'Saved By the Bell' Returns: Zack Morris Meets Jimmy Fallon
By Mindy Monez, TWoP | Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 9:41 AM

"Zack Morris" befuddles Jimmy Fallon.
NBC/Dana Edelson
Up until last night, I was kind of ambivalent about Jimmy Fallon's quest to reunite the (fellow NBC property) "Saved By the Bell" cast. I loved the show when I was little like everybody did, but considering that most of the cast is either currently on television (Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar), or has been in recent memory (Elizabeth Berkley hosted that "Step It Up and Dance" last year, and Screech was on "Celebrity Fit Club"), or was at least on the Internet in some scandalous capacity (Screech in a sex tape, Mr. Belding as a frequent drunk, sweaty mess), it didn't seem all that necessary. Aside from Lisa Turtle, it's not like I was missing them. Nostalgia is a nice thing, but I don't need to see these people standing around together on the "Late Night" stage with the Roots playing their theme song to satisfy that. That's what re-runs are for!
But whatever. Last night, Mark-Paul Gosselaar showed up to "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" dressed as Zack Morris (I have to admit, the hair had me swooning like it did when I was six), and did an entire interview in character, and it was actually pretty brilliant. I had no idea Mark-Paul Gosselaar was so cool about this stuff! As far as I'm concerned, this boosts him up near Neil Patrick Harris levels of awesome self-awareness.
Watch the entire Zack Morris segment here:
And the "Late Night" writers hooked him up with some pretty great material, about how he is really Zack Morris, but that he had to change his name to Mark-Paul Gosselaar because there was already a Zack Morris in SAG, how he was married to Kelly but they got divorced and she, heh, moved to a different zip code, and there was even a giant cordless phone sight gag that worked much better than those usually do. So yeah, I admit it. I'm usually inclined to hate things like this, but they made it work over there. Great job, guys!
PS: Isn't it so weird how some people don't age? He and Rob Lowe should have some sort of people-who-haven't-aged-in-20-years-off, and Sean Astin should judge it.
Talk About It: Do you think Jimmy Fallon can get the entire "Saved By the Bell" cast to reunite?
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