This Beverly Hills, 90210 trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the original Fox series that ran from 1990 to 2000: Brandon and Brenda Walsh arriving from Minneapolis, the gang at West Beverly and the Peach Pit, the Dylan-Brenda-Kelly triangle, the Donna Martin graduates protest, the California University years, and the series-finale wedding. It also digs into the behind-the-scenes story, from Tori Spelling's audition alias and Luke Perry's near-miss casting to Shannen Doherty's exit, plus the spin-offs Melrose Place, 90210 and BH90210. Questions range from easy warm-ups any casual viewer will remember to expert-level details about filming locations, ratings and the theme composer, so it works for a solo rewatch challenge or a 90s-themed trivia night. Every answer has been checked against a reference page (mostly the Wikipedia articles on the show, its characters and its cast), so you can trust the answers and learn something new from each explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Walsh family moved to Beverly Hills from which Midwestern city?
Minneapolis
Jim Walsh's job promotion took the family west, and the culture shock the twins felt was the show's original premise. Valerie Malone was later introduced as a family friend from those Minnesota days.
Q 02Beverly Hills, 90210 ran for ten seasons on which US network?
Fox
The show became one of the young network's signature hits after a summer run of new episodes in 1991 turned around its weak first-season ratings.
Q 03Who created Beverly Hills, 90210, basing it partly on his own high school experiences?
Darren Star
The same creator went on to make Melrose Place, Sex and the City and Emily in Paris. Aaron Spelling produced the show through Spelling Television.
Q 04What was the name of the 1950s-style diner where the gang always gathered?
The Peach Pit
Brandon worked there under owner Nat, and its exterior from Season 2 onward was really the Rose City Diner in Pasadena.
Q 05Which veteran character actor played Nat, the diner owner who became the gang's moral compass?
Joe E. Tata
He appeared in 238 episodes across the ten seasons and had earlier played Private Neddick on No Time for Sergeants and roles on Batman and The Rockford Files.
Q 06Which producer's daughter auditioned under a fake surname before being cast as 90210's Donna Martin?
Tori Spelling
She auditioned as "Tori Mitchell" for the part of Kelly, was recognized anyway, and ended up with Donna instead. She was 17 at the time.
Q 07Exterior shots of West Beverly were filmed at which real campus, later seen in Buffy?
Torrance High School
The real campus sits in the 90501 zip code, in a middle-class South Bay community rather than in Beverly Hills.
Q 08Which real campus stood in for the fictional California University in Season 4?
Occidental College
The Eagle Rock liberal arts college has doubled for many fictional universities on screen. Kelly and Donna's beach apartment, meanwhile, was in Hermosa Beach.
Q 09From Season 2 onward, the diner's exterior was the Rose City Diner, located in which city?
Pasadena
Three different frontages were used over the show's run; the Rose City Diner stuck after the diner was fictionally remodeled in Season 2.
Q 10Under what working title was the original pilot shot in March and April 1990?
Doing Time in Beverly Hills
The title later shifted to Class of Beverly Hills before the network settled on the zip code, one of five that cover the city.
Q 11The "Donna Martin graduates!" protest erupted after Donna was caught doing what at the senior prom?
Drinking alcohol
The student demonstration made the slogan a lasting pop-culture catchphrase; the 2008 spin-off even joked about still hearing it at West Beverly.
Q 12Parents were outraged when Brenda lost her virginity to Dylan in which first-season episode?
Spring Dance
Viewers objected that Brenda showed no remorse, so Fox added a Season 2 pregnancy scare to "punish" the couple, a decision producer Charles Rosin openly criticized.
Q 13Valedictorian Andrea was accepted to which Ivy League university before staying in California?
Yale
Q 21What was the name of the clothing boutique Donna and Kelly opened after college?
Now Wear This
Donna kept running it alone after Kelly left for a career in public relations.
Q 22In the series finale, who walked Donna down the aisle at her wedding to David?
Nat Bussichio
Donna's father, Dr. John Martin, had died midway through the final season, and she had always seen the diner owner as a second father.
Q 23How many episodes did the original series produce over its ten seasons?
293
There were also 11 specials. The two-hour finale, "The Penultimate" and "Ode to Joy", aired on May 17, 2000.
She eventually got there anyway: after her marriage to Jesse hit trouble, the couple moved to Connecticut so she could attend the school in Season 5.
Q 14Scott Scanlon, who accidentally shot himself at his own birthday party, was whose best friend?
David Silver
Scott's exit was partly a budget cut; the writers used it to address gun violence, and his last words were "Check this out."
Q 15What did Kelly's mother Jackie and David's father Mel name their baby girl, the pair's shared half-sister?
Erin
That baby grew up to be Erin Silver, a lead character on the 2008 spin-off and the main link between the two series.
Q 16Which actress, previously Kelly Kapowski on an NBC sitcom, joined as bad girl Valerie Malone in Season 5?
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen
She was the first actress to join the main cast directly, filling the gap left by Shannen Doherty, and stayed until early in Season 9.
Q 17In Season 3, Dylan's father Jack was apparently killed by what?
A car bomb
Jack turned out to be alive in Season 10, living under FBI protection with a new family after his supposed murder by a mob hitman.
Q 18In Season 10, Dylan learned his father was alive under FBI protection using which alias?
Eddie Waitkus
Father and son parted for good, agreeing that revealing Jack's real identity would get him killed by his old associates.
Q 19Steve married which Beverly Beat editor in Season 10, shortly after the birth of their daughter Madeline?
Janet Sosna
Her conservative Japanese parents initially cut her off for dating a non-Japanese man; Steve later brought them back into the family's life.
Q 20Brandon left the show for a job at the Washington, D.C. bureau of which newspaper?
The New York Chronicle
Journalism ran through his whole arc, from the West Beverly Blaze to the CU Condor and a year building the Beverly Beat with Steve.
Q 24Which 1992 spin-off was launched through Grant Show's biker Jake Hanson, Kelly's love interest?
Melrose Place
Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering all appeared as their characters in its first episodes, and Jake later became the only character to appear in three franchise shows.
Q 25The 2008 CW series 90210 followed the Wilson family, who moved to Beverly Hills from which state?
Kansas
They came to care for a grandmother with a drinking problem. Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty and Tori Spelling reprised their roles in its early episodes.
Q 26In the 2019 Fox revival, the original cast played heightened versions of themselves. What was it titled?
BH90210
Fox ordered six episodes, and it premiered on August 7, 2019; the network announced that November that there would be no second season.
Q 27The actor who played Dylan died on March 4, 2019, at age 52. What was the cause?
Stroke
His last feature performance, in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, earned him a posthumous Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
Q 28Before being cast as Dylan McKay, which role did Luke Perry originally audition for?
Steve Sanders
Dylan was not even in the pilot and was meant for a one- or two-episode arc; Fox was reluctant to add him, but Aaron Spelling kept expanding the part.
Q 29Roughly how many teen girls mobbed Luke Perry's August 1991 Florida mall autograph session, sparking a riot?
10,000
That was the peak of the frenzy: six months later he shared a Rolling Stone cover with Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty.
Q 30Shannen Doherty's Brenda left the show at the end of which season?
4th
Brenda departed for a London acting program, and the character never appeared again until Doherty reprised her in the 2008 spin-off.