Dylan was heard before he was seen on 90210 hanging out for some reason in a tech lab type room (which always exceeds society’s expectations) where two jocks show up to molest nerdy Scott Scanlon (Douglas Emerson). If they threaten to erase what Scott is doing on the computer (design a floor plan for “the perfect dance club” to record), you will hear the invitation to ruin yourself off-camera: “Touch this board, my friend.”
And around turns Perry, who looks terribly fresh in retrospect, but is rather calm, cool and manly at the time. He goes on to tell the bullies with a slight grin that he is “feeling a little hostile,” and that’s all they need to know. They sneak away. Scott’s worship is assured and Jason PriestleyBrandon Walsh, still the new kid in town from healthy Minnesota, is impressed.
“Your boyfriend is pretty cool,” says Brandon to Scott, looking like he can’t believe what he just saw.
“I’ve never seen that guy in my life!” Scott wonders.
Most people hadn’t either, but within a few months “the guy” had become “Luke Perry”, his name was so laden with heartbreakers which means likeTom Cruise“or”Brad Pitt“- just” Brad Pitt “as we know him, and especially as he was in the 1990s, was still a few months away, with Thelma & Louise and his abs not being released until May 1991.
“After the pilot, we felt like there should be someone a little dangerous, a little on the fringes, and we came up with the Dylan character,” said the executive producer Aaron spelling, orthography, who was the one who insisted that Perry become a regular cast member, told Rolling Stone in 1992. He added the creator Darren Star“When Luke walked into the audition it was like, ‘Wow, that’s the person.’ He seems just like James Dean to me, but it’s not a conscious imitation – he really is himself. “
