As a child and then as a teenager there were certain TV programmes in the summer holidays that my sisters and I simply had to watch before we did anything else that day.

One of these was ‘Saved By The Bell.’ I discovered recently that the last episode was aired 20 years ago, and so I thought that I would write a little tribute.  We watched it from the very first episode, and followed it right through to the very end of the ‘College Years’, including all the specials and the culmination of Zack and Kelly’s Wedding.

We loved them. I wanted to be Zack’s or A.C.’s girlfriend (I wasn’t fussy – they were both gorgeous. While i’m on the subject, they’re both still extremely attractive now). I wished that I was as pretty as Kelly, as sassy as Lisa and Tori and as clever as Jessie. I wanted to have a friendship with a boy like Jessie and Zack did. The only ones I never really warmed to were Screech and Mr Belding, particularly when their characters became more exaggerated as the seasons progressed. I wanted to have a place like ‘The Max’ where me and my friends could hang out, go to the mall, have parties and be on the cheerleaders. Of course, living in rural England, (and the fact that it was a fictional TV show) these dreams never came to fruition.

Even now, 20 years later, I still remember so much of it. I remember every word to the theme song, and their full names. I remember their graduation song at Bayside. I even remember the ‘Friends Forever’ song that they sang in an episode where they formed a band. I remember the special episodes, where they all went to work at a holiday camp (I was so jealous, I wanted to work there). What I loved the most about it was that it dealt with issues of love, romance and friendship that my naive teenage self could relate to.

And little did I know it, but I would be also watching guest actors who would go on to have successful careers on stage and screen – Christina Taylor, Leah Remini, Tori Spelling and Denise Richards to name a few… Leah Remini’s character still remains the one that I was insanely angry as a teenager – she broke Zach’s heart after a summer romance and I don’t think I’ve ever quite forgiven her!

Check this link to read further.

http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=2606

So, thank you Saved By The Bell for giving a 12 year old girl a lot of happiness and entertainment during the summer. I like to think that somewhere in TV land they’re all still very happy… In real life, most of them have gone on to have further acting and entertainment careers, and they now look like this:

What about you guys? We’re you Saved By The Bell obsessives?

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