I did not expect to review this so soon after Hang Time but something got up my ass. I also want to clarify that when I said I wasn’t into most things involving teenagers I mostly meant on TV. There are tons of movies with teenagers in them that I think are wonderful and entertaining. Even ones that put out an idealized look at what it was like (which wasn’t true at least in my mind. Being a teenager sucked, maybe it would have been way better like some people think IF I wasn’t a weirdo outcast (yes are you really surprised that the man who is now talking about a Saved by the Bell sequel series was an outcast weirdo, hell still IS an outcast weirdo in our society?) but it wasn’t fun like say American Pie showed it to be. Still I enjoyed that movie. Maybe it’s the fact that TV and movies are different beasts, one running for 2 hours where even a show that only has 22 episodes runs like a few hours (I am not good at math and I am not in the mood to even bother trying) of time. I don’t know but thinking that over got me curious about Saved by the Bell’s sequel series (that I did not know of as a child, I guess I just skipped over them on Saturday Mornings because I was like I WANNA WATCH BUGS DA BUNNY INSTEAD. Which I did! Bugs Bunny is awesome!
So yeah, I decided I just had to see if Saved By the Bell can do two slam dunks and make two things related to teenager time any good? That was the worst sentence I will ever write ever. Anyway let’s get to seeing if this show was actually fun or a dud! The answer might just surprise you! Oh, one thing before I get into my oh so serious thoughts on this program is that this cast seemed to jump around a lot, in fact this show ran from 1993 to 2000 and the only person who was on it the entire damn time seemed to be Mr. Belding himself! That’s pretty fucking weird at least it is to me.
My opinion that I have been tantalizingly keeping away from you like I would food from a dog in a 1940s cartoon where I a jerk ass animated cat of some kind is that this show is pretty good. If they had put reruns of it on after like the 8 hours of Saved by the Bell reruns I watched during the summer months on weekday mornings I would have kept watching and not changed the channel at all like I did when they showed Saved by the Bell: The College Years (don’t worry super fans we will end up talking about that series too even though it does break one of my rules of not doing one season shows but still it just doesn’t feel right if I don’t end up talking about it.) Still it’s not exactly great enough to make me want to watch every episode now at the age of OLD FUCKING MAN.
The episode I am talking about first is actually the Final Episode, however it was not supposed to BE the Final Episode. It was supposed to be like episode 140 (yes they made that many of this show) and the episode previous is the real Final Episode, I usually go for the episode that was meant to be the clear ending of the show (if the show didn’t just end on a RANDOM WILD ASS ADVENTURE like most cartoons of this era) and well I will be doing that as the more indepth discussion because you all remember that I do a little extra for a show I’ve never seen before, get my self all into that world by watching extra episodes, mostly just one but sometimes I enjoyed the show enough to watch more!
The Actual Because of a Mistake Final Episode is actually pretty enjoyable. It involves Teenage Girl #1 (like I’m going to remember her name despite her being a better overall actor than the same character type they had in both Hang Time AND California Dreams) getting taken by a sleazy car repairman and a mute guy who works for him. That the main plot, the secondary plot involves Screech and made me laugh (even though now as an adult at age 22 Dustin Diamond cannot really do the Screech voice as well as he could as a child/teenager) it involves him going on strike after not getting a raise.
So our adventure starts up at the Maxx like a lot of episodes of the original show and this show but not the sequel series that came out in 2020. I think they showed up once there. Anyway Teenager Girl #1 and Teenage Boy #1 come on and mention that their car does not work! They have to bring it to a garage to get one thing fixed. Two teens kiss and the extra behind them does some facial shit that literally made me laugh so much. I am very easy to amuse it’s kind of pathetic really. Anyway they end up talking about the skiing trip which is the third plot of the episode. You see Screech was supposed to take them but he can’t because he’s on strike. He ends up getting several students to join him (but loses them when he says they should cut the teams or clubs that they are on like drama club, debate team and the football team while talking to a bunch of reporters.
They try to get an old lady teacher who doesn’t know where she is at all. She even thinks one of the boys is a girl so I think she’s supposed to be the completely clueless teacher who somehow got a job here for 30 years and not old dementia patient who is still forced to work at Bayside. Anyway they try to make her the new chaperone but it backfires because she was also a drill Sargent in the military who helped win a war of some kind, probably the war of 1812 judging by how old the actress looks. Anyway now realizing they can’t have their fun they go to Mr. Belding to pretend that the old lady teacher is too old to be a chaperone but that doesn’t work as he just joins in!
Anyway Screech literally chains himself to the desk and Mr. Belding also wants in, realizing that they will have to wait a year to get out Screech gives up his strike and gets his key out and unchains himself. When Mr. Belding asks to be unchained he says he doesn’t have a key for those chains and yes I laughed at that. The main plot is fixed by having a news reporter for Channel 4 news show up when a friend of theirs is pretending to be a doofy Southern woman (well I’m not completely sure if she isn’t the doofy character or not for this group of kids. Doofy is a fun word) and the friends jump in and surprise them and say it’s all on tape. I mean it’s not all on tape becuase the door was closed is probably something someone very cynical would go on about but I’m like this is silly fluff for children and people who have nothing else but nostaliga, it’s not a fucking Stanley Kubrick movie you non-existent figment of my imagination. We end with everything fixed up at the end, except Mr. Belding is still coming to the ski trip and he’s gonna show people how to be RADICAL by using a trash can lid as a sled!
Anyway, this show ended on a two parter so hopefully it’s a two parter where things happen and it’s not a two parter like Boy Meets World where it’s mostly clips because clip shows age like milk. I don’t even think they were good to begin with. If you had never seen a show before wouldn’t you want to see how it works narratively and not just HEY LETS HAVE THE ACTORS TALK ABOUT THESE CLIPS WOO!? Whatever let’s get into “Mr. B Goes to College” and well some clips are used but they also made me laugh so they at least picked good clips (like the Dick Van Dyke Final Episode) it all starts when his fraternity brother shows up and talks about the good old days. The students then share clips from the show. I’ll say this much that it literally helps that its a better set up than the OH HEY SOME RANDOS FOUND THE TIME CAPSULE the original gang apparently put away in the original Saved by the Bell series. After hearing about these stories about how important Mr. Belding is and how close he is with his students he offers him the job of being the Dean of Students at his new University.
Mr. Belding is not sure of what to do! He says he loves this school but this is also a big new challenge with a big new pay increase! The students are all worried! They go to the Maxx and he tells them that Mrs B is fine with either choice and they then start talking about how Mr. Belding helped them out of all kinds of tricky situations. These clips made me realize something, Dennis Haskins played Mr. Belding incredibly well. The character was a big goof at times but he genuinely cared about all his students and wanted to see the best in them. He played him incredibly well that he could literally walk into a High School today and probably pretend to be a Prinicpal and literally no one would probably ask any questions. He was also the funniest part of that goofy western movie Seth McFarlande did. I will never learn how to spell his name correctly but you can damn well bet I’ll spell Dennis Haskins name right!!! He also played this role for like 13 years straight making this not only the finale of Saved by the Bell all together but for the character as well. (I remember him not showing up in the new sequel series and who the hell could forget about Mr. Belding)
Mr. Belding tells them that he decided to stay and then goes Dean Belding there goes that… and they all talk about how unhappy he looks and that they while they got what they wanted they are incredibly sad for him. They then go to his office and talk to him some more. They talk about how he showed them that there are two sides to an issue and he should really think about it. They show some clips (ones that relate to the issue too, unlike that Boy Meets World episode!) and he then tells them that he will look at all sides of the issue and tell everyone what he decides at Graduation. He doesn’t actually wait to tell us (and the main characters) that he is leaving. The gang being the last group to graduate under Mr. Belding and want to make it a special thing. Screech believes that he is not leaving. They all decide to put 68 on their graduation gowns but one of the girls can’t get into the college she wanted because they wont pay full tuition and that means she has to stay home and away from her boyfriend. I’d belittle this if this show didn’t actually honestly get a pretty decent group of actors for the new characters. Are they going ot be the OG GANG? Not a chance. However they are much better than the actors in Hang Time and California Dreams and I’m legit surprised how I’m invested in this drama that happens all the time in things.
Another thing was that along with the worst action, Hang Time really went overboard trying to make these issues seem like the most serious that could ever happen ever where as this show takes them seriously enough that you feel bad for the characters when you are supposed to feel bad. It might be hard to explain but this show does this Teenage Problems (That are not as big as you think) like having to do a long distance relationship with your first boyfriend or girlfriend with enough seriousness that you care about it a bit more. I don’t know. Oh and the graduation gowns got messed up and continue to get messed up even more. Mr. Belding is honored by the 68 patch and believes the gowns to just be Tie-Dyed like they did in the 1960s! The boy and girl who had relationship problems end up talking it out like they always do in these shows. The girl ends up saying “If we are meant to be together we will no matter where we go to for college” which is weirdly mature for this silly ass show. Screech also gets up and gives his speech and presents Mr; Belding with a oil painting that will stay up in the halls of Bayside forever. They sing the Bayside song and we say goodbye to Bayside until the reboot in 2020.
FINAL VERDICT: Yes I know this review of this shows final episodes really makes me sound like I found a literal precious gem of some sort. Like something that was hidden forever and everyone needs to see. It isn’t like that but I was genuinely surprised that I liked this. It was clearly pretty well done. I guess NBC or Peter Engel knew that that Saved by the Bell was the big winner of the Teen sitcom game and that they needed to make sure it stayed that way by finding the best actors and writers for this kind of material. I mean it’s Saved by the Bell so it’s still corny and cheesy but it’s done in a memorable genuine way. I just know that City Guys (the last NBC Teen Sitcom) is probably not going to hold a candle to this. There’s a reason I’m sure some people were happy to see a Saved by the Bell sequel in 2020 and that a remake or sequel of Hang Time will make most people go “Wa huh!?”. Anyway I’ll see you later to talk about some more NES games or some shit.
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