30 years ago today the television show Saved by the Bell aired its first episode [1. This does not include the original show Saved by the Bell was spun off from, Good Morning Miss Bliss, which aired in July of 1987]. This will come to no surprise from people that know me but I'm kind of obsessed with Saved by the Bell.
I was born in 1983, so I was six when the show first aired. A show revolving around High School kids doesn't seem like a show a six year old would be interested in, but I had two older sisters that also watched the show. That being said, I think I did most of my SBTB watching on weekday mornings and afternoons. In fact, I didn't watch SBTB in its normal time slot, on Saturday mornings, until the last season or two. Superstations TBS and WGN used to air back to back episodes before and after school. Local station, KPLR channel 11, also aired back to back episodes in the afternoon, so I could potentially watch six episodes in a single day. I was in heaven.
So what is it about the show? It's cheesy. The acting isn't the best. The storylines are completely unbelievable. I don't know what drew me to it. Perhaps I thought High School would really be that way. Zack was the definition of being cool. Kelly was a babe. Whatever it was, it had me hooked. I still watch the show to this day, though now it has been designated as the go-to show I drift in and out of consciousness to when I'm sick.
So now that you know (or have been reminded) of my obsession, let's take a look at posts from past years on the topic of Saved by the Bell.
The Lost Episode of Saved by the Bell- Come watch a promo video that follows the Bayside High gang travel through a world of Saturday Morning TV references. Includes appearances by John Candy, Marsha Warfield and Sherman Hemsley.
When I was a kid one of my favorite times of the year was New Years Day because the annual tradition of a The Twilight Zonemarathon. TTZ is my favorite television show of all time. When it was announced that Jordan Peele, writer and director of the massively popular Get Out, would be bringing the series back I was excited to say the least. It seemed to me, based on all the interviews that I read, that Peele has a lot of admiration and respect for the original series. I felt that he could come out with a version of the show that was as close to the original as possible.
So far, I've watched two episodes of the new series, The Comedian and Nightmare at 30,000 Feet. I thought both episodes were really good, strengthened by wonderful performances from Kumail Nanjiani and Adam Scott, respectively. The thing that really made me enjoy the show so far is how much it feels like the original series. I've seen some criticism complaining about how it felt too much like the original series, but to me that is a strength and not a weakness. I think you can remain faithful to the original series but also have a modern spin (thinking specifically of the podcast plotline in Nightmare). I'm really exicted to watch the rest of the season.
If you are a fan of the original series or if Black Mirror was just a little too dark for you, give The Twilight Zone a shot. Honestly, the only downside I have experienced with the series so far is that it airs on CBS All Access, which is streaming service that you have to pay for in order to watch the CBS back catalog and some service-exclusive shows like The Good Fight, Star Trek Discovery,and The Twilight Zone. If you're not a regular watcher of CBS programming, you may want to wait until they all air that way you can sign up for a CBS All Access trial and binge them all. I can't wait that long because of my excitement for the show, but for more casual viewers the show alone probably isn't worth the price of a subscription to a whole new streaming services, but I was impressed with what I've seen so far that I will continue paying for the service.
Conan O'Brien is in the process of bringing his entire catalog of interviews, stand-up performances, sketches, and remote segments online. Over a year ago Team Coco announced that they were going to put all 25 years of Late Night With Conan O'Brien clips online and the first phase is rolling out now.
350 remote segments from Late Night and Conan are now available available to stream for free.The remote segments are really where Conan shines. I don't think he's any funnier than when he's interacting with various "real" people. He really knows how to get a joke out of any situation. Go watch them. They are really funny. One of my favorites, where Conan plays old-timey baseball, is embedded below.
Over the past few years we’ve entered into the world of subscription services for entertainment, among other things. It started out with a few, but media companies have found the benefits of having their own streaming services outweigh selling their content to an existing service. At least, that’s what they think now, but what happens when people get subscription fatigue? It’s happening to me. Let me start by first listing all the entertainment subscriptions that I currently pay for.
Current Subscriptions:
Netflix
Amazon Prime (mainly for shopping)
Hulu
YoutubeTV
AMC A-List
Apple Music
DC Universe
Stitcher Premium (Podcasts)
The Incomparable (Podcast)
On and Off Subscriptions:
HBO Now
STARZ (though now that Counterpart is cancelled, I don’t see myself subscribing again).
Showtime
Various other podcast networks that I may subscribe to for a brief period of time.
That is a lot of subscriptions and it doesn’t include services that I would like to or will be likely to sign up for in the future. We know that Disney is starting their own streaming service and that’s where all the Marvel (and Star Wars) content will be. Apple is jumping into the streaming game with their own service (expected to be announced on March 25th). CBS has Star Trek Discovery and the reboot of The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access, which may be enough to tempt me to subscribe. Warner Bros. is launching a service with their film and TV catalog. Universal is as well.
At what point will consumers see subscription fatigue? Are they already? I am starting to feel that way. There’s only so much money I will spend on entertainment in a given month and there’s only so much time to enjoy said entertainment. This cannot be a sustainable model for users or for the services. I've only listed the ones that I subscribe to. There are many others, ranging from Britbox and Acorns, which caters to lovers of British TV, to WWE's streaming service for wrestling fans.
Will we eventually see bundled subscriptions? That sounds a lot like cable, which loses more and more viewers each year partly due to price. Will some of these services go away? I wouldn’t be surprised if Hulu eventually goes away now that is majority owned by Disney. I think this could also lead to a decrease in quality of the programming as well. As viewers are forced to choose what new streaming services they want to pay for, total number of subscribers for each service is sure to thin. So, if you have less viewers, you are less inclined to continue producing a low-rated, yet high quality, show like Netflix's Travelers or STARZ's Counterpart. If your service or show is niche, the budget for said content is sure to be small.
I don't have any answers to the above questions, and neither do the streaming companies. This is going to be a situation of wait and see how the market plays out. I think in the end we will see some casualties of the streaming wars with only the major players surviving. In the meantime, it's going to be tough to pick and choose which services I should continue using.
I was looking for something to watch on Netflix over the weekend and found a show from Conan O'Brien entitled Conan Without Borders. I've been a fan of Conan for years. He quickly became my favorite late night talk show host and I was excited when he took over The Tonight Show. I don't have to tell you how that ended, but the whole experience allowed me to have some dealings indirectly with Conan and his people (I once owned the domain teamcoco.com and sold it to him after he left The Tonight Show).
Conan Without Borders doesn't have any new footage, that I can tell, but is instead a re-packaging of Conan's travel segments from his talk show. If you've not watched Conan before, oftentimes he goes to another city for several days (if he's filming the show in said city, then he'll usually stay the whole week) and each night they will air an 8-10 minute segment of Conan interacting with the people and places of that city. What this show does is takes each of those 8-10 minute segments and combines them into a single episode. There are 6 episodes in the first "season" and he visits Cuba, Korea, Mexico, Israel, Haiti, and Italy.
The idea of the show is pretty smart. It can potentially open up Conan to more viewers who don't watch his late night show. It also shows Conan at what I think is his best. In these segments he is his typical goofy self, but in many of these places he really shows his human side and there are moments of the show that are quite touching (in the Haiti, Mexico, and Israel episodes for example). He's having real conversations with real people about real things. They are not the normal 6 minute canned promo interviews that plague late night talk shows. Each episode was really enjoyable, though I think Haiti and Israel were probably my favorite. Those two I think were really impactful, especially in the current 'America-First' political climate.
If you are a fan of Conan or travel shows, or both, I suggest you give it a watch. Some of the segments you may have seen before if you are a regular viewer of Conan, but the segments are so good they hold up in repeated viewings.
The other day I was browsing YouTube and a suggested video that came up dubbed itself a lot episode of Saved by the Bell. What? An episode of SBTB that I have not seen? How could this be? So, I watched it. All twenty minutes of it. It's not really an episode. It's a promo for the NBC Saturday morning lineup and it features Zack, Kelly, Lisa, Slater, Screech and Jessie. There is no Mr. Belding, and the whole premise is really weird.
Because it's a promo for Saturday morning, there are a lot of clips of cartoons. You have Alf (the puppet) interacting with the SBTB kids and talking about his cartoon. There's John Candy introducing Camp Candy, and appearances by Marsha Warfield and Sherman Hemsley. It was really weird. If you like SBTB or retro TV stuff in general, give it a watch below.
No, you are not dreaming. There really is a Saved by the Bell board game and it looks amazing. Well, it looks like it would be fun to play once or twice until your friends stop playing with you because you know way too much about the TV show and it is no longer fun for them. From the description on Pressman's website:
Your homework assignment: Be the first player to collect one of each Character Card, or 3 Character Cards of the same player. Once you spin “View a Scene,” you’ll have a few seconds to glance at snapshots of classic scenes from the show. Be prepared to answer random questions. So, study up and don’t flunk this memory test to win a Character Card!
If you spin a number, you must move your character that number of spaces on the board. You can land on “Time Out” and steal from your fellow players. You’ll even receive your own Yearbook to collect your Character Cards, but don’t doodle on Zack – you must be focused to get an A+! Once you’ve collected one card of each Character or three cards of a single Character, you’ve won the game and you’ve been… Saved by the Bell!
You can pick the game up from Target. If you're not sure if the game is for you, check out the instructional video on how to play.
Netflix released a trailer for their new show White Rabbit Project today. If you were a fan of Mythbusters, you'll probably want to check it out. It stars the former Mythbusters build team, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara as they go down the "rabbit hole to investigate weird and wonderful events from pop culture, science, and history."
I was a huge fan of Mythbusters and was sad when they decided to part ways with the build team in the final season. I'm happy to see the gang back together. You can stream all episodes starting December 9th. Check out the trailer below.
A couple of months ago I decided to do something I never thought I would do. I cut the cord. Sort of.
In December I decided to cancel my cable. The bill was getting too high and I have been watching less and less traditional TV. Many of the shows I watch over the past few years have ended or I lost interest in them (looking at you The Walking Dead). Many of the shows I continued to watch I found I could watch the next day on Hulu, of which I was a subscriber. I also found many new shows that rivaled the quality of network and cable shows, even premium cable shows, on Hulu and Netflix. So, I made the decision to cut the cord.
Currently, I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon (a bonus of my Prime shipping subscription) and HBO Now. The only show that I currently watch but cannot get on these services is AMC's Better Call Saul. Well, that was the case until this week. Charter, the cable company in my area, is offering their version of the Sling TV service called Charter Spectrum Stream. For $20 a month you get some popular cable channels (TBS, FX, ESPN, and AMC among others) plus either HBO or Showtime. So for $5 more a month I can get HBO plus some other cable channels including AMC for Better Call Saul. I can then cancel HBO Now. One of the other upsides to the service is that you get the local channels (even the alternate HD local channels that no one ever watches). This was great for me since, even with an antenna, I couldn't get any local channels over the air (not entirely true. If I touched a co-ax cable to the window frame and grounding the signal, I could get 3-4 local channels. Trust me, it works).
This is almost TV as I want it to be. I am paying for the channels I watch the most and can watch my shows whenever I want without the added cost of a DVR. It will be interesting to see how this continues to evolve over the next few years as more and more people cut the cord and opt to watch TV in non-traditional ways. The only thing I have yet to figure out is how to watch Cardinals baseball this summer (without using MLB at Bat and a DNS routing service). I think sports will be the last hope that traditional cable and satellite subscriptions have. Once the various leagues wake up to the potential of offering sports without a cable subscription, I will be set. But I'm not holding my breath.
This past weekend SNL took on the popular podcast Serial with a brilliant digital short. Cecily Strong does a great impression of host Sarah Koenig. The spoof investigates the story of Kris Kringle, an elf who allegedly leaves presents in people's homes. Watch it below.
Set in the high-stakes world of a live sports news program, the Aaron Sorkin-scribed dramedy followed the behind-the-scenes exploits of fictional “Sports Night” coanchors Casey (Peter Krause) and Dan (Josh Charles), their brilliant producer Dana (Felicity Huffman), harried associate producer Natalie (Sabrina Lloyd), gruff executive Isaac (Robert Guillaume), and whip-smart researcher Jeremy (Josh Malina).
The series was less about sports and more about the interactions of the characters who hosted and ran the fictional Sports Center-like show. It featured Sorkin's trademark quick and witty dialogue, with a ton of Capra-esque optimism about the world. While it only lasted two seasons (one with a horrible laugh track), it is, in my opinion, one of the best comedies ever made. I watch both seasons at least once a year. Read the entire article. It's great.
The West Wing is one of my all time favorite shows. Every 1-2 years, usually between Thanksgiving and New Years, I will re-watch the entire series. With the exception of a few episodes (OK, maybe an entire season) it is one of the most consistently good dramas in recent history. Empire Magazine put together a complete history of the show, from creation (cleverly entitled The Campaign) it its end (Leaving Office). If you are a fan of The West Wing, you really need to check it out.
This performance was from a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it. It's pretty awesome (as are all their performances). They cover everything from The Simpsons, to Dragnet to Game of Thrones. I wonder how long it takes to choreograph something like this.
Today is the 25th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Saved by the Bell (not Good Morning, Miss Bliss). In honor of this momentous occasion, I present to you a post I wrote in 2008.
The world is a large and frightening place filled with many bad things: Global warming, terrorism, racism, health issues, drugs, poverty, etc. You should not be afraid though. I can help you. The answer to all your fears is four simple little words: Saved by the Bell.
Yes, if everyone in the world watched this show the world would be a much better place. Just think about it for a second. SBTB addresses every major concern that plagues this world. Let's examine how SBTB could help make the world a better place. The gang, consisting of Zack, Kelly, Lisa, Slater, Jessie, Screech, and for half a season, Tori, faced all these harsh world realities and survived. Let's see how.
SBTB and the Environment
SBTB was thinking green long before it was the in thing to do. Thanks to Jessica Spano, the resident over achiever and environmental activist, we become aware of the major environmental concerns that plague the world. Whether she's saving the whales, suggesting alternatives to styrofoam cups, or preventing Bayside High from becoming an oil field, Ms. Spano is a great crusader in the cause for Mother Earth. In fact, it is in episode number 45 "Pipe Dreams" that we learn how destructive drilling for oil can actually be. The gang's beloved science class pets were all killed in the pond after oil spilled. Oil drilling is dangerous and we should be looking for alternatives to build a better future. As the gang states, we need to look for alternative energy so ducks like Becky don't die anymore. If only we would have listened to SBTB back in 1991. Also check out the episode "Skip Day" for the harsh reality of styrofoam cups. They are not biodegradable and are ruing the planet. Thank you Jessie and Graham.
SBTB and Terrorism
SBTB was dealing with terrorism long before 9/11. Way back in 1989 the gang at Bayside High had to deal with those nasty terrorist from Valley. Stan and Dan Clegg wreak havoc on the halls of Bayside when they start the annual Prank War. Just as Bush responded to 9/11 attacks, Zack and Slater respond and kidnap Valley's mascot, then the Bayside Tiger (Screech) is kidnapped. Of course, Bush attacked the wrong country whereas the gang at Bayside actually did target the right school. Of course, the lesson we can all learn from this whole mess is that if we all come together and talk at the end, like both schools and their respected principals do, we can live in a peaceful place and settle our differences. We just have to talk, and as we see in "The Wicked Stepbrother" we cannot negotiate with terrorists. If we do, they'll take everything we have, including that awesome ball we caught at the Dodgers game.
SBTB and Racism
Bayside High was not the most diverse school. In fact, we barely even know that Lisa Turtle is African-American and Slater is Hispanic. Race was never brought up on the show, until the kids expanded their horizons and went off to college. When Slater finally realizes he has a Hispanic background he becomes interested. He learns about his Chicano background there are confrontations between him and Zack. Slater didn't believe Zack was respecting his heritage. In the end, they worked things out and the race issues disappeared! Again, we just need to come together and talk and we will all get along! Respect each other's differences, backgrounds, heritages and we can come together as people and live in harmony. If Zack and Slater can do it, we all can.
SBTB and Health Issues
SBTB didn't deal with health that often. The kids never got sick in sunny California. However, there were a couple of episodes that did pop up that dealt with health. In the episode "From Nurse to Worse" we see macho man Slater afraid to get a flue shot. He cons Zack into taking it for him, but he learns his lesson at the end. Missing your shots is no laughing matter. If you want to stay strong and healthy, you must take care of yourself. If somehow you do wind up in the hospital, have no fear, because you will get the best healthcare possible, just ask Zack in "Operation Zack" when he has to go under the knife. He didn't have to sign countless insurance forms and fill out tons of paperwork, he got in, got fixed, and left. Even the homeless guy in "Home for Christmas" received health care when he passed out in the mall.
SBTB and Drugs
Two of SBTB's most famous episodes deal with drugs. If the world could watch these episodes and see how bad drugs really are, then no one would use them. In the "No Hope with Dope" episode, we see how drugs ruin a lot of lives. Not only is the image of their hero Johnny Dakota shattered when he starts smoking pot, but we learn about other people who have had their lives ruined by drugs, like John Belushi and another student's older brother (who she has to drive to the beach now because he got high and drove and had an accident). The message is, drugs ruin a lot of lives. We also get reminded of Jessie's stint with drugs, which brings us to the other episode that deals with drugs, "Jessie's Song." In this episode Jessie was addicted to caffeine pills, letting the world know that over the counter drugs can be bad for you too. Jessie screams at the end, mixed with the lyrics of her girl band, Hot Sundae, that she's "so excited. So excited. So scared," reminding us that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. If we all could see what Jessie went through in that episode, none of us would ever use drugs.
SBTB and Poverty
Poverty is a huge problem in the world today. If we could all just watch the episodes "Home for Christmas" we would see how big a problem poverty is. One of the biggest problems with poverty is people aren't aware of it. SBTB made us aware. It showed us that homeless people aren't lazy drunks, but out of work computer programmers with hot daughters who just need a break in life. If we all pitch in, like Zack's family does, we can help eradicate the homeless problem in our country, and the world. Just open up your doors and let the homeless in, and if you can, give them a job like Zack's dad does. With a little awareness and a little help, there will be no poverty or homelessness. Let all the out of work programmers into your home... and your heart.
Saved by the Bell doesn't stop there though. No, those were just some of the major problems that are addressed in the episodes. There are smaller problems that we see solved, such as heartbreak (Kelly dumping Zack for the college creepy guy Jeff), drinking and driving, natural disaster readiness (the earthquake episode), sexism (the episode when a woman wants to wrestle), and many other important life lessons. Thank you Saved by the Bell. We will continue to learn from your greatness for years and years to come.
This is hilarious... and makes me feel old. Also, is it just me or are the clothes that these kids are wearing just as bad, if not worse, than the styles in the '90s?
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge Saved by the Bell fan. I could go toe-to-toe with anyone on SBTB trivia (impressive, I know), that's why it was a big shock that there was a podcast about Saved by the Bell that I didn't know about. Imagine that, two of my favorite things joined together, podcasts and SBTB. The result is the awesome Go Bayside.
If you're not familiar with the podcast, it was started by comedian April Richardson and each episode is an in-depth discussion on an episode of SBTB (done in order of air date). About 2 years ago I had an idea to do a SBTB podcast but 1. I don't have the time or know-how to do a podcast and 2. I would be hard-pressed to find someone that loves SBTB as much as me.
Anyway, the podcast, which is nearing the end of its run, features guest appearances by other comedians and actors, such as Chris Hardwick, Paul F. Tompkins, and Entourage's Jerry Ferrara (Turtle), among others. Some of the guests are fans of the show and others never really watched it. Ferrara may even give me a run at super fan status. The discussions are hilarious and really shed light on how ridiculous the show actually was. If you ever watched the show and love podcasts, you should definitely check it out. It may bring back some good memories of the Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons that you spent with Zack and the gang.
A couple of weeks ago Kottke posted a video showing the American counterparts for each British actor who has played Doctor Who. The video was based on the actors chosen by Smug Mode. Each actor is a perfect fit for the role, including, surprisingly, Community's Donald Glover. Watch the video below.
You would think that the two sides, Uverse and Fox Sports Midwest, would have come to some sort of agreement in the offseason. Well, if you thought that, you'd be wrong.
For the second season in a row, Uverse subscribers will not be able to watch 20 games, including tonight's versus the Reds. In fact, 7 of the 20 that are blacked out are games against division rivals like the Reds, Brewers, and Cubs.
Here's the list of games being blacked out by Uverse.
DATE
OPPONENT
TIME
April 9
at Reds
6:10 p.m.
April 10
at Reds
6:10 p.m.
April 15
vs. Cubs
1:15 p.m.
April 17
vs. Reds
7:15 p.m.
April 23
at Cubs
7:05 p.m.
April 27
vs. Brewers
7:15 p.m.
May 2
vs. Pirates
7:15 p.m.
May 3
vs. Pirates
12:45 p.m.
May 11
vs. Braves
7:15 p.m.
May 16
at Giants
9:15 p.m.
May 17
at Giants
2:45 p.m.
June 13
vs. White Sox
7:15 p.m.
June 14
vs. White Sox
7:15 p.m.
June 19
at Tigers
6:05 p.m.
June 20
at Tigers
6:05 p.m.
June 25
at Marlins
6:10 p.m.
July 24
vs, Dodgers
7:15 p.m.
July 25
vs, Dodgers
7:15 p.m.
Aug. 3
vs. Brewers
7:15 p.m.
Aug. 10
at Phillies
6:05 p.m.
If you're going to stay with Uverse, call 1-800-288-2020 and ask for customer retention. Tell them you’re unhappy about the situation and demand a discount. If they are going to screw over their subscribers, hit 'em where it hurts... in their bottom line. Of course, it would be better if you cancel completely (not an option for a lot of people, I know).
Two of the biggest things I blog about are politics and TV. I blog about those subjects so much I started sites on the topics (the long abandoned Political Jackass, Grand Old Parody, and Let's Talk About TV. For those who know me, I'm very passionate (and opinionated) about politics. So passionate, that I would let politics affect me in ways that, in my opinion, shouldn't. I would read political articles and news and could feel my blood pressure rise at the content. I would have endless debates with friends and family, and that is rarely a good thing. I never understood how people could be so apathetic to politics. How can you not care about the country and the people that run it. I maybe cared a bit too much and that wasn't healthy, so I decided to start a new hobby. That's when I started Let's Talk About TV.
A lot of my previous posts here have been about TV, but this wasn't really a TV blog. In fact, there were a lot more posts I wanted to write but didn't because it would be a non-stop TV stream. That's why I decided to start a dedicated blog for TV-related posts. A few days after deciding on the domain name I had the site up and running. It has gone through a design change already, but I'm proud of how it turned out. Best of all, it has replaced the timesuck that politics used to take up. TV blogging has become my new hobby. Instead of reading political article after political article and posting them on my political sites, I now look for TV news. This has definitely been a good thing for my blood pressure. Don't get me wrong though, I'm still heavily opinionated, I still make an occasional post, and I still read political news everyday, but it is not as important to me as it used to me. It is no longer a hobby of mine. Let's Talk About TV is.
Let's Talk About TV has been a fun project for me. I don't really care if it ever gets big because it's just a hobby. I get a respectable amount of traffic for a site that's only a few months old, and RSS subscriptions seem to increase by a few each week. There are some things I would really like to do with it, it's just a matter of getting access to the people I need. I also hope to do some more reviews when I have more time. The problem is, I hate doing individual TV show reviews. Who really cares about a review for a single episode? I plan on doing reviews for TV show premieres, TV technology, and perhaps even DVD boxed set releases. I would also like to do a monthly contest for my readers. We shall see how this all plays out, but the site has definitely become something I'm glad I did. If you haven't checked out Let's Talk About TV, please do.
No, you are not dreaming. There really is a Saved by the Bell board game and it looks amazing. Well, it looks like it would be fun to play once or twice until your friends stop playing with you because you know way too much about the TV show and it is no longer fun for them. From the description on 
Netflix released a trailer for their new show White Rabbit Project today. If you were a fan of Mythbusters, you'll probably want to check it out. It stars the former Mythbusters build team, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara as they go down the "rabbit hole to investigate weird and wonderful events from pop culture, science, and history." 
The world is a large and frightening place filled with many bad things: Global warming, terrorism, racism, health issues, drugs, poverty, etc. You should not be afraid though. I can help you. The answer to all your fears is four simple little words: Saved by the Bell.