"Beverly Hills 90210" Analysis
The following is the ninth in a series of essays written in response to the media analysis assignment described in the January 28, 2000 article on this topic page. Colorado State University student Marissa MacMillan analyzes at Beverly Hills 90210's reassurance "that with a college degree we too will hold the key to prestigious high paying jobs and an overall successful life."
Beverly Hills 90210 Analysis by Marissa MacMillan
Fancy cars, designer clothes, seaside apartments and self-run businesses. These are the elements that make up the lives of the characters on Beverly Hills 90210, another one of Aaron Spelling's successful contemporary series. Its run has lasted for a remarkable ten years. Ten years of ups and downs for the rich kids in the prestigious California neighborhood of Beverly Hills. Though filled with everyday problems to the most bizarre, it seems as though they always come out on the top. How do these twenty-something's pull off the most glamorous of lives? The answer, California University, the college that the gang attended. Beverly Hills 90210 proves in episode after episode that college is the key. The key to the cars, clothes, apartments and businesses. Beverly Hills 90210 reassures us that with a college degree we too will hold the key to prestigious high paying jobs and an overall successful life.
Is a college degree the one and only way to success? Society is sure conditioned to believe this. For example, look towards the Army advertisements seen on T.V., we all recognize the slogan "Be all you can be." This theme convinces people that not only will they grow to become stronger, loyal and all around better people, they will also come out with a degree. The final product, people being all they can be and with a certificate of graduation! Furthermore, simply look at any college web site. Just go to the Colorado State University site, the first picture that stands out is a woman in a cap and gown and a huge smile. These web sites highlight the programs of studies and everything that makes them stand out from other schools. Sure the chances of job placement are probably higher with a degree, but it is not necessarily the only way. After all I've never seen a university advertisement offering information like, "You may or may not get a job in your desired field" or "Yes, many graduates do wait tables after graduation, but cross your fingers that the endless resumes you send to companies will get a bite." So, is a degree the only way to money and prestige? Perhaps not, for example countless movie stars and models are living successful lives without a degree to show for it. Maybe a college education is not the only way to success.
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