Cindy Walsh may have struggled with Valerie Malone’s arrival to the iconic zip code, but in real life, Carol Potter welcomed Tiffani Thiessen after Shannen Doherty’s stint on Beverly Hills, 90210.
The 72-year-old actress joined former costars Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth on their “9021OMG” podcast on Monday, January 4. After the What I Like About You alum opened up about her “strong connection” with Ann Gillespie, who played her character Kelly Taylor’s mother, Jackie, Garth asked Potter about her relationship with Doherty, who played Brenda Walsh for the show’s first four seasons.
“We weren’t warm and fuzzy,” Potter said of her onscreen daughter. “I mean, we had some nice scenes together, but I never felt that close to Shannen. I felt really close to James [Eckhouse].”
Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered on FOX in 1990 and in the pilot, the Walsh twins — Doherty’s Brenda and Jason Priestley’s Brendan — moved from Minnesota to California with their parents — Potter’s Cindy and Eckhouse’s Jim. After Doherty left the show in 1994 amid reports of tension on set, Thiessen joined the cast. Her character Valerie, an old Walsh family friend, subsequently moved into Brenda’s room.
“When Tiffani came, she and I had a blast,” Potter told Spelling and Garth. “She would just shoot the s—t back and forth … We would play when we were working on the scene. My sense of Shannen is she was … doing her thing. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of space for me.”
Spelling noted that she had a similar relationship with Katherine Cannon, who played Donna’s mom, Felice.
“I felt the same way that [Jennie] felt [about Ann]. The days that I got to work with her, I felt so much love,” the True Tori alum said.
Spelling concluded the conversation about the mother-daughter dynamics on the show with a shoutout to Potter’s acting skills during scene with Doherty. “Well, Carol, you’re a great actress because you didn’t tell! Would have thought you guys were BFFs!” she quipped.
Four days later, Potter told the “Beverly Hills, 90210 Show” podcast that she and Doherty had an “excellent working relationship” on the series: “She was and is a pro, but we did not develop a personal relationship. I am so sorry I didn’t get to reconnect with her for the reboot and meet the amazing woman she has become.”
Beverly Hills, 90210 also starred Brian Austin Green (David Silver), Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders), Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea Zuckerman) and the late Luke Perry (Dylan McKay).
During a game of “Kiss, Marry, Kick to the Curb” on the Monday’s podcast, Potter admitted she would kiss Perry, marry Green and ignore Priestley because he played her son on the iconic series. She also revealed she had the “biggest crush” on Perry during filming.
“We would flirt!” Potter quipped. “We used to joke [about everyone having crushes on him] all the time. … We’d talk dirty to each other!”
