Ms. Bayside

Normally when I'm watching Saved by the Bell, it's always with a little bit of disbelief, that people actually found it to be funny/plausible/whatever enough to make it the smash hit that it was. I don't deny that I like the show, but I have a different plane of standards when it comes to retro things that is totally different from normal aesthetic/comic/whatever standards that I would apply to things that are current.

But every now and then, Saved by the Bell showcases a glimmer of GENIUS that makes me believe that the show's popularity was truly no accident.

For example, in today's episode, Bayside has a beauty pageant, and Zach makes a bet with Slater that he can help Screech win the title. There are a number of gems here:

1. The premise itself: Screech upstages beauty queens.
2. The peerless Jesse spotlight during the talent competition: her unbelievable interpretive dance piece: "The caterpillar emerges from the cocoon...and finds that she has wings! Fly, fly!"
3. Slater (who enters the pageant to try to upstage Screech) flexes his muscles for the swimsuit competition...and gets only a stone-cold silence.

And finally...

4. Kelly's talent rehearsal. I think this is the one time in Saved by the Bell history when they employ the device of Subtlety. Her performance of "Blue Moon" is mediocrity par excellence, with the hackneyed gestures and elementary syncopation. If you pay attention, and if you've ever seen (or been) an awful singer, it's wonderful!