BRING BACK... SAVED BY THE BELL

US comedian Jimmy Fallon, host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC, has his own personal crusade, his "unreachable star": he wants a reunion of Saved by the bell, the iconic teenage sitcom shown on NBC between 1989 and 1993. The show starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez, and Dennis Haskins.

Jimmy Fallon's star is not so unreachable... Berkeley, Lopez, Haskins and Voorhies have already accepted, and last night Mark-Paul Gosselaar has been interviewed by Fallon as Zack Morris - his character in SBTB - in a very funny sequence (1).

From this side of the ocean the glorious quest of Jimmy Fallon immediately evokes the Bring Back... documentary series from British comedian, presenter and talk show host Justin Lee Collins for Channel 4. Since 2005, Pop Culture erudite Collins tries to contact people from TV, music or cinema for his programme. The Bring Back... specials are real treats for fans of the concerned tv shows, singers or films because Justin Lee Collins shows a sincere respect towards the artists he wants to reunite for some moving and funny moments. The A-Team, Dallas, The Kids from Fame or Star Trek are some of the gems of his Bring Back... show.

Thanks to Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily for mentioning Gosselaar's appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/give-it-a-rest-jimmy-fallon/). It seems that Nikki Finke can't get the "cult power" of Saved by the Bell (laughs) and that some commenters want to exile her to Ecuador. Personally I'd love to watch a Saved by the Bell reunion, and I find the words of one of Nikki's commenters very interesting: « This could be a regular for Fallon, once he has achieved Saved by the Bell cast he can move on to another show. Sounds like a great way to improve his ratings over the long haul and bring old fans to his show » (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/give-it-a-rest-jimmy-fallon/#comment-258214).

Besides the Saved by the Bell stunt I must admit this came across my mind, too...

P.S.: Mark-Paul Gosselaar can act, Nikki. Get some DVDs of NYPD Blue.

Update (June 10): After the new 90210 and the upcoming Melrose Place (which looks like a Big Brother episode with Laura Leighton as Davina McCall), is the world really ready for a revival of the Saved by the Bell format with clones of the High School Musical cast and the original team of actors as the teachers? My name is Sam Tyler, my TV set had an accident and we woke up in the nineties...

(1) http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/popvox/archive/2009/06/09/who-will-be-the-last-saved-by-the-bell-star-to-commit-to-fallon.aspx