I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so scared!

I recently acquired these:

That's Saved by The Bell, seasons one through five.  All the high school years.

For... ever(?)  I watched this show after school, religiously.  I watched every repeat there was.  For awhile it aired before school too, and I'd watch it while eating my breakfast.  My best friends and I all had crushes on Zack Morris - or A.C. Slater, but I was a Zack fan.  Zack Morris was probably my first TV crush (other than when Leonardo DiCaprio played Luke on Growing Pains).

I began to have a marathon of these DVDs, since I live alone in a one-bedroom condo and as I putter around and do various things after work, I usually like to have the TV on in the background anyway. I've made my way through quite a few episodes quite quickly (if you've seen my Twitter updates lately, you'll already know that!).  It's so hilarious and exciting to rewatch this ridiculous show.

My Observations:

1) The show has such an obvious formula:  Zack narrates to set up the episode.  Zack and Slater fight over Kelly.  Zach manipulates someone and ends up with everyone mad at him for some reason or another.  Everyone is friends again at the end.

2)  I don't actually know WHY Kelly ends up with Zack... he drives everyone on this show crazy enough that it makes no sense, though they were my first "ship" for sure.

3) Interestingly, I did some IMDBing and discovered that the cast members actually were 12 through 17 years old when the show began.  Screech was 12, Zack, Kelly and Lisa were 15, Slater was 16 and Jessie was 17.  Jessie did always seem older, but I'm still impressed they were actual teenagers!  Unlike.. oh say... every other high school based show.

4)  This show is FULL of plot holes.  They are so bad with continuity.  Also, a lot of the episodes make no sense in the order they aired.  Plus, the Tori years are unexplained on the show... they happened because Kelly and Jessie didn't sign on for additional episodes when the final season was extended... so Tori showed up as a replacement, out of the blue... then the graduation episode aired, which was apprently filmed well before, which is why Kelly and Jessie are back for the finale!  I used to think maybe the Tori thing was when Kelly was away being a model for a month in Paris.  Um, nope.  The model-in-Paris episode is from season ONE... and plus, there was no follow-up in the next episode about that, she was just there again.

5) Mr. Belding sure spends a lot of time teaching classes for a High School Principal.  I didn't even know who my high school principal was... how small is this school?!

6) Ahh.. the 80s.  So neon, so pouffy-haired... the first season of this show aired in 1989, and it does not disappoint with the 80s stereotype.  Everything is so Lisa Frank!

7)  Saved by the Bell is as good now as it ever was when I was watching it in repeats growing up.  I'm super excited to be able to pop it back on "after school".

8) Oh, how I wish they fully succeeded in a Saved by the Bell reunion on Jimmy Fallon.

And... just because...