Show comparison

When I was a very young, about 5-6 years old, my favourite TV show was Happy Days. We used to watch it with my brother even if we didn’t really understand all the themes that were being handled in the show. Then later on when I was 15 they started showing Beverly Hills 90210 in Finland, which immediately became my favourite TV show. Today it hit me. Beverly Hills 90210 was a modern version of Happy Days! It is so obvious when you think about it but it never really crossed my mind even though I watched them both with great interest. Let’s compare them a bit: HD = Happy Days and BH = Beverly Hills 90210.

What were the similarities? In HD the main character was Richard “Richie” Cunningham who was all-around nice guy, little naive, always pondering moral issues of thing and trying to do the right thing. His counterpart in BH was Brandon Walsh with the same description. Then there’s a cool guy’s role. In HD it belongs to Fonzie (Arthur Fonzarelli) who presented young rebel who all girls love and who does things on his own way without having morality problems. In BH the role belonged to Dylan McKay, same rebel of different decade. Then there are characters that provide comical aspect to the show. In HD there are Potsie (Ralph Weber) and Ralph Malph who both never really have anything serious to say about anything. In BH there are Steve Sanders, David Silver and Scott Scanlon. Comedy aspect is not so strong in BH than it was in HD but it’s still there. Then there is always a wise father with his advices to every situation. In HD that was Howard Cunningham and in BH Jim Walsh. The advices that they offer to moral & other issues were pretty much the same. Then there is a sister. In HD Richie’s sister Joanie was quite a lot younger than him so her role was very different (and much less influential) compared to BH where Brandon’s twin sister Brenda shared the main character’s role. There are other similarities as well. Like the place where people gather to hang out. In HD it was drive-in restaurant called Arnold’s and in BH it was a diner called The Peach Pit.

And what were the differences? In HD the show was always built around Richie while in BH other characters than Brandon & Brenda got plenty of screen time as well. The lack of female characters in HD – if we forget Richie’s sister and mother then only female characters we see in the show are girlfriends of Richie. In BH there were lots of female characters and since the show had two main characters it was much more equal in gender aspect. Another difference is character development. It’s hardly visible in HD while in BH characters change a lot when show progresses. Also treatment of themes of the shows showed difference. Though they often shared the exact same theme so that for example Richie is having the exact same moral problem as Brandon does – the situation and solving it is presented much more naively in HD compared to BH that was much more courageous in that aspect.

But I sure enjoyed them both :)