Saved by the Bell
From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.
Saved by the Bell was a popular sci-fi fantasy series airing on NBC in the late eighties and early nineties. The series revolved around young Zack Morris (Ricky Schroeder), a boy imbued with a vast array of omnipotent powers, including the ability to freeze time and space, communicate with people watching from other dimensions, and coerce faculty, fellow students and Casey Kasem to do his bidding. Immature and drunk with might, Zack irrevocably alters his own timestream, transferring his school, and even history, from Indiana to California, erasing Nikki Coleman and Mikey Gonzalez from existence, and retaining only Screech Powers (Dustin Diamond), (who may be an impish servant of Morris's, either an accessory of his powers, or tricked into servitude by some game of wits) Lisa Turtle, whom Screech may have pleaded with Morris to spare, and Mr. Belding, Morris's constant adversary, and perhaps his only salvation.
Upon reaching High School, Zack's new universe is quickly populated to fit his whims. It includes his dream girl, Kelly Kapowski, and Jessie Spano, an overachiever who serves to administrate the student body in the manner Morris, despite proprietorship of all reality, sees as below him. It is theorized that A.C. Slater was a manifestation of Zack's own mind...a more masculine, threatening incarnation of his best friend Mikey. The rest of the school is populated with various other students who come and go at will. Some argue whether the five of Zack's "core" cohorts were figments of his imagination, or merely plucked from time and space to fit his particular needs. However, it is generally agreed that various nerds such as "Ox" and "Violet" were merely puppets, with characteristics crafted by Zack Morris's adolescent mind.
With the loopy storylines and philosophy on time and space, all despite cheap production values, the show has garnered much acclaim from critics, complimenting it as a "darker" version of long-running UK series Doctor Who. An early storyline of the series focuses on his constant battles with Max, Sorcerer Supreme who headquarters in a restaurant modeled to be Zack's idealization of a "hangout", in order to lure the Boy-God into battle. In a bold move, Zack easily vanquished Max, and quickly took over his eatery as a trophy. Subsequent episodes dealt with his constant rearranging the timestream in order to provide romantic conquests--including single mothers, and never before seen relatives of his friends... all which would disappear as soon as the teenager wgrew bored with them. One of the show's most poignant creations is Tory, a bolder, more defiant image of womanhood than the California girl the hormonal young man had for so long considered the standard. Many had hoped this would be Zack's redemption, as he met his intellectual and physical match, and may have finally matured as an individual. However, absolute power corrupts, and it is rumored that chauvinist Slater had convinced Zack to revert to his hooligan ways, and Tory was tragically erased from the timestream--not even given the chance to graduate.
It would be Principal Richard Belding that saved Zack from cosmic opulence. A reasonably intelligent but very average gentleman, Belding suffered the most under Morris's divine machinations. One minute finding himself with a daughter, the next with a wise who's image would fluctuate from beastly to quite pretty. Belding's history and age range had been altered so much within the realm of "Same but different", he began to gather some idea of what had been happening. While constantly set back by the timeline being reset, Belding used what wits and little resources he had to set up a chain of contingency plans leading to Zack meeting "Rod Belding"...a man whom Richard had adopted as a brother out of pity, as well as concern for Zack. Here, Zack came face to face with a man who himself once possessed unimaginable power in his youth--only to become a caricaturized amalgam of a man and teenager... trapped by his constant need to be popular amongst a group of teenagers, while vainly reaching for adulthood. Here, Zack learned a sobering lesson about Gods--eventually they stop ruling their subjects, and eventually become ruled by them.
Relinquishing his power, Zack graduates High School, and marries High School sweetheart Kelly, who Zack has now stopped influencing, and allowed her to be her own woman... replete with cute haircut. As a sign of gratitude, Zack hands over his minion Screech to Belding, which becomes the basis for the spin-off, Saved by the Bell: The Next Generation.
