What Donna Martin Taught Me About Myself

[TMC]

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Watching Tori Spelling nowadays with her reality shows and tabloid drama surrounding how she ended up marrying her current husband, it sometimes seems hard to believe that she was an actress when she first appeared on our television screens. Following guest star appearances on The Love Boat and Saved By The Bell, when the show Beverly Hills 90210 was created, Tori Spelling really had no trouble landing the role that would inevitably make her a household name.

Of course, considering that her father Aaron Spelling created the program, it's easy to see how she fell into that role in the first place.

Ahem...

Nepotism aside, when Tori Spelling assumed the role of Donna Martin in 1990, she really didn't have a whole lot to do. At the time of the early shows, most of the plots revolved around Kelly and Brenda, with Andrea taking on a secondary role. Donna was one of those tertiary characters. Not really of importance to any scene in particular, and you wouldn't really miss her if she wasn't shown.

Not that it really mattered that much anyway. Until the second half of the first season, Donna wasn't exactly portrayed in a positive manner, at least not to me anyway. As far as I was concerned, Donna was only good for two things. Shopping and following Kelly around. She had very little to say, and the very little she did say wasn't exactly profound.

You know those blonde jokes that have existed for ages that while I personally don't find funny, other people do? Donna was kind of the perfect representation of what those jokes were all about at first.

Then Donna started to rebel, and she started sassing back at teachers, and a concerned Brenda found out the real reason why Donna was acting out.

Donna had failed her PSAT's. This meant that the odds of Donna going to college were slim to none, and Donna felt that there was no need to worry about her future because she was too stupid to pass.

And with that admission, we notice the first crack in the spongy soft exterior of Donna Martin.

We eventually learn that Donna suffers from dyslexia, and when she is given an oral version of the PSAT's, she does much better.

I guess it's quite interesting to see that Donna Martin was so concerned about how well she did on the test when we didn't see any evidence of her being concerned about schoolwork at all prior to this. All we had seen of her was this Malibu Barbie persona that was just there for show.

Just goes to show that looks can be deceiving.