The Shock of Shannen Doherty’s Passing
Everybody deserves a second chance in this world. That’s basically all I ask. — Shannen Doherty
Shannen Doherty died yesterday at her home in Malibu, California. She was 53, at the prime of her life. She’d been aggressively fighting breast cancer since her diagnosis in 2015 before the cancer spread to her brain last June. When I read the headline today announcing Doherty’s death, my initial reaction was to cover my mouth with my hand, a gesture signaling shock and disbelief. You see, I grew up watching Shannen Doherty on a plethora of TV shows and films, the first one being the 1985 campy-classic — Girls Just Want to Have Fun starring a young Sarah Jessica Parker and Lee Montgomery, who, back then, bore a striking resemblance to John Cougar Mellencamp before Mellencamp had dropped the Cougar.
She had a recurring role on Little House on the Prairie before starring in Our House, a show that aired from 1986–1988, but it was the hugely successful, Gen-X dark comedy film, her first major motion picture — Heathers, co-starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, that would help catapult Shannen Doherty’s profile in Hollywood, soon garnering the attention of mega TV producer, Aaron Spelling, for his Gen-X teen breakout hit Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990, and later Charmed, premiering on the WB in 1998.
Charmed ran from 1998 until 2006. Doherty left the popular series in 2001, at the end of the third season, and even directed a few episodes. She played the eldest sister, Prue Halliwell, who happens to be a bloodline witch along with her two younger sisters, played by reported nemesis Alyssa Milano and one of her best friends in real life, Holly Marie Combs.
Doherty was most recognized for her role playing fraternal twin, Brenda Walsh, while Canadian actor, Jason Priestley, played her better half — Brandon, two down-to-earth albeit very attractive Minnesota twin transplants who find themselves new students at West Beverly Hills High after their father, Jim Walsh, gets a promotion and moves his family to the tony 90210 zip code. To be clear, I’ve watched every single episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 — every Thursday at 9pm sharp on Fox before moving to their permanent time slot on Wednesdays at 8pm after the first two seasons, beginning in 1990 until the rave fire in season five, Fall 1994 — when the gang goes to college.
My class would even graduate the same year as the fictional cast of West Beverly Hills High — 1993 so in some ways this show ran parallel to my life until it didn’t.
This was around the time when I got pressured to transfer to an ultra-conservative Christian University in South-Central Virginia that didn’t allow television on campus let alone in dorm rooms. Back then, we didn’t have social media to keep up with the many plot twists and turns of our favorite shows. So once I moved on campus, my days of watching Beverly Hills, 90210 were pretty much over — kaput. It wasn’t a big loss because by 1994, Shannen Doherty’s Brenda Walsh would be written-off the show as her character attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for a year, and although she never officially returned to the original series, her character would be mentioned a bunch of times in future seasons like some quasi-ghost, even hooking back up with old flame Dylan McKay for a time in London, or so I’ve read.
During this time, there was a reported rift with some of Doherty’s cast members. Jennie Garth, who played the pretty and popular Kelly Taylor, was embroiled in a fight with Doherty that almost turned physical, if not held back by their fellow castmates. The following is a recall of their fight, according to a July 14, 2024 Mirror article:
“Jennie, when asked if she remembered the cause of the fight, said: “I do but I don’t wanna say because it’s so stupid.” However, Tori responded: “You guys were teasing each other and she like pulled your skirt up.” Jennie agreed that the fight had been about her skirt being pulled up, saying: “I didn’t care for that, like who does [that] I wouldn’t do that to someone.” She added: “I’m pretty sure I got in her face at that point. But we’re just both very strong Aries women. We don’t back down — no matter what.”
At the time, she had a reputation for being late to set, and not getting along with staff. Some have speculated that it was Tori Spelling, a once close friend of Shannen’s, who went to her producer-father, some say at the behest of their fellow castmates, to get Doherty off the popular, long-running show.
Back then, it seemed like viewers were either “Team Brenda” or “Team Kelly” when it came to winning the affection of their mutual love — a perpetually pouting James Dean look-alike trust fund teen named Dylan McKay, played by the late Luke Perry. I think he and Brenda had more of a connection than he and Kelly. For one, Brenda seemed to provide a steady family force that Dylan so desperately lacked and craved. They also had first love magic that lingered throughout the seasons.
So for loyal viewers, like myself, it felt like an absolute gut-punch when Kelly and Dylan hooked-up the summer Brenda and Donna went to Paris. As the van left the beach club for the airport, Brenda would watch Dylan and Kelly from the window of the van privately talking before she watched them turn away, walking off together, an eerie foreshadowing of their future betrayal. Kelly Taylor would break the number one rule of Girl Code, a serious offense in female friendship. It’s common knowledge that you don’t go after your best friend’s man — period. And for the record, I was Team Brenda all the way.
Beverly Hills, 90210 and Shannen Doherty were an integral part of my late teen years. Even old songs played in the earlier episodes like R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” will always bring me back to the “break-up” scene as Brenda and Dylan sit and contemplate their future in his 1964 convertible Porsche 356 as Michael Stipe sings That’s me in the corner / That’s me in the spotlight / losing my religion.
My late father used to make these loud, audible sighs whenever he’d hear about a celebrity dying from his generation. At the time, I didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, but as I got older, I’ve found myself doing the same unconscious grieving ritual as my father; first with Prince in 2016, and again, today, when I learned about Shannen Doherty. And isn’t it ironic that the first actors to pass away from the iconic, Gen-X hit series were Luke Perry and now Shannen Doherty — Dylan McKay and Brenda Walsh.
I have a feeling that there will be more audible sighs to come in my future, if I make it that far.
Here’s an excerpt of a poem from 2009 — “The Weight of Words,” included in my debut BEFORE THE BIG BANG MAKES A SOUND:
Now imagine a naive girl
who hasn’t learned respect
for the weighty-word — never,
who uses it too loosely when speaking
like I’ll never do that
to only do precisely that
and more.
