[X]

"I believe it's going to be `The Brady Bunch' of its generation," says Professor Robert Thompson, director of the Syracuse University Center for the Study of Popular Television. "The reruns will live on for years and years. I see it becoming a great camp classic."

The series' amazing 10-year run not only help put Fox on the network map, but changed the face and focus of the teen-drama genre.

Its wild storylines careened from overwrought earnestness in the early years to soapy silliness in recent seasons, but follow them we did.

"In a lot of ways I think we're going to miss the old broad," Thompson says. "It's the kind of trashy show that has gone out of fashion. Even though it was loaded with lots of really goofy stuff, part of you has to think: This is TV the way God meant it to be."

Or at least the way Aaron Spelling -- god of prime time -- meant it to be. The venerable producer, along with the then-28-year-old Darren Star ("Melrose Place" and "Sex and the City"), rolled out "90210" in a season that was crammed with high school shows like "Ferris Bueller," "Hull High" and "Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

Immediately, though, this series distinguished itself by presenting a group of teens with real-life problems.

Oh sure, they were an absurdly rich and beautiful bunch living in a fantasy zip code of upscale malls, hot cars and to-die-for clothes, but Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) and her pals had pubescent concerns that would've made Richie Cunningham blush: safe sex, substance abuse, AIDS, date rape and suicide.

The show didn't catch on right away, as it first competed against "Cheers" on Thursday nights. In the summer of 1991, though, Fox made an unusual move by airing original episodes of the "90210" kids enjoying their school break in sunny SoCal.

Suddenly, eight teen heartthrobs were born, including bratty Brenda, brooding Dylan (Luke Perry), dorky Steve (Ian Ziering), goody-goody Brandon (Jason Priestley), snobby Kelly (Jennie Garth), virginal Donna (Tori Spelling), runty David (Brian Austin Green) and brainy Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris).

A mind-numbing parade of romances ensued over subsequent seasons. There was Brenda and Dylan, Kelly and Brandon, Donna and David, Dylan and Kelly, Andrea and her English teacher, Dylan and Toni, Dylan and Valerie, Dylan and -- well, you get the picture.

There were plenty of signpost moments as well. In 1993, the gang graduated from exclusive West Beverly Hills High, and that fall most of them started attending college at California University. We saw Dylan become a millionaire, Steve take over a newspaper, Andrea get pregnant and Kelly get nailed in a drive-by shooting. In 1994, problem child Doherty left the show. Later, Perry left and came back. And in 1997, the remarkable happened: Donna had sex.

The melodrama was inexplicably addictive, and the Beverly thrills had young fans around the country -- heck, around the world -- California dreaming. But now it's time to wrap things up.