If you grew up in my era of childhood, you probably already understand the paradox of the TV series "Saved By The Bell." The show was, let's face it, super cheesy. Behind their at-the-time cool hair swoops and neon-colored clothes, their afternoon-TV personalities were at best, watered-down versions of reality. You knew Zack caused trouble but would never do anything too scandalous, and that his friends would always forgive him or pay him back in some cute way. At worst, the characters would get even cheesier and try to promote some important moral message in a very simplistic manner (remember the "There's no hope with dope" episode?).
And yet....
Somehow I could not pull away from it, and even got joy out of watching it when the reruns would air in the afternoons after the series ended (and was replaced with the spin-off "The College Years," which I could not stand watching most of the time). I don't think I quite understand why I still liked the show. Maybe it was because one of the only other choices at the time was Full House, which upped the cheese factor by 2000% and did away with most of the coolness factor. Or maybe it was because, in Zack's little watered-down, afternoon-TV world, he was actually cool. Somehow the show made me believe that Zack, despite being a trouble maker, was essentially a good person, and therefore I liked to see his friends forgive him of his faults and occasionally teach him a lesson. Or maybe it was just the hilarity of hearing the studio audience yell "oooooh!" every time he hit on Kelly or Slater pumped iron at random times on the set.
In any case, it's time for me to stop pretending that the purpose of this post is a deep, philosophical one. I really just think this clip on YouTube of Slater dancing is ridiculously funny. But it does demonstrate pretty well the often failed attempts to convey coolness on the show. HAHA!
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4 comments:
At least that was cool in its day and required some coordination. I can't quite decide how it ranks with Tom's recent dance moves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nncDobgC8c&search=tom%20cruise%20dance
So it was the dancing that made this show cool? I have to confess I missed out on it when it was on tv originally. However, in what can only be described as a cruel joke on their viewers, Cartoon Network decided to start running this in the middle of Adult Swim a few weeks back. I still have not figured what the deal was with that. I did get a laugh out of the girl who got addicted to caffeine pills, though.
wow lorraine, i just don't know what to say. that video was quite ridiculous. but the most ridiculous part about it is that the comments underneath are all positive!! apparently the video racked up cool points for Tommy boy among some people. kids these days...maybe i'm just getting old. ;)
hmmm, content removed due to copyright infringement. darn!
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