Saved by the Bell

Ah, I love this show. Cartoon Network has started airing it at midnight. Normally it would piss me off to have network going against what it claims to be (like when MTV stopped playing music. Incidentally, I refuse to watch MTV now). "Saved by the Bell" is not animated. But I love it so much, I am willing to make an exception.

Tonight's episode was the one where Jessie gets addicted to caffeine pills. Who doesn't remember that episode? It is possibly one of the most infamous of all "Saved by the Bell" episodes. "I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm... so... scared!"

What girl didn't want to be Kelly Kapowski? I cried when she dumped Zack for that creepy older guy (ok not quite, but I was heartbroken). I was confused when Kelly and Jessie left half way through senior year, yet returned for graduation. But I forgave them. I watched "The College Years," even though it was terrible and had lost the magic. Hell, I even tried to watch "The New Class." It was so bad it made my eyes bleed. To this day I shudder when I see any of the actors from "The New Class" in any other show. I even remember the rarely played "Good Morning Miss Bliss" which was Zack and Jessie in junior high (in the midwest?!).

But nothing can live up to the original.

"Saved by the Bell" ruined high school for me. I honestly thought that high school would be just like the show (Keep in mind, this show started airing when I was still in elementary school). I thought there were jocks and geeks and band members, all in separate cliques... then the central core group of best friends who were the coolest in school. I thought schools would be big and clean, all indoors with full sized lockers you could shove nerds into. I thought it would be all fun and wackiness, with crazy schemes and an awesome after school hangout.

High school was none of that. I am still bitter I suppose.