Jason Priestley explains why he was No. 1 on the “90210 ”call sheet: ‘Highest quotes’

Raechal ShewfeltFri, October 2, 2026 at 12:36 AM UTC

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Jason Priestley in Toronto in 2025Credit: Jeremy Chan/GettyKey Points -

Beverly Hills, 90210 actor Jason Priestley has explained why he was at the top of the show’s call sheet.

The actor played Brandon Walsh from the series’ debut in 1990 until its ninth season.

Alums of the show including Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry have since died.

Beverly Hills, 90210 was an ensemble, sure, but someone had to be at the top of the call sheet.

Actor Jason Priestley, who played Brandon Walsh, explained Wednesday on Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade why it was him. He starred on 90210 from its debut season in 1990 until early on in the ninth season in 1998.

“I’d done stuff,” Priestley said of why he was officially the show’s top star. “I was just coming off a series that was on NBC, you know, and [costar] Shannen [Doherty] had done lots of stuff, too, before we started. She was on Little House on the Prairie for Christ’s sake. We had sort of been around for a while, and so Shannen and I had the highest quotes of anybody.”

By the time the Canadian actor was cast on the teen drama, his credits already included the movies The Boy Who Could Fly (1986) and 1988’s Watchers, alongside Corey Haim. On TV, he had appeared on shows such as Sister Kate, Teen Angel, MacGyver, and 21 Jump Street. He had been acting since he was 5.

Doherty, who played his twin sister, was very much a pro herself, having debuted on TV’s Father Murphy in 1981. The following year, she joined Little House in its ninth season, playing Jenny, the niece of Melissa Gilbert’s Laura Ingalls Wilder. Jenny lives with Laura and her husband, Alamanzo Wilder (Dean Butler) after the death of her father, who was Almanzo’s brother.

Her TV work also included the NBC show that Priestley referred to, most likely Our House, which costarred Wilford Brimley, Deidre Hall, and Chad Allen. The family drama in which Doherty played teenage daughter Kris aired for two seasons, from 1986 to 1988.

Her movie work was impressive: 1982 Michael Keaton comedy Night Shift, 1985’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and 1989 dark comedy Heathers.

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Priestley confirmed that Doherty, who ended up leaving her hit show with Priestley in the fourth season, had been second on the call sheet, a ranking that affects an actor’s pay.

She died in July 2024, at 53, from breast cancer.

The main ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ cast in the first seasonCredit: FOX

During Priestley’s interview, Carvey took time to pay tribute to another one of his guest’s late costars on the Aaron Spelling show. He and Spade noted that, like Priestley, both Doherty and Luke Perry (Dylan McKay) had hosted Saturday Night Live during the height of their show.

“When Luke hosted — God rest his soul — we love Luke,” Carvey said. “And he really stood out... as just one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and the most centered. He really stood out.”

Perry, 52, died in March 2019, following a stroke.

The saga that began as one about the Walsh twins and their friends as they attended prom, graduation, and college, and experienced the ups and downs of early adulthood costarred a cast that also included Jennie Garth (Kelly Taylor); Tori Spelling (Donna Martin); Brian Austin Green (David Silver); Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders); Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea Zuckerman); James Eckhouse (Jim Walsh); Carol Potter (Cindy Walsh); Tiffani Thiessen (Valerie Malone); and the late Joe E. Tata (Nat Bussichio).

Watch Priestley’s full conversation above.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”