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.
It’s time for the Bayside Gang to learn a lesson!
Episode 2.20 “Drinking 101”
(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 19th, 1994)
It’s school trip time! Mr. Belding, Screech, the Gang, and a bunch of anonymous Bayside students are spending a week at a ski lodge!
Rachel thinks the ski lodge is romantic but Brian doesn’t care about any of that. He just wants to ski. (“I have not skied since I lived in Switzerland,” he says and, for not the first time, I find myself wondering if the show is ever going to explain why he no longer lives in Switzerland.) Lindsay wants to go to a frat party, even if it means lying and saying that she’s a college student. And Mr. Belding …. he just wants to survive.
It won’t be easy because Belding sprains his ankle as soon as he arrives at the ski lodge. “My chief!” Screech yells in an early use of the falsetto that will define his character in later seasons. Belding is supposed to stay off his ankle so, of course, Screech keeps tripping over him and dragging him up the slopes. As a dancer, I more than know the pain of a sprained ankle and the scenes of Screech reinjuring Belding’s ankle did not make me smile.
While Screech throws a party for Mr. Belding, Lindsay, Rachel, and Megan sneak into a frat party so they can meet some boys. (Yes, Rachel is dating Brian but she’s mad because all he wants to do is ski.) Tommy, Bobby, and Brian soon end up at the same party. Lindsay gets drunk. Tommy gets drunk. Tommy rides off on a skimobile and later has an accident.
Lesson learned!
Tommy has a broken leg. His parents could totally sue the school district for not keeping an eye on him during a school trip. Screech trips over Tommy’s cast, causing Tommy incredible pain. Belding tells Lindsay and Tommy that they shouldn’t have been drinking and then he tells Rachel, Brian, Megan, and Bobby that they shouldn’t have let Lindsay and Tommy drink. Hey, Belding, maybe you should have brought along more adults so they could keep an eye on the students.
Myself, I rarely drink because my tolerance for alcohol is pathetically low. Still, I have to say that I found it funny that Lindsay woke up with the “worst hangover ever!” even though she only had two beers. Even with my low tolerance, I’ve never had a hang over. From my experience, it would have been more realistic for Lindsay to throw up and then fall asleep on a yoga mat.
Anyway, this episode ends with Belding and Tommy recovering from their injuries, the rest of the Gang “grounded for the weekend,” and Screech skiing. I was kind of hoping the episode would end with the ski lodge being revealed to be the one that Lorena’s father owned on California Dreams. That would have been a cross-over to remember!
The big problem with this episode — and really, this is something that seem to happen in every Peter Engel-produced teen sitcom — is that the actors were obviously having way too much fun pretending to be drunk. I mean, hangover or not, Lindsay seemed to be having a good time.
