The Beverly Hills 90210 Show Podcast: Episode 127: Casting Season 4.

Dianne Young, casting director, is a guest host.

• During season 1, the initial order was for 12 episodes. No one thought they would actually make it to 12 episodes.

David Gail interview:

• He is joining from France.

• He thinks his bellhop role is in season 2. When corrected that it’s season 1, he says “excuse-moi” (in his French accent).

• Young cast him because he was nice and easy on the set.

• His son is also on the video. His son’s name is Gautier. His son makes a bunch of funny faces and hand signs throughout the interview.

• His agent would tell him you don’t need to meet the casting director, for auditions in general. Gail wanted to meet them anyways, because he wanted to meet as many people as possible.

• The original season 1 pilot was 2 hours. Rosin passed. It was eventually trimmed to 90 minutes, and about 30 minutes of music videos were cut. Aaron Spelling then wanted to meet him, after the pilot was trimmed. Rosin took the meeting.

• Aaron Spelling did not want to have a season in college. There was a lot of anxiety about the format changing after high school.

• The first two to three episodes of Melrose Place got a higher rating than Beverly Hills, 90210. They convinced the president of FOX, Lucie Salhany,

• Gautier has now taken out a puppet. The entire podcast starts laughing, except for Gail, who doesn’t know what’s happening behind him.

• Rosin then promises FOX that they’re going to have Brenda elope, and that will be the number 1 show that week.

• There was a lot of pressure at this time.

• Young kept waiting for more details about the elopement plot line to emerge.

• No one knew that Doherty was going to be leaving at the end of the season.

• Gail was unaware about any issues Doherty might have been having with the management company.

• Gail had no idea how big this plot was going to be.

• Aaron Spelling gave Gail a kiss and hug after his audition.

• Young does not remember other people that auditioned for this role.

• Mollin says Paul Waigner and Jessica Klein also had a big part in casting Gail.

• Rosin says sometimes during auditions, people talk their way out of a role. They get nervous and talk too much.

• Rosin tells a story of how he once met an actor. Rosin told him he liked this movie he was in. The actor then spent 5 minutes telling Rosin why the movie sucked. This was an example of an actor talking his way out of a future role.

• When Gail came in season 1, he read for a recurring role. They didn’t want him because he was too green. They then offered him the bellhop role.

• During season 4, when Gail was offered the role of Stuart, he asked how they could bring him back as a different character.

• Rosin said at the time, he didn’t think people were watching the show that closely. He didn’t know that there would be dedicated fans like there are today.

• Rosin and Young wanted Gail because everyone had liked Gail from before. Young says she had known him from before, and trusted him.

• Young had reminded Rosin of what Gail had done before, in season 1.

• When Gail went into the Spelling office for this season 4 audition, and saw all of the producers lined up, he was intimidated. Gail had to use psychological tricks like telling himself to breathe. Don’t start when they start, but start when you want to start. Wait until you are in that character.

• Gail cannot walk into an audition and just start being in character. He has to be David Gail first. Meaning he has to say hi to everyone as David Gail first. Then he can get in character.

• Rosin says one of Aaron Spelling’s biggest strengths was casting.

• The first time Rosin heard Aaron Spelling say that his strength was casting, Rosin thought that was BS. But, overtime, Rosin agreed that Aaron Spelling was that good.

• Aaron Spelling knew Julia Roberts was going to be a star, when he saw her in Mystic Pizza.

• David Gail’s son somehow appears on screen, upside down, from the top of the camera. Gail has to shoo his son away again.

• During season 2, Doherty had a boyfriend in Chicago named Chris Lupus. He was wealthy. So Rosin created a character that reminded him of that boyfriend, in Stuart.

• Gail says the plot was fun.

• Gail likes how Stuart was spoiled and possibly dealing drugs. He said it’s more fun to play a character like that.

• Both actors that played Stuart’s parents (Peter Mark Richman, Claudette Nevins) have passed away.

• Mollin likes the dynamic of how Stuart’s dad thought Stuart was a loser, and Brenda was making him a winner.

• Gino Conforti, from Three’s Company, was the mechanic in “Strangers In The Night”.

• Both Richman and Conforti were on Three’s Company.

• Jessica Klein created Jesse Vasquez. That was the name of her college boyfriend.

• Young went through a lot of resumes with pictures for this character. She had put Mark Damon Espinoza aside. After a few days, she kept going back to his picture. He didn’t have a lot of credits. She wanted to meet him.

• He was so easy to talk to. He was friendly. He was from Texas.

• He had a good theater background.

• Mollin didn’t like the casting at first. He’s grown to love Espinoza. Mollin says the character worked.

• Mollin: A baby is a show killer.

• Young: All of the cast has an opportunity to give input on casting. Carteris didn’t say things about whether a potential picture on a resume was terrific.

• Rosin and Mollin now think Espinoza was pitch perfect in all of his scenes. Even the ones with Ian Ziering in season 5.

• Rosin: He’s a good friend of this podcast.

• As soon as Young saw Kathleen Robertson, Young knew she had to pay close attention.

• She was easy to work with. She wasn’t nervous.

• Robertson had a unique hat. Mollin and Rosin noticed it. They used that same hat in her character’s intro scene.

• Lou Patrick negotiated Robertson’s contract. (A woman).

• Aaron Spelling had accidentally sent out a cast renewal to Shannen Doherty. Lou Patrick saw that and alerted Rosin. It had already been decided by this point that Doherty wasn’t coming back. They were able to stop that from getting to Doherty.

• Young had hired Nicholas Pryor before on another show. He was professional.

• Young: Christine Belford (Samantha Sanders), Pryor’s wife, was a good actress.

• Kelly McDonald, Young’s assistant, met with actors for D’Shawn Hardell. She was the one that recommended Cress Williams to Young. He was very new.

• Rosin and Mollin liked him.

• Unlike Tico Wells from season 1 (whom Rosin beat in basketball), Cress Williams could not play basketball.

• Young had known Dina Meyer (Lucinda) from before. She had always liked Meyer.

• There wasn’t an audition. Tony Shepherd just told Rosin that Dina Meyer would play the part.

• Barry Bonds and Dina Meyer are the only actors that Tony Shepherd told Rosin who to pick. There wasn’t an audition.

• Young loved Scott Paulin (Professor Randall). She had known his credits.

• Young doesn’t remember too much from Tracy Middendorf’s (Laura Kingman) audition.

• Young: Noley Thornton (Erica) was wonderful. She had seen her from “The Martin Short Show”.

• They had to make a lot of arrangements to get her from one set to another, because she was on both shows. But child actors have some limitations.

• One time, they were praying Thornton would be able to make it, because The Martin Short Show was running long.

• Kerrie Keane (Suzanne) didn’t know that there was going to be a scam.

• When Jessica Klein pitched the scam story to Aaron Spelling, Spelling thought the audience would know right away. He didn’t think the scam would work. Rosin had to promise that no one would see it coming, by the end.

• Rosin likes how he can talk to actors that come on the podcast now, because he was never able to do it when the show was being made. Jason Carter (Roy Randolph) is one such example.

• Young says there were a lot of British actors, at the time, because there was a lot of work in Los Angeles. And they were paid more here, then in British Television.

• Young had met Paul Johannson (John Sears) before.

• He was one of Jason Priestley’s friends.

• David Sherrill (Jack Canner) was another one of Priestley’s friends.

• Young would tell Priestley why one of his friends would or would not get the role.

• Young loves Brook Theiss (Leslie Sumner). She had met Theiss on Growing Pains, and Just The Ten Of Us. She was such a joh to be around. Young also introduced Theiss’ husband to her.

• Young likes Theiss so much, that she would cast her for something right now if she could.

• Young does not remember Kari Wuhrer (Ariel Hunter).

• Young remembers Matthew Perreta (Dan Rubin) a little.

• Young does not remember the Minnesota girls.

• Young loves Jed Allen (Rush Sanders). His acting was similar to Ian Ziering’s. She saw it right away that he was Steve Sander’s dad.

• Ryan Thomas Brown (Muntz) was easy to work with.

• Young had known Zachary Throne (Howard) from before.