You know you’re getting old when TV personalities start getting nostalgic for the same stuff you are. Which is a good reason to resent Jimmy Fallon (if you’re looking for one). His fascination with the iconic NBC sitcom, Saved by the Bell, which ran from 1989-93, has brought a new generation of people into uncomfortable touch with their mortality. We grin and bear it, though, and why? Because Jimmy Fallon is making us grin with his efforts to reunite the entire cast, now long scattered to projects like reality TV and unfortunately titled porn.
So far, the Fallon campaign’s great triumph has been Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s July 8 appearance on Late Night in character as Bayside High’s Zack Morris. The hair, the rolled-up jeans, the giant cell phone…it was simply perfect. I didn’t know how much I wanted the reunion until that moment.
But this week, it a wrench was (seemingly) thrown into the works. In an exclusive Funny or Die video, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen announced that she would be unable to join the Saved by the Bell reunion because she’s “too busy.”
First off, sure, Thiessen’s many activities (which include marijuana cultivation and writing and directing what sounds like the best concept for a TV series ever) do sound time-consuming — but none of those things are going to get her a talk show invite anytime soon, which makes her decision to turn up her nose at Fallon’s offer odd. Also, far be it for me to speak ill of Kelly Kapowski, but she’s just flat-out lying about being too busy for a reunion, as the upcoming cover of People magazine will attest. It’s only Jimmy she can’t make the time for.
Maybe it’s all a stunt to promote the reunion on Late Night? I don’t know. Because what’s odd about this Funny or Die video is that as there’s been nothing to suggest a connection between the Fallon team and the Ferrell site — the closest association is that Fallon has an account there, but no one’s logged into it for over a year. And there’s been absolutely NO mention of the Thiessen video on the Fallon blog (which prides itself in covering Internet phenomena just like this).
So is there some sort of conspiracy afoot? Is the FOD video the Fallon team’s way of building up buzz for Thiessen eventually changing her mind? Is it Thiessen’s way of being cute about really rejecting Fallon’s offer to come on the show? Or, as Jezebel posits, did the Bayside gang screw over Fallon so they could give People Magazine the sweet, sweet exclusive? Lots of questions, and how long will the 80,000 people who signed the online petition to bring the cast back have to wait for an explanation? As one of them, I hope the answer is soon. A Jessie Spano-esque breakdown is eminent.
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