Production notes

Torand Productions was used by the production company for several seasons on the show. "Torand" is derived from the first several letters of Aaron Spelling's first and second children, Tori and Randy. The original name for the show, used during shooting of the original pilot in March and April 1990, was Doing Time in Beverly Hills; later, the tentative title for the show changed to Class of Beverly Hills. The show's episodes were issue-based until the producers decided it should become a teen soap opera. In the first season, the teenage characters (aside from David Silver and Scott Scanlon) were said to be in the eleventh grade, but due to the success of the show, their ages were retconned to be one year younger in the second season, making them tenth graders in the first. Jennie Garth had to audition five times for the role of Kelly Taylor and was the first to be cast on the show. Gabrielle Carteris felt that she was too old to play a high school student. She first auditioned for Brenda because she thought that being a real-life twin would help her chances, but the producers felt that she would be better for the part of Andrea. Alicia Silverstone was offered an unspecified role, but she turned it down to focus on a film career instead. When Tori Spelling (Aaron Spelling's daughter) auditioned for the show, she used the name Tori Mitchell and auditioned for the role of Kelly Taylor, but she was eventually recognized and was instead cast as Donna Martin. Tori Spelling brought Shannen Doherty to her father's attention after seeing Doherty's movie Heathers and being impressed with her performance. Lyman Ward was originally cast as Jim Walsh in the pilot but was replaced by James Eckhouse, and Ward's scenes were cut and re-shot with Eckhouse. Kristin Dattilo was also up for the role of Brenda Walsh, but she turned it down. She later guest starred as Melissa Coolidge in an episode of the first season. Additionally, Luke Perry had auditioned for the role of Steve Sanders, but the role eventually went to Ian Ziering before Perry was cast as Dylan McKay. Perry's character was not an original cast member of the show, and he was first featured in the show's second episode. He was originally intended to only appear in one story arc, for one or two episodes. Fox was initially reluctant to have him included as a regular, but Aaron Spelling felt differently and gave Perry a bigger role during the first two years until the network was won over. In the first season, when Donna tries out for school D.J., she is referred to as Donna Morgan. Throughout the rest of the show, her name is Donna Martin. In addition, in the first season Donna's mother was named Nancy Martin and played by actress Jordana Capra. When she was reintroduced in season two, she was named Felice Martin and was played by actress Katherine Cannon. In the pilot episode, the role of Jackie Taylor was played by Pamela Galloway and by Ann Gillespie for the rest of the series. Terence Ford and Arthur Brooks portrayed Dylan's father, Jack McKay, in two episodes before Josh Taylor assumed the role.

The departure of Shannen Doherty at the end of season 4 came after a period of strife between Doherty, the other cast members, and the show's producers. Executive producer Charles Rosin commented in 2000 that Doherty "had habitual lateness, her lateness was appalling, and she had a callous attitude and an indifference." Trouble between Doherty and her co-stars, Jennie Garth in particular, was also widely reported in the media. Doherty, who was struggling in her personal life with her father's illness, came to an agreement with the producers to phase her out of the show at the beginning of season 4, when Brenda returns to Minnesota for college. It was planned to reduce her appearances from that point, but Doherty had a change of heart and requested to remain as a main cast member. However, as the fourth season wore on Doherty's attitude deteriorated and her friction with the other cast members intensified. When she caused continuity problems by cutting her hair halfway through filming an episode, the producers and cast requested from Aaron Spelling that she be fired. In season 5, the production accommodated Gabrielle Carteris' pregnancy by reluctantly writing a pregnancy storyline for Andrea. The producers were unhappy with the more adult direction of the character, and Carteris was written off the show at the end of the season. Also in season 5, Jamie Walters was introduced as Donna's boyfriend Ray, who later begins abusing her. The writers intended to "rehabilitate" the character in season 6, and Walters signed a $1 million contract. However, the show received such a flood of negative mail from fans complaining about Donna being "stupid" for staying with her abuser, that an angry Aaron Spelling ordered that Walters should be fired. Producer Larry Mollin said of the incident that "he [Walters] got to walk away with his money. But it was still devastating for him. We left him as being a beater, which stayed with him, unfortunately. People thought he was a beater. It was just terrible." In Season 9 Jason Priestley left the show after starring in 4 episodes.

After poor ratings in the first season, the episodes' average ratings per season increased, constantly maintained above 11% from season two until season five, despite Shannen Doherty's departure at the end of season four. From season six until the end of the series the average rating gradually decreased, and the final blow to the show was the early ninth season's departures of Jason Priestley and Tiffani Thiessen (both season peaks at 8.1%). Since then no episode reached 8% again in ratings until the series finale, despite Luke Perry's return, with average ratings falling to 6.9% in season nine and 5.9% in the last season. During the entire series, the episodes with the highest ratings peaked at 14.1%, and included the closing episodes of seasons two and three, and the opening episode of season five.

Debut: Class of Beverly Hills/Pilot – 7.2 rating Series finale: 16.8 million viewers; 9.6 rating (8 pm – 10 pm) Specials: Behind the Scenes (Season 3): 8.2 rating Best Moments of 90210 (Season 6): 8.4 rating Our Favorite Moments of 90210 (Season 9): 5.3 rating Final Goodbye (Season 10): 6.8 rating 10-Year High School Reunion (7 million viewers, 4.5 rating) (repeat on August 7, 2003: 3.3 million; 2.1 rating)

Ratings for the tenth season declined to an average of 10 million viewers per episode (according to a May 2000 issue of Us Weekly). The ratings were low compared to previous seasons. The lower ratings, along with the high costs associated with any television show in its later seasons, led Fox to end the series in January 2000. Though there were many cast changes, over 25 million people tuned in to watch the final episode, which aired in May 2000. Tiffani Thiessen returned in the series finale.

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named the show #20 on its list of top 100 TV shows in the past 25 years. The magazine also named the theme music #15 on its list of top 25 TV themes in the past 25 years, and the "90210 Sideburns" #50 on its list of Pop Culture Moments that Rocked Fashion. The show was named one of the Best School Shows of All Time by AOL TV. The first-season episode "Spring Dance" caused outrage from many parents after the character of Brenda loses her virginity to Dylan. Parents were offended by the fact that Brenda suffers no consequences and shows no remorse for having had sex, something unusual for network television in 1991. After a slew of angry phone calls to the network, Fox decided to placate upset viewers by featuring a pregnancy scare for Brenda and Dylan in the second season, as a means of "punishing" the teenagers for their decision. Executive Producer Charles Rosin criticized this decision, saying "Someday I will write a long article about the censorship that occurred after Brenda lost her virginity at the Spring Dance to her boyfriend (who had been AIDS tested) because she was happy and not full of remorse." In February 1992, at the height of the show's popularity, the three main stars Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone.

The rap duo Insane Clown Posse released an EP titled Beverly Kills 50187 which featured a song titled "Beverly Kills" describing member Violent J killing the series' characters for being rich and prejudiced toward the "lower class". The short-lived The Ben Stiller Show did a parody of this show, The Heights and Melrose Place called Melrose Heights 90210-2420 that portrayed the cast as superficial, self-absorbed, and self-pitying, as well as introducing each of the stereotypical cast along with "Akeem, the black guy". A typical episode's "issue" was a character getting a headache, which affected all the other characters. Each episode would end with the same upbeat song (resembling The Heights hit single "How Do You Talk to an Angel") performed by the whole cast with new lyrics for each episode. When Jason Priestley guest-hosted Saturday Night Live in 1992, one of that episode's sketches, which parodied Beverly Hills 90210, involved that town's zip code being changed to 90218 due to the 1990 Census redistricting. Several of the characters take offense to the fact that Beverly Hills will be absorbed into poorer communities and convene at the Peach Pit, where a Hispanic busboy expresses pride that his native community of Reseda now shares the same zip code as the 90210 cast. The gang lashes out in different ways, with Dylan getting drunk and Donna and Kelly going impulse shopping. Priestley, in his role of Brandon, confiscates all their keys and puts them in a lockbox and gives them a tag to reclaim them when they regain self-control. The sketch ends with the zip code "Beverly Hills, 90210" retained as their rich and powerful parents lobbied the U.S. government not to redistrict. The Fox sketch show The Edge did a parody of 90210 that mocked Tori Spelling. During the sketch, the character of Tori constantly says, "I can do whatever I want because this is my Daddy's show." Aaron Spelling took offense to this and asked for an apology from the producers of the show. Saturday Night Live also did a Tori Spelling parody as well, where Melanie Hutsell spoofed Spelling, which was met with less protest. The Mickey Mouse Club did a parody sketch called Beverly Hillbillies 90210, combining the characters of both 90210 and The Beverly Hillbillies. In 1999, Christina Aguilera from the Mickey Mouse Club made a cameo performance on Beverly Hills 90210 as herself performing at the PPAD for David Silver's surprise birthday party, season 10 episode 2: "Let's Eat Cake". Music from former MMC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez of 'N Sync also was originally used during several opening title sequences during the mid-to-late seasons of 90210. MADtv made its own parodies of the show as Beverly Hills, 90210 B.C. set in prehistoric Beverly Hills. When Luke Perry made his high-profile return to the series, MADtv did a second parody titled Beverly Hills 9021-H20 which had the characters being stalked and killed off by Luke Perry (Pat Kilbane), who had rejoined the cast as a masked killer who was a parody of Michael Myers of the Halloween film series. The Czech TV Nova parody show Tele Tele made a parody of the show known as Heverly Debils. Three mini-episodes (about 10 minutes each) were filmed. GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan released a song called "Killah Hills 10304", a reference to the show's title in a song about crime and a rough neighborhood. A VH1 promo for I Love the 90s featured Hal Sparks and Michael Ian Black sitting in the Peach Pit, with Beverly Hills, 90210's theme music playing. Joe E. Tata also appears in the promo as Nat. In 2009, The Simpsons aired an episode called "Waverly Hills, 9-0-2-1-D'oh", which features Lisa wanting to go to a better school and finding it in the very posh town of Waverly Hills.

In 2021, Beverly Hills, 90210 was one of the shows featured on season 1, episode 3 of Vice Media's Dark Side of the 90's entitled "TV for Teens."