Back to School. Saved by the Bell has a podcast?

Back to School

My daughter has finally let go of my leg and busied herself in her toy kitchen. On my mark, get ready, go! And I better be fast because God knows it’s only a matter of minutes before she returns and prohibits me from writing once again. So as I munch on my Sun chips and sip my pomegranate juice (okay fine, the cup is empty and the plate only has crumbs remaining, but I must eat quickly when I have a job ahead) I sit down at my computer and start on my latest endeavor. Naturally only five minutes have passed and my daughter is back saying that she has no one to play with her, only me. How I wish she had had a twin! Ten minutes later, after checking my customer out of the grocery store and sending her on her way, I can finally get to my point of today’s writing: Zack to the Future.

Zack to the Future is a podcast which…wait did I just say podcast? Yes, I did and if you know me personally and are beyond surprised that I not only know what a podcast is but have actually managed to download and listen to one, you know me too well. It is in fact the first podcast I’ve ever listened to but it’s opened my eyes to a wonderful new world giving me a hunger for many others, podcasts not worlds. But for today I’ll try again to refocus on this one. As I was saying Zack to the Future is a podcast which discusses episodes of the original Saved by the Bell with host Dashiell Driscoll and one of the shows stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar. When I first heard the podcast announced (and I’m racking my brain to remember how and where I originally heard about it in the first place) I thought of Good Morning Mrs. Bliss. This is because as the daughter of a very strict Baby Boomer I grew up on “wholesome” television shows and movies and a few of my favorites included Hayley Mills. I never watched Good Morning Ms. Bliss as a kid but I believe my mother may have allowed an episode or two just because they included Hayley. As a fan of Mills I would have been delighted to hear a discussion of Good Morning Mrs. Bliss starring such a great actress.  As it was the later was skipped over for the second season, which I add my limited television allowance did not include. That was so for two reasons: my mother’s ruling it out as “inappropriate for children” because of all that “kissing and flirting”, and my Cameroonian father’s strict study schedule for my sisters and I on Saturday mornings when then show aired. It was that schedule which kept us at the table from early Saturday to late evening studying Math, Science, and Literature. But even for those of us who were raised under rocks it was impossible not to hear about this popular 90s show some way or the other.

Driscoll introduced himself as a fan who wanted to be a T.V. writer. When he started to write a Saved by the Bell script he realized the way Zack did things could never be done on T.V. today. He ended up making videos called Zack is Trash analyzing Zack’s questionable behavior. He came to know Mark-Paul when Gosselaar ended up reading Driscoll’s excerpts of the Spec script, which naturally had been delayed while he made his hit videos. The episode continues with commercials for Duvel beer, Hello Fresh, and Purple Pillows(whose mattresses look very inviting I must say), and a SERIOUS syllabus for class. The syllabus included questions about the show, Gosselaar’s recollection that the most memorable episodes were those at the beach and that he didn’t communicate with cast members between seasons because “who wanted to pick up a phone” (besides teen girls like me, my sisters, and all our friends) ] and a glimpse of future guest stars like Tiffany-Amber Thiessen. But above all the most important question posed to Mark-Paul Gosselaar was: has he really never watched a full episode of Saved by the Bell?  Gosselaar verified the bizarre truth that he had never watched a full episode of the show from start to end… and that made two of us. Although for the star of a popular show not to have seen himself in action did seem rather strange, if not unbelievable. As Gosselaar explained it he is very critical of himself, not even wanting his own wife in the room while he views a clip of his work. In his opinion seeing himself would have inhibited his future work and that’s why he’s always avoided watching whole episodes. That is until now. Yes, with the ending of the first podcast, Back to School, Driscoll assigned listeners, and Gosselaar alike, homework. In a strange turn of events homework which once kept me from watching the show is now prompting me to watch each episode. Ahh, sometimes life can be wonderfully ironic. Just like the fact that now that I’m done writing for the day my daughter has disappeared and the room is perfectly quiet.