Update
We want to thank everyone for being there for us. Without your involvement, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Here are a few of the things that we’ve been working on over this past year:
* We built out a new server system, and migrated thousands of websites over to the new servers
* We fought off ongoing DDOS and brute password attacks that were slowing the site down
* We’ve made further upgrades to our server setup over the past six months, to use new more powerful servers as they became available.
* We’re planning one more server upgrade later this year, to take advantage of better and cheaper server systems that have become available.
One area where we’ve dropped the ball is providing updates on all of the above. Initially we were fighting off the DDOS attacks, and didn’t want to tip off our attackers on our progress. So we focused on talking to our users one at a time, through our email support and help forums.
But more recently, we’ve largely defeated the ongoing DDOS and password attacks. The site has been up and stable, and we’re gearing up to make the further upgrades mentioned above. We’ll be providing more regular updates and communication, both on this blog and also on our Facebook page.
So we’re working to communicate more regularly, and to start building the community teams that we mentioned earlier. First up: we’ve asked Joel of edlives. xanga. com to serve as a community liaison. You can reach him at his blog at edlives. xanga. com. or through Xanga’s facebook page at http://www. facebook. com/xanga . We will have a regular call with Joel to discuss feedback and ideas.
We’re also going to be working together to pull together a list of other areas where we could use help. If any come to mind, please let us know and we’ll discuss it with Joel in our next call! And as a thank you for sticking with us, we’re offering 6 months of free blog hosting to all of our paid members. Just email Eugenia at help@xanga. net. and she’ll add it the extra months to your account!
Thank you for sticking with us over the past year. We’re looking forward to working together to build Xanga in the coming year.
We’re working to make
2 million blog archive backups available for FREE download asap
I mentioned previously that we’ve migrated all Premium users and campaign contributors over to the Xanga 2.0 servers.
In addition, we also have prepared downloadable archives for the
2 million Xanga blogs saved on our servers… specifically:
* We generated blog archives for every Xangan who has signed into the site in the past 5 years, as long as they have more than two subscribers (to rule out spam).
* We also generated blog archives for every Xangan who has signed into the site in the past year, and has at least ten blogs overall.
We are currently working to make these archives available asap to all of our users (for free, of course). We’ve been working on this all day, and hope to have it available soon. There will be two ways to retrieve your data.
1) Once we launch this feature . you will be able to sign into Xanga and download the archive (for free) from the link at the top of your dashboard, or
2) Upgrade to Xanga 2.0 and we will upgrade your blog to the new servers using the data in the backup.
Let me know if you have any questions!
ps We’ve been tuning the servers all day to run faster… let us know if you can feel a difference in the site speed!
Welcome to Xanga 2.0!
Welcome to the official launch of Xanga 2.0!
Here’s how to get started:
You can sign into your Xanga account right here:
You can use the same username and password that you’re used to, and it should work!
2. CHECK OUT YOUR BLOG
If you are premium or participated in our Xanga 2.0 campaign, your blog should be in the same location! For example, my blog is here:
If your blog appears, you should be able to go to your dashboard and start blogging! Your blog should even look similar to your old theme. (If it looks a bit off, let us know here and we’ll take a look!)
If your blog doesn’t appear (and you are either premium or contributed to our campaign), please let us know in our help forum and we will look into it!
3. CHECK OUT YOUR READING PAGE (TO READ POSTS)
Either way, you should be able to check out your Reading page under your dashboard!
It’s a great way to find updates from your subs and friends! Speaking of which, we made some name changes related to subs and friends, to help make it a bit simpler and more intuitive… you can read about the name tweaks here !
ps Thanks for your patience everyone… we will find a way to make it up to you!!
pps We are now officially in phase 2 (of four) of the Xanga 2.0 launch!
Phase 1: Data Migration
Phase 2: Site Tuning <—
Phase 3: Feature Prioritization
Phase 4: Building Together
The next month or two of work on Xanga 2.0 is going to be busy, so we wanted to share with everyone a roadmap of how we’re thinking about things… if you’re interested, you can read more details about the 4 phases here
The Four Phases of the Xanga 2.0 Launch!
The next month or two of work on Xanga 2.0 is going to be busy, so I wanted to share with everyone a roadmap of how we’re thinking about things!
We’re dividing the work on this project into four basic phases.
Phase 1. Data migration
As described here, we’ve imported over every account that we have on Xanga over to the new system so that anyone who could sign into Xanga can still sign into Xanga 2.0. (Try it here !) We’ve also imported over everyone’s subscribers and friends, so that if somebody was subscribed or friended to you on the old system, they’re now following you on the new one too. And f you had turned on privacy features like friends lock, then we imported that over as well. Same goes for Signin Lock, RSS feeds being on or off, and search engine accessibility. We’ve also migrated over everyone’s photos (25 terabytes+ of data).
Finally and most important of all, we’ve imported over 2 million blogs from the old system. If you are premium or if you pledged to our campaign, then we’ve already imported your blog posts into Xanga 2.0. If you don’t fit into the category but you’ve been active on the site in the following ways. we’ve created a backup archive of your blog data and can migrate you to the system if you’d like.
* We’ve archived the blogs of the hundreds of thousands of blogs where the user has logged in in the past 5 years and has at least two subscribers.
* We did an additional set of archives for 200k users who had logged in the past year and had at least 10 blogs.
* We’ve also archived the blogs of every single user that’s ever been premium at any point in the past…
And of course, a lot of you guys archived your own blogs using the old Xanga archive generator. If you send that to us, we can always import you that way as well.
We”ve just finished the core of Phase 1 tonight, and will commence with Phase 2 upon launching the site!
Phase 2. Site tuning
Once we go live tonight, we anticipate that it’s going to take some time for the dust to settle. It’s always a bit tricky to tune your servers to match the amount of load that’s being put on it. So during this phase, we will allocate servers and storage to best match the load that’s being put on it.
We’ll also work with anyone whose data didn’t make it over to get them onto the new system as quickly as possible! We’ll be streamlining this process over the next week…
Phase 3. Feature Prioritization
We have really and truly focused on migrating over the very core features of Xanga as well as as much of the data as we could physically port over. In some cases, we had to port over the features *in order to* be able to move the data at all; for example, we built a subscriptions engine (and merged friends and subs into it) so that we could import over all of the subscriptions and friendships over from Xanga!
Once we get all of the site data and servers stabilized, we’d love to work with you guys to pull together a list of features that you like to see on the site… and then prioritize them. For example:
* We are keen to make a front page that features everyone’s content… It could be a simple recent weblogs module or it could be a feature weblogs module like we had before. Something like this is a top priority for us and we’d love to work with you guys to make sure that we’re designing it just right.
* Also, we are launching with a very basic theme that we hope matches the look of your old theme. So another top priority for us is to upgrade the theme into a more easily customizable theme system that is both powerful and yet intuitive and simple.
Are these features you’d like to see right away? We’d love to hear from you on which features you’d like to see, so please chime in below.
Phase 4. Building together
Once we’ve prioritized which features to build, we’d love to get some of you guys involved as beta testers, customer service helpers, and all the other roles we discussed here. Please let us know below what role you’d be interested in playing, and we can setup group blogs where we can all interact.
—-
We’re currently in Phase 2: Server Tuning… wish us all luck tonight and in the days ahead! And thanks to everyone for your patience and support in making this all happen!
FEATURE UPDATE: Friends and Subs name tweaks
Over the years, we’ve gotten a lot of questions about what the difference is between Subscribing to someone and being Friends with them. As you guys know:
* You Subscribe to someone when you want to follow all of their updates on their blog.
* You Friend someone (and they friend you back) to create a closer relationship. Friendships also control privacy features (like Friends Lock) and are two-way relationships: you can’t just friend someone… they have to agree to friend you back.
Both features let you do some pretty cool things. So we made a list of what we like most about them:
* The ability to easily see someone else’s updates
* The privacy of being able to approve people before they can see your content.
That said, it definitely confused people that both features did something similar and yet had such different names… and also that there was no one place to manage them both. So we addressed the first by tweaking the name… and renamed subs and friends into a single feature called, you guessed it, Following and Approved Followers.
It really works very similar to how Xanga worked before, but with just a new name:
* FOLLOWING: If you want to subscribe to someone’s updates, you just go to their site and click the follow link. (If you want to stop getting their updates, just click unfollow.). Basically, just like a Subscription.
* FOLLOWER’S LOCK: You can also still lock your site so that only users who are following you can access your site at all. This is similar to how Friends Lock worked.
* APPROVED FOLLOWERS: If you want to approve all of your followers before they can see your content, just set your site privacy to Follower Lock. Then when someone attempts to follow you, their username will automatically be held for you to approve on your follower page.
(And for the record, you can still restrict access to your site to anyone who is sign into Xanga. This is still called Signin Lock!)
But in addition, you can now manage what was once two separate things (friends and subs) in a new and single page… your Following page linked from your site dashboard!
We hope that this approach is a little bit simpler and more intuitive… let us know if you have any questions!
Online dating service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Online dating ( OD ) or Internet dating is a personal introductory system whereby individuals can find and contact each other over the Internet to arrange a date. usually with the objective of developing a personal, romantic, or sexual relationship. Online dating services usually provide unmoderated matchmaking over the Internet. through the use of personal computers or cell phones. Users of an online dating service would usually provide personal information, to enable them to search the service provider's database for other individuals. Members use criteria other members set, such as age range, gender and location.
Online dating sites use market metaphors to match people. Match Metaphors are conceptual frameworks that allow individuals to make sense of new concepts by drawing upon familiar experiences and frame-works. This metaphor of the marketplace – a place where people go to “shop” for potential romantic partners and to “sell” themselves in hopes of creating a successful romantic relationship – is highlighted by the layout and functionality of online dating websites. The marketplace metaphor may also resonate with participants’ conceptual orientation towards the process of? nding a romantic partner. [ 1 ] Most sites allow members to upload photos or videos of themselves and browse the photos and videos of others. Sites may offer additional services, such as webcasts. online chat. telephone chat (VOIP ), and message boards. Some sites provide free registration, but may offer services which require a monthly fee. Other sites depend on advertising for their revenue. Some sites such as OKCupid, Plenty of Fish and Badoo are free and offer additional paid services in a freemium revenue model. [ 2 ]
Some sites are broad-based, with members coming from a variety of backgrounds looking for different types of relationships. Other sites are more specific, based on the type of members, interests, location, or relationship desired. A 2005 study of data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that individuals are more likely to use an online dating service if they use the internet for a greater amount of tasks and less likely to use such a service if they are trusting of others. [ 3 ]
List of Beverly Hills, 90210 characters
The original teenage cast from the early seasons. Center: Dylan McKay; Clockwise from far left: Kelly Taylor, Steve Sanders, Andrea Zuckerman, Brandon Walsh, Brenda Walsh, Donna Martin, David Silver
The following is a list of characters from Beverly Hills, 90210 . an American drama series which aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on the Fox television network, and went into syndication afterwards. It is the first show of the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise .
Brandon Walsh [ edit ]
Kelly Taylor [ edit ]
Jennie Garth portrays Kelly Taylor. the gradual main character who appears throughout the entirety of the series (and the premiere episodes of spin-offs Melrose Place and 90210 ), maturing from "spoiled teen vixen to grounded 25-year-old." [ 2 ] Kelly endured several personal battles, including a drug-addicted mom, and an absent father who was later sent to jail for embezzlement. She lost her virginity upon being date raped. She was almost burned alive at a rave, and later developed a coke habit of her own which she went to rehab for, then was stalked and almost killed by her roommate. Kelly became unexpectedly pregnant before having a miscarriage and told she may never carry a child to term. She was shot during a drive-by shooting at LAX and suffered amnesia. She was raped in an alley and later shot the rapist, with the police clearing her on grounds of self-defense. She had difficulty choosing between Brandon and Dylan. When Dylan offered her a trip around the world, Brandon responding by proposing marriage, but she walked away from both offers. Erin is her half sister and David is her stepbrother. She eventually reunited with Brandon and moved in with him nearly marrying him. They called off the marriage at the altar, expressing a lack of being ready (just prior to Jason Priestley's departure from the series). Kelly and Donna opened their own clothing store in a mall, and Kelly started dating a lawyer from another floor of the mall, Matt Durning. The return of Dylan McKay and Matt's mentally ill wife were roadblocks in their relationship, but they did get engaged in Season 10. Later on, Kelly decided she loved Dylan most of all, and Matt decided their connection was real, so he ended the engagement and left town. She left the clothing store to get into public relations. In the spin-off 90210 . she and Dylan are shown to have broken up, although they share a son. She became the temporary caretaker for younger sister Erin and a guidance counselor at her alma mater, West Beverly Hills High School. Garth departed the spin-off following the second season.
Steve Sanders [ edit ]
Ian Ziering portrays Steve Sanders. Steve is a light-hearted, brash, rich kid. He drove a Corvette, had money, girls, and popularity. He began to slowly reveal a more mature side of his personality through his friendship with Brandon Walsh because they're best friends through high school, college, and later housemates. Throughout the series, he was involved in several scams and wild activities, from obtaining a school "legacy key," to parties in rented homes, to the creation of the After Dark club in Season 5, to numerous fraternity stunts. Steve was romantically involved with Clare Arnold in Seasons 6 and 7 but Clare moved to France, and he and Clare broke up. Through his father's assistance, he eventually purchased and ran his own newspaper, first with Brandon, then with a woman named Janet Sosna. In Season 10, he married Janet and they had a child. Afterwards, they sold the Beverly Beat and decided to start a new newspaper company.
Andrea Zuckerman [ edit ]
Gabrielle Carteris portrays Andrea Zuckerman (Season 1–5, Special Guest Star Seasons 6, 8, 10). Andrea was introduced as a focused student who was socially shy all through high school, with a huge crush on Brandon, but their relation remained platonic. She was valedictorian, was accepted to Yale but decided go to CU to be near her friends & family. She was romantically involved with Dan Rubin: her resident adviser, and met Jesse at the Walsh's 20th anniversary, where he was tending bar. When she saw him again at the Rubin's Thanksgiving dinner, they hit it off, and then started dating. She found out later he was a law student at Berkeley. She got pregnant and initially decided to get an abortion, but was forced to wait a day to have the procedure and changed her mind. They were later married. The baby, born premature, was named Hannah, and required time in the hospital after birth. Eventually, marital problems arose, and they both cheated on one another. They later mended their problems and moved away to Connecticut, where she attended Yale. Andrea would later appear at Steve's birthday bash and the gang's high school reunion, where it is revealed she and Jesse are getting divorced. Andrea made a cameo appearance at Donna's bachelorette party, while her daughter, Hannah, was briefly shown on the spin-off 90210.
Dylan McKay [ edit ]
Luke Perry portrays Dylan Michael McKay (Seasons 1–6 & 9–10), a loner in high school until he found the "gang". He had various relationships with Brenda and Kelly in high school. He felt alone, until his father got out of prison in Season 3 and they reconciled. Then Jack was apparently killed by Mafia hitman in a car bomb. It took him a long time to get over his father's death, and then in Season 4 he met Erica (Noley Thornton ), his half-sister, Jack's daughter, and her mother, Suzanne, and Kevin, her fiance. Kevin spent many months convincing Dylan and Jim Walsh to invest in Kevin's Environmental research company, then he and Suzanne stole the cash and ran to Brazil, taking Erica with them. Dylan had lost all his money. In Season 5, he started drinking and doing drugs again, and alienated all of his friends when not having an empty sexual relationship with Valerie Malone. After a near fatal car crash, he began to recovery by going through rehab, and an oddball ex-FBI agent later helped him recover $7.5 million of his stolen funds, after which he rescued Erica. Afterwards, he made a major play for Kelly, convinced they were soul mates. When she turned both him and Brandon down, he decided to avenge his father's murder. In Season 6, he made friends with the daughter of his father's killer, Marchette. Only he fell in love with her. He gave up his quest and married her. Her father couldn't stand them together, and tried to kill Dylan, but got his daughter instead. After that, Dylan gave the condo to Brandon to keep an eye on, and left town. He returned several years later in Season 9 and spent time living with David, until he found a place. Unfortunately, Dylan's substance abuse problem returned with him, and it would take an injury to Donna caused by himself to get him to kick his habit again. In Season 10, Dylan learned that his father was actually alive, with a wife and young son, and living under FBI protection with the alias Eddie Waitkus. The two were briefly reunited soon afterwards, but they finally decided that Jack would be murdered by his old criminal associates if his former identity was revealed; Jack said he loved Dylan and Dylan responded in kind, and they parted ways forever. He and Gina, a new friend within the group, became romantically involved for a time. In the series finale, Kelly and Dylan reunited romantically, despite her discovery that Dylan covered up for an indiscretion by Matt and didn't tell her. In the spin-off 90210 . it was revealed that they'd gone their separate ways, although they share a son, Sammy.
David Silver [ edit ]
Brian Austin Green portrays David Silver, one of two main characters identified on the original series as Jewish (the other being Andrea Zuckerman). David always wanted to be part of the popular crowd. During Season 1, David and his best friend, Scott Scanlon, spent hours trying to be cool enough, and for David it worked by Season 2, but Scott was left behind. He seemed to be on top of his life by taking a double load of classes to graduate with the gang, being the boyfriend to Donna, being the school DJ, and trying to have a social life, while he and the socially handicapped Scott grew apart. When Scott accidentally shot himself it was a huge blow for David, and a source of immense guilt at the state the friendship ended in. After his father Mel and Kelly's mom Jackie married and welcomed their daughter Erin, David was fully part of the gang. After a rocky start, Kelly and David eventually grew to be almost as close as blood relatives, each one helping the other through their respective drug problems. David is especially protective of Kelly during her struggle with addiction, threatening to beat her then-boyfriend Colin if he hears about him giving her drugs again. He and Donna's relationship went through several breakups and reconciliations, and he had an active romantic life during his college years that included everyone from Claire Arnold to Valerie Malone and many other guest characters. He has cheated on Donna more than once and she lost her virginity to him in the season 7 finale where the gang graduates from university. He kicked his drug habit, managed to avoid becoming an alcoholic, but the club did poorly under his management, he did discover he had a mild but dangerous form of depression that his mother suffered from, which he successfully dealt with via therapy and reducing his drinking. In the later seasons, following a brief music career where he had a hit song but quit in disgust when he learned that only happened because of record company payoffs, he hosted a radio show broadcast from the Peach Pit. He dated Sofie, then Gina, then Camille, and finally reunited with Donna, whom he married in the series finale. In the new series 90210 episode "Okaeri, Donna!" Donna reveals that she and David separated shortly after the birth of her daughter while they were living in Japan but he sends her a card saying "Thinking of you". It is unknown what happens after she leaves.
Scott Scanlon [ edit ]
Douglas Emerson portrays Scott Scanlon (Seasons 1, Recurring Character Season 2), a character that starred during season one as David's nerdy best friend. Initially, they are both unpopular among the gang, but starting in Season 2, as David becomes part of the gang, the immature Scott becomes gradually more of a stranger to him as David spends less and less time with Scott, who becomes a recurring character than a regular. The only time David spends time with Scott in Season 2 is when David leaves a Halloween party to meet with Scott to talk about their "good old times". During Season 2, Scott develops an odd fascination with guns and country music after spending the summer in between Seasons 1 and 2 visiting his grandparents in Oklahoma. In the Season 2 episode "The Next 50 Years", Scott's fixation with guns ends up accidentally killing him when he spins one (and discharges at him) during his birthday in front of a horrified David. His last words were, "Check this out." Also in this episode it is revealed that Scott had been the fifth-grade boyfriend of a West Beverly Hills High girl named Denise, who is embarrassed by it. But after Scott's death, and filled with remorse for the way she treated him, Denise admits it to Donna at a memorial to Scott on campus two days after the tragedy. The gang buries a time capsule in Scott's memory at the episode's end. Some time later in Season 3, David and Donna help his younger sister, Sue, denounce her sexually abusive uncle. Although it was never declared explicitly, Sue suggested that Scott may have been molested himself.
Donna Martin [ edit ]
Tori Spelling portrays Donna Marie Martin. She began dating David Silver in high school. David respected her decision to abstain from premarital sex, until he cheated on her with Ariel. She found out that she had a learning disability, which, undiagnosed, had caused her to have a tough time in school. After high school, she was in an abusive relationship with Ray Pruit, who was mean and manipulative from almost the start. She later dated Joe Bradley, a quarterback at CU. She was beaten and almost raped by Garrett Slan and was held hostage at the CU television studio by a deranged stalker. She lost her virginity to David at the end of her senior year of college. She has had continued difficulty with her domineering mother, Felice, although she was close to her father, John. After college, where she studied fashion design, she opened a boutique with Kelly Taylor. She was in a long-term relationship with Noah Hunter, although it went south because of his drinking and her affair with Wayne. She began taking multiple pills a day after she injures her back in a car accident with David; Noah's brother Josh gave her the pills. In the next episode, Law and Disorder . Noah finds her passed out on her livingroom floor. She continued running the boutique, Now Wear This . alone after Kelly left to pursue public relations and finally married David in the series finale. Donna's birthday is Christmas Day. She is allergic to chocolate. In the spin-off 90210 it is revealed that Donna continued as a fashions designer, working internationally after closing her boutique in Los Angeles. Also it is revealed that Donna and David are getting separated, but he sends her a card saying "Thinking of you". It is unknown what happens after she leaves.
Jim and Cindy Walsh [ edit ]
James Eckhouse and Carol Potter portray Jim and Cindy Walsh (Seasons 1–5, Special Guest Stars Seasons 7 & 8; 6 & 8), Brandon and Brenda's parents who later moved to Hong Kong when Jim was promoted. During the first five seasons, they were Brenda and Brandon's main source of stability and guidance. They always keep an open door and a place at their table for whomever might need it. The Walshes' house is often used for holidays and celebrations (like Mel and Jackie's wedding). Down-to-earth Cindy is a loving and sympathetic mother to her children but also to her children's often-troubled friends, especially Dylan and Kelly. As a couple, they are stable, although not without their issues (Jim and Cindy are both tempted to have extra-marital affairs in season one). Though Jim has a strong sense of morality, he is very committed to his work and loyal to his employers—so much that he finds himself at odds with Brandon, who often defends causes important to him, even at the expense of his father's business interests. Jim also serves as Dylan's trust fund manager/business manager off and on, despite rocky relations between the two of them, often over Dylan's relationship with Brenda.
Nat Bussichio [ edit ]
Joe E. Tata portrays Nat Bussichio, (Seasons 6-10, Recurring Character Seasons 1-5), a former Hollywood character actor who is Brandon's boss and the owner and operator of the Peach Pit, a 1950s-styled diner where the gang always gathers. He often serves as a moral compass for the gang, particularly after Jim and Cindy Walsh leave the show. He loves the main cast, and often comes to the rescue of the characters. He is also a Little League baseball coach in a poor neighborhood. Initially Nat is a recurring character, but after season 5, he becomes part of the cast. During the sixth season, Nat rekindled his romance with his former girlfriend, Joan Diamond, whom he hadn't seen in over two decades. Joan became pregnant, and she and Nat got engaged. She went into labor in the middle of the wedding ceremony and, at the hospital, insisted on completing the marriage vows before going into the delivery room. She gave birth to Nat's only child, a son named Frankie.
Nat also escorted Donna Martin down the aisle at her wedding to David Silver in the series finale. Donna's father, Dr. John Martin, died of a stroke midway through the final season of the series. In 90210 . he returns as a recurring character and the boss of Dixon Wilson .
Jesse Vasquez [ edit ]
Mark Damon Espinoza portrays Jesse Vasquez (Seasons 5, Special Guest Star Season 4), who became Andrea Zuckerman's love interest in Season 4. Jesse met Andrea while he was bartending at a party for the Walshes' 20th wedding anniversary with then-boyfriend Dan, and Andrea quickly fell for him. After she got pregnant, Jesse proposed to her, and after receiving her grandmother's blessing they were married in a civil ceremony. Jesse was a rock for Andrea during her difficult premature delivery and the scary months until their daughter Hannah was able to leave the NICU and go home, but the pressures of college, work, and raising their daughter began to drive them apart in Season 5. Jesse admitted his own infidelity to Andrea and her own admission she had cheated on him nearly drove them apart for good. Jesse turned down a prestigious legal clerkship in Boise because Andrea didn't want to move there, and later arranged for them to head to New Haven, CT so they could both study at Yale. In Season 6, Andrea tells her friends that Jesse is about to make partner at his new law firm, but by Season 8 she has a furious fight with him (over the phone) and later reveals Jesse and she are getting divorced.
Clare Arnold [ edit ]
Kathleen Robertson portrays Clare Arnold (Seasons 6–7, Recurring Character Seasons 4-5), who met the group while she was a senior in high school and they were college freshman. She stayed through a few middle seasons. She is known for her high IQ and for being the somewhat-wild daughter of a wealthy diplomat and CU chancellor. She first appeared midway through Season 4 aggressively, yet unsuccessfully, pursued Brandon while she was still a high school student and he was in college. In Season 5, she became Kelly and Donna's roommate in the beach apartment and started CU as a college sophomore. Clare evolved throughout the show; at first she was wild-child bad girl, but she eventually matured and became an intricate part of the gang. She was romantically involved with David in Season 5 and Steve in Seasons 6 and 7, becoming the first girl to nail Steve's feet to the ground. She almost moved in with Steve but her anger over his mom breaking up with her father doomed their relationship; she received an offer to attend graduate school in France, and she and Steve broke up after their CU graduation.
Valerie Malone [ edit ]
Tiffani Thiessen portrays Valerie Malone, (Seasons 5–9, Special Guest Star Season 10) an unwholesome and emotionally troubled family friend of the Walshes back in Minnesota. Brenda, Brandon, and Valerie grew up together in Minnesota until she and her parents moved to Buffalo, New York. when she was around 10 years old, and she lived there for most of her teenage years. Problems in the Malone family had been escalating for many years, mostly in secret, but it wasn't until Valerie's father was found dead in the bathroom of his home, an apparent suicide via gunshot wound to the head, that the family's issues seemed to come to light. This marked the catalyst that led to Valerie's move to Beverly Hills. where she would live with the Walshes. Valerie came off to the gang as a naive young woman; however, at the end of the episode in which she first appeared she was seen rolling a joint. She was also seen and talking to a friend (later revealed to be Ginger) over the phone back in Buffalo, about the possibility of getting involved with Steve Sanders for his money, as well as insulting the gang and boasting of her natural-born ability to lie and act more innocent than she actually is. Romantic interest in Valerie came quick, often, and usually all at once, leading to many situations where male members of the series became contentious over their similar affections for her. Valerie became involved with Dylan, then Steve, then Ray, Brandon, David, Noah, and many others during the course of the show, the most meaningful of them being her romance with David Silver. By Season 6, Valerie got into business with David, and they become co-owners of the Peach Pit After Dark. Among the group, only Kelly took an immediate dislike to Valerie when they first met because Kelly quickly became aware that Valerie was not who she appeared to be. While Brandon and the rest of his friends usually gave Valerie the benefit of the doubt, and ultimately remained friends with her (particularly when Valerie ceased her malicious ways or appeared to atone for them), she and Kelly remained constant enemies throughout the entire series, save for a few instances where both women were be cordial with each other. It was later revealed that prior to coming to Beverly Hills, Valerie's father had sexually assaulted her and she was forced to kill him in self-defense, and Valerie's mother was going to turn her in to the police before finally telling Valerie she was blameless and begged her to forgive herself. Valerie subsequently joins her mother in Buffalo. Valerie returns as a guest at Donna's bridal shower in the series finale and appears on good terms with everyone there, including Kelly. She reveals that she is in a committed relationship back in Buffalo and that she and her mother have reconciled after going through therapy together. Gina Kincaid replaced her after her departure.
Ray Pruit [ edit ]
Jamie Walters portrays Ray Pruit (Seasons 6, Recurring Character Season 5, Special Guest Star Season 7), a talented musician with a violent temper whom Donna met while she was doing interviews for CUTV. She was dating Griffin at the time but quickly fell for Ray's charm and talent and dumped Griffin for Ray on Halloween. Ray's background—his mother was an alcoholic and his absent father used to abuse her and Ray, leaving them poor when they fled him—led Donna's mother to distrust him and try to break them up. Later on, Ray became increasingly violent towards Donna, culminating with two ugly incidents when he pushed her against a wall in Oregon and knocked her down a flight of stairs in Palm Springs. Donna forgave/overlooked this violence, but broke up with him when she learned he cheated on her with Valerie, and Ray nearly attacked her again before Joe Bradley defended her. Ray then filed charges against Joe, but some straight truth from Brandon led Ray to both admit on the stand he was trying to hurt her (and having Joe's charges dismissed) and to apologize to Donna before leaving L. A. to try out his music. Ray returned late in Season 6 when the video company Donna and David were working for assigned them to do his video; Donna was terrified of him, but soon met his new fiance and learned he was in therapy to deal with his anger issues, and they parted on friendly terms. Ray made one appearance in Season 7, called in by the friends when David had a breakdown in Las Vegas, and was critical of them for not stepping in and helping him during his downward spiral.
Carly Reynolds [ edit ]
Hilary Swank portrays Carly Reynolds (Season 8), was a waitress and single mom who had some unfriendly first meetings with Steve Sanders (getting angry when he tried to help her son from getting pushed around at a soccer game, and later insulting his bimbo date and getting fired in the process) but later accepted his help in getting a job at the Peach Pit, and soon after realized he was a nice guy who was good with her son. They began dating and all was well until midway through the season when Carly's father suffered a heart attack in her Montana hometown, and Carly decided she had to leave L. A. to be with him, and thus departed from the series for good. They broke up and Steve was heartsick for a while, though he later decided that he would have joined her in Montana if he was truly in love with her.
In an interview given shortly after her Best Actress Oscar win for Boys Don't Cry , Swank revealed that she had been fired from the show because the producers didn't think that Carly was connecting with the show's audience.
Noah Hunter [ edit ]
Vincent Young portrays Noah Hunter (Seasons 8-10), who met the gang during their Hawaiian vacation in Season 8. He was originally smitten with Valerie, who liked him but assumed he was a poor boat worker, and he broke things off with her when he found out she was also dating a rich guy. It was later revealed that his family was very wealthy, and he used his money to buy out the PPAD (Peach Pit After Dark) club, around the same time that he began dating Donna. He was not close to his unhappy, workaholic father (Ray Wise ), who revealed in the Season 9 premiere that the family-owned company, Hunter Oil & Chemical, was bankrupt resulting from Noah's father's many years of mismanagement and underpayment of federal and corporate income taxes. His father later committed suicide in the next episode, unable to bear the thought of living in poverty or going to prison for income tax evasion. Having lost everything (save for the PPAD club), as well as all his money, Noah descended into a drunken depression that led to reckless driving charges and other acts which almost cost him Donna's love, before he cleaned himself up and focused on running the PPAD. It was assumed he went to Harvard, but in Season 10 he admitted that his acceptance there was withdrawn after he drove drunk and had a crash where his girlfriend was killed, only escaping jail because of his father's connections. Noah and Donna ended things for good after this, and he resumed heavy drinking until he was kidnapped and nearly killed. He ended the series by committing to AA and falling in love with a troubled young single mom he met there.
Janet Sosna [ edit ]
Lindsay Price portrays Janet Sosna (Seasons 9–10, Recurring Character Season 8), who joined the Beverly Beat as the new editor after her predecessor got married and left without notice. She liked Steve from the start, but he thought she was too conservative, and ignored her on their disastrous first date at West Beverly's 5-year reunion. She ignored Steve's entreaties until they began sleeping together and then turned the Beat into a tabloid, and by later in Season 9 they started seriously dating, even though Janet's conservative Japanese parents cut her off for being with a non-Japanese man. Janet learned she was pregnant in Season 10, and refused to be with Steve at first, but he won her over and she accepted his marriage proposal. Their daughter Madeline was born after a protracted struggle around Thanksgiving, and Steve later brought Janet's parents back into their lives as well. Near the series end, a New York-based investor bought out the Beat for $750,000, with Steve stepping away while Janet took on editorial duties that left her exhausted and away from her family; she happily agreed to Steve's plan that they would take their windfall and use it to create and jointly run a new publication.
Matt Durning [ edit ]
Daniel Cosgrove portrays Matt Durning (Seasons 9-10), an attorney who became the legal go-to guy for various issues with the group, including Valerie's self-defense murder of her molesting father, Noah's drunken driving, and David's bogus statutory rape charge. Although he and Donna were interested in each other while she was disgusted with Noah's behavior, their reunion turned his attention towards Kelly, and they began sleeping together as she got over Brandon's departure. Matt had a secret, though: his wife had been in an institution in New York due to severe mental illness, and later found medication that helped her enough that she could head to L. A. to be with him. Kelly broke up with him, but the medication later failed, and Matt's wife told him she loved him but was getting a divorce so he could have a life with Kelly. They then reunited, but Matt was thrown first by Kelly's one-night stand with Dylan (when they went to Mexico to illegally buy drugs that would have helped Matt's then-wife) and then by not knowing at first that Kelly was raped. He got a weapons charge against her dismissed after she shot and killed the rapist in self-defense, and they drifted apart for a while until Matt's handling of a death penalty appeal helped bring them back together. Matt and Dylan had a mostly-unfriendly rivalry over their shared love for Kelly, with Matt successfully proposing to Kelly but also having serious professional difficulties. Matt planned to move to Seattle as the series ended, but when his brother died in a car crash (Matt had provided a sperm sample so his infertile brother and his wife could have a child through artificial insemination), Matt moved to New York instead, breaking up with Kelly on civil terms, and agreeing that he saw the bond between her and Dylan was real.
Gina Kincaid [ edit ]
Vanessa Marcil portrays Gina Kincaid (Seasons 9-10), a former ice skating champion with a bad attitude and an unfairly traumatic past who got fired from her ice show position and stayed with her cousin Donna. Gina's manipulative ways made her Kelly's new post-Valerie enemy, and drove a wedge between Donna and Noah as well. Gina and Dylan soon began a sexual relationship, but Dylan's attentions towards Kelly made Gina angry and bereft. Gina was resentful of Donna because of the Martins' wealth, while she grew up poor with a mean-spirited, bullying stage mother. She also suffered from bulimia, and bonded with David Silver over his efforts to help her through her problems. They dated briefly after Gina had enough of Dylan treating her like an ornament, but David ended things with her because she was still hung up on Dylan. The character seemed to bounce between being treated badly by people for valid reasons (Donna due to her fake fling with Noah and later her cruel comments on Kelly's self-defense shooting, the ice show manager she was rude to) and being treated badly for no valid reason (preppy snots in a bar who insulted her, Oksaia Baul's rude manager, and even Noah when he blamed her for a mistake the bakery made with Donna's birthday cake). She was stunned to learn that Donna's father was actually her father as well, having had a drunken fling with her mother that was covered up. Dr. Martin tried to bond with her and they were making progress, until he died of a heart attack that everyone blamed Gina for. She planned to leave town with Dylan, before her strong words at the funeral led to her finally being accepted by Donna and Felice, and she was neither surprised nor very hurt when Dylan bailed on their travel plans. It was later revealed that Gina had found new professional success after leaving L. A. working as a skating commentator.
Other characters [ edit ]
Jackie Taylor [ edit ]
Emily Valentine [ edit ]
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