Beverly Hills, 90210 followed the Walsh twins after their family made the move from the midwest to California. Brandon and Brenda acted as the centerpiece of a high school friend group that loved to support one another’s interests as much as they loved to stab each other in the back.
Some friendships faded over time while others only became stronger. With the show spanning a decade in the lives of the characters, and the Walsh siblings moving away before the end of that decade, there were a lot of fascinating friendships for the show to explore.
Best: Dylan And Andrea
Andrea didn’t have a ton of on-screen interactions with Dylan. When she did, however, they were some of the best representations of friendship on the show.
Andrea was the one who helped Dylan work out his feelings for his father. Not only did she encourage him to write a story about his father, but she helped him do it. Dylan, who rarely let anyone in, trusted her to help him as well. Likewise, when Andrea’s marriage was in trouble, it was Dylan who she turned to for help. Dylan was instrumental in helping Andrea save her relationship with her husband. It’s a shame the audience didn’t get to see more of them together on screen.
Worst: Brenda And Steve
Brenda and Steve were the victims of poor development in the show. The two didn’t have a lot of screen time together unless they were part of a larger group. Unlike Dylan and Andrea, however, the two didn’t support one another in their troubles.
In fact, Steve refused to be there for Brenda when she was up for a lead role in a play in season four, even going as far as to tell her they were never friends. Perhaps this weird tension between them was a result of both of their relationships with Kelly. After all, Brenda’s first major impression of Steve was that he was Kelly’s ex-boyfriend and she couldn't stand him. When Steve first meets Brenda, she's Kelly’s new best friend and Kelly wouldn’t give him the time of day.
Best: Dylan And David
The bromance that should have been from the beginning, Dylan and David didn’t really become close until near the end of the show’s run. Earlier in the show, they mostly just hung out with the same people.
They bonded following the death of Dylan’s father since David had experience with losing people close to him. Grief is a great bonding force. Likewise, Dylan helped David get over his drug habit, sticking by him even when he could have been arrested. Season nine, however, was where they really thrown together. Living together and both having feelings for the same girl actually made them grow as friends instead of pushing them apart. David even asked Dylan to be his best man when he married Donna. They grew to become one of the best friendships in the series.
Worst: Kelly And Steve
Before the series even began, Kelly and Steve were one of the It couples at West Beverly High. They had already broken up by the time Brenda and Brandon moved to town, but they still had the same circle of friends. Of course, just because the show focused on one large friend group didn’t mean everyone in it was close.
Instead, Steve spent the first season still pining for Kelly, while she spent the first season treating him horribly. As the series continued, Steve moved on, but the two never really became as close as some of the other friends they hung out with. They really should have gone their separate ways completely instead of still hanging out in the same social situations and making things awkward.
Best: Kelly And Donna
It has to be said that Kelly is not usually a great friend. Kelly spent most of the show being selfish and betraying her friends. It’s hard to blame her wanting some things (and people) for herself when so much of her childhood was controlled by her mother’s addiction. Donna, however, is one of the few people on the series that Kelly stood by through the entire run.
Donna and Kelly never had any major fallings out over the course of the show... unlike Kelly’s friendships with most of the people in their group. That’s likely due to Donna being one of the most understanding characters in the show and Kelly always trying her best to learn from her mistakes. The two understood one another, and Donna didn’t judge Kelly’s choices, which probably gave her a gold star in Kelly’s book.
Worst: Kelly And Brenda
The flip side of Kelly and Donna’s friendship is that of Kelly and Brenda. If Kelly and Donna were always supportive of one another, Kelly and Brenda were the opposite.
Kelly and Brenda had similar tastes in clothes and boys, which put them at odds repeatedly, even as they maintained that they were best friends. While Brenda was away in Paris after just getting her relationship with Dylan back on track, Kelly had an affair with him. She and Brenda eventually became friends again, but their relationship was never as strong as it was when Brenda first met her.
Best: Brandon And Andrea
Most of the time on the series, the show focused on the female characters as friends, or the male characters as friends, but not much on crossed gender lines. Brandon and Andrea, however, were one of the first friendship pairings the audience got to watch develop, and one of the most important.
Andrea was one of the first people to befriend Brandon when he started at West Beverly. They supported one another through difficult decisions and brought out the best in one another. Despite Andrea’s early crush on him, she didn’t let that affect their friendship, and Brandon brought her out of her shell, broadening Andrea’s own friend group to include people she thought she’d never hang out with - like Kelly and Donna.
Worst: Brandon And Valerie
When Shannen Doherty left Beverly Hills, 90210, Tiffani Thiessen joined. Valerie was meant to replace Brenda’s presence in the Walsh house. A friend of the family from the midwest, Valerie didn’t actually have all that much in common with Brenda.
It’s not clear just how Valerie knew the Walsh family, but the audience expected Brandon and Valerie to be close. What they didn’t expect was for the two of them to not really get along and push each other's buttons in the way they did. Valerie constantly got under Brandon’s skin. Brandon even kicked her out of the house at one point. Then, of course, there was that brief attraction between the two of them that made fans wonder where the supposed sibling relationship between them went. They just didn’t work as friends.
Best: David And Donna
David and Donna made up what was quite possibly the sweetest relationship on the show. Their romance was interrupted more than once, but they always found their way back to each other, even marrying in the series finale. Even when the duo wasn’t in a romantic relationship, they were still close friends.
There weren’t many other exes on the show who managed to be (convincing) friends. David and Donna always seemed to genuinely care for one another and support each other, even if one of them was dating someone the other didn’t like. The other former couples could have taken a lesson from them.
Worst: Brandon And Dylan
Dylan befriended Brandon not long after the Walsh family made the move to Beverly Hills. The two were tight. Dylan dated Brandon’s twin sister, Brandon got to hang out with someone who wasn’t always partying - it was a win-win. That is, until they both developed feelings for Kelly.
The two friends started to grow apart the moment they both took an interest in Kelly Taylor. Their respective relationships with Kelly, including Dylan cheating on Brenda with her, made it nearly impossible for the two to get along. We have to wonder just what it was about Kelly that she was at the center of all of the relationships on the show, and not in a good way.