It was an awful storyline. First Andrea doesn’t get to go to Yale , then she finally has some fun and dates and then gets pregnant . THEN her boyfriend pressures her into keeping a baby she doesn’t want. THEN they have to get married because Aaron spelling loved solving women’s problems with a wedding . THEN Andrea has a traumatic birth and the baby has health issues . I hated all of it . Andrea deserved better .
She then comes back in season 8 and tells her best friend she's getting divorced, from the father of her child at age 22, because things have been awful for so long. Brandon proceeds to make her feel even more like shit, as usual.
25 is very generous. She looked her age, which was 33 or 34, at that point.
But anyway, no, they didn't *have* to write in the pregnancy. TV shows hide pregnancies all the time and did so even then. Gabrielle actually asked them to write it in, if I remember correctly. And it was a bad decision.
But I'm of the opinion Andrea should have just gone to Yale. It made no sense for her to still be in California after high school.
I hated that storyline so much. I was never a fan of Jesse and did not enjoy the complications with Hannah's birth etc. Thus was all before reality TV ruled the airwaves and the storyline was too heavy for me. I was probably too young to appreciate it however aside from her being too old I just wish it was scrapped altogether.
I think it didn't help that Andrea and Jesse ended up being on their own little storyline island with pregnancy and marriage troubles - it came off as if they had wandered in from thirty-something instead of being someone who had become pregnant and married while still in their teens (!).
\^THIS
Having an 18/19 year old dealing with this cut hard against the format of the series being all fun and attractive teens/young adults living their life.
Jesse was 22. Remember he was the bartender and he refused to serve Dylan who left with the blonde chick from the bar. Then in the next scene Kelly got all butt hurt when she tried to do a drop by at his pad all late night. He made out with the Blonde chick in front of Kelly so she ran off and cried to Brandon. Who sped over to Dylan’s and tried to be all agro about Dylan disrespecting Kelly.
Yeah. When you grow up laughing at Steve, crushing on Dylan and Brandon, (eventually David), it's hard to get into Jesse. Even when I was young my TV time was primarily about escapism. Love the visuals of great sets and beautiful people.
His personality wasn't intolerable, it's just that he looked like he was 30 and she was supposed to be 18. Would have been better if it happened with someone younger like Dan Ruben.
Dan Rueben was such a prick. Always wished it been him instead of Josh Richland that got killed in that car accident. How much fun would it have bene for that lil prick to be a dck to Andrea in the parking lot of the Pit and then ride off on his lil bicycle and then BAM!!! Truck meet bike and bye bye Danny boy!
I hated that storyline. Jesse was horrible. I know she was pregnant irl, but I'm sure they could have hidden the pregnancy a bit better in the show & then have Andrea go on a prolonged Birthright Israel trip for the rest of the season. I hated it how she was written off & ran off into the sunset with Jesse.
You've got to admit, it could have been a GREAT plotline & it would actually make sense. Taking into account all the other storylines centered around her faith.
There was even that plotline in season 5 about the controversial speaker who was racist. Jewish students get upset and stage a protest. I think she even gets David involved because he's Jewish.
The whole plot could have been that Andrea returns from Israel, super into her faith, gets involved with the Hillel organization on campus etc. Breaks up with Jesse because he's a Catholic & refuses to convert, finds a nice Jewish boy & all is right with the world.
Not only was there trouble accepting Undrea as a teen but pairing her with Jesse was a loco move by the writers. Jesse looked like he was 45 going on 50!
Or maybe that was their attempt to make Andrea look younger in comparison 🤷♂️
Yes Dan! If the writers couldn’t hide her real life pregnancy they could have done so much with her pregnancy. They could have done who is the father storyline or maybe even an adoption storyline.
I know the writers didn’t want Andrea to get pregnant by the first guy she slept with, but it’s so funny to me that there was never any question of it being anyone but Jesse’s baby. She didn’t even consider it could be Dan’s?!
They should have had her sleep with Jordan Bonner at prom and then they date over the summer and break up when she doesn’t go to Yale because they didn’t want to do long distance. But Aaron Spellings housekeeper probably would have a problem with that too!
This should have been the storyline. She goes to Yale and misses home. Turns out she was a big fish in a small pond and has trouble adapting to Ivy League life and returns burned out and the Gang helps nurse her back to her usual self.
If pregnancy was going to be in the show, then I think that Dr. Peter guy should have been the father. Since he had no plans for leaving his wife, that could have made for a pretty juicy storyline.
That would have been interesting. She marries Jesse, has an affair with Peter, then the viewers are left to wonder if it's Jesse or Peter's.
Wait until the birth, then the potential fathers decide if they want to do a DNA test.
As a lot of man do. I think that plotline was actually quite realistic. It's a tale as old as time :) My friend recently got out of a relationship with a married man. We ALL told her, "He's never gonna leave his wife. NEVER." And she went on & on about how he's different & she feels it. In the end, he just told her, "I can't leave my wife because of the kids, but we can still have fun, right baby."
Of course, she cried & was broken-hearted. But I'm a jaded old bitch, who grew up in the 90s, so I just said, "I told you so." And then we all went out and got shitfaced. I hope she knows better in the future. However, if she doesn't, I will still get shitfaced with her when her lover refuses to leave his wife cuz I'm a supportive friend. LOL
At the time I thought they should have had her and Jesse (didn't like him) move over to Melrose Place. They could have rented one of the apartments and interacted with that crowd.
On 90210, they didn't need the drama of premature birth and all the rest. There is enough drama of being a mom in college. Andrea was used to getting A's. Have a storyline where she got a C or worse because she was sleep deprived and how that messed with her self-identity as the smart kid. She could be tempted to cheat on a test or paper. Have her not trust a babysitter because of horror stories. Have her realize she doesn't even know her husband because they rushed things. Address the fun of being the first mom in the friend group and how that changes the dynamic.
It is pretty mundane, but most character growth is in the mundane. I'm a mother myself, but hate to write for parents and babies because babies are essentially props in literature and film. They can't talk. We don't know their perspective. They aren't actual characters. So usually we get a watered down version of what we are supposed to see.
Happy baby, sick baby, tired mom who loves child and never regrets anything, or bad parent who abandons. I think there are ways to tell the story of a new family without being so in the trope. I don't want writers to be afraid to show the ugly moments (not just for shock).
And they try to grow those kids up so fast on the shows because there’s really nothing to talk about with a 3 year old. On a lot of these shows, that toddler is suddenly in middle school a few seasons later and a couple seasons after that is graduating high school.
Nah, even Melrose Place realised that they were a young show and did away with Jo's baby after they milked that storyline for all it was worth. Babies are a drain on shows that are about relatively young people, so I don't think moving Andrea to Melrose would've helped.
That blue three-piece satiny pajama looking set she was wearing the peach pit in the ep on Pluto just now has to be among the worst things they did to her. On WHAT PLANET is a 19 year old shopping Alfred Dunner’s grandma’s estate sale?!
I believe Jesse Vasquez ruined her life. She never should have gotten pregnant or married Jessie. And Hannah with all that screaming and crying, no thank you.
They just should have hidden her pregnancy if she wanted to stay on the show. They could have done the old trick of close up shots or shots behind props to hide her belly.
As someone who watched it unfold in real time, we knew by then that many of the actors were 30+ years old. So we didn't buy that she was 19 years old and pregnant. She also got so big during the pregnancy that it made her look even more matronly.
It was a shitty storyline, Jesse sucked, and all of the health problems along with their fighting was tiresome for what was supposed to be a fluffy show about rich kids. The only good thing to come out of it was her growing rapport with Dylan who helped her after the Peter debacle.
Ooh interesting! Donna being an already more insecure character kinda made her being treated like shit…I don’t know…not as compelling as taking a more empowered character and showing that anyone can be susceptible to a toxic relationship. I really like this idea.
Yeah I got why they did it but wouldn't it have made sense to just write her off TV for a year (say she went to Yale got homesick or had a family crisis and needed to comeback and be near her family to rationalize her coming back to the show)? Also they could have done different things to make her look a little younger and could have ditched the Jessie storyline all together saving all fans the headache of watching that mess.
They did Andrea so dirty. The stringing along by Brandon, the desperate girl who never got the guy, the virgin club with Donna, not going to Yale, that prick Dan, Jesse and the endless fighting, the terrible pregnancy, her awful affair with Dr Fugly, and then that pisspoor sendoff. Andrea deserved better.
Worst storyline ever and it was so obvious she was pregnant before she even got together with Jesse. Awful character who thought she knew it all. They should have sent her to Yale and written off her character.
I liked the story; marriage to Jesse; and religious conflict plots, for what they were.
They were done well.
If they had picked something different, I might have liked that too.
I liked the acting.
Plus, writer Larry Mollin's wife had a premature baby in 1981. His wife also had the dream.
So those plots were based on real life.
If they were based on real life, then I like it.
The hospital hadn't seen a baby born 1 lb. 11 oz before, and put a picture of him in the L.A. Times.
So since Hannah was based on a real life birth, I like it.
I don't see getting pregnant and giving birth as having done her dirty. It's life.
I know a high school valedictorian that got someone pregnant in college, and had to then work, and put college on hold for a while. It happens.
I hated it. She could have been such an interesting character, but they gave her the worst storylines. She gave an interview where she stated that once the producers found out her real age (a magazine leaked it), her storylines tanked & they didn’t know what to do with her. She was against her pregnancy being written into the show.
It was an awful storyline. First Andrea doesn’t get to go to Yale , then she finally has some fun and dates and then gets pregnant . THEN her boyfriend pressures her into keeping a baby she doesn’t want. THEN they have to get married because Aaron spelling loved solving women’s problems with a wedding . THEN Andrea has a traumatic birth and the baby has health issues . I hated all of it . Andrea deserved better .
Andrea worked so hard and all she got was an old Honda pulling a U-Haul. They did her dirty.
OMG!! Yes, that was the most pathetic send off. I mean, even Carley got a better goodbye storyline & party.
I don't think Brandon or Dylan got any parties when they left, right?
Brandon had a shitty party and Dylan just rode off on a motorcycle with the cat.
Trouble! 🐈⬛
Well, Dyaln was not in partying mood
☠️
She then comes back in season 8 and tells her best friend she's getting divorced, from the father of her child at age 22, because things have been awful for so long. Brandon proceeds to make her feel even more like shit, as usual.
No one ever had a smooth pregnancy except for Joan and Jackie. All of the young ppl had nothing but issues.
That's right, Janet has issues too.
25 is very generous. She looked her age, which was 33 or 34, at that point. But anyway, no, they didn't *have* to write in the pregnancy. TV shows hide pregnancies all the time and did so even then. Gabrielle actually asked them to write it in, if I remember correctly. And it was a bad decision. But I'm of the opinion Andrea should have just gone to Yale. It made no sense for her to still be in California after high school.
Yessss at least make not going to Yale a really tough decision bc of real life-like circumstances instead of just implying that she chickened out.
Maybe the writers should have just written and not taken suggestions from the peanut gallery.
I hated that storyline so much. I was never a fan of Jesse and did not enjoy the complications with Hannah's birth etc. Thus was all before reality TV ruled the airwaves and the storyline was too heavy for me. I was probably too young to appreciate it however aside from her being too old I just wish it was scrapped altogether.
I think it didn't help that Andrea and Jesse ended up being on their own little storyline island with pregnancy and marriage troubles - it came off as if they had wandered in from thirty-something instead of being someone who had become pregnant and married while still in their teens (!).
Totally. And at my age there was nothing interesting about any of it. Lol
\^THIS Having an 18/19 year old dealing with this cut hard against the format of the series being all fun and attractive teens/young adults living their life.
Jesse was 22. Remember he was the bartender and he refused to serve Dylan who left with the blonde chick from the bar. Then in the next scene Kelly got all butt hurt when she tried to do a drop by at his pad all late night. He made out with the Blonde chick in front of Kelly so she ran off and cried to Brandon. Who sped over to Dylan’s and tried to be all agro about Dylan disrespecting Kelly.
I didn't like Jesse either. It was just so bizarre a story line for Andrea.
Yeah. When you grow up laughing at Steve, crushing on Dylan and Brandon, (eventually David), it's hard to get into Jesse. Even when I was young my TV time was primarily about escapism. Love the visuals of great sets and beautiful people.
His personality wasn't intolerable, it's just that he looked like he was 30 and she was supposed to be 18. Would have been better if it happened with someone younger like Dan Ruben.
Dan Rueben was such a prick. Always wished it been him instead of Josh Richland that got killed in that car accident. How much fun would it have bene for that lil prick to be a dck to Andrea in the parking lot of the Pit and then ride off on his lil bicycle and then BAM!!! Truck meet bike and bye bye Danny boy!
NGL-I was sort of wishing it had been Alex. He was really annoying.
It was a big downer for sure.
I hated that storyline. Jesse was horrible. I know she was pregnant irl, but I'm sure they could have hidden the pregnancy a bit better in the show & then have Andrea go on a prolonged Birthright Israel trip for the rest of the season. I hated it how she was written off & ran off into the sunset with Jesse.
I am DYING at sending her on a Birthright trip!!😂😂
You've got to admit, it could have been a GREAT plotline & it would actually make sense. Taking into account all the other storylines centered around her faith. There was even that plotline in season 5 about the controversial speaker who was racist. Jewish students get upset and stage a protest. I think she even gets David involved because he's Jewish. The whole plot could have been that Andrea returns from Israel, super into her faith, gets involved with the Hillel organization on campus etc. Breaks up with Jesse because he's a Catholic & refuses to convert, finds a nice Jewish boy & all is right with the world.
^THIS^ It writes itself!!
It’s amazing. I wish it were real.
Gabrielle Carteris made them write her pregnancy into the show so hiding it wasn’t an option.
Can we all agree that it was a BAD decision ;) ???
Not only was there trouble accepting Undrea as a teen but pairing her with Jesse was a loco move by the writers. Jesse looked like he was 45 going on 50! Or maybe that was their attempt to make Andrea look younger in comparison 🤷♂️
It should have been the other guy she was with before. His name escapes me at the moment lol.
Good ol Dan
Yes Dan! If the writers couldn’t hide her real life pregnancy they could have done so much with her pregnancy. They could have done who is the father storyline or maybe even an adoption storyline.
I know the writers didn’t want Andrea to get pregnant by the first guy she slept with, but it’s so funny to me that there was never any question of it being anyone but Jesse’s baby. She didn’t even consider it could be Dan’s?! They should have had her sleep with Jordan Bonner at prom and then they date over the summer and break up when she doesn’t go to Yale because they didn’t want to do long distance. But Aaron Spellings housekeeper probably would have a problem with that too!
I don’t realize Gabrielle was pregnant irl! Maybe she could have went to Yale for a few months and then returned home.
This should have been the storyline. She goes to Yale and misses home. Turns out she was a big fish in a small pond and has trouble adapting to Ivy League life and returns burned out and the Gang helps nurse her back to her usual self.
She was the size of an RV. It was very real. Lol
If pregnancy was going to be in the show, then I think that Dr. Peter guy should have been the father. Since he had no plans for leaving his wife, that could have made for a pretty juicy storyline.
That would have been interesting. She marries Jesse, has an affair with Peter, then the viewers are left to wonder if it's Jesse or Peter's. Wait until the birth, then the potential fathers decide if they want to do a DNA test.
That was another storyline that pissed me off. Peter just wanting his good time fun.
As a lot of man do. I think that plotline was actually quite realistic. It's a tale as old as time :) My friend recently got out of a relationship with a married man. We ALL told her, "He's never gonna leave his wife. NEVER." And she went on & on about how he's different & she feels it. In the end, he just told her, "I can't leave my wife because of the kids, but we can still have fun, right baby."
What was your friend's reaction?
Of course, she cried & was broken-hearted. But I'm a jaded old bitch, who grew up in the 90s, so I just said, "I told you so." And then we all went out and got shitfaced. I hope she knows better in the future. However, if she doesn't, I will still get shitfaced with her when her lover refuses to leave his wife cuz I'm a supportive friend. LOL
At the time I thought they should have had her and Jesse (didn't like him) move over to Melrose Place. They could have rented one of the apartments and interacted with that crowd. On 90210, they didn't need the drama of premature birth and all the rest. There is enough drama of being a mom in college. Andrea was used to getting A's. Have a storyline where she got a C or worse because she was sleep deprived and how that messed with her self-identity as the smart kid. She could be tempted to cheat on a test or paper. Have her not trust a babysitter because of horror stories. Have her realize she doesn't even know her husband because they rushed things. Address the fun of being the first mom in the friend group and how that changes the dynamic.
Oh man, that would’ve been VERY interesting. Or possibly so uninteresting that it became interesting? Either way, I’d’ve been down.
It is pretty mundane, but most character growth is in the mundane. I'm a mother myself, but hate to write for parents and babies because babies are essentially props in literature and film. They can't talk. We don't know their perspective. They aren't actual characters. So usually we get a watered down version of what we are supposed to see. Happy baby, sick baby, tired mom who loves child and never regrets anything, or bad parent who abandons. I think there are ways to tell the story of a new family without being so in the trope. I don't want writers to be afraid to show the ugly moments (not just for shock).
And they try to grow those kids up so fast on the shows because there’s really nothing to talk about with a 3 year old. On a lot of these shows, that toddler is suddenly in middle school a few seasons later and a couple seasons after that is graduating high school.
Sudden Onset Rapid Aging Syndrome or SORAS.
Melrose? They would have eaten her alive!! I would have loved to watch it.
Would’ve loved to see her become a lawyer and be in the midst of Amanda’s legal affairs—there is definitely a way they could’ve run with it.
Oooh, I like that! She could have gotten less ethical and helped Amanda do dirty business. Great idea!
If she moved to Melrose, someone would have stolen Hannah after Amanda used her in a baby food campaign.
Nah, even Melrose Place realised that they were a young show and did away with Jo's baby after they milked that storyline for all it was worth. Babies are a drain on shows that are about relatively young people, so I don't think moving Andrea to Melrose would've helped.
I agree. I just mentioned that at the time I thought that was a possibility. I'm not saying that I feel that way now.
That blue three-piece satiny pajama looking set she was wearing the peach pit in the ep on Pluto just now has to be among the worst things they did to her. On WHAT PLANET is a 19 year old shopping Alfred Dunner’s grandma’s estate sale?!
I believe Jesse Vasquez ruined her life. She never should have gotten pregnant or married Jessie. And Hannah with all that screaming and crying, no thank you.
They just should have hidden her pregnancy if she wanted to stay on the show. They could have done the old trick of close up shots or shots behind props to hide her belly.
She looked 30 lol
As someone who watched it unfold in real time, we knew by then that many of the actors were 30+ years old. So we didn't buy that she was 19 years old and pregnant. She also got so big during the pregnancy that it made her look even more matronly. It was a shitty storyline, Jesse sucked, and all of the health problems along with their fighting was tiresome for what was supposed to be a fluffy show about rich kids. The only good thing to come out of it was her growing rapport with Dylan who helped her after the Peter debacle.
From virgin to mama to almost-divorcee, all before 21! What a ride!
We didn't buy her age. We knew she was 32 playing a teenager. That storyline was awful though.
I would have preferred that they give the Donna/Ray storyline to Andrea instead of getting her pregnant/married.
Ooh interesting! Donna being an already more insecure character kinda made her being treated like shit…I don’t know…not as compelling as taking a more empowered character and showing that anyone can be susceptible to a toxic relationship. I really like this idea.
She only looked youthful in the pilot lol
Yeah I got why they did it but wouldn't it have made sense to just write her off TV for a year (say she went to Yale got homesick or had a family crisis and needed to comeback and be near her family to rationalize her coming back to the show)? Also they could have done different things to make her look a little younger and could have ditched the Jessie storyline all together saving all fans the headache of watching that mess.
They did Andrea so dirty. The stringing along by Brandon, the desperate girl who never got the guy, the virgin club with Donna, not going to Yale, that prick Dan, Jesse and the endless fighting, the terrible pregnancy, her awful affair with Dr Fugly, and then that pisspoor sendoff. Andrea deserved better.
Worst storyline ever and it was so obvious she was pregnant before she even got together with Jesse. Awful character who thought she knew it all. They should have sent her to Yale and written off her character.
The same way we bought Luke being a teenager with a forehead of lifelines showing. Or Ia, who was 30 playing 18/19 by season 5.
I liked the story; marriage to Jesse; and religious conflict plots, for what they were. They were done well. If they had picked something different, I might have liked that too. I liked the acting. Plus, writer Larry Mollin's wife had a premature baby in 1981. His wife also had the dream. So those plots were based on real life. If they were based on real life, then I like it. The hospital hadn't seen a baby born 1 lb. 11 oz before, and put a picture of him in the L.A. Times. So since Hannah was based on a real life birth, I like it. I don't see getting pregnant and giving birth as having done her dirty. It's life. I know a high school valedictorian that got someone pregnant in college, and had to then work, and put college on hold for a while. It happens.
What was up with her making out with all of the guys right before she exited the series?
She should've just went to Yale for the year and could've come back because Grandma Rose was sick, or fell down, or died.
I swear it was real life tho. Once you have one shitty thing happen, all the shitty things happen.
She looked well over 25
I hated it. She could have been such an interesting character, but they gave her the worst storylines. She gave an interview where she stated that once the producers found out her real age (a magazine leaked it), her storylines tanked & they didn’t know what to do with her. She was against her pregnancy being written into the show.