Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week: In honor of the American Idol series finale, we’re revisiting our favorite television episodes featuring a talent competition.
Saved By The Bell, “Miss Bayside” (season two, episode eight; originally aired 10/27/90)
Competition was a mainstay of Saved By The Bell, whether the gang split up to form rival accessories companies (Buddy Bands were clearly superior) or write a new school song. But Zack Morris and A.C. Slater were engaged in their own rivalry from the get-go, battling it out for the big-man-on-campus mantle, as well as the heart of Kelly Kapowski. The latter objective was the root of most of their initial conflict, although these flames cooled once Slater began dating Jessie.
But in “Miss Bayside,” the prize is bragging rights (and $20). It’s not a routine outing for the group, though, as the girls are at cross-purposes for most of the episode. Kelly’s deemed the obvious frontrunner for the titular crown, but she surprises everyone by joining Jessie’s feminist protest of the event. Cheerleading captain Kelly is moved by her political friend’s impassioned plea, but Lisa ignores them both and enters the contest. After all, a beauty pageant is in clotheshorse Lisa’s fashion wheelhouse. It’s Jessie who eventually wavers in her convictions, though that’s only after a little manipulation.
The guys, of course, aren’t content to be left out of the competition, and go about setting up a contest of their own. When Zack bets Slater that he can lead any contestant to a Miss Bayside victory, he doesn’t imagine making over their dorky buddy Screech to enter into the contest. But because he has a sense of humor and equality, that’s just who Slater picks. It’s one of many instances of Zack underestimating Slater throughout the series—Zack might ace the SAT (in a later episode), but Slater has plenty of brains to go with his brawn.