In the pantheon of teen characters, there was no one better suited to bring an edge to the journey of girlhood, when we’re eager to fit in and grow up, than Shannen Doherty. The actor, who died Saturday at 53, was in her late teens when she took on the role of Brenda Walsh on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and her experience echoed that of the character she’s best known for.
Brenda was a baby-faced good girl from Minnesota with an attractive twin brother who moved with her family to L.A.’s most famous and posh ZIP Code during her formative high school years. Doherty was a transplant from Memphis, Tenn., who as a child was discovered while performing in a church play.
Doherty, as Brenda, spent countless hours keeping us company on TV with an unforgettable and relatable portrayal of a teenage girl dealing with competing emotions — insecurity, angst and rebelliousness among them. Her character was ambitious, ready to find her place among L.A.’s elite. “I’m not going to miss Minneapolis. Nobody knows me out here, I can be anybody; I can be somebody,” says Brenda when we first meet her in the “90210” pilot.
Shannen Doherty is flanked by her “Beverly Hills, 90210” co-stars Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering in 2019.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision/AP)
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Brenda began as a sheepish character, but she was determined to fit in the moment she set foot in West Beverly High. She quickly struck up a friendship with cool girls Kelly (Jennie Garth) and Donna (Tori Spelling), while also immediately developing the desire to replicate their confidence and style. At one point, being one of the few brunets in a sea of blonds vying for the attention of a boy, she attempts to lighten her hair, frying it in the process. But in time, the new girl became the it girl when she began dating the coolest boy in school, Dylan McKay (Luke Perry). She also excelled at ignoring her parents’ advice and wishes and brought us along as she developed an interest in performing.
As the series went on, she illustrated what it was like to be a complex figure not just onscreen — Brenda was a rarity among teenage female characters at the time — but off screen as well. The vitriol toward Doherty and her character even resulted in a newsletter called “I Hate Brenda,” which printed gossip and ire about the actor, becoming a flash point for how people perceived strong, misunderstood women.
You could hate her one moment — like the time she slapped Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) in drama class because she was jealous of Andrea’s closeness to the teacher, whom she had a crush on. And then root for her in the next — like when she came to the defense of her friends at a slumber party after Kelly’s cool but mean friend Amanda tried to belittle them. Or cry with her in another — like when she broke up with Dylan after a pregnancy scare, forever altering what we feel when we hear R.E.M’s “Losing My Religion.”
Reevaluating her character now, you can see how we had her all wrong — she was just a young person figuring out life, making immature missteps and whining while sometimes being annoying or mean in the process. Why hadn’t we given her more grace when she was betrayed by her best friend, who had hooked up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend while she was in Paris? “I thought you guys were my friends. I loved you. I trusted you both,” Brenda screams at them. “I hate you both! Never talk to me again.” Though Brenda was hardly perfect and her actions sometimes merited criticism, she often deserved more understanding. The same could be said of Doherty as she navigated fame.
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Created by Darren Star and backed by the prolific TV producer Aaron Spelling, “Beverly Hills, 90210” was appointment-viewing, laying the foundation for the teen drama genre. The show was revolutionary in its exploration of high school life, with its discussions of sex and social strata. It turned its mostly little-known cast into superstars who incited mall mobs. As they rocketed to fame, Doherty generated plenty of tabloid fodder — headlines buzzed about behind-the-scenes drama with her castmates, her reputation for hard partying and domestic disputes with partners.
The show was a compelling and early hit for an ascendant Fox Network, and it was ‘90s TV at its finest. And as Brenda, Doherty was a big reason why. It’s why it‘s impossible to imagine “Beverly Hills, 90210” without Brenda Walsh. But along the way, Doherty and the “bad girl” persona that Brenda exemplified became intertwined, propelling her exit from the show after a rocky tenure. And again, reevaluating it all with some distance, you wonder what we may have had wrong about Doherty.
Shannen Doherty in 2010. Love her or hate her, the actor and her character deserved more.
(Evan Agostini / Associated Press)
She was written out in 1994 after the show’s fourth season. The final stretch was a roller coaster that included her character returning home after a brief stint at the University of Minnesota and rumors of a casting couch situation after she landed the lead in a production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at the fictional California University, where the characters matriculated. When the show returned for its fifth season, Brenda’s absence was explained by saying she had moved to London to study acting. It was an unsatisfactory conclusion for Doherty and a character that had so indelibly defined what it was like to be a teenager for a generation — love her or hate her, she deserved more.
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That Doherty and Perry both died in their early 50s, roughly the same age as many of their original “90210” fans, is a sobering reminder of the passage of time for a generation that feels too old to be young and too young to be old. But there’s a comfort in knowing that they live on forever as Brenda and Dylan, at least onscreen and in our minds, heading to Baja against her parents’ orders and dancing the night away. That was the power of their performances.
Not every actor is lucky enough to have even one character pierce the zeitgeist the way that Doherty did. She leaves a legacy that includes not only Brenda, but at least two other era-defining pop culture roles: Heather Duke in “Heathers” and Prue Halliwell in “Charmed.”
Bad girl or not, there’s no denying the goodness of that.
by Sean P. Aune | January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 10:30 am EST
Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
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This time around, it’s Jan. 10, 1986, and we’re off to see Black Moon Rising.
Black Moon Rising
What was the obsession in the 1980s with super vehicles?
Sam Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is hired to steal a computer tape with evidence against a company on it. While being pursued, he tucks it in the parachute of a prototype vehicle called the Black Moon. While trying to retrieve it, the car is stolen by Nina (Linda Hamilton), a car thief working for a car theft ring. Both of them want out of their lives, and it looks like the Black Moon could be their ticket out.
Blue Thunder in the movies, Airwolf and Knight Rider on TV, the 1980s loved an impractical ‘super’ vehicle. In this case, the car plays a very minor role up until the final action set piece, and the story is far more about the characters and their motivations.
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The movie is silly as you would expect it to be, but it is never a bad watch. It’s just not anything particularly memorable.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Jan. 17, 2026, with The Adventures of the American Rabbit, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Iron Eagle, The Longshot, and Troll.
California helped make them the rich. Now a small proposed tax is spooking them out of the state.
California helped make them among the richest people in the world. Now they’re fleeing because California wants a little something back.
The proposed California Billionaire Tax Act has plutocrats saying they are considering deserting the Golden State for fear they’ll have to pay a one-time, 5% tax, on top of the other taxes they barely pay in comparison to the rest of us. Think of it as the Dust Bowl migration in reverse, with The Monied headed East to grow their fortunes.
The measure would apply to billionaires residing in California as of Jan. 1, 2026, meaning that 2025 was a big moving year month among the 200 wealthiest California households subject to the tax.
The recently departed reportedly include In-n-Out Burger owner and heiress Lynsi Snyder, PayPal co-founder and conservative donor Peter Thiel, Venture Capitalist David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures, and Google co-founder Larry Page, who recently purchased $173 million worth of waterfront property in Miami’s Coconut Grove. Thank goodness he landed on his feet in these tough times.
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The principal sponsor behind the Billionaire Tax Act is the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which contends that the tax could raise a $100 billion to offset severe federal cutbacks to California’s public education, food assistance and Medicaid programs.
The initiative is designed to offset some of the tax breaks that billionaires received from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently passed by the Republican-dominated Congress and signed by President Trump.
According to my colleague Michael Hiltzik, the bill “will funnel as much as $1 trillion in tax benefits to the wealthy over the next decade, while blowing a hole in state and local budgets for healthcare and other needs.”
The drafters of the Billionaire Tax Act still have to gather around 875,000 signatures from registered voters by June 24 for the measure to qualify on November’s ballot. But given the public ire toward the growing wealth of the 1%, and the affordability crisis engulfing much of the rest of the nation, it has a fair chance of making it onto the ballot.
If the tax should be voted into law, what would it mean for those poor tycoons who failed to pack up the Lamborghinis in time? For Thiel, whose net worth is around $27.5 billion, it would be around $1.2 billion, should he choose to stay, and he’d have up to five years to pay it.
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Yes, it’s a lot … if you’re not a billionaire. It’s doubtful any of the potentially affected affluents would feel the pinch, but it could make a world of difference for kids depending on free school lunches, or folks who need medical care but can’t afford it because they’ve been squeezed by a system that places much of the tax burden on them.
According to the California Budget & Policy Center, the bottom fifth of California’s non-elderly families, with an average annual income of $13,900, spend an estimated 10.5% of their incomes on state and local taxes. In comparison, the wealthiest 1% of families, with an average annual income of $2.0 million, spend an estimated 8.7% of their incomes on state and local taxes.
“It’s a matter of values,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) posted on X. “We believe billionaires can pay a modest wealth tax so working-class Californians have Medicaid.”
Many have argued losing all that wealth to other states will hurt California in the long run.
Even Gov. Gavin Newsom has argued against the measure, citing that the wealthy can relocate anywhere else to evade the tax. During the New York Times DealBook Summit last month, Newsom said, “You can’t isolate yourself from the 49 others. We’re in a competitive environment.”
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He has a point, as do others who contend that the proposed tax may hurt California rather then help.
Sacks signaled he was leaving California by posting an image of the Texas flag on Dec. 31 on X and writing: “God bless Texas.” He followed with a post that read, “As a response to socialism, Miami will replace NYC as the finance capital and Austin will replace SF as the tech capital.”
Arguments aside, it’s disturbing to think that some of the richest people in the nation would rather pick up and move than put a small fraction of their vast California-made — or in the case of the burger chain, inherited — fortunes toward helping others who need a financial boost.
A still from ‘Song Sung Blue’.
| Photo Credit: Focus Features/YouTube
There is something unputdownable about Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) from the first moment one sees him at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting celebrating his 20th sober birthday. He encourages the group to sing the famous Neil Diamond number, ‘Song Sung Blue,’ with him, and we are carried along on a wave of his enthusiasm.
Song Sung Blue (English)
Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi
Runtime: 132 minutes
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Storyline: Mike and Claire find and rescue each other from the slings and arrows of mediocrity when they form a Neil Diamond tribute band
We learn that Mike is a music impersonator who refuses to come on stage as anyone but himself, Lightning, at the Wisconsin State Fair. At the fair, he meets Claire (Kate Hudson), who is performing as Patsy Cline. Sparks fly between the two, and Claire suggests Mike perform a Neil Diamond tribute.
Claire and Mike start a relationship and a Neil Diamond tribute band, called Lightning and Thunder. They marry and after some initial hesitation, Claire’s children from her first marriage, Rachel (Ella Anderson) and Dayna (Hudson Hensley), and Mike’s daughter from an earlier marriage, Angelina (King Princess), become friends.
Members from Mike’s old band join the group, including Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli), a Buddy Holly impersonator and Sex Machine (Mustafa Shakir), who sings as James Brown. His dentist/manager, Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens), believes in him, even fixing his tooth with a little lightning bolt!
The tribute band meets with success, including opening for Pearl Jam, with the front man for the grunge band, Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith), joining Lightning and Thunder for a rendition of ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ at the 1995 Pearl Jam concert in Milwaukee.
There is heartbreak, anger, addiction, and the rise again before the final tragedy. Song Sung Blue, based on Greg Kohs’ eponymous documentary, is a gentle look into a musician’s life. When Mike says, “I’m not a songwriter. I’m not a sex symbol. But I am an entertainer,” he shows that dreams do not have to die. Mike and Claire reveal that even if you do not conquer the world like a rock god, you can achieve success doing what makes you happy.
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ALSO READ: ‘Run Away’ series review: Perfect pulp to kick off the New Year
Song Sung Blue is a validation for all the regular folk with modest dreams, but dreams nevertheless. As the poet said, “there’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” Hudson and Jackman power through the songs and tears like champs, leaving us laughing, tapping our feet, and wiping away the errant tears all at once.
The period detail is spot on (never mind the distracting wigs). The chance to hear a generous catalogue of Diamond’s music in arena-quality sound is not to be missed, in a movie that offers a satisfying catharsis. Music is most definitely the food of love, so may we all please have a second and third helping?
