when i wake up in the morning, the alarm gives out a warning

If you grew up around the time I did, there are a few things I know for sure about you without ever having met you. I know you probably had a Care Bear, or a Cabbage Patch Kid. You probably did the Running Man at some point during those formative years. And you probably also spent at least a few cumulative weeks watching a little television program we call Saved By The Bell.

I love Saved By The Bell. I love SBTB so much that I call it SBTB. So much that I own all four seasons on DVD. So much that I used to challenge my friends to SBTB trivia. And so much that the column I wrote for my high school newspaper my senior year was built around references to different episodes of the show. I wrote a column about driving and mentioned the episode where Zack sets up Slater to wreck the Driver's Ed. golf cart in front of Mr. Belding and ruin his rep with Kelly. I wrote a column about graduation, quoting the entire Bayside Alma Mater (that I disturbingly knew by heart).

I used to wonder why I didn't have boyfriends in high school. For the record, I do not wonder that any more.

So with this level of undying love for a short-lived sitcom about kids in high school, you can imagine my excitement when Jimmy Fallon, on his little late night hoorah, announced recently that he was going to put together a SBTB reunion. One by one, the cast members have been signing on, coming on to the show and pledging to be a part of the reunion -- so far Mr. Belding, Lisa Turtle and A.C. Slater are all in, and as of last night? The one and only ZACK MORRIS.



I feel personally called by God or Allah or maybe even the ghost of that Indian dude who was Zack's mentor in that episode about the big track meet to be involved in this reunion, some how, some way. With two cast members still yet to sign on -- Kelly Kapowski and Screech Powers -- we can't know for sure when the reunion show would be or what it might involve. But I do know this much. When it goes down, I hope that Jimmy will do the right thing and invite only the die hardest of die hard SBTB fans to be in the audience that night. The lucky winners could be chosen based on their score on a SBTB trivia test on his web site. It would be that easy.

As a grown woman who has confessed many embarrassing things here, and is unafraid to share that she still sleeps with a teddy bear (named Big Ted, no less), I proudly declare my continued love for Saved By The Bell. I'll be tweeting this to Jimmy Fallon in hopes that he'll put my idea in motion and get the true fans in the stands that special night.

And having just opined for several lengthy paragraphs about a Saturday morning teens' show, I would like to amend the earlier statement about how I no longer wonder why I didn't have a boyfriend in high school to read: I no longer wonder why I don't have a boyfriend. Just in general.

Because wow.


cheers,
elizabeth