Jason Priestley looked back on one of his most memorable directing days on Beverly Hills, 90210: filming Luke Perry’s final original-series scene, a rain-soaked moment that ended with Dylan McKay collapsing to his knees after learning Toni Marchette had been killed. Priestley said the shot, filmed with rain towers and a crane-mounted camera, was his favorite directing memory from Perry’s run on the show.
He made the recollection on the Best With Them podcast, where he was talking about his work behind the camera and the scene that stayed with him longest. Priestley said he and Perry were having the best time shooting the sequence, and he nodded when asked if he missed his former costar, a quiet answer that carried more weight than words.
The memory lands differently now because Perry has died. What Priestley described as a joyful collaboration on the original run of Beverly Hills, 90210 has become harder for him to revisit, not because the scene changed, but because the man in it is gone. He said he and Perry stayed close long after the show ended and even became neighbors, a detail that turns the episode from a TV milestone into something more personal.
That is why the scene still stands out years later. It was not just a strong episode of television; it was the last time Priestley directed Perry in the original series, and the rain, the camera pullback and Perry’s grief on screen now sit alongside Priestley’s own grief off screen. The unresolved part is simple: Priestley did not identify the episode by name, leaving the exact installment of Perry’s final original-series appearance unspoken even as the memory itself remains vivid.
