So Excited, So Scared: The Saved by the Bell Retrospective

[HarmonicGenerator]

Yes, I laughed a lot at that one too. But as Linus says, there are loads of moments like that. The whole book is a brilliant read, I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

Just finished the chapter on Jessie's Song, and it's weird, because Astro mentions that it was never repeated on UK TV after its initial airing on Channel 4. I could swear I saw it when Nickelodeon used to show SBTB all the time about 15 years ago, but if not - I can only assume it's the 'cultural osmosis' thing he refers to, because I was really familiar with everything that happened in the episode from the recap in the chapter. Was it ever shown as an edited version or anything? Because the 'Sinead O'Connor' part, the Zack/Jessie ET talk… I'm certain I've watched that on TV before.

 

None of the other 'banned episodes' are at all familiar to me, so I'm looking forward to reading about them. But I'm sure at least some of Jessie's Song, not that I can prove it and Astro will clearly have done his research while I'm only working off vague tween memories, has been shown over here more recently than the 90s… it must be an edited version or some sort of weird highlights thing I've seen, right?

[Really Big Shoe]

I wasn't aware of any banned episodes of SBTB, although my recollection of most of them is hazy, since I haven't seen them for years. Been catching up with some of them on The Vault though and there's certain lines/scenes which do ring a bell (no pun intended) such as when they do the radio show for example and the first episode when Zack meets Slater. 'Jessie's Song' is on next week I think so will be interesting to see if it's been edited, but as times have moved on since then, I'm sure they'll show it how it was originally broadcast. In the TV movie the cast wanted to move away from the more comedic aspect and wanted to tackle more closer to home issues which teenagers face. Which is why they did the episode when Jessie's addicted to caffeine pills. When you think about it, it was a big deal for a Saturday morning kids show to tackle drug addiction & they also did 'No Hope with Dope'. But apart from these two episodes I can't recall them doing any other major stories which standout. Perhaps when Zack & Kelly broke up, but that was more about getting an emotional response from the audience than anything groundbreaking. I wonder whether if the writers went down the more reality based route whether the show would have been more/less successful?. I'd imagine if SBTB tackled too heavy subjects it could been a channel turner for majority of the audience, but again it would have been a good way to get messages across. 

[Astro Hollywood]

The airings of Jessie's Song are a weird one, as I too was convinced I'd seen it more than once. However, other than "I deffo remember that" hearsay, I couldn't pin down any concrete evidence of repeats, whereas there was a bunch of stuff that seemed to confirm the contrary. I may be proven wrong, but currently, my stance is that any memories of repeats are false playground memories, like that episode of Live and Kicking where Andi Peters got his dick out, and people are just remembering seeing bits from Youtube or clips on talking head shows. It's one of those things that's so culturally ingrained, you don't need to have actually seen it to have seen it, like when the Exorcist finally got re-released over here, and you knew all the bits anyway from parodies, homages, and outright theft in other media.

As for Really Big Shoe's point, I go into the whole thing of SBTB's stance on heavy issues at various points, the kind of topics that were suggested but spiked throughout the run, and why that was. In broad terms, the exec producer was a born again Christian, and didn't want to go that route.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Yeah, that's a fair enough conclusion to draw, I certainly have no evidence other than "I deffo remember that", in which case something like talking heads clips seems the most likely option. Maybe I actually caught it first time round - when did Channel 4 originally show SBTB? I'm assuming it was some time after it was on in the US, otherwise I can rule that option out (I'd have been 3 at the time…)

 

Not that it's important, really - I'm already distracted by the Suburban Commando reference in the 1-900-Crushed chapter - but I'm intrigued!

[Really Big Shoe]

I'll take a guess at 1990 at the earliest, possibly early to mid 1991 at the latest. I don't think SBTB aired at the same pace as the US. I don't know if Good Morning Miss Bliss was shown if at all in the UK. I do vaguely recall Channel 4 going from SBTB to SBTB the College years in around 1993 time, 94 at the latest, so I don't think in the end they were too far behind in terms of air dates with the US. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

At the end of the chapter on 'The Fabulous Belding Boys' there is a recommendation to watch two YouTube videos: 'Lost Heroes: Saved By The Bell's Rod Belding', and 'Saved By The Belding'. I can only reinforce that recommendation - they are FANTASTIC. A must watch when you get to this point in the book.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Finished! Great read, Astro; well done. I was snorting with laughter right through to the end, was pleased to see last month's Fallon reunion get a mention, and the last couple of pages were surprisingly moving!

 

Shocking to read just how disjointed the continuity actually was - I always assumed I'd been watching episodes out of order, but I may well have been watching them the way they were broadcast... Especially season 4, which seems a mad mix of Universe-A, Universe-T, clip shows and episodes from years beforehand - I had no idea the salamander episode wasn't shown until about three episodes before the end. But then the Malibu Sands episodes, the Slater/Jessie discontinuity, and so on. And then the vortex effect - I knew that the Zack/Lisa thing only lasted an episode but always assumed I'd missed a throwaway line later on that explained it never coming up again.

 

(I must also admit I never noticed how Dustin Diamond kept mouthing other characters' lines or couldn't stop himself from laughing most of the time...)

 

(And I wonder if my memories of seeing 'Jessie's Song' came from one of the clip shows in season 4? 'Time Capsule' perhaps?)

 

Anyway, great job again.

[Astro Hollywood]

Cheers, HG. It's incredible how little sense the show was making by the end. I've never seen a series with such a callous disregard for continuity. It's like they gave up altogether when The College Years became a possibility. Christ knows what the actual kids of 1992 made of it all.

 

For anyone who's not got it yet, I've put another sample chapter on my blog. Regard episode 5; Screech's Woman; where Screech originates the 'Nice Guy in the Friendzone' persona, while Zack invents catfishing.

[gmoney]

Finished this now. Excellent all the way through, a fine review of the sort of half arsed television they can't really get away with now. What struck me was how little of it I recalled, even though I definitely must have seen at least half of them when they were shown on Nickelodeon or Trouble in the late 90s/early 2000s. The only one I remembered with any real clarity was No Hope with Dope, though if you'd have asked me I would have sworn it was an episode of Hang Time. (incidentally, this must have been repeated around this time on cable as there's no chance I saw this on C4 in the early nineties). Everything else was just vagaries; Screech looking about 9 compared with everyone else; the Malibu episodes; the stopping of time etc. It was also quite a revelation reading just who underwritten Lisa was. In my mind she was a fully formed character, involved in all of it, but she seems to barely feature. 

Even when I watched it regularly I thought it was cheesy shite, but it was always fun regardless. Pick up the book if you haven't. It's funny as fuck. 

[Really Big Shoe]

I was wondering, are The Vault showing all the seasons of SBTB?, they showed Slater's Friend a few weeks ago which I think is from Season 4 and one of the last ever SBTB episodes (it was originally supposed to be a season 1 episode) instead of Season 2 episode 17 where Zack & Kelly and Slater & Jessie break up. I think they are currently replaying the first season again, so if anyone has seen the Vault SBTB showings before, did they show the break up episode? and also the Glee Club episode which is the season 2 finale wasn't shown either as it jumped back to the first episode of season 1 with the dance contest. But as SBTB is so disjointed with the order the episodes aired, I guess the only way to watch it properly is if you can make a playlist on Netflix. Here's the correct order:

 

 

 

Season 1

King of the Hill

Fatal Distraction

Screech's Woman

The Gift

The Lisa Card

The Election

Aloha Slater

Dancing to the Max

The Substitute

Cream for a Day

The Mamas & The Papas

The Babysitters

Pinned to the Matt

Beauty & the Screech

The Zack Tapes

The Friendship Business

Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind

Slater's Friend

Save That Tiger

Screech's Birthday



Season 2

Blind Dates

The Prom

From Nurse to Worse

Save the Max

1-900-Crushed

Driver's Ed

Rent-a-pop

Miss Bayside

Zack's War

Model Students

Running Zack

House Party

Jessie's Song

The Fab Belding Boys

The Glee Club

Breaking up is Hard to undo

The Video Yearbook

Snow White and the Seven Dorks



Season 3

The Last Dance

Wicked Step-Bro (1)

Wicked Step-Bro (2)

Fake ID's

Date Auction

Hold Me Tight

Love Machine

Operation Zack

Check Your Mate

Pipe Dreams

All in the Mall

Zack's Bday Party

The Game

Fourth of July

Boss Lady

My Boyfriend's Back

The Last Weekend



Season 4

Best Summer of my Life

The Fight

Rockumentary

SAT's

Bayside Triangle

Student Teacher Week

Palm Springs Weekend (1)

Palm Springs Weekend (2)

The Teacher's Strike

Screech's Spaghetti Sauce

Mystery Weekend

Home for Christmas (1)

Home for Christmas (2)

The New Girl

Teen Line

Masquerade Ball

Drinking and Driving

Earthquake

Slater's Sister

The Will

No Hope With Dope

Day of Detention

Isn't It Romantic

Wrestling with the Future

Class Rings

Cut Day

School Song

The Senior Prom

Graduation

Time Capsule

 

 

[Astro Hollywood]

If you're going linear, I'd put The Last Dance as the S2 finale, and open S3 with all the Malibu Sands episodes. Malibu is clearly supposed to take place in the summer break after Zack and Kelly split. It still won't make a lick of sense, because Malibu ignores everything either way, and you're left with a bunch of plot-holes -- like why do The Fight and Best Summer of My Life take place on the same day, in completely different realities? -- but it's probably the least weird way to follow the show, continuity-wise.
 

Note: why yes, I do hate my life.

[Really Big Shoe]

I'd take a guess and say the episodes being weirdly out of order is that some were like outtakes from previous season(s) and not originally scheduled to air, but they put them together with the more recent episodes to fulfill their contract with NBC. According to the Sky Guide & their twitter, season 3 of SBTB airs on Monday on the Vault:

 

 

 

Have you seen the new Saved By The Bell trailer on air? Series 3 starts this Monday at 8am and 6pm!

[Au]

I've been meaning to post this in here for weeks and I keep forgetting. So before I forget again, BritWres chap Mark Andrews has a pop punk band called Junior who released a song called 'They Don't Make Them Like Kelly Kapowski No More' (which is ironic in a way because Mandrews must have been about 2 when the show was originally broadcast) which has the most fantastic music video that should fit well in this thread:

 

[gbacon85]

Probably the most appropriate place to post this

http://thechive.com/2015/05/04/zack-morris-just-got-a-snapchat-and-its-glorious-26-photos/

[Really Big Shoe]

Anyone watching SBTB on the Vault?, not sure if they are missing episodes but they haven't showed the Beach episodes yet, so perhaps they are trying to show them in a order which makes chronological sense. 

 

Update: The Vault appear to be showing all the beach resort episodes together and in the Sky guide they have them as Season 4