Jason Priestley by Jason Priestley Page A

very complicated episode titled “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.” We shot on location at Magic Mountain. I had hundreds of extras, cameras mounted on roller coasters, and car chases . . . plus, I had Burt Reynolds in my episode. It was awesome!
    Burt was the man. At the time he was starring in Evening Shade and had been a big star forever. When he strolled up to me in his cowboy boots and leather-sleeved jacket to say hello, I was thrilled!
    â€œMr. Reynolds. This is the very first television episode I’m directing and I can’t tell you what an honor it is to have you here. Thank you so much. It’s so great to have you.”
    â€œYeah . . . I’ve done some directing here and there myself,” he drawled. “Let me give you some advice.”
    I was all ears. “What’s that?”
    â€œYou do a first take, right? And it looks okay?”
    â€œRight,” I said, not sure where this was going.
    â€œWanna do another take? Just tighten up a little bit. That way, you’ll have something to play with in the editing room.”
    â€œAll right, Burt. Thanks!” What Burt was telling me was how he would like to be shot. And that is exactly how I shot him. But in a way, he was absolutely right, and it’s a piece of advice I carry with me to this day. The more pieces of coverage you have in the editing room, the better. Burt was a smart guy, a real professional. Later on, his good buddy Dom DeLuise would show up on 90210 as well.
    Seven shooting days later, my first episode was complete. I’ve got to hand it to the crew and rest of the cast . . . every one of them was totally supportive, professional. Ultimately, they wanted me to succeed and for my episode to do well, so they helped me out, and it all came together very well.
    Aaron liked it, too. The next season he gave me two episodes to direct, and three in season five. Then I directed five episodes in seasons six and seven. By the time it was all said and done, only one other director had directed more episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 than I had. I also produced the show in seasons six and seven and executive produced the show in seasons eight and nine. Once again, I was looking to maximize my opportunity with Aaron and learn as much as I could from him.
    AFTER MUCH DELIBERATION , it was decided that the cast would all graduate at the end of the third season. Of course, that meant a two-hour “Graduation” episode and the infamous “Donna Martin Graduates” episode, which, to this day, is a huge fan favorite. In the show, Brandon leads a triumphant march across the football field. We were all supposed to be chanting, “Donna Martin graduates.” Of course, it took less than thirty seconds for me to change it to “Donna Martin masturbates.” Everyone else immediately picked up on it, and suddenly everyone was chanting along with me . . . “Donna Martin masturbates . . . Donna Martin masturbates. . . .” There were several other iterations as well, but I’ll leave those up to your imagination. I knew they were going to go back and reloop this dialogue anyway, so it was pretty irresistible. I mean, the writers had to know that would happen, right? It was one of the funniest moments we all ever shared, and I led the charge . . . Donna Martin masturbates! Pure comedy!
    Naturally, for high school graduation, we shot on location at Torrance High School. This particular show was a big deal, in part because we had to use hundreds of extras. The day before, production had brought in bleachers to use in the shoot. Our security team arrived early on the day of filming and swept the area. They found two homemade bombs hidden where we would all soon be sitting. That caused an uproar, and the team took them off and detonated them somewhere safe. The incident held up production for a few hours while authorities were notified and everyone ran