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.

I’m saved by the bell! …. but for how long?

Episode 1.7 “Homecoming King”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on October 23rd, 1993)

The big Homecoming dance is coming up and Lindsay has been nominated for Homecoming Queen, just as her mom (Diane Sainte-Marie) was years ago.  Lindsay should be excited but her mom has made it clear that she doesn’t want Lindsay going to the dance with Tommy D.  In fact, her mom doesn’t want Lindsay dating Tommy D at all.  Tommy D is a troublemaker!  Lindsay gets so angry that she decides not to go to the dance at all but instead, Tommy D tells her that she has to go to the dance so that she can be crowned as Homecoming Queen.  Tommy says that he does screw up a lot.  Maybe they should see other people.

Scott, who just a few episodes ago was trying to break Tommy and Lindsay up, announces that “Tommy D stands for Decent Dude.”

(Then his name would be Tommy DD.  I swear, does anyone even go to class at this school?)

Uh-oh.  It looks like smarmy Chad Westerfield (Jimmy Mardsen) is planning on asking Lindsay to the dance.  Scott’s going to have to come up with a scheme to make sure that Chad doesn’t win Homecoming King and that Tommy and Lindsay get back together….

Wait a minute …. who is that playing Chad Westerfield?  THAT’S A YOUNG JAMES MARSDEN!  Lindsay should definitely go to the dance with Chad Westerfield!  Screw Tommy D!  Lindsay, your date is here!

This was one of James Marsden’s earliest roles but he already had the looks and the charisma that would make him one of my favorite actors.  Even though we’re supposed to hate Chad and there’s a scene where he reveals that he’s just pretending to be nice so that he’ll win the Homecoming King election, James Marsden is still so innately likable that it’s hard not to be disappointed when Scott rigs the election so that Tommy wins as a write-in candidate.  (Homecoming Queen is won by Megan, also a write-in candidate.  The “nerds” voted for her because she came to the dance with Weasel after Chad ghosted her once he found out Lindsay was available.)  Jonathan Angel was likably earnest as Tommy D but sorry, he just can’t compete with James Marsden.

(What type of school allows write-in votes in an election?)

Beyond featuring James Marsden in an early role, this episode is notable as a good example of Saved By The Bell at its most hypocritical.  Lindsay’s mother is portrayed as being wrong-headed because she judges Tommy D on his appearance.  And yet, we’re supposed to howl with laughter when Scott asks one of the nerdy girls to the dance.  (Scott is trying to get the school’s nerds to vote for Tommy.)  Saved By The Bell was always been quick to preach tolerance while also encouraging its audience to laugh at anyone who didn’t have the right look.  That was especially true during New Class.

Sad to say, this was the only appearance that James Marsden made on Saved By The Bell: The New Class.  He was smart enough not to stick around.