Expert: Catherine - 4/28/2009

Question
Ok, this is my last question.

Donna Martin is the nice character on the show.  She's the most trusting, caring and least selfish of the women (except maybe for Brenda who is very caring but leaves).

Donna has the priviledged background but tries hard to help people. She is a little naieve at times, especially with men..like David. She's understanding and forgiving. She stands up to her mother's pushy ways and tries to overlook people's shortcomings (Valerie, Clare, David, ...)

It's tough to get over Donna's virginity issue and I understand her dad did the character and couldn't handle her sleeping with men. it's always weird to see her in those outfits that emphasize how confortable she is with her sexuality but she's chased. Ok, enough on that.

Jamie Walters works with well with Donna. I think he's a good character and mirrors Donna in a lot of ways. He's honest, not judgemental and very caring. So, why did they have to totally go and change his character to being abusive? It really doesn't work that way. Abusive people show their true colors very, very early in a relationship and believe me, there are red flags. You don't see that with Ray because obviously something changed and they decided to change him also.

Jamie Walters would have fit well and opened up new and different characters for 90210. Andrea and Jesse aren't rich, so why didn't they bring him in? He would have played off Donna very nicely...but that's my opinion.

Do you think they made his character abusive because Clare was going to leave and thus, open up the door for the Donna and David reunion?  

Answer
I can't really tell you what their motive was for sure with Ray except that he did seem to have a problem with Donna's virginity pretty early on. Even though he initially said something like, well I admit it's kind of weird, but I can live with it - it's not about sex (i'm paraphrasing), he slept with Valerie not too too long after he started dating Donna - this already made him somewhat immoral. He also started isolating Donna from all of her friends and refused to participate in things that had to do with CU and her sorority etc. He is nice in the VERY beginning, but he always feels uncomfortable around her friends and her family. Clare and David hated him (they knew about him sleeping with Valerie), and they specifically tried to avoid him (they once claimed that they were going to "Betsey's" birthday to prevent having to spend time with him even though they didn't know a Betsey).

It could be that Ray just started lashing out because he resented the way that he was treated by the rest of the group. After his affair with Valerie, he also faced problems with her regarding the club and he started to become very angry. He also had major issues with his mother.

Don't forget, Jamie was on the show for about a year and a half - so this storyline evolved over a much longer time period than it may seem. Ray started nice, but then verbally abused Donna by yelling at her, and he refused to take part in things like Andrea's going away party. This isolation seems inline with common situations that involve domestic abuse. The first time he hit Donna was towards the end of season 5 in Portland - Donna didn't break up with him until early-mid season 6 (he was on for several more episodes throughout season 6), and he pushed Donna down the stairs in Palm Springs in the season 5 finale, so it didn't come out of nowhere.

I definitely don't think it had anything to do with David and Clare because Clare didn't move away until the season 7 finale, and Donna dated Joe Bradley right after her relationship ended with Ray. My sense is that they didn't want to add another true-main character. He wasn't really friends with any of the other characters (aside from hanging out with Brandon and Steve every now and then), and you mention Andrea and Jesse, but they were written out of the show at the end of season 5. Ray would have been better suited for a show like Melrose Place in my opinion.

I can also tell you that Jamie Walters was a real musician during this time. "Hold On" reached # 16 on the Billboard charts in 1995, and he had a huge hit "How do you talk to an angel" in 1992. People started protesting his concerts because they thought he was Ray (holding up signs that said "stop hitting donna" etc) so Jamie told them that they either needed to rewrite the character or he was leaving the show. I think they appreciated the conflict that Ray brought to the show and weren't interested in changing the character.

The angel song was the theme song of the show "the heights" which only lasted for like 7 episodes but created that hit song. Jamie was a main character on the show, which was a Spelling production, and Aaron and co. was always known to be EXTREMELY loyal to actors who he liked and worked for him (you see the same people throughout his shows - like even a tiny Beverly Mitchell on Melrose Place years before 7th Heaven as one example) - so my personal (completely a guess) opinon is that Aaron felt like he deserved to give Jamie another role since the heights was cut short but Jamie gave them such a break with that huge hit song. just a theory. Anyway, I can't say for sure, but I think Ray just kind of ran his course - and season 6 was a weird time to be in Beverly Hills. Joe was much better for Donna anyway.

Hope that helps!