Aaron Spelling: 1923-2006
by Joey Rubin
Though I wasn't invited in, I once drove past Aaron Spelling's 123-room mansion. I saw it — the largest single-family home in California — peeking from behind a wall of trees as I turned a distant corner. But that was enough; to glance at it, to have it glimmer in the periphery. That's what Spelling, who died Friday at 83, spent the past 50 years doing — offering the driver-by, the voyeur, the television viewer, a glimpse of a glittering, unattainable world.
Spelling was one of Hollywood's last great producer-moguls. He made an illustrious (and Guinness Book record-placing) career airing bite-sized chunks of overabundance, glamour and high drama. His credits include an almost absurd number of hits including '70s classics Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels and The Love Boat, '80s successes Dynasty and T.J. Hooker and '90s genre-re-definers Twin Peaks, Beverly Hills 90210 and 7th Heaven. In all, he produced around 5,000 hours of original TV. Though the critics rarely praised his work, viewers' appetite for it seemed insatiable. He was, in no uncertain terms, a 20th Century master of escapist television; not the exclusive peddler of such wares, but by far the most efficient and prolific. Over three decades and in almost 70 weekly television series, he offered, not so much a signature formula, as a signature success.
Jonathan Levin, Spelling's close friend and the president of Spelling Entertainment, attributed such popularity to Spelling's focus on a "notion of family," saying "[Spelling's programs] celebrate people who love and care about one another and live together." Others saw the shows as offering transcendence or wish fulfillment, and claimed Spelling's success stemmed from his glitzy depictions of modern social fantasies come-true.
But Spelling's body of work was too diverse to define in narrow terms. It was remarkable not for his consistency of vision, but for the fact that he was able, in program after program, and across five decades, to find characters and formats that not only caught on in each era, but became synonymous with them. Beginning with The Mod Squad, which captured a previously ignored counter-culture current and ending with 7th Heaven, which capitalized on a contemporary preoccupation with "moral values" by injecting the usually decadent soap opera format with Christian inspiration, Spelling produced not just entertainments, but the very stuff that makes pop culture popular.
Such was the case with Beverly Hills 90210, the first Spelling production I ever experienced in the way it was intended — as a wide-spread cultural phenomenon. When the program began airing in 1990, it was Spelling's first project retrofitted for a new generation and it catapulted him into the limelight once again.
As a pre-teen at that time, I was transfixed by the overabundance of dramatic tension 90210 offered — how could I know that an average teenager rarely had to overcome such obstacles? I loved it because it glamorized a world I was convinced would be glamorous and because it was a public sensation in which I could finally, fully, take part. I was too young for the spectacle of most Spelling productions, but I caught 90210 fever in full force.
Sadly, the potential for another era of Spelling phenomena ended last Friday. The legacy of the fantasy-world Spelling created and represented, however, will surely linger on — glinting in the sunlight right beyond our fingertips, like the locked gate of his 56,500-square-foot chateau. Drive by it today and see for yourself.
— Joey Rubin (joey at flakmag dot com)
