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, we finish up the first season.

Episode 1.19 “Slater’s Friend”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 28th, 1992)

Who killed Artie?

That’s the question that Zack, Kelly, Jessie, Lisa, and Screech are left to consider when Slater’s pet chameleon Artie dies.  Slater specifically asked them to take care of Artie while he was out of town.  When Slater returns to Bayside, both Zack and the girls attempt to fool him with a duplicate chameleon because no one on this show ever just tells the truth.  When Slater figures out that Artie is dead, he’s bitter and he’s angry and he even disrupts Coach Rizzo’s (Frankie Como) speech class.  Belding, of all people, emerges as the hero, telling Slater that it’s okay to be sad.  In the end, Artie is given a funeral and the cast sings Artie Boy.

This episode has long had a reputation for being the worst episode of Saved By The Bell.  NBC was so embarrassed by it that they actually didn’t air it until four years after it was filmed.  In his highly-suspect autobiography, Dustin Diamond claimed that everyone was trying not to laugh during the funeral scene.

Well, you know what?  This episode — as silly as it is — kind of works.  If you’ve ever lost a pet, you can relate to Slater’s grief.  And really, Slater having a pet chameleon makes sense when you consider the fact that he spent his entire childhood traveling from one military base to another.  It’s not like he could really own a cat or even a dog under those circumstances.  A lizard on the other hand….

This episode is actually a good example of how good Mario Lopez actually was in the role of A.C. Slater.  When Slater says, “It’s just a dead lizard,” your heart breaks for him.  When he hugs Mr. Belding, you feel Slater’s pain.  Even in an episode that ends with everyone singing a song about a chameleon, Mario Lopez gave it his all.

Worst episode ever?  Not hardly!  We’ve still got the Tori episodes to review, after all.  In fact, my only complaint about this episode is that Coach Rizzo was never brought back.  He was my favorite teacher at Bayside!

Next week, we’ll start season 2!