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How to Watch Shannen Doherty’s Most Notable Performances

Shannen Doherty died Saturday, at 53, after a long battle with cancer. She left behind a legacy as a touchstone of 1990s television thanks to her role as the Midwestern new girl Brenda Walsh in “Beverly Hills, 90210.” But before she became a teen TV idol — as well as a tabloid fixation — she warmed hearts as a child in “Little House on the Prairie.”

Here’s where to stream some of Doherty’s most notable work, including, of course, “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

‘Little House on the Prairie’

Years before Doherty began shaking things up at West Beverly Hills High School, she did so in “Little House on the Prairie.” Doherty joined the long-running series as Jenny Wilder, the niece of Melissa Gilbert’s Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, played by Dean Butler. Doherty appeared as Jenny, a pigtail-wearing girl whose father dies, throughout the ninth and final season of the show, and in subsequent “Little House” TV movies.

Stream it on Peacock.

‘Heathers’

The first sign of Doherty’s star power came with the release of “Heathers,” the pitch-black comedy directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Daniel Waters. Doherty plays Heather Duke, a member of the title clique of mean girls who terrorize their high school and all share the same name. (Well, except for the protagonist, Veronica Sawyer, played by Winona Ryder.) When the lead Heather, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), is murdered by a new kid in school, J.D. (Christian Slater) — a death that is passed off as a suicide with help from Veronica —Doherty’s Heather sees a path to power. She claims her dead friend’s red scrunchie as her crown, but her status obsession also makes her an easy target for J.D.’s manipulations.

Stream it on Tubi, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video.

Doherty with Winona Ryder in “Heathers.”Credit…New World, via Everett Collection

‘Beverly Hills, 90210’

Doherty remained best known for “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the influential teen series that debuted on Fox in 1990, created by Darren Star and executive produced by Aaron Spelling. Doherty played Brenda Walsh, a Beverly Hills newcomer who arrives with her twin brother, Brandon (Jason Priestley). Doherty told The New York Times in 2008: “Whereas her brother would feel a little more confident and secure, and just fit in automatically, I think for Brenda there was always a little more of, ‘Is this the place for me?’ I think she probably struggled through that, subconsciously, throughout the show.” Brenda’s relationship with the cool guy Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) was one of TV’s defining romances of the 1990s. Doherty left “90210” after four seasons, but would later reprise her role in the 2000s reboot.

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