Dylan declares while Sheryl is hurling in the bathroom. Turns out she is unhappy with her life at home and felt safer and happier with the Walsh's — so Brandon saw the happy Sheryl, not the sad one. She also admits that she ran away from home. Brandon's solution: ice cream. When she and Brandon go back to the Walsh house, she calls her mother. She then flies home, but not before telling Brandon that sex was special with him and he is a wonderful lover — which Brenda overhears.
After Sheryl leaves, Jim tries to have The Talk with Brandon while they play basketball, although the discussion includes awkwardly phrased Jim questions like, "Sheryl get off OK?" Brandon notes that they had the sex talk when he was 10, and that Jim should just tell Cindy that "we were careful."
Comments: The fourth episode in a row with A Girl With A Problem, which should tell you how stuck "90210" is, and how much it is trying to reach a female audience. Also, the focus continues to be on Brenda and Brandon; Dylan is a little more in the mix, albeit in the context of Brandon's story, but Kelly and Donna remain window dressing. Brandon's self-righteousness is at least bent a little into hot-headed behavior. Cindy and Jim seem to have settled even more into contrasting parental styles: she wants to be involved while he is willing to let them make mistakes.
On the issue of teen sex, the episode does at least deal a bit with responsible behavior. Before they have sex, Sheryl asks Brandon, "Do you have protection?" And he does. Then, at the end, Brandon tells his father that he and Sheryl were "careful." But the sex between Sheryl and Brandon is still idealized, with Brandon extremely cheerful the next morning and Sheryl's telling him he was wonderful, so there's no hint to the teen audience that real-life sex can be more complicated, especially for a first-timer.
Other notes:
– Paula Irvine, who plays Sheryl, went on to star in "Phantasm II" but seems to have gotten out of acting. One old "Phantasm" site said she married, had kids and was majoring in communications somewhere, but that's about all I could find.
– Tim Dunigan, who played Matt Brody, has a modest list of IMDB credits after "90210" — although it notes that, seven years earlier, he played Face in the original "A-Team" pilot before being replaced by Dirk Benedict. Still, of the Brody family, the most notable actor is Ross Malinger as the bad-behaving son; he went on to, among other things, playing Tom Hanks's son in "Sleepless in Seattle."
– Andrea's name pronunciation continues to vary, as AN-drea and AHN-drea at different points in the episode.
– A couple of serious fashion tragedies in "The First Time." Dylan, at the high school, is wearing blue checked pants that fall somewhere between pajamas and parachute pants. Genuinely ugly, and way out of character for Dylan; I can imagine some discussion about getting him into cooler clothes, and then considerable regret when they saw the result. Also, Jim plays basketball in a red tank top that's just not a good idea when you're as big a fur-ball as James Eckhouse.
– No mention of the Peach Pit job Brandon got in the previous episode.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I just assume that what Sheryl really meant was, "That 90 seconds was somewhat less awkward than expected, so thanks, I guess." At least Brandon seems like the kind of guy who would have been reading up on anatomy and technique ever since he hit puberty; it wouldn't be like him not study for the big test, you know?
I always liked that when Jim and Cindy react very poorly to learning that Brenda and Dylan had sex, Brenda calls them out on their double standard for thinking it was no big deal when Brandon did it as long as he was careful. And the Walshes actually agree with that, and feel like jerks about it.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:25 am
You're getting ahead of me! But, while I didn't mention it in the synopsis, Brenda also called Cindy out on a double standard in "The First Time" — saying that "if this was me, you'd be freaking out." "Sweetheart," Cindy replies, "I am freaking out." But they are rather calm, and Jim lets Brandon pass on The Talk that night.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Sorry! I have a hard time not thinking of the entire show as a single unit! It's been ages since I've seen this episode, so I didn't remember that Brenda and Cindy discussed that. But does it really count as freaking out if you have to tell someone you're freaking out? Because there wasn't any doubt when it was Brenda's turn.
I just know I'm going to break down and buy the DVDs with the crappy replacement music now.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I understand. I can't help thinking at times about where characters are headed. And when chatting with some classic "90210" viewers today, the conversation drifted back and forth between those first four episodes and later seasons. But as much as possible, I am trying to keep the comments focused on the individual episodes — and am happy that I barely remember what I watched of the show 18 years ago. But I will make one small leap ahead here: In the fifth episode, when Jim and Brandon play basketball, Jim has ditched the tank top for a T-shirt…
August 14th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I really dig the recaps, but to not include Brandon blasting Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" the following morning is a cardinal sin. That part always cracks me because even in these older episodes Brandon is just so damn subtle.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
No need to buy the DVDs, every day on Soapnet at 5 and 6 they show episodes of 90210 in order. Last year, I started with the first and DVRd them every day until I watched the entire series in order. I was a big fan of the show the first time around, but lost interest in the latter seasons, after the characters were in college. As an adult, I actually ended up enjoying them. Despite the bad acting, I think it's a great show. Not sure how I feel about the idea of a remake though.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
As I think I mentioned in the post about the pilot, you can also find episodes streaming online in the TV classics section of CBS.com. Not sure how many seasons are there — it may just be those that are on DVD — but you can start from the beginning.
And I'm going to have to double-check, but I think the big band music in that scene is now generic instead of being "In the Mood."
August 14th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Yes, just checked. They substituted other music.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Man am I loving these recaps. I was a freshman in high school when 90210 started. I'd watch reruns on WGN everyday when I was in college. Dylan McKay was, and still is, my hero.
When the shows rerun on SoapNet (I wish I had it) do they have the original music or is some of it subbed like on the DVD's?
I haven't seen Season 1 in a while. Are they supposed to be juniors in high school? I believe the show cheated at some point and had them all repeat a year at some point. 'Cause David Silver and Scott Scanlon (R.I.P.) sort catch up age wise right?
August 14th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I have not checked the SoapNet replays but will try at some point. The show did play with the characters' grade level to get David into the same class as everyone else, but I have not gotten to those episodes yet.
By the way, the new "90210" starts on Sept. 1, by which time I will still have a lot of classic "90210" yet to cover. Is there any interest in my continuing the classic recaps?
August 14th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I remember they got Silver into college with the rest of the gang by having him take double classes his junior year to catch up. Which was pretty silly given no high schooler has ever done that in order to graduate with his friends and of course David wasn't that smart.
I vote for more classic recaps. I just can't see the new version being any good.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:02 am
They also moved Silver up to a sophomore while keeping the other characters juniors before that. Then, at least, he only had to jump a year.
Episode 5 discussion coming up.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Yeah, Brandon and the others are all juniors in the first season, then they're still juniors in season two (with a bunch of summer break episodes in between), while David gets to advance a grade. It's never commented on.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:02 am
And all this has caused confusion. The authoritative "Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows," also known as "Brooks & Marsh," says Brandon and Brenda were sophomores when the show began, even though Brendan tells hottie lawyer Jason in the first episode that she's a junior at West Beverly — "a 16-year-old junior," she emphasizes.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I'm interested in continuing to read these recaps if you want to keep doing them.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I enjoy these recaps very much. I was a little older than the characters, so I didn't really get into watching them right away & I missed a lot of the early episodes. It's fun to hear how it started.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
"Yes, just checked. They substituted other music."
Awww man, that is just weak sauce by the 90210 DVD people. Terrible.
BTW, please continue to do these recaps, they're pretty awesome.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Does anyone know who sings or what the name of the song is that is playing in the pilot episode where Brandon is on the motorcycle with the girl that throws a party?