Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00. The show is currently on Prime.
This week, the Gang learns a pointless lesson about cheating.
Episode 2.22 “To Cheat Or Not To Cheat”
(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on December 3rd, 1994)
When I was in high school, my best subjects were always things like History, English, Drama, and Creative Writing. I excelled at classes that involved creativity, writing, and research. I absolutely sucked at any class the involved numbers.
In fact, during my senior year, I nearly flunked Algebra II. It just wasn’t my thing. I could usually get the right answer. Indeed, a lot of the time, I would look at a equation and solve it in my head within seconds. The problem was that I had to “show my work” and my work was always sloppy. Whenever I had to actually write out the numbers and the steps, I would end up either making a careless mistake or I would double guess myself.
Fortunately, Erin has taken Algebra II the year before me and she had saved all of her tests. An exam day, I would just wear a short skirt and write all the answers on my inner thigh before going to class. That was how I passed Algebra II. If I hadn’t done that, I would have flunked Algebra II and I would have graduated with a normal diploma instead of my neat advanced diploma.
In short, I cheated and I’ve never really regretted or felt bad about it. I did what I had to do so that I could enjoy the classes that I liked as opposed to spending all year stressing about the one that I struggled with.
This episode of Saved By The Bell: The New Class also deals with cheating though I’m not sure that what happens in the episode actually counts. A school dance is approaching and Brian wants to take Rachel. But unless Rachel gets a B on her History midterm, she’s not going to be allowed to go. When Brian happens to come across a copy of the midterm, he tells Rachel what she should study. Rachel does so and scores an A.
The show calls this cheating but is it? Brain doesn’t tell Rachel the answers. Instead, he simply tells her what to study. Rachel studies and she passes the exam. To me, the important thing is that Rachel studied. To be honest, I don’t see what the big deal is.
The show argues that, since Rachel didn’t know that Brian had seen the exam and didn’t realize that she had “cheated” (instead, she just assumed that Brian had good instincts), Rachel will now think that all she has to do is cram the night before a test and she’ll do well. But again, so what? That’s what most people do. That’s what I did and I had a great time in college. Seriously, when you’re in school, you shouldn’t be worried about grades. You should be worried about having the fun that you’re no longer going to be allowed to have after you graduate.
In the end, a guilt-stricken Brian confesses to Mr. Belding and he gets suspended for two days. As for Rachel, she’s told that she can take a makeup exam. But why should Rachel be punished when she actually did study the first time and she didn’t know that Brian had seen the test?
This is a dumb episode. I haven’t even talked about Screech asking Tommy, Bobby, and Lindsay to fake school emergencies so that Screech can “solve” them and hopefully get a good evaluation from Mr. Belding. (Screech is cheating too! But the show seems to think it’s only bad when Rachel gets an A.) If you’re in high school and you’re reading this, go ahead and cheat. Your teachers are too burned out to care and won’t even remember you were in their class after the school year ends. Enjoy your life.
