Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Hang Time, which ran on NBC from 1995 to 2000.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Will you always remember you and your friends at Hang Time?

Episode 6.5 “Have No Fear”

(Directed by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on October 21st, 2000)

Temple U. comes to Deering to offer Silk a full scholarship to attend their college and play basketball for their team.  At first, Silk is excited but then he makes the mistake of playing a little basketball with the college players.  It turns out that they’re a hundred times better than Silk!  Silk then discovers that Temple expects its players to practice everyday, to attend every away game, and to maintain a B average.  Silk decides that it’s too much to deal with and announces that he would rather go to Atlantic University.

“Atlantic sucks!” Eugene exclaims.

Anyway, Coach K eventually tells Silk that he need to take the chance and go to Temple.  Personally, I think Silk had every right to be concerned because, over the past few seasons, it’s not like Silk has ever been that good of a player.  For instance, he’s never the one who shoots the game-winning basket.  He’s never the one who risks getting hooked on pills because the team will lose if he’s not on the court.  He’s never been the one who has gotten an oversized ego after being featured in a magazine.  By the standards of Hang Time, he’s a below-average player.  Why does Temple want him as opposed to Michael or Julie?

All that said, Silk still decides to take a shot and go to Temple.  Good for him.

Meanwhile, in the far more amusing B-plot, Julie and Kristy buy a car together but then spend all of their time arguing over who is a better driver and who gets to use the car on which night.  This is another one of those plots where Mary Beth acts as an agent of chaos.  She’s the one who suggests that Kristy and Julie should get the car together and, for some reason, she tags along when Kristy and Antonio and Michael and Julie go on a double-date together.  At this point, I think the only  reason why Mary Beth is still attending classes at Deering is so she can cause stir the drama.  That’s actually kind of neat.  It suggests that Mary Beth knows that she’s in a television show and that she understands that this particular episode needed some silliness to make up for all of the uninteresting stuff with Silk.  Good for Mary Beth!

Episode 6.6 “At The Movies”

(Directed by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on October 28th, 2000)

Oh God.

This episode features Dustin Diamond playing himself.

Antonio and Kristy are both working at the movie theater as a part of their “work study program.”  (Why can’t they just get a job?  Why does it have to be a part of a program?)  Anyway, Kristy is appointed assistant manager and decides that a sure way to make money would be to do a midnight showing of Saved By The Bell: Wedding in Vegas.  And because the other members of the Saved By The Bell cast had all moved on to real careers by the time this episode was filmed, the show had to make due with Dustin Diamond showing up as the special celebrity guest.  Yes, Dustin plays himself but still speaks in his annoying Screech voice.

I don’t want to talk too much about it.  I pretty much zoned out as soon as Dustin arrived.  I feel a little bit bad about that because Dustin Diamond did not have a particularly happy life and died far too young but, still, he was so annoying whenever he did the whole Screech thing.  Add to that, you may remember that, a few seasons ago, Dustin Diamond made a cameo appearance as Screech.  And before that, Mary Beth went to Space Camp with Ryan Parker, a student at Bayside.  So, what’s the deal, Hang Time?  How is Screech both real and fictional at the same time?

Meanwhile, Mary Beth freaked out after she had a romantic dream about Eugene.  This led to Mary Beth going out on a date with Eugene to see if she actually had feelings for him.  (Uhmm, Mary Beth …. remember that you have a boyfriend going to Duke?)  It turned out that Mary Beth didn’t and that’s a good thing.  We already suffered through Mary Beth dating Vince.

Anyway, the important thing is that everything worked out in the end.  With the help of Dustin Diamond, Antonio learned a lesson about being a good employee and Mary Beth realized that she wasn’t in love with Eugene.  Yay!

Next week: Hammer returns!