Jason Priestley wanted “Beverly Hills, 90210” to end long before the hit teen drama series wrapped its 10-season run in May 2000.
The actor, who played Brandon Walsh on the beloved Fox series, revealed he begged late producer Aaron Spelling to end the series after becoming frustrated with its increasingly scandalous storylines.
“A lot of crazy things happened in that eighth season,” Priestley, 57, recalled during Friday’s episode of his former co-star Jennie Garth’s “9021OMG” podcast.
The actor explained that the series, which originally starred Priestley, Garth, Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Ian Ziering, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green and Gabrielle Carteris, took a dramatic turn under new showrunner John Eisendrath, with storylines involving comas and surprise appearances by the characters’ siblings.
“It started to feel very diurnal in a way,” he said, comparing the series to a soap opera.
Priestley admitted that he eventually grew tired of the direction the show was taking and approached Aaron about ending it while it was still successful.
“The problem was I didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
The actor remembers telling the legendary TV producer, “Aaron, man, let’s get this over with. Let’s go.”
However, Aaron wasn’t interested in wrapping up the show.
“They’re going to take me out of this set in a body bag,” Aaron allegedly told Priestley.
According to the actor, Aaron insisted he was “never finishing the show,” leaving Priestley with a difficult decision.
“I thought, well, I have to leave at that point. I want to do something else with my career and in my life,” he explained.
Priestley ultimately left the series at the start of its ninth season in 1998, with his character leaving Beverly Hills to pursue a career as a journalist in Washington, DC.
However, the actor admitted he might have made a different decision if he had known the series was coming to an end.
“If I had known that the series would only last a year and a half after my departure, I would have stayed,” he admitted.
Her departure also derailed Brandon’s plans to marry Garth’s character, Kelly Taylor.
“I think that was the overall plan,” Priestley said of their characters eventually getting married.
Garth, 54, admitted that the loss of Priestley changed the dynamic of the show, especially after the departure of Doherty, who played Brandon’s twin sister Brenda Walsh in season 4.
“We missed you so much because, you know, we didn’t have Brenda or Brandon anymore,” she told him.
The original “Beverly Hills, 90210,” premiered in 1990, aired its final episode on May 17, 2000.
Aaron died in June 2006 at the age of 83.
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