Melrose Place alum Grant Present is aware of that his and Jennie Garth’s Beverly Hills, 90210 love story would “now be unlawful.”

Present, 62, was the inaugural visitor on the Melrose Place rewatch podcast, “Nonetheless the Place,” the place he mentioned his tenure on the enduring highschool collection.

“They forged me for Melrose Place understanding that they have been going to place that character on 90210 kind of to springboard Melrose Place,” Present mentioned on the Monday, July 29, podcast episode. “It wasn’t the spinoff [or] any of that form of factor. It was, like, they knew this all entering into. After which I did three episodes of 90210 [as] Jake.”

As Present recalled, Jake Hanson initially got here onto 90210 as a handyman employed to construct “a gazebo for Kelly’s household in her yard.” Garth additionally appeared on the pilot of Melrose Place, the place she shared a kiss with Present.

“[It] what would now be unlawful and, like, [part of the] Me Too [movement],” Present quipped. “I feel we solely kissed, however nonetheless, you already know, not good. … How odd is it that we’re extra, kind of, prudish now than 30 years in the past?”

Whereas Garth, now 52, performed an adolescent to Jake’s 25-year-old, she was over 18 in actual life. As Present put it, they have been “comparatively contemporaries” since they have been “truly each adults.”

“That’s not that loopy in actual life [but] it’s understanding that it’s highschool,” Present mentioned. “Now, you set it in these phrases [of the age gap], that’s creepy.”

On the time, Present didn’t take into consideration the now-weird age distinction.

“She was a grown-up, skilled actress,” he mentioned. “I didn’t actually suppose a lot of it on the time we have been capturing. After I watched it, I used to be like, ‘Oh yeah, have a look at that.’ … It’s totally different.”

Forward of the podcast episode, the “Nonetheless the Place” cohosts solely instructed Us Weekly that the Jake-Kelly love story was “painful” to rewatch.

“I used to be watching it pondering, effectively certainly they’re gonna nearly kiss then not fairly. And I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, they’re kissing, they’re kissing!’” Courtney Thorne-Smith instructed Us earlier this month. “It simply didn’t age effectively. Grant is such an easy, moral man that he would by no means do this right now. However on the time it was romantic. We neglect how badly these issues age.”

Daphne Zuniga and Laura Leighton concurred, noting the story line feels “totally different” in right now’s world.

Total, Present appreciated Melrose Place in its first season, referring to the pilot as “form of corny and a bit hokey in locations.”

“For probably the most half, I believed it was a extremely stable episode,” he added, noting that later seasons of the present grew to become vastly “totally different.”

Garth didn’t recur on Melrose Place after the Could-December romance fizzled out. Her character primarily was concerned in a 90210 love triangle with Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry). Whereas Kelly was usually torn between her two classmates, it was “a bit bizarre” for Garth to movie love scenes with Priestley, now 54.

“It was a bit bizarre as a result of Jason is sort of a brother to me, however after we crawled into the pores and skin of the characters, it actually did make sense,” Garth solely instructed Us in March. “I like watching Kelly and Brandon collectively. What they’d was very nice and I’m a fan of it.”

Kelly and Brandon almost bought married onscreen earlier than calling off the nuptials on the alter. By the collection finale, Kelly selected Dylan. Within the 2008 revival on The CW, it’s revealed that Kelly and Dylan are now not collectively however share a son.