90210 Star Tori Spelling Was Happy To Lose This Aspect Of Donna's Character

It's only natural that Tori Spelling's Donna Martin would go through important changes throughout her 10-season run as a main character on "Beverly Hills, 90210." Spelling felt particularly relieved about one change in particular: Donna losing her virginity. 

In an episode of the "90210MG" podcast, Spelling discussed how Donna's virginity — which she initially didn't mind at all — became such a prominent aspect of the character that it started to get tiresome. "We [were] always talking about the same storyline," she said. "She can't, you know, move on story-wise until we get to that point. So, I remember when it was happening, I was like, 'Oh, finally.'" 

Donna had her first time with David Silver (Brian Austin Green) in the Season 7 finale, "Graduation Day: Part 2" — directed by co-star Jason Priestley — and their candle-lit copulation was an especially pivotal moment for the teen drama.

Tori Spelling's father was "Beverly Hills, 90210" executive producer and primetime TV kingpin Aaron Spelling. As noted in Vulture's oral history of Donna losing her virginity, Tori and Aaron's real-life relationship had a direct impact on Donna's sex life (or lack thereof), and he reportedly exerted some influence over her screen time.

"The minute we'd go in to pitch stories about an episode, he'd ask, 'What's Donna doing this week?'" said Larry Mollin, executive producer on the "Graduation Day" double episode. He went on to describe how writers pitched numerous storylines about Donna losing her virginity, only for Aaron to ultimately nix them. 

"It was actually very endearing," said Mollin. "Tori was really out there. She was just enjoying herself. So even though the old man couldn't control her, he could control Donna Martin. It was an odd situation, like he was getting his fatherly satisfaction out of controlling a character when he couldn't really control his daughter."

Mollin recalled Aaron finally relenting when Donna was on the cusp of wrapping up her undergrad degree: "At the end of college, we all said, 'We really gotta do it this year. You can't go through college ... it's just too much.'"