Saved by the Bell — The Zack Attack Is Back Baby!

This week on You Can Call Me Karen, Karen and Steph take a nostalgic walk back into the golden age of 90s television as they revisit the iconic teen sitcom *Saved by the Bell*. Before heading to Bayside High, the conversation kicks off with a surprisingly deep discussion sparked by a viral Threads post about Mel B and the problematic origins of the “Scary Spice” nickname.

From there, the hosts unpack the cultural impact of Saved by the Bell, the awkwardness and charm of early 90s sitcoms, forgotten storylines, behind-the-scenes tea, evolving TV standards, and how modern audiences view childhood television very differently today. Along the way, they explore topics like representation in media, child actors, moral lessons in classic sitcoms, nostalgia culture, and how television shaped an entire generation.

If you grew up with Zack Morris schemes, caffeine pill meltdowns, Saturday morning sitcoms, or Spice Girls mania, this episode is packed with millennial nostalgia, thoughtful commentary, and plenty of laughs.

Credits & Sources:

https://vocal.media/geeks/the-history-of-saved-by-the-bell-part-i-the-original-run

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saved_by_the_Bell

https://www.threads.com/@_freddyb._/post/DVk0GJXDigc?xmt=AQF0nJEZ8XQXDPlbp3x2Bnykj7Vj9DLtakSOODkqoj3gCxJkJoWKSKKDBaOSv2wq5ufmwVG7&slof=1

Lastly, please follow us on Instagram (@youcancallmekaren), TikTok (@YCCMKPod), and like/subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

As always - a big thank you to Steve Olszewski for the art and images, Calid B and SJ Fadeaway for the musical mixings, and huge credit to Malvina Reynolds (writer) and Schroder Music Co. (ASCAP) (publisher) of the song “Little Boxes

Transcript

Welcome And The Week’s Theme

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of You Can Call Me Karen. This week we quickly dive into the origin story of the naming of the Spice Girls and the Karen behind all of that. And then we get into one of our favorite childhood TV shows, Saved by the Bell. So please enjoy as we break down the difference between TV now and then. A little tiny bit of tea on some child actors and some themes around how TV today is quite different than TV in the 90s. And we will continue that discussion next week as well. So buckle up, and here we go. Hello. There she is, charming and clever. I was just thrown off by that, so I didn't know how to respond. I know. That was my goal. And the pensive and sassy Steph. Um, this week we will slip on our keds and take a stroll down memory lane to the early 90s and a classic show, Saved by the Bell. But before we take that stroll, let's check in with my lovely co-host to see who you're calling Karen this week.

How Scary Spice Got Named

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Uh okay, so I was on threads the other day. I spent a lot of time on threads and TikTok lately because I just love the content there. Threads is amazing. And when I was on one of our friends isn't on threads, and we were like, why aren't you on threads? Oh, oh Karen, you're not on threads. Holy moly girl, you gotta get on threads. It is where so much good stuff starts. With uh we'll begin with this post that I saw of I thought this would be uh pretty good for our 90s millennial content today. And it said, I will never forgive them for calling her scary. And then it's pictures of scary quote unquote scary spice. So then I went on like a deep dive through this. We know how this rabbit hole can be, right? And I see things like she could have been called curly spice, cinnamon spice, ultra spice, literally anything but scary. They scarred a generation of black girls with that shit. Dang, and so then someone posted a video, and um, Steph, I I think you have it queued up. Do you mind just playing? Because I feel like I can't even do this interview justice. Like, I feel like it should be played for our listeners to hear how she got the name scary. Oh my gosh. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

You were called scary spice, yeah, right. That insinuates that you were mad and unpredictable. Do you resent that name?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

All those all those names was was given to us by a lazy journalist who couldn't remember our names. So it was like, oh well, she's in trying to look small, she's in a nice little dress that's polish. So the reason why he said scary to me is because if I was in an interview with the girls and I didn't like what the interview was saying to the girls, I'd gonna jump in. Some people even say, Oh, she's gonna scan a bit because she's mixed race, or she's gonna be wearing animal print. I've been wearing an animal print since I was twelve. From when I used to watch coronations reading and I saw bettling behind the bar with a leopard print pussy and I said to my mum, when I get older, that's all I'm gonna wear. That is all I wear.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

All right. So what are you like, what are your reactions to that? As I mean, obviously we know that Karen is the lazy journalist, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:45

I didn't realize that's how they all got their names.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

Um, did it seem to you like the inter like the interviewer was like trying to get Mel B to realize? Like I felt like Mel B was like, no, I mean I I'm wearing I was wearing animal print, and I guess that is kind of scary for someone to like enter. And I'm like, and she was like, no, you know, your girl power, you tell someone to stop when you're saying something inappropriate. What? Like, oh my heart just like hurt for that. That made me upset.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Yeah, yeah. Uh that was in the comments as well. It's like not the interviewer like waking up Mel B and letting her know, like that was actually completely racist and misogynistic. Yep, and we shouldn't have called you that.

unknown 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

What were you gonna say, Karen? Um, I do feel like though, that there's a part of me that's like happy that Mel B kind of took it the way that she did and didn't live the last 30, 25, 30 years with that anger either. Like there's a part of me that feels like oh like relieved she missed it. She wasn't what's that?

SPEAKER_05 6:05

She relieved that she missed that like point or that.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Yeah, a little bit. Why?

SPEAKER_05 6:14

I don't know, because otherwise I would have like otherwise she would have been I'm sure she had other other things that up that she realized she was up against, and maybe the name was like the last I'm sure being I but I can't believe I also can't believe this is the first time I've even thought about that name.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

I think this is a conversation what you're bringing up about the interviewer stuff is a conversation of how deeply rooted white supremacy is, and that like just because you're black doesn't mean you're an interview.

SPEAKER_05 6:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

And that doesn't mean that like you don't need to unlearn all the ways that whiteness has been centered. Yes. And so uh whether

Racism, Microaggressions, And Rewatching

SPEAKER_04 7:05

she realized it after the interview or not, for me is important to uh bring into reality of like there are these subtle ways in which people use microaggressions that center that give off these, not center, but that give off these uh beliefs, unconscious beliefs of black women and something as presumably innocent as like the label scary spice was one of those things. And now we're just uh collectively using that language to uh define black women with curly hair who wear leopard print as scary.

SPEAKER_05 7:51

Yeah, I was just thinking like how internalized those those beliefs were so much so that she was able to excuse it away all this time, even when someone's pointing it out to her, is she it was almost like no no no it can't be that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Do you know when that interview was? Was that recent? I don't know. We don't know.

SPEAKER_05 8:11

Man, that like brought up a lot of things for me. Like I just um started watching the America's Next Top Model. Um, so I just we just saw the first episode last night. Yeah, it was interesting to me because she uh Tyra Banks brought up the fact that like when COVID hit and everybody was home was what when people started like binge watching old shows. And so what stood out to me was the lens through which people were watching America's next top model in 2020 versus when we were watching it, and so I feel like that's really relevant to what like you know, the lens through which Mel B was receiving the name Scary Spice is different than the lens through which we're watching it now. You know, just I feel like there's so much more conversation, you know. I feel like white supremacy, this the phrase has been like I better understand it now than I did uh when I was 17, 18 years old, and the Spice Girls came out, and even the interview pro interviewer who is pointing it out to her probably wouldn't have said the same thing in 1997, and so that's kind of where like I'm just like man, it almost shows some growth and gives me like a like a touch of hope, but it's just so sad to see someone as talented and powerful and you know, amazing as Mel B not hear what this lady is saying about like what that name was really truly was, you know.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

I would like to say justice for the black women who are deeply rooted in black community and not in predominantly white spaces because they knew that from the start. Like I just feel like it's more a conversation about like tokenism and black, like how we grew up stuff, you know. I feel like my mom would have called that out or knew that what was happening like before. I think you're right in that like our generation of millennials or black suburban women are understanding that now. But I feel like deeply my mom understood that that was like absolutely inappropriate.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Well, and now I'm thinking like what are the other names? So that like that journalist was like, Okay, you're scary, yeah, and then you're posh and you're sporty and your baby, like she had like the contrast between those names was so stark, too, to like in that moment miss that, and after that, for their their PR team and their producers and everybody to be like, Yeah, that's good, let's keep it like that. Like they could have chosen something different, like they could have gone any direction with it, for sure. But they were like, Nope, that'll that'll do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:12

Anyway, sorry, that was a long Karen, but I thought I would share, especially given.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

That was a good one. All right, I'm going to call on you now, Steph, for your Karen.

The Teacher Group Karen Meltdown

SPEAKER_05 11:25

Um, so my Karen um this week is I am belong to like a this is gonna sound super nerdy and very boomer, but I'm in um I like joined a middle school math teacher Facebook group.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Um anyway, aligns with your job. That doesn't, I mean the Facebook part is the problem.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Oh, I feel like that's so endearing.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Oh thank you.

SPEAKER_05 11:53

Well, it's just like you see like um teaching this concept next. Anyone have any strategies or like I found this resource, I really like it, or um, whatever. And but my Karen of the Week is uh one of the people in that group. It's massive. And uh this woman basically was like shared a screenshot of a problem, and I guess this woman is uh teaches fifth grade math online, and she said that her niece or something came to her and was like, Look at this test, like I got this question wrong. This is how I answered it, but this is how my teacher wanted to answer it, and so the woman like screenshot it, posted it on the middle school teachers page, and she was like, This can someone tell me how you would do this? Like, I think how my niece solved it was correct, and I don't know why the teacher marked them wrong, and then people were saying, trying to explain, like, I think the teacher was getting at this, like they it was basically like an estimation problem, and so the student estimated way closer to the correct answer than the teacher was going for. Anyway, what made her a Karen was people were coming in saying, I think the teacher was probably looking for this, and um the you know, if you estimate they want friendly numbers, what your niece did was a little too wasn't round, it wasn't like small, and so what they were looking for was this. She literally argued with every single person down the line, like, yes, but I would have whatever, and if da da da da. And so people were like, Okay, you know, you asked us like what what the teacher was going for, and they're like, you know, when I teach fifth grade, we talk about friendly numbers, round, like, you know, it should be should have been this number and this number, and this is what they were probably going. Well, it doesn't say what to round to, so what da da da, you know, she and so she shouldn't have marked it wrong, if blah blah blah blah. And then you know, so someone finally at the end like called her out and was like, listen, you have been so argumentative with everyone, and like if you if your intention was to just prove that you were right, like then don't ask for anyone else's opinion. Like everybody's just sharing what the teacher might have been getting at, and um you know, and only people who said what she wanted to hear would she say, thank you. That's exactly what I would have done. And and if this were my child, I would have fought. She wrote that. If this were my child, I would have fought the score, and I would have like whatever. And I was like, thank God, I don't have this lady's child because like what? And interestingly enough, you know, as a teacher, if someone came at me like I think that this uh should have been this, particularly if it were the student, I'm not understanding why I got this wrong. I probably would have given them some credit back. But if a parent came at me crazy like that, I would feel not willing, you know, like I feel so defensive, you know. She just was coming at everybody so crazy, and you know, I get sucked into reading like every single one of these. I was like, oh my gosh, get out of here.

SPEAKER_04 15:00

Yes. Wait, I think I might have misunderstood something. So the the woman who posted in the Facebook group, it was her niece, it was her niece, and she she's also a math teacher, she's also a math teacher, yes, and so she was like, Auntie, look at this. I don't know I got this wrong, and it was a test or homework?

SPEAKER_05 15:20

So to it looks like homework, but then I think I read further down and it maybe was a test. Okay, and so, and I don't know if she got partial credit for it or just got no credit for it. That wasn't even clear in the post, you know, like she was so helpful on people agreeing with her that she didn't even explain the story or the context very well. Like, that's what I was about to say.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Like, if this was homework and you're going that hard on like one question to get a life, period either way, though, yes, like yes, either way.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Put an explanation and move on with your freaking life, like why one math problem is getting you all spun up. I mean, or maybe there's more context, maybe you have a problem with this teacher, but then don't take it here, like and it's not even your child, it's not even your teacher, it's not even your child, and she was like, and that's why I took it here because I wanted to hear from other teachers that maybe you know, so but you don't want to hear from other teachers because other teachers are saying what they how like could understand where that other teacher might have been coming from.

SPEAKER_04 16:31

I was getting like fired up how and like what's the end goal here? Like, are you gonna like then copy all the responses from the Facebook page and then show up to the I bet that's what she did.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

She probably took all the responses she liked and was like, see, all these math teachers agree with me.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

Well, further down in the I mean the abyss of this comment section, she said right, she was like, you know what, this is why I homeschool my kids. This is why I took my kids out of school. Yeah. Insane lady. Like, good luck in life because people are going to do things differently than you, and that's the beauty of math. Like, I talk about that in my class all the time. Like, you're gonna see this differently than the person sitting right next to you, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Like, generally, we were literally just talking about this last night because Matt Maxwell will bring home, you know, his homework and it and it's teaching him different ways to approach math. And I feel like when we were growing up, they were like, Okay, here's your multiplication table, and everybody must learn it that way. And now it's like, here's all these different ways that a brain may process this. And I appreciate that. However, me trying to help him, I'm like, I don't get this at all.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Well, that's that's why I asked if it was homework versus a test, because like it is supposed to like reinforce practice, right? And like the parent isn't really supposed to be involved in that process, and so say that again for the people in the back.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

Parents are not supposed to be involved in that process.

SPEAKER_04 18:05

You guys have said this before. Well, you have to remember that Maxwell is younger. I I mean, Stephanie's talking about middle school.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

So then I am allowed to be involved because like they do homework and he doesn't know how to do it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 18:18

For elementary school, I believe that is like appropriate, but I think for middle school, they're supposed to start taking like ownership over their own learning and learn how to advocate for themselves. So, what the parent really should be doing if their student is struggling is teaching them how to ask the question to the teacher of like, I don't understand, or I was unable to get this problem last night. Can you help me further? Or can I come see you after school to receive more additional help? Like at some point, the student is gonna have to start to become more vocal and advocate for themselves without the parents' um involvement. So that's I don't think that they're able to really do that in elementary school. Um, but I think in middle school is where you we really want the student to be able to start doing that.

Send Us Your Karen Encounters

SPEAKER_05 19:12

Yeah. Okay. You just heard our Karen stories, but we can't be the only ones. If you've had a Karen or Chad encounter or confessional, you've been a Karen yourself. We'd love to hear from you. Wherever you listen, click on the link in our show notes and text us your Karen stories.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

I am going to pivot us at this point to our topic of the week.

After School With Saved By The Bell

SPEAKER_03 19:39

All right, let me set the stage very quickly. It is 3 p.m. on a weekday 1993. And I just walked in the door from elementary school. I pick up our corded phone that is on the wall of our kitchen to call the hospital where my mom works. They answer, Hi, can I speak to Ruth, please? I wait and I wait and I wait. And then my mom's voice comes on the line and I say, Hi, mom, I'm home from school. This is our daily routine. We chit-chat for a few minutes. She asks how my day was, if I have any homework, and then we hang up. I grab a snack, I sit on the sofa, and I turn on just normal live television. It's probably not even cable at this point. And I watch Saved by the Bell. Those are my memories from watching that show. After school, relaxing on the sofa, unwinding from the day. And before we dig into some of like the history of the show, I want to kick off and hear from both of you. What are your origin stories with Saved by the Bell? What do you remember about it? Did you watch it much? Did you not watch it much? Were you alone? Where were you? Tell me what your immediate memories are.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Okay, first of all, you were allowed to call your mom at work.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

I had to because my sister and I walked ourselves home from school. So I had to either call my mom or my dad and tell them I was home. And literally, it was she was a nurse in an oncology. And so like she was with patients and stuff. Like the thought of it as an adult of the other side of her experience was like, was she like inserting someone's port? What was it called? A pick at the time. To ask her what the other side of that picture was for her. But yeah, I had to call and like ask for her by her first name, which was I remember when she taught me how to do that. It was weird.

SPEAKER_04 21:52

Yeah, it's yeah. I was never allowed to call my mom at work. If I interrupted that woman in the middle of her work day. It would be an ass whooping. Like it had to be good.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Yeah, I know. I mean, we called us expecting our call. I can't remember if there was like we had to call them and tell them we got home.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

Yeah, that's like a funny memory that we now like joke about, but that I now like understand.

SPEAKER_06 22:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

When my work day is interrupted by some like bullshit, not saying that that was like bullshit, but seems like your routine, but like when my day, like I tell my kids, like, if I ever get a phone call from the school or like you need to do something, I I'm passing out butt whoopens, you know. But that I mean, my mom was a single mom and it made sense. Like she she needed to be focused and whatever, but that's just so funny. That's the first thing that stood out to me of like, man, what a privilege.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

I mean, if I called her 20 minutes later and was like, I don't know how to blah blah blah, she probably would have killed me. She probably would have been like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_04 22:58

So I remember good morning, Miss Bliss. Like, I remember that being the first, I remember that being my after school experience. We did have an expectation that like you get home, you do your homework, and then whatever you want to do after that, you can do. You can go hang out with your friends and then be home by the time the street lights are on. Um, you can watch TV, but like home homework happens first, going back to that. So I never had anybody helping me with my homework. So maybe that's also why I feel very I support teachers in that because I feel like it's kind of an equity thing of like sometimes if your parent is not around to help you, that just furthers the gap of um students who um have access versus those who don't. So um, and and it's not like my mom didn't want to be there, it's just that her work day ended and she I was the same, you know. So um, yeah, so I remember that and I remember good morning, Miss Bliss. And I feel like like fifth or sixth grade is when it transitioned to Save by the Bell, but I'm not I don't know. Steph, what do you remember?

SPEAKER_05 24:07

Um, so we weren't allowed to watch TV after school, and so when I watched Saved by the Bell was maybe like a must have been like insyndication or like reruns on Saturdays. Like I feel like I saw it on Saturdays, yeah. And what my the only thing that pops into my head, because I was one of those weird ones who actually liked that season where they like worked at the beach and um I know I liked it. Okay, Cali Carossi or whatever, yeah. Um yeah, I liked that season for some reason, and um I also just remember like in the when they were really in the high school, um, that like beep ba beep ba-ba-ba beep. Yeah, beep, beep, beep beep the beep. Go bass out. That's beep, beep, beep. Yes, that was my jiggy jam.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

Oh my gosh. Oh, this is so good, you guys. We're um we're gonna get into all of these things. So I did

Good Morning Miss Bliss Origins

SPEAKER_03 25:10

some reading yesterday about the history of the show, um, when it started, how it started, who was in it over the years, and on and on. I thought I'd just take you through some of that because I think it'll trigger a few more of these memories, and we can, you know, stop and react when we have reactions. But I haven't given you a preview of this intentionally. I was just hoping to see what you think about all of this in real time, and you're off to an excellent start, I must say. So uh was going to start with what was the original title of Saved by the Bell and Manny already crushed that one. I didn't know. Good morning, Miss Bliss. I never saw that title. It was the first season. Do you all know what year that aired by chance?

SPEAKER_04 26:00

Like 89 or so. I don't I don't know. Was it 19?

SPEAKER_03 26:04

That's pretty close. So the very, very first pilot came out in 87, like the very first show. But then that first season of Good Morning Miss Bliss was 1988. And so, first of all, that was way earlier than I realized. I was only four, so I clearly was watching this in rerun version. Steph, you mentioned the Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_05 26:35

Okay, I was like, I thought it was on Saturday, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

So I here I am like watching it, like my memory is so like vivid of after school, but it was just reruns that they were playing. So I was watching it all out of order, like I didn't even know. But do you all remember on the middle school? I'll call it the middle school years, the good morning, Miss Bliss. Do you all remember who the characters were? Like of the six that we know, do you know who was in that first season?

SPEAKER_04 27:09

I know Zach was in it. Mr. Balding was in it. Mr. Balding. But didn't they call him Mr. Balding throughout Save by the Bell? That's like what they would they?

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Oh, I know Yes, Mr.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Balding. That was like their insult to him because he was a douche canoe. And Miss Bliss. I feel like Lisa and Screech were in it, but none of the other ones.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Manny, I feel like when we have talked about this before, you have been like, I didn't really watch it that much. That was oh, that was deaf.

SPEAKER_05 27:46

Like I was like nervous about doing this because I'm like, I feel like I'm supposed to know more.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Well, yeah, we'll we'll talk about that a little bit. But yes, you crushed that. That is correct. There were two other characters, a character called Mikey and a character called Nikki, that were in that Miss Bliss portion and they didn't make it through to high school.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

RIP pour one out for the homie.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

Um, man, yeah, you crushed that. Okay, so now here's like the bonus question. Do you remember who Miss Bliss was? Like as an actress or yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

Who played her? I see her face. I just know she had an accent, like a British accent, but I don't remember anything else she was in.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

No, I could see her face too. I didn't realize I didn't make this connection, but do you did you two see the original parent trap? Not Lindsay Lohan, but the original one. She was the girl who played the twins, like the cool. I never made that connection, but yeah, so she's I don't know, that movie was was memorable to me in my childhood for some reason. I never saw that.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

You only watched four movies your entire childhood.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Right, so it's gonna stay with you. That's true. It's the only one I saw before 2003, so you know, I'm just kidding. Um, okay, can you well, since Manny's on such a role here, Stephanie? No, no, don't put me on the spot. The missing characters that we have not yet highlighted?

SPEAKER_05 29:23

Kelly Kapowski.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Yeah, okay, yep, yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_05 29:28

Um, AC Slater, Jesse Spano.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

There you go.

SPEAKER_05 29:33

Okay, see, you're you got it.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Um, and does anybody know what AC stood for? I did not know that.

SPEAKER_05 29:40

I I feel like I used to know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Really? I didn't know. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_04 29:45

I did use to know. It'll come to me.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Okay, we'll let that linger for our listeners.

Continuity Chaos And The Tori Swap

SPEAKER_03 29:50

So the thing I think was that was well, there was a few things that was surprising to me, but the show was filmed in over like the show that we know in high school at Bayside was basically four seasons. I just assumed this thing was running for like 10 years, but it was four. Um, from I have the years here, but I want to say it was like 89 to 92 or 93.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

How many episodes were in a season, though?

SPEAKER_03 30:22

It was really variable. So the one year that staff alluded to was um that Malibu season, and so they did six episodes of that where they were working at that resort over a summer, and then I think there was like 10 or 12 like normal episodes that season, um, where they were in I think their junior year of high school. There was something super weird. So in season four, which was their senior year, they did, I'm gonna say, I don't know, 10 or 12 episodes, uh, with the last one being graduation. And then after they wanted 11 more episodes, they ordered 11 more episodes, however, Kelly Kapowski and Tiffany Amberth Eason and Elizabeth Berkeley had already left, so they weren't doing the show anymore. And so they introduced this Tory character. Do you remember Tory? I hated her. She was like the leather jacket wearing, she was so badass, yeah, not badass at all, really, really annoying. Yeah, well, you know, it was she wasn't.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

But I remember that earthquake episode with her, and someone was pregnant. What I don't know. Yeah, like one of the teachers was pregnant and there was an earthquake because it they lived in California and there was like an earthquake, and Tori had to like deliver a baby or something. I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

The show was so bad in hindsight, but yeah, but yeah, so they introduced Tori to like make up for Kelly and Jesse being missing, and then they took those, so they recorded these 11 episodes introducing Tori with no Kelly and Jesse, and then they sprinkled them in throughout the season, just like nobody will notice. Yeah, and then they just went on, and then the graduation episode was the last episode of that season, and Kelly and Jesse were there, but like Tori wasn't there when they were there.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

I feel like in the 90s you could do that, like switch out Aunt Viv and act like we didn't notice and then Aunt Becky. Oh my gosh, sorry, a slight pivot, but this is great. I love for anybody who's never seen the last episode of Roseanne, it is hysterical because what's the um what's the young boy's name? Um D is it DJ? DJ, yeah, yes, right? Yes, um, he like it's like all Dan's memory of like being with his family, and apparently like it like goes through like the entire like Roseanne like series or whatever, and you like find out that like DJ is in like a mental institution, and he's repeating and swaying back and forth like he's insane. He's repeating, they say she's the same, but she's not the same. They say she's the same. And then it does a full montage of Aunt Becky.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

What do you mean? So you mean Becky, like his sister?

SPEAKER_04 33:44

Sorry, yeah. Becky the sister, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:48

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

Wait, did they swap out the person who played it? Yeah, yeah. I never watched the show, I wasn't allowed to.

SPEAKER_04 33:57

It is the best ending to a series. I was like, that is so clever.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

Oh my gosh, that's a great um point. In the 90s, they would do shit like that. Like they would just swap out a character's like the person playing the character, but never comment or they just got rid of Judy on Family Matters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Oh no explanation. We're not gonna tell you why. We're just gonna pretend.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

There's a lot of that in Save by the Bell, too. I was originally going to have you both watch an episode and we were going to react to it. And so I was like looking up the most cringy Save by the Bell episodes, and there was there was one where someone was like someone came to the school, like a new student, and then they Zach found out they were like living in a car or living on the street or something, and then his mom took them in to live with them or something, and then that character was Christine again. Was this the holiday?

SPEAKER_04 35:02

No, that was different. That was a different home homeless, unhoused person, the holiday episode.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

It was there was a lot of those though, where a character would show up once um and be pretty instrumental in you know somebody's development or understanding of the world and then never to be seen again. But that was just 90s television. It was pretty they just came to teach us a lesson, that's it.

SPEAKER_04 35:29

They serve their personality.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yeah, it was like one episode, just that was the whole story, and then we start fresh the next week.

SPEAKER_04 35:36

Oh, I'm thinking about the girl who was homeless and they worked at the like rapping place for Christmas, and she ended up stealing something and getting in trouble, and yeah, and the mall wanted to like fire her, but then they found out she was homeless and was doing it for her dad, or something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

I'm pretty sure that is the one, but I'm sure our listeners will correct me.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Zach Zach and Kelly's relationship was never really quite clear to me either, because Zach liked that girl, but I feel like it was also in the middle of him and Kelly being a thing.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

I don't know, their whole Yeah, they weren't sequential in the storyline at all. It was like some episodes Zach and Kelly were a couple, and then some episodes Zach was chasing some other girl. Yeah, and it was not they just didn't care that from one to the next those

Casting, Race, And Relationship Drama

SPEAKER_03 36:40

things weren't cohesive.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

And AC and Kelly had the you guys do you know what AC stands for yet? No, I was just about to ask, what is it? I'm gonna hate my Albert Clifford. Albert Clifford.

SPEAKER_05 36:54

Oh, bless it. Yeah, I don't think I did know that then. For some reason, I thought it was a little more Latino.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Alejandro.

SPEAKER_05 37:02

Yeah, like I thought I thought that was a little bit more like Latino than I think.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Another interesting thing, they were casting AC Slater to be of a different ethnic background, and they just weren't finding anybody who fit the vision for that. And so then they extended like who could, you know, who could try out for that role. And Mario Lopez came and they were like, that's it. So I don't think good in spandex. I mean, all the curly mullet. Oh my gosh, but he nailed that role. I think I thought he was great in that role, but they also did that with oh, with Lark Voorhees, they were originally conceiving that role, because if you recall, she was like very wealthy and snobby. They were originally conceiving it as Jewish, which I'm like, of course, just fulfilling that stereotype. But Lark Voorhees auditioned and like just super impressed everybody so much that they completely changed that trope and like brought her in, which I think was that's kind of cool. Pretty progressive for the time to be like, here's the rich snobby girl, and then they loved a black woman for that and kept that mold, but made it, you know, not the stereotypical Jewish woman, so or girl, I suppose at the time.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

Um, can we just briefly go back to the fact that like Zach and Kelly were technically like they were a couple, but it was kind of tumultuous, and every once in a while there'd be AC and Kelly, and then then there's like and well, I don't remember. I know that there was the episode when Zach and AC like fought, and I can't remember was Kelly a part of that? Like, were they fighting about Kelly?

SPEAKER_03 38:55

I feel like there was time when they the first season was the love triangle, so it Zach and Kelly were not a couple yet, but AC and Zach were fighting over her.

SPEAKER_05 39:06

Well, I must say that anytime that kind of stuff happens, I always am very uncomfortable. I don't like when a friend is going after the original person's like love interests. I always think I don't think that they were friends. Oh, yeah, that's true. They ended up friends. I okay, that's that helps, but I still oh that that it does help. What's running through my mind is like Dawson, Pacey, Joey. Like, I'm like Pacey, that was F'd up. Yeah, I'm always team OG couple.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

Um trying to think Zach and Kelly weren't a couple initially, so apparently freshman year, um like that first season freshman year was they both liked Kelly, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:52

But like Ross, Rachel, then Joey, Joey, get the F out of here. You know, that was a weird thing. I know, but I'm just saying, in general, when that happens, I just get all kind of possessive about it and I don't like it.

SPEAKER_04 40:09

Yeah, that's awesome. No, I hear what I hear what you're saying. It's funny that you um brought up Dawson's Creek. Um, also RP.

SPEAKER_05 40:19

All right, I'm missing that James Vanderbe.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

My like black woman brain gets James Vanderbank and what's Zach's.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

Oh, Zach, same.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

I do too. Mark Haldarch. Mark Haldar, I I get them confused all the time in my in like their images and their aesthetic, yes, which is like so funny, and I feel like is justice for black people. Yes. Um, but I was also thinking about like the race conversation and how um Zach is not white, he's Asian. And they're like half Polynesian or something like that, and they put him as like this blonde, and he and that is how he became known to like the world is like this blonde-headed boy who you know fulfilled that role and stereotype of like desirable, and he's not even completely white.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

I didn't know that at all. Even in reading about Save by the Bell all day yesterday, I did not pick that up.

SPEAKER_04 41:20

Uh, one relationship that I hated that was forced was when they tried to get Screech and Lisa together.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Like, I just I talk a lot about that because I I guess like, you know, there's a lot of aggressively pursued Lisa and she was like, you know, she got mean at a point of like putting him off.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:54

But in in modern times, like his aggression about pursuing someone who has said no repeatedly would just not fly in today's world. But it was so, I mean, like, I don't know, he was so endearing despite all of that. I wonder if I watched it now, if I would still feel the same way. What I was gonna ask is do you well, Manny, you probably remember this. Do you remember um them introducing a nerdy girlfriend named Violet for Screech? Do you remember who played with Torah Spelling?

SPEAKER_05 42:26

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_05 42:28

I think that episode when she sang, and she was like hiding backstage or something like that. Do you know what I'm talking about? Vaguely remember this, yeah. Like they had the music performance, like there it was like a show choir or something.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Yeah.

unknown 42:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

I I had totally forgotten that she was on there, and then I was reading this yesterday, like, oh my gosh, Tory's spelling, and such a bizarre character for her to play, too, compared to what I think of her as, you know, in Beverly Hills and stuff. I thought you were gonna ask about, and I'm curious if this was in the random 11 season Tory, I think it was, where Tory appearance where uh Zach and Lisa had a stint where they were where they kissed or like kind of well interestingly they had up because for the first three seasons, Lark and Mark Paul were actually a couple. Oh they dated, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I know. I thought that one was fun to learn, and also they broke up and then continued the show, which I think is weird. Like they had to they can't. How old were they during this time though? Really young. Um I would need to search, but I but three years for young people is is you're basically married to break up and then keep working together with. That would have been.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

I feel like isn't that the story of Justin and Brittany like on Mickey Mouse Club?

SPEAKER_03 44:04

Yeah, I guess so. Except they dated, but like is Lark canceled?

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Is she MAGA?

SPEAKER_03 44:14

Ooh, I didn't get that.

SPEAKER_05 44:16

So she had a mental health issue after that.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Yeah, she has been diagnosed. So there was some weird goings-ons and some weird rumors about her, but ultimately she was diagnosed with some form of um, I didn't write it down, but some form of like it's something that's kind of a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar. There was rumors that she had like a drug problem or something like that, um, which she didn't, she apparently didn't have. She was dealing with this mental health crisis that I think early on wasn't properly diagnosed. And then it came out that yeah, she had this, that she, you know, deals with a serious mental health issue, and people wanted to call it drugs and like the normal, you know, child actor stuff, but it just simply wasn't that.

SPEAKER_05 45:11

I think when you are uh were asking canceled MAGA, you're referring to Stacy Dash from Clueless.

SPEAKER_04 45:18

I was, but I also thought I had heard Zet Lark where he was supposed to be Lark. Yeah. But we do know Stacy Dash has I wrote a poem about that. I know that. Oh my gosh, you did yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

I do think it's like all of these names of people who had pretty good careers, like longevity. Um, we mentioned earlier that Malibu that's where they introduced Stacey Caruso, who would pop up a few times here and there, obviously played by Leah Romini. And apparently it was her role in Save by the Bell that got her the role in King of Queens, which was, I think, way more popular and long lasting. Her dad, this was just one random fun fact. Her dad, Leon, was played by a man named Ernie Sabella, best known for being the voice of Pumba in the animated Lion King.

SPEAKER_05 46:23

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 46:25

There's like all these weird little like connections to all these weird little things. And then you probably recall, like, I feel like there was just this whole long, like my whole childhood was filled with Saved by the Bell, but it was only those kind of five seasons, and then there was seven seasons, you guys, of Saved by the Bell, the New Class, which I can like sort of picture, but I def I definitely didn't watch seven seasons of that from 1993 to 2000. Um there was one season of the college years, which I also thought was longer than one season, and then there were two movies: the Hawaiian style and the wedding in Las Vegas between Zach and Kelly. I think

Child Actors, Tea, And Reality

SPEAKER_03 47:20

overall, the thing for me that stands out is like this was a show with a bunch of child actors in a time where I would imagine we didn't really take care of child actors' health. And after researching um all of this, I was expecting more tea. Like I was expecting a lot of stuff that had gone on that we didn't that we didn't realize was happening. And shockingly, it wasn't that bad. Like there was some episodes that didn't age very well, like the way that they developed Zach Morris's character was pretty unsavory. He was like very conniving, he did a lot of things that in the end were probably would have been illegal, like, but you know, but that was the character. There wasn't anything all that wild, like drugs or sex, or you know, I mean, you think of all the Disney stars that were in the limelight and had you know bad stretches. I mean, poor Lindsay Loewen, like there was a lot there. And I was I think the tea here is there wasn't much tea. And I mean, maybe that's a maybe that's kudos to all of the adults that supported the making of that show, but I was pretty shocked by that.

SPEAKER_04 48:43

Yeah, I mean, I think I think Disney definitely had a larger pool of people to have that to fuck up percentage of a downfall. I mean, we're only talking about like four or five people. I think Jesse Spano had like a little thing when she did Showgirls, but that and Elizabeth Berkeley, but like I think that was like the only like kind of real drama post just because she made such a pivot from yeah, her character. But I don't think but that's the thing.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

Yeah, I didn't look it up to see if there was any actual gossip there. I do remember people being up in arms when Elizabeth Berkeley played a stripper, yeah. But also, like in hindsight, to your point there, Manny, it was a divergence from her character. It doesn't have anything to do with you know the other character she played. She's an actress.

SPEAKER_05 49:44

So what about Dustin Diamond? Like he kind of went a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

He had a little bit of a fall from Grace, he had a DUI, right?

SPEAKER_05 49:52

Yeah, and then he did porn or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 49:56

I don't know about that. Yeah, I think you're I think he didn't.

SPEAKER_05 49:59

I remember that. He did porn because I remember there was something about like yes, he absolutely did porn. I think he was but this was when he passed the cancer, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:13

Yeah, he had lung cancer, and he wasn't even a smoker. Oh, it's very sad. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like despite the little bit of tea we just spilled, I would have expected for a group of children, you know, in the limelight for as long as they were, that you know, that that could have had pretty awful effects on all of these people. And yeah, there wasn't as much gas as I thought. So good job. Good job, Saved by the Bell.

SPEAKER_04 50:47

I mean, I don't know. I just feel like that was I feel like that is like a lot to to go through, but I think it's more of a conversation of like we need to stop glamorizing celebrities and just realize that they're normal people and that they're gonna go through the same human experiences that we all do. Like these are to do it in such a public way. Yeah, it wouldn't be public if we just mind our business and just treated them like human beings that they are. Like people are gonna have like there's mental health, there's alcoholism, there's cancer, there's you know, relationship breakups and stuff. Like all of that is like very normal storyline for anybody, you know. So I think I think a lot of people more people do that. I think we have a tendency as society to want it to be juicier or to be like TMZ headline because that is more sensational, and we glamorize these people as being completely different from us, and we want them to have a fall from grace. But I think generally speaking, most most don't unless we go poking for it. Oh god, Britney Spears, Lord have mercy, that just happened. Well, that's what but she had anyway. Sorry, I'm derailing us.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

But uh yeah, I think all of what you said is what I was trying to say is that they had normal, what I would call normal problems, but there wasn't anything sensational. And I do feel like with child actors, they tend to be exploited and they they tend to then have these sensational moments that put them in the limelight in a negative way. And I don't feel like that was as much the case here. Um, despite it being at a time when I feel like there was a lot less attention and focus on children's mental health during you know, such publicity. So, anyways, I loved this trip down memory lane. I am impressed with everything that you both remembered, especially Steph not having watched this as much. So um love it. It takes me back to my fond childhood memories. So um, any confessions before we wrap for today? Any secret crushes that you need to make us aware of?

SPEAKER_05 53:01

Or I just um say by the way I'll definitely have some moments that like I loved like when Mario Lopez would bust out his dancing, like that he could like do ballet or like uh all that kind of stuff. Like there were just a lot of fun things that drew a little nerdy kid like me in the the dancing, the singing, the you know, and still have like these cool teenagers like wearing cool outfits and be you know being popular and all that kind of stuff. Like it just had something for everybody.

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Yeah, I think I was blown away

Why 90s TV Felt Different

SPEAKER_04 53:40

by the uh syndication of it all, and like it we'll talk a little bit more about this next week, but like how we consumed media in the 90s versus now, and like that we could watch a show out of order and not realize that we were operating on a different timeline, and um, you know, also the the amount of shows that come out in a season. Like I feel like Abbott Elementary really does a good job of like making sure that they're like a 20 episode season, like a foot, like that's what like we were used to back in the you know, or in like the writing of shows. Like I feel like that craft and that art was taken a lot, like it was really a lot more challenging than like the seven or eight episode seasons that we see on the streaming services, and how you have to watch in order in order to really understand what's happening in the universe. And I just feel like perhaps that's why we enjoyed the show so much is that like there was no each episode had a beginning or an end. Yeah, you could just jump right in whenever you wanted to an episode and still appreciate and enjoy the storyline, the podcast, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

Yes, it was such a different time for um content, I'd say. I love that. That's a great segue or lead-in, I suppose, to our final episode of the season coming up next week. So let's hold that thought. Um, and thank you all for joining,

Final Thoughts And Goodbye

SPEAKER_03 55:10

and we'll see you next time.

unknown 55:12

Bye.

SPEAKER_04 55:13

Hey, bitches, that's a wrap on another episode of You Can Call Me Karen. If you liked what you heard or didn't, go to our show page and leave a review. Just numb. We will call you a mum. And if unlike my two co-hosts, you find yourself scrambling endlessly on TikTok follow listen, you can call me Karen. And if you're still living in the 20th century like a boomer, don't worry. You can find us on Instagram and YouTube, and you can call me Cameron under the score. Love you to listen.