Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell, which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Mr. Belding takes his job too seriously.

Episode 3.2 “Breaking Up is Hard To Undo”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on December 16th, 1990)

Slater and Jessie make it official!  They’re now a couple.  Slater wants to celebrate by going to a football game.  Jessie wants to celebrate by going to the ballet.  Suddenly, Slater and Jessie are no longer a couple.

Zack is looking forward to celebrating his anniversary with Kelly.  However, Kelly is planning on having dinner with her ex-boyfriend, Todd.  Todd is rich and “looks like Mel Gibson.”  Zack forbids Kelly to see Todd.  Kelly and Zack break up.

When a student council meeting falls apart due to Jessie and Kelly’s attempts to defund the football team and start a dance department at the school, Mr. Belding ends up breaking his gavel.  (“I broke my gavel” is the funniest line in the episode but nobody laughs.)  When Mr. Belding and his wife get into an argument over her mother-in-law staying with the Beldings and Mr. Belding ends up getting kicked out of his house, Mr. Belding decides to hang out with Zack, Slater, and Screech.  Zack comes home and discovers Belding hanging out in his bedroom….

Uhmm, what?

This is a weird episode.  The break-ups are one thing.  I could believe that part of the episode.  But why are Zack’s parents allowing his principal to live in Zack’s bedroom?  In the real world, principals and teachers get fired and worse for that sort of thing.  Seeing as how this episode also features a moment in which Zack stops time so that he can order some flowers for Mr. Belding “from Mrs. Belding,” I’m going to assume that this is a dream episode.

The dream comes to a conclusion at the Max, in which Slater and Zack before demonstrate how they should have reacted to Jessie and Kelly.  Slater announces that doesn’t care about football, strips down to a skintight leotard, and dances around the Max with Lisa (who is wearing a Jessie wig).  Screech then dressed up like a cheerleader so Zack can tell Screech that he trusts him and it’s okay if Screech wants to have dinner with Todd.

This was a weird episode.  Slater dancing was a great moment but Mr. Belding moving in with Zack asked for a little too much suspension of disbelief, even by the standards of Saved By The Bell.  Couldn’t Mr. Belding have moved in with Rod instead?