The CW’s 90210 kicks off its fourth season this Tuesday at 8/7c, and while a lot has changed (showrunners, cast members, college), new executive producer Patti Carr (Life Unexpected) tells TVLine that fans need not fret — it’s still the same emotionally-heightened coming-of-age sudser you know and love.
TVLINE | Welcome to 90210! Is this season going to be an example of new showrunners, new show?
Not at all. It was an exciting challenge to come in and decide how we were going to take these kids from childhood to adulthood. The kids will start to define themselves and confront who they are.
TVLINE | Season 3 ended on an ambiguous note as to who was actually going to college. That said, how will everyone still interact if they are all in separate locations?
We’re using college the way that kids want college to be — it’s all about the parties and the social life, things that everyone can be involved in whether they’re at the college or not. Our approach was really to take all of the characters who had plans for their lives and screw it all up and make them go through a whole lot of stuff to realize that their friends are their new family. Everybody is back in the premiere episode and you’ll see where they’ve been over the summer, what they thought their lives were going to be, and then how everything changed for them. And we take it from there.
TVLINE | Where do things stand with newlyweds Ivy & Raj when the show picks up?
Ivy and Raj (Gillian Zinser and Manish Dayal) are back [in town] and we’re going to follow the progression of his cancer, as well as their marriage. It’s interesting because they took that step into marriage and really thrust themselves into their adult lives, more so than everyone else.
TVLINE | That was a beautiful little arc in Season 3. Do you plan to maintain his “three years to live” cancer prognosis?
There are actually not only different obstacles for Raj and Ivy, but a really interesting twist on their story regarding what happens with Raj’s cancer. We fell in love with it and when we pitched it to the studio, there were audible gasps.
TVLINE | A remission story, perhaps?
There may be some elements of that. [Laughs]