With new teen TV drama “90210” getting so much attention these days on the CW network, its predecessor, ”Beverly Hills 90210” seems to have now gained iconic status on the U.S. television landscape. But it wasn’t always that way, remembered Jason Priestley (Brandon Walsh), when looking back at the early days of the original show in the 1990s.

Priestley,  39,  who turned down a chance to appear in  the new “90210″, told reporters in a conference call Tuesday  that he felt neither the original show nor the actors got any respect in the industry 15 years ago – before the Teen Choice Awards and the era of programs directed specifically at teens.

“Looking back, people talk about the show with much higher reverence than we got at the time. The show didn’t get any credit back then… Fox (television) didn’t get any respect… and we as actors didn’t get any respect then,” Priestley mused, without bitterness.

“We were never bestowed any awards… there was never any praise heaped on us. We were just sort of left alone and relegated as actors to the teen magazine pile, and that’s where we ended up for a time and we all had to re-prove ourselves. 

“But that’s just the way it was. It’s not like that any more. It was just a different time,” said Priestley.

Priestley is returning to TV to direct an episode of the new “90210″ in January, and is making a guest appearance on comedy “My Name is Earl”.

But Priestley said that unlike fellow cast members Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty, who returned to acting on the new “90210″ this initial season, he decided against reprising his role as the Mr. Nice Guy of  West Beverly Hills High.  “There wasn’t anything interesting for me to do as Brandon” in the new show, he said.

We seem to remember that “90210″ did get some credit for addressing teen topics other shows wouldn’t touch, so we wondered whether Jason got it right about the original show. Or is the affection now showered on “Beverly Hills 90210″  nothing more than nostalgia for a lost youth from a bunch of  30-somethings?