"90210" Redux: Are you ready to return to West Bevery Hills High?

One of the more interesting bits of TV news of late is that The CW is working on a contemporary spin-off of Beverly Hills, 90210. The original 90210 certainly has its place in gay pop culture history for its occasional gay characters and storylines and also for helping establish the career of out producer Darren Star, who went on to give us Melrose Place (with gay character Mat Fielding), gay fave Sex in the City as well as the brilliant-but-canceled Grosse Pointe.

Interestingly, this new vision of 90210 is coming from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas. As Veronica Mars fans know, Thomas created a dark and gritty view of high school life with his teen investigator. Neptune, California was a city sharply divided by class and we often saw Veronica's classmates depicted as petty, vindictive and cliquish. Thomas also gave us a few gay characters who weren't easy to love but compelling for their complexity. It'll definitely be interesting to see how the voice Thomas developed on Veronica Mars combines with the lighter and more superficial tone associated with 90210.

However, there's another interesting parallel with a gay-inclusive teen drama to be found. 90201 is sometimes compared to Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, a teen drama that debuted a few years before 90210 that also tackled social issues. Presumably, a "contemporary" 90210 spin-off will have one (or more) of the original 90210 gang introducing us to a new group of students ... which is pretty much the original premise of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Will the depth of storytelling and characterization grow from classic to contemporary for the 90210 franchise the way it did with Degrassi? More importantly, will this contemporary 90210 have the courage to include a gay character as prominent and compelling as Marco, Dylan, Page or Alex on Degrassi?

What do folks think? Is it possible to recapture the magic of 90210 or have decades of intervening knockoffs (many of which are already on the CW) diluted the formula beyond recognition?