A star of an iconic 90s teen drama has admitted a romance between two of the characters ‘would be illegal now’.
In 1992 actor Grant Show was cast as Jake Hanson on Aaron Spelling’s soap Beverly Hills, 90210 with the intention of his character then appearing in his next series Melrose Place.
Appearing on two episodes, Jake was introduced as an old friend of Dylan (Luke Perry), who had just returned to town.
He then became a love interest for Kelly Taylor, who was played by Jennie Garth, after her family hired him to do some work in their backyard.
However, at the time Kelly was in high school while Jake was in his 20s.
The actor, 62, has now reflected on the slightly problematic storyline 32 years later.
‘They cast me from Melrose Place. And then knowing that they were gonna put that character on 90210 sort of, to springboard Melrose Place,’ he explained on the Still the Place podcast.
‘What would now be illegal and like, “Me Too”, he said.
He later added: ‘I think we only kissed, but still, you know, not good. Not good.’
The actor also clarified that in real life, he and Jennie were ‘relatively contemporaries’ and both adults.
When the episodes aired in 1992, they were 20 and 30 respectively.
‘That’s not that crazy in real life,’ he continued, before admitting he hadn’t thought much about the storyline before watching the episode back in preparation to come on the podcast.
‘I didn’t really think much of it at the time we were shooting,’ he said.
But when watching it back, he realised how it wouldn’t be acceptable today.
Jennie was recently asked on her own podcast 90210mg, which she hosts with former co-star Tori Spelling, what she thought about the romance between the two characters.
‘I remember just being like, “Okay, this is what I’ve been told to do”. Like, there wasn’t a point where I had much say in anything, and so I was just doing what Darren and Aaron wanted done. And I didn’t think anything of it. Like, I literally never thought, “Oh, he’s this age or she’s this age”,’ she said.
However, looking back, she called it ‘creepy’.
After making the jump to Melrose Place, Grant played Jake over the first five seasons from 1992 until leaving the series in 1997.
He then went on to play Blake Carrington in the Dynasty reboot from 2017 until 2022.
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