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 can be purchased on Prime!

This week, we meet Jessie’s new stepbrother!  I’m sure he’ll be around forever.

Episode 3.10 “Wicked Stepbrother: Part One”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 2nd, 1991)

Jessie’s mom has gotten married …. again!

Now, in this episode, we don’t actually meet Jessie’s mom.  Nor do we meet her new stepfather.  In fact, she says next to nothing about her new stepfather.  Instead, this entire episode is all about Eric Tramer (Joshua Hoffman), her new stepbrother from New York!

That’s right.  Jessie has a stepbrother and I’m sure that he’s going to be a major part of the show!

(Incidentally, I’m assuming that Eric Tramer was named after script consultant Bennett Tramer.)

Unfortunately, Eric is a little bit cocky.  He’s got that New York attitude.  When Zack pretends to be Jewish so he can skip school on Rosh Hashanah and go to a baseball game, Eric finds out and blackmails him into giving up his locker.  When Jessie calls Slater a “curly Conan,” Eric records it and threatens to play it for the whole school.  Jessie gives up her bedroom to Eric.

(Hey, remember how, during the first season, Zack and Jessie lived right next to each other and Zack would regularly climb in through Jessie’s window?  Apparently, the show forgot about that.)

Eric has a weakness.  He has a crush on Lisa but Lisa doesn’t want anything to do with him.  Zack has a plan.  Belding is away for the weekend and he’s given the keys to his red sportscar to Slater so that Slater can install a CD player.  (Hello, 1990s!)  Zack offers to give Lisa two tickets to the MC Hammer concert if she agrees to go out with Eric.  Then, he and Slater allow Eric to borrow Belding’s car for his date.  Their plan is to take a picture of Eric driving Belding’s car and then …. well, I’m not sure what the next step is.  I guess they’re going to frame Eric for auto theft and send him to prison so that Zack can get his locker back.

Lisa goes out with Eric.  They go to see Casablanca.  Eric does a really bad Bogart impersonation.  Lisa is charmed.  Eric lets Lisa drive the car.  Awwww!  Zack pops up with his camera and takes a picture.  The flash blinds Lisa and she crashes Belding’s car!

“We’re trouble,” Zack says to the audience.

Hey, Zack — your best friend Lisa just crashed a car!  Maybe go check on her and make sure she’s not dead….

This is a two-part episode so we’ll take a look at the conclusion next week.  As for the first part, this whole thing is a good example of people overreacting to nothing.  Because Eric had Screech tape the baseball game, he has video evidence of Zack not being at school.  Well, so what?  Zack skips class all the time and, in this case, his absence was pre-approved.  To get Zack in trouble, Eric would have to prove that Zack was lying about being Jewish and Zack being at a baseball game doesn’t do that.  Then, Jessie gives up her room so people won’t know that she called Slater a “curly Conan.”  Jessie does this to avoid being embarrassed but would it really be that embarrassing?  Slater’s the most popular guy at school and he calls her “mama” in public.  And finally, the biggest overreaction is Zack and Slater deciding to frame Eric for a crime as opposed to just ignoring him.  It just seems like this whole thing could have been resolved by everyone going out dancing or something.

Can things get any dumber?  We’ll find out next week!