Where Is West Beverly High School in 'Beverly Hills, 90210'?

The 'Beverly Hills, 90210' gang graduate from West Bev High (above via Paramount+), which is a high school in Torrance, SoCal IRL (below via LCfam)

Surely a show called "Beverly Hills, 90210" would be filmed in the famous zip code itself, right?

Hollywood's gonna Hollywood and throw you a curveball. The classic 90s teen series was filmed all over Southern California, miles away from the streets of the titular Los Angeles suburb. 

Take the show's central playground, West Beverly Hills High School, for example. The school where Brenda, Brandon, Dylan, Kelly, and the gang navigated teenage angst doesn’t exist. In real life, it’s Torrance High School, the same campus that stood as the literal school from hell on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

The show didn't even come from a Los Angeles state of mind. Creator Darren Star originally wanted to bring his high school experiences in Maryland to national television, pitching the show as "Potomac 20854." But Fox had other ideas, and so "Beverly Hills, 90210" was born, changing the playbook for teen drama from here on out. 

Darren Star studied at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, MD before he went to UCLA. Photo via G. Edward Johnson

Star told the press that he saw himself most in Brandon Walsh (played by Jason Priestley), the do-gooder Minneapolis transplant who, along with twin sister Brenda (Shannen Doherty), landed in LA when their dad got a job upgrade. From the first day at West Bev to the infamous Spring Dance scandal, the siblings had audiences worldwide dreaming of life in the so-called "Garden Spot of the World." And this was years before Kyle and Kim Richards turned limo fights and dinner parties into tariff-free Beverly Hills exports.

The Real Teens of Beverly Hills might not have been as real, but they certainly felt like it. Thank the TV gods that "Beverly Hills, 90210" was a hit: Star was allowed to create other shows such as "Sex and the City," "Melrose Place," and "Emily in Paris." 

Whether in America or France, his stories show that no matter the zip code, the drama always follows. 

(RIP, Shannen. You’ll always be our Brenda.)