Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from the Missus on the important parallels between Beverly Hills 90210 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

As some of you may know, the Thinking Reed and I have recently entered the Buffyverse. One of the most wonderful things about the Buffyverse is its near seamless overlap with our first love, the magical kingdom known as 90210. Imagine Brandon’s surprise to learn that not only did Susan have an abortion – she’s also an 1100-year-old demon! And imagine Brenda’s shock when she learned that the sweet football player who took her to prom was later raised from the dead to wreak havoc on Sunnydale. Oh, Tony, how far you fell.

We learn that Tara, after becoming obsessed with Kelly and attempting to kill them both, goes on to become the werewolf, Veruca, who steals Oz from Willow and ends up dead. But the most tragic of all was poor deranged Laura; after accusing Steve of rape at a Take Back the Night rally, being redeemed, and then flipping out when Brenda was given the role of Maggie the Cat (did Brenda get the role by sleeping with the director? Did she???) , Laura meets a gruesome and untimely end after running afoul of a powerful vampire whom Angel ineptly fails to stop before he kills Laura/Tina.

Then there’s the day before prom, when Joyce Summers channels Felice Martin and convinces Angel to break up with Buffy. If only Angel had been a dreamy singer-songwriter (who for some reason won’t give the rights to his songs for the 90210 DVDs! Seriously, Jamie Walters, is it really that important to protect the rights to those songs?), perhaps Joyce would eventually have come around to the Buffy/Angel relationship. Alas.

Plus, Angel could learn a thing or two from Dylan about brooding with one’s shirt on.

I would also be remiss if I failed to mention the striking architectural similarities between Sunnydale High School and West Beverly. And one final similarity: all the main characters end up graduating together (admittedly, West Beverly’s graduation featured fewer cross-bows) and attending the plausibly named, though entirely imaginary, local colleges, UC Sunndydale and California University.