Weekend Diversion: Jessie and Slater?

Remember the TV show Saved By The Bell? It was a high school comedy that was popular when I was in Junior High, and it was, of course, completely preposterous and cheesy. Like what you'd get if you married Beverly Hills: 90210 with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and then cleaned it up to make it G-rated. There were two long-time couples, Zack (the blond preppie) and Kelly (the hot cheerleader in the sundress), and Jessie (the frizzy-haired neurotic) and Slater (the macho/sensitive latino).

Well, Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley), the frizzy-haired girl on the left, is finally back on TV hosting a dance-contest show, Bravo's Step It Up And Dance. But hold on a second... what has Slater (Mario Lopez) been doing? Well, after he did a stint on Dancing with the Stars, apparently he's now been signed on to host Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew.

What?? Could Jessie (left) and Slater (right) wind up back together again after 15 years? Will they separately dance into obscurity? Will they call each other "momma" and "poppa" again? Will she consistently get the better of him as she did in the series? And will either of them succeed as top banana, without Zack and Kelly?

And that, my friends, is a blast from the past.

More like this

Jessie and I made a beeline for New Orleans. We stopped only for gas and a night's rest. In Pachuta, Mississippi, we couldn't resist photographing this sign at a gas station (not BP -- we won't be stopping at BP):
Designer Jessi Arrington packed nothing for TED but 7 pairs of undies, buying the rest of her clothes in thrift stores around LA. It's a meditation on conscious consumption -- wrapped in a rainbow of color and creativity.
President Obama called it "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced." So I thought I should face it and head to the Gulf. With me is Jessie Lozier, who I have known all of her 18 years (here we are in 1998 and today at our hotel in the French Quarter).
It's tempting to go a couple of different ways here. A book that has "Insanely Great" in the title? What could possibly go wrong? On the other hand.... A kids book about what a jerk Steve Jobs was. What could possibly go wrong?