Late Night Retro Television Review: Saved By The Bell 1.5 “Screech’s Woman”

Posted on November 29, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 Prime and Tubi!

This week, Zach becomes Bambi and …. oh, you know the story.

Episode 1.5 “Screech’s Woman”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on September 16th, 1989)

Screech isn’t working on Zach’s science project because he’s depressed about not having a girlfriend. Screech describes himself as being “snakespit.” That’s …. that’s really sad, to be honest. Zach attempts to teach Screech how to be cool. He attempts to get Jessie to go out with him. Finally, Zach….

Oh, you know what Zach does. If you’re reading this review, you’ve undoubtedly seen Saved By The Bell in syndication and you know that this is one of those episodes that seemed to air constantly. Zach calls up Screech and pretends to be Bambi. When Screech demands to meet Bambi personally, Zach puts on one of Jessie’s dresses, a wig, sunglasses, and he shaves his legs. Zach/Bambi shows up at the Max and tells Screech that, if they’re going to date, Screech is going to have to agree to no longer hang out with Zach. A despondent Screech says that he can’t betray his best friend.

Here’s the thing:

Even with the wig and the dress and the whispery voice, Zach is in no way convincing as Bambi. He’s obviously Zach, just wearing a wig and speaking in a slightly higher register. The fact that Screech, Kelly, and Slater are all fooled (albeit only temporarily in Slater’s case) can only lead me to suspect that everyone on this show is an idiot. Saved By The Bell always demands a certain suspension of disbelief but this episode really took it to the limit. (Or pushed it to the Max, if you want to show respect to that tacky place.)

This episode really made me feel sorry for both Screech and Dustin Diamond and that’s saying something how annoying I found both Screech and the actor playing him to be. Diamond was only 11 when he was cast on Good Morning Miss Bliss. In this episode, he’s 12 and he looks and comes across as being even younger. And yet, he’s acting opposite people who were a few years older and, by teen standards, considerably more mature. (In teen years, there’s a huge gulf between 12 and 15.) From the minute he shows up in this episode, Screech is out-of-place. That may have worked for Screech’s character but it also probably explains why Diamond himself never really seemed to grow up and never seemed to get over feeling like an outsider on the set.

Wow, this episode was depressing.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.13 “The Mentor”

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, we close out the Miss Bliss years.

Episode 1.13 “The Mentor”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on March 18th, 1989)

For some reason, Miss Bliss’s mentor — James Lyman (Robert Donner) — shows up at the school to visit his favorite student, Carrie Bliss. (Apparently, the very British Miss Bliss grew up in Indiana. I’m not saying it’s not possible, as her parents could have come over when Miss Bliss was still young. That said, it just seems odd that no one — not even her students — ever mention anything about Miss Bliss being British. It would seem like something Miss Bliss would have mentioned during all of those lessons about the Constitution and American history.) Mr. Lyman is retired but he agrees to substitute for Miss Bliss while she spends a week doing paperwork. (Most teachers would probably just have to suck it up and both teach and do paperwork during the week but not our Miss Bliss!)

This is one of those annoying episodes where Mr. Lyman is the unconventional teacher who gives the kids free hall passes and takes them on extended field trip without getting permission beforehand. Mr. Lyman makes learning fun! (Gag!) Miss Bliss gets upset because Mr. Lyman isn’t following her lesson plan and Mr. Lyman basically accuses Miss Bliss of being a sellout. For once, I’m on Miss Bliss’s side here. Mr. Lyman is a substitute. His job is to follow the lesson plan. If Miss Bliss doesn’t want him to handing out hall passes, that’s her right. It’s her class! And this whole thing of trusting the students not to abuse the hall pass? I would have totally abused a free hall pass. Everyone would abuse a free hall pass! I would laughed at any teacher dumb enough to give me a free hall pass. It’s almost as if the people who wrote this episode had absolutely no knowledge of how teenagers think. In the end, Mr. Lyman comes across as being an unlikable crank. The episode ends up with dressing up like Abraham Lincoln and showing up, unannounced, in Miss Bliss’s classroom. Seriously, someone call the cops on their weirdo.

Meanwhile, Nikki worries that boys don’t see her as being feminine. Lisa teachers her how to wear makeup. Next year, maybe Nikki and Zach….

Oh, wait a minute. Sorry, Zach, Mr. Belding, Screech, and Lisa are all moving to California. Nikki, Mickey, Miss Bliss, Ms. Palladino, Mylo are staying in Indiana. The Mentor was the final episode of Good Morning, Miss Bliss. The Disney Channel canceled the show but producer Peter Engel took some of the cast over to NBC and launched Saved By The Bell. The Miss Bliss episodes would later be repackaged for syndication with Zach saying, “I remember this time in Junior High…..” I remember changing the channel whenever I realized a Miss Bliss episode was starting.

We’ll start Saved By The Bell next week. Finally, the tyranny of Miss Bliss is over.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.10 “Practical Jokes”

Posted on September 20, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Screech goes on trial!

Episode 1.10 “Practical Jokes”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 25th, 1989)

“It’s Hoosier Harvest Festival!” Miss Bliss tells us. Apparently, this is some sort of Indiana thing where everyone rolls around in hay and plays practical jokes on each other. In her 11 years of working at JFK Junior High, Miss Bliss is proud to have never been pranked. Mr. Belding gets pranked all the time. In fact, Belding spends this entire episode getting humiliated over and over again. After eating some tainted food, he runs from the cafeteria. Miss Bliss has a good laugh over the suffering of a man who, just a few weeks ago, moved Heaven and Earth so she could win the Teacher of the Year award.

In other words, Miss Bliss is a bitch.

When Miss Bliss sits down in class, it turns out that someone has painted her chair. Her new sweater is ruined! Miss Bliss gets angry and demands that the responsible party step forward or the entire class will be punished. The class immediately pressures Screech to confess. Screech does so and is told that he will have to pay for Miss Bliss’s sweater. Screech takes back his confession.

Miss Bliss says the only way to settle this is by holding a mock trial. Hey, that’s convenient! Would you believe that Miss Bliss just happens to be teaching a unit on the Constitution? Screech is put on trial. Zach is his lawyer. Nikki is the prosecutors. Mikey is the bailiff. Lisa is a witness. The rest of the cast — you know, the dorky kids who don’t get names or storylines — are the jury.

The evidence is stacked against Screech but Zach gets most of it thrown out. (Nikki may have found a paint brush in Screech’s locker but she had no right to search it.) The only evidence against Screech is that he said he was going to get Miss Bliss and …. well, he did confess. Somehow, his confession never comes up at the trial. That’s a pretty big piece of evidence, even if everyone knows he was pressured into making it. Screech surprises everyone by taking the fifth when asked why he went to his locker after saying he was going to get Miss Bliss.

Screech is acquitted for lack of evidence. (Uhmm …. confession? Hello, he confessed?) Miss Bliss reveals that she pranked herself to trick the kids into learning about the Constitution. Because she pranked herself, this mean that she has still never been officially pranked. After class, she helps Screech open his locker and gets hit by the silly string that Screech previously set to go off. So, Screech did prank Miss Bliss!

(Wouldn’t Nikki have gotten hit by the silly string when she illegally searched Screech’s locker?)

This episode was dumb. Screech should have been wrongfully convicted because Zach wasn’t that good of a lawyer. Unfortunately, Nikki wasn’t that good of a prosecutor either. That’s the system for you, dagnabit!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.8 “The Boy Who Cried Rat”

Posted on September 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Zach takes up terrorism.

Episode 1.8 “The Boy Who Cried Rat”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 11th, 1989)

Miss Bliss has been nominated for Indiana Teacher Of The Year because of course she has. Mr. Belding is super-excited. He is convinced that Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars will put her over the top! What is the Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars? Miss Bliss wears silly costumes and asks historical questions. Miss Bliss can’t wait to be named Teacher of the Year.

Uh-oh, Zach Morris needs an extra week to study for his midterm so he can get the B that his father is requiring before he’ll take Zach on a ski vacation. Zach convinces Screech to set his two pet rats free in the school. As a result, the school is shut down for a week and the Best Teacher judge will not get to see Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars. But when Zach hears that Miss Bliss is going to miss her chance to be Teacher of the Year, he feels guilty and confesses. Somehow, this leads to the school not being closed for a week. I mean, Screech was able to find one of his rats but the other one is still loose in the school. Zach confessing doesn’t change the fact that there’s still a rat infestation. Mr. Belding offers Zach and Screech a deal. If they act really enthusiastic during Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars and they help Miss Bliss win the title of Teacher of the Year, Belding won’t give them detention. Zach agrees.

(Personally, I think it can be argued that Zach should have been expelled and that his behavior is evidence of a sociopathic personality but whatever. Miss Bliss is what matters here!)

Unfortunately, Zach and the class get too enthusiastic about the Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars. They’re so busy praising Miss Bliss that Miss Bliss fears that they’ve become distracted from studying for their midterms. Miss Bliss tells the judge that her number one concern has to be getting the kids ready for their test, not competing for a title.

So, of course, Miss Bliss wins the title.

More than any previous episode of Good Morning Miss Bliss, this episode felt like a typical installment of Saved By The Bell. Zach came up with a wacky scheme. Screech somehow got roped into it. And, in the end, no one faced any real consequences for their behavior. That said, this is also a typical Good Morning Miss Bliss episode in that Miss Bliss is again portrayed as being too good to be true and the entire school was portrayed as revolving around keeping her happy.

Personally, I don’t think Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars was all that impressive. Teacher of the Year? STOP THE COUNT!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning, Miss Bliss 1.7 “Save The Last Dance For Me”

Posted on August 30, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the Eighth Grade Dance nearly turns violent!

Episode 1.7 “Save The Last Dance For Me”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on January 25th, 1989)

Mikey (Max Battimo) wants to go to the Eighth Grade Dance with Shana (Alexondra Lee) but Shana wants to go with Mikey’s evil best friend, Zach Morris. Zach agrees to go to the dance with Shana before he finds out that she’s the girl that Mikey was planning on asking. But, once Zach does find out, he refuses to cancel his date with her. Mikey gets upset. Mikey, I should add, is totally in the wrong here. Shana wants to go with Zach. Deal with it, Mikey.

Mr. Belding is worried about a fight breaking out at the dance. Fortunately, when Mikey tells Zach to meet him outside so they can fight, Zach apologizes and refuses to fight his friend. All the students go, “Awwww!” (That would not have been the reaction of the students at any school that I ever went to.) Mr. Belding is relieved that the fight is cancelled. Miss Bliss and her date Sherman (Lonnie Burr) bust out some disco moves.

This was a thoroughly predictable episode. I will say that Max Battimo, who retired from acting after Good Morning Miss Bliss, gave a pretty good performance as Mikey. Mikey may have been in the wrong as far as Shana was concerned but he was absolutely right to wonder why Zach always gets everything that he wants. Mark-Paul Gosselaar almost sold the scene where he apologized to Mikey. That’s not something that would ever happen in a real middle school but whatever. It is something that used to happen pretty frequently on shows like Good Morning Miss Bliss.

The main problem with this episode was that it was overlit. Zach’s hair was glowing so brightly that it actually hurt my eyes. This was actually a frequent problem on Saved By The Bell. The lighting was always way too harsh. The whole school looked like it was about to burst into flames.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.6 “Showdown”

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a bully can’t read. Can Miss Bliss reach him? Or will he just beat up Screech? Why not both?

Episode 1.6 “Showdown”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on January 4th, 1989)

“I can’t read!” Deke (Andras Jones) snaps at Screech towards the end of this episode. Deke is the new student at JFK Junior High, a troublemaker who has continually been transferred to school after school. Deke was going to beat up Screech but, when Screech didn’t laugh at Deke’s illiteracy, it changed Deke’s life. That little act of kindness was all Deke needed to approach Miss Bliss and ask for help.

Way to go, Screech!

This is actually one of the better episodes of Good Morning Miss Bliss, as the emphasis is put more on the students and less on Miss Bliss being a sanctimonious nag. Andras Jones was 21 years old when this episode aired and he really did look too old and too tall to be playing a 9th grader. (He towers over Hayley Mills.) But, when you think about, it makes sense. Deke is probably someone who has gotten held back a few times. If he looks older, it’s because he is older. While everyone he knows who is his own age has moved on to high school, he’s still stuck in middle school. No wonder the kid is pissed off at the world!

To give credit where credit is due, young Dustin Diamond gave a pretty good performance in this episode. Considering how Saved By The Bell would later transform Screech (and Diamond himself) into the epitome of an annoying sidekick, it’s actually interesting to see how good he actually was on Good Morning, Miss Bliss. On Miss Bliss, Diamond was allowed to play Screech as just being a nerd as opposed to full-on weirdo. Seen today, this is actually a very sad episode. Diamond has no idea what’s waiting for him in the future.

Oh well. At least Deke might finally make it to the tenth grade….

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning, Miss Bliss 1.5 “Parents and Teachers”

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Miss Bliss almost becomes Zach’s stepmother.

Episode 1.5 “Parents and Teachers”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on December 28th, 1988)

It’s parent-teacher week! Lisa worries that her parents are going to find out that she wears makeup to school. Miss Bliss promises not to tell them. Mr. Belding worries that the parents are going to start telling principal jokes so, when he hears a few, he apparently tells a ribald joke about Gumby. (We don’t get the full details. Milo says that it involved a side of Pokey that he’d rather not think about …. GOOD GOD, WHAT THE HELL DID BELDING SAY!?)

Miss Bliss is shocked when one of the parents turns out to be Peter (Robert Pine, the sergeant from CHiPs and Chris’s father), a charming man that she met during a singles retreat. It turns out that Peter is Zach’s father….

Wait, what? Anyone who has ever watched Saved By The Bell knows that Zach’s parents are not divorced and that his father is Derek Morris, a bearded computer salesman who played baseball in college and who grounded Zach for drinking too much at a senior party. Who the Hell is this Peter Morris character? I guess, when Zach moved to California, he got a new father as well. Maybe Derek Morris was actually his stepfather and the whole reason he moved to California was because his mother remarried. But why would he bring Lisa. Screech, and Belding with him?

I don’t know. It’s questions like this that haunt me about the Miss Bliss episodes of Saved By The Bell. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Afterall, the only reason why the Good Morning Miss Bliss episodes are considered canon is because they were later added to the Saved By The Bell syndication package with newly shot scenes of Zach saying, “I remember when I was in junior high….” Really, the simplest answer to all of my questions is that the producers of Saved By The Bell just didn’t care. They didn’t care about continuity or anything else. In those pre-Internet days, they thought they could get away with forcing the Miss Bliss episodes into the SBTB universe. That’s the solution that makes the most sense but I’m a continuity person. This is going to bother me for the rest of my life, I can tell already.

Anyway, Zach is not happy that Miss Bliss is dating his father. Quite frankly, I’m not happy about it either. As a condescending know-it-all, Miss Bliss is already annoying enough without having an active social life. Fortunately, the relationship doesn’t last. Zach skips school and, when Miss Bliss catches him, she realizes that it’s simply unethical to date the father of one of her students.

“What if I send Zach to Switzerland?” Peter asks.

Gee, Peter, what if we call Child Protective Services on your ass? How would you like that? Seriously, the main message of this episode seems to be that Zach has a terrible father and Miss Bliss has terrible judgment.

Zach is really lucky he got out of Indiana.

Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.26 “Three Dudes And A Baby”

Posted on August 14, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999. Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.

All good things must end.

And so must all bad things.

Episode 2.26 “Three Dudes And A Baby”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on May 20th, 2000)

It’s over!

After two seasons and over 50 episodes, Malibu, CA is over!

As opposed to the other Peter Engel shows that I’ve reviewed on this site, Malibu CA doesn’t get a real finale. Instead, the final episode is just another stupid 22 minutes that signify nothing. When waitress Stacie (Kristen Miller) goes out of town, Murray, Jason, and Peter take care of her baby. Awwwww …. wait a minute. Why would anyone leave their baby with those idiots?

When the three men find out that Stacie is getting divorced from her husband, all three try to step up. Murray asks Stacie to marry him. So does Jason. Peter offers to adopt her. Stacie reveals that she and her husband have decided to stay together. Are you sure, Stacie? Murray is like really rich.

Meanwhile, Lisa (the character, not me!) gets upset because her little sister is a fan of Traycee’s television show and is thinking of quitting college so she can become an actress. Lisa blames all of this on Traycee which is weird because 1) Traycee didn’t force Lisa’s sister to do anything and 2) Traycee has found a lot of success as an actress and if Traycee can do it, why can’t Lisa’s sister do it?

This is a typical Lisa story. Lisa (the character, not me!) acts like a total bitch, whines nonstop, and blames everything on Traycee, even though none of it is really Traycee’s fault. Adding the character of Lisa was one of the biggest mistakes that was Malibu CA made during its second season. The first season was pretty dire but, in the end, it was actually better than the second season and that’s entirely because the first season did not feature Lisa (the character, not me). I don’t want to be too hard on the actress who played her because it’s not exactly as if she was being given great material to work with. That said, Lisa was a poorly-written character who basically was portrayed as always being annoyed with something. The fact that the finale of the show focuses on her as opposed to wrapping up the stories of Jason and Scott says a lot about why this show was the most forgettable of all of the Peter Engel-produced sitcoms.

And so, Malibu CA comes to a close and there’s really not much to say about it. Peter Engel tried to work his Saved By The Bell/California Dreams/Hang Time magic but the show never really found a consistent tone and neither of the Collins brothers were particularly likable protagonists. It’s really not a shock that neither Jason Hayes nor Trevor Merszei went on to have acting careers after this show ended.

On a positive note, Brandon Brooks and Priscilla Inga Taylor were consistently amusing, if just because they were smart enough to embrace the oddness of their characters. And Ed Blatchford had his moments as the father figure. Otherwise, this was a forgettable sitcom that signified the end of an era.

Next week, something new will be coming to TSL in this timeslot. What will it be? We’ll find out next Thursday!

Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.25 “Big Daddy”

Posted on August 7, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.

This week sounds pretty bad. On the plus side, I’m nearly done with this show.

Episode 2.25 “Big Daddy”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on May 13th, 2000)

This episode of Malibu CA is the last episode to not be available on YouTube. Here’s the plot summary from the imdb:

Lisa tells Jason and Traycee about the good feeling she gets from volunteering at the local Community Center and encourages them to do likewise. Traycee is ready to volunteer but Jason isn’t interested until he sees some of the pretty girls from the center, especially Diana. Jason hopes to get some one-on-one time with Diana at the Center but she assigns him to be a “Big Buddy” for a local boy, Kenny. At first the two don’t get along very well, with Kenny insulting Jason every chance he gets. But eventually they warm up to each other and Jason lets Kenny borrow his old guitar, on which he plans to teach the youngster to play.

According to Wikipedia, Scott Whyte (of City Guys “fame”) appears in this episode as Alex’s new boyfriend, who Scott suspects is a thief.

Both plotlines sound pretty dire. It’s interesting that the second season featured guest appearances from people who previously appeared on Hang Time and City Guys. I guess the thinking was that it would help the show’s rating. It must not have worked because there was never a third season.

Next week, we have the series finale and that episode has been uploaded to YouTube so I’ll get to see how this all ended. Even better, I’ll be done with Malibu CA and not a minute to soon, to be honest.

Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.24 “Scott A Go Go”

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.

This episode …. well, I don’t have much to say about it. Find out why below.

Episode 2.24 “Scott A Go Go”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on May 6th, 2000)

This is one of the Malibu CA episodes that has not been uploaded to YouTube so I can’t review it. However, I can give you the plot summary from imdb:

Lisa tries to find out what Scott has bought for her birthday but he won’t tell. Traycee and Alex ask about the present and Scott tells them it’s rollerblades. The girls tell him Lisa has her heart set on an expensive Tiffany watch. Later Lisa asks Scott for some hints as to what his gift is and she mistakenly concludes he bought her the watch. She’s so overjoyed that Scott doesn’t have the heart to correct her. Scott wonders how he will pay for the $800 gift. Murray suggests that he come with him to the “Guys a Go-Go” club and audition as a male dancer.

Wow, that sounds awful! Malibu CA is a show that is so predictably bad that just reading the plot description, I can already imagine Scott looking confused, Lisa overacting, and the audience going, “Wooo!” at Scott dancing.

By the way — Lisa has her heart set on a $800 Tiffany watch? Really? Lisa (the character, not me) might want to consider that Scott is a waiter!

Anyway, if this episode is ever uploaded to YouTube, I’ll do a proper review. Until then, I’m just happy to have an excuse to not have to watch this show this week.