Damn, I miss the ‘90s. Saved by the Bell was the show for my generation. Everyone wanted to go to Bayside High School and hang out with Zack Morris and his gang. This was a show for kids, but it was about teenagers. It was pretty watered down, but they would handle issues like love, death, cheating, bullying, environmental issues, and drugs… A lot of the plotlines are laughable today, but that is part of the appeal of the show. It affected you in ways that you don’t even realize, for example, I smoke weed, but I will never abuse caffeine pills.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays Zack Morris, the coolest kid in the world. They only other high school kid that is even comparable to Zack is Ferris Bueller. Ferris only had one movie, Zack Morris thrived for multiple seasons over three shows (Good Morning, Miss Bliss; Saved by the Bell; and Saved by the Bell: The College Years). Ferris Bueller would occasionally talk directly to the audience, Zack Morris could actually stop time and talk directly to the audience without the rest of the characters realizing it. Zack is preppy, but sometimes he’s a jock and competes on the track team. Sometimes he is a slacker, and sometimes he outscores Jesse on the SATs. Zack Morris is Saved by the Bell, if you don’t like him, than you don’t like the show.
Kelly Kapowski is one of Zack’s best friends and his occasional girlfriend. Every guy who watched this show had a crush on Tiffani-Amber Thiessen. She makes Kelly the beautiful girl next door, she is pretty, nice, the ideal American girl.
Dustin Diamond plays Screech, Zack’s best friend and a complete geek. He is really smart, but lacks common sense. He is usually the butt of the jokes, and he has a huge unrequited crush on Lisa.
Lisa Turtle is played by Lark Voorhies. She is spoiled and obsessed with fashion. She likes to gossip and she loves being popular. Cool tidbit about her character, she was originally supposed to be white and Jewish, but Lark Voorhies brought a new level to the character and luckily she was cast. She is underrated but is an essential asset to the cast.
Mario Lopez plays Albert Clifford “A.C.” Slater. Sometimes he’s Zack’s rival, sometimes he’s a really close friend. He is a jock, he is the captain of the wrestling team and is usually going out with Jessie.
Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) is another one of Zack’s best friends. She is really smart but not as smart as Screech. She is a feminist and is politically correct and always tries to stand up to injustices. She can be pretentious at times, and even my seven-year-old self could recognize a bitch and Jesse is a bitch a lot of the time. But then she did Showgirls and got naked a lot and that was awesome.
Dennis Haskins plays Mr. Belding, the school principal. He tries to be an authority figure, but the kids don’t respect him. In fact, he always seems to be trying to get on Zack’s good side. He has to punish him occasionally, but it seems like he might be a pedophile and just wants a little attention from Zack Morris.
Zack Morris runs a lot of scams, he hurts a lot of innocent people, he uses and abuses his friends, he manipulates his parents, teachers, and Mr. Belding… he is still an icon to kids everywhere. He is a troublemaker with a heart of gold. And it doesn’t matter that he finds true love with Kelly or a girl that a he met on the beach for a few episodes… he is still the hero of the show and everyone wants to be like him. He made cellphones cool way before the iPhone.
This is a classic show. It’s not a good show. The writing is pretty terrible and often lazy. There is no continuity. Characters show up for a single episode and disappear forever. But this is one of those rare shows where catching a single episode will bring back memories of all the episodes that you watched. If you quote a line in a conversation and someone catches it, be prepared to geek out because you will start talking about your favorite moments, lines, and episodes. That’s part of the fun of experiencing a show like this.
Critically Rated at 14/17
criticallyrated 