Another trip back in time with Saved By the Bell: The College Years

I spotted these relics at a card show in Rosemont in November, and used a handful of packs as Christmas presents (stocking stuffers, I swear!) during the holidays. I think they were received rather well, but joke gifts don't exactly own a long shelf life. Still, the cards brought back a bunch of memories and spurred a number of questions.

Saved By the Bell: The College Years (mostly) reconstituted the original Saved By the Bell gang and placed them on the roomy California University campus ... even though there were multiple original episodes detailing the various colleges the crew would attend. NBC moved the show from weekend mornings into prime time, and brought back the original cast (except for the characters of Lisa and Jessie, replaced by squint-and-you'll-see-it facsimilies). Having not seen the episodes since a syndication run a few years back, Wikipedia reminded me that Kelly Kapowski (Tiffany Amber Thiessen) wasn't in the pilot, and that there was an even more overt Lisa replacement in the form of Essence. Thiessen reconsidered, and Lisa 2.0 "transferred."

But unlike Boy Meets World, the authority figure (in this case, Mr. Belding) couldn't follow the kids to college. Who could fill such shoes? In the grand tradition of Reggie Theus on "Hang Time" ...Bob Golic! And his shirt! The future NutriSystem spokesman and radio host offered up the comical stylings inherent in a former professional football player living in the largest dorm rooms in recorded history. Despite Golic bringing in the devoted Notre Dame viewership, the show finished in the lower rungs of 1993 television shows and was cancelled after one season. Pacific, sensing the untapped market for collectibles featuring shows cancelled after 18 episodes, put together a 110-card set featuring all kinds of things. Like wacky stills ...

... and back-of-the-card information really best left unsaid:



This being the early 1990s, it's no surprise that these cards exist. Non-sports cards took off along with comic books and sports cards during this boom period. I still have some "Death of Superman" and Marvel cards collected by the 14-year-old version of this geek. But you can't just count on rehashing plots and using up the rest of the publicity shots. You need special inserts! And these packs had two of them:

So dreamy! And seizure-inducing! With syndication and DVDs, Saved By the Bell: The College Years hasn't left the retro consciousness. And, given the amount of gloss, these cards won't be disappearing anytime, either.

Joakim Tebow

Savor it now, Tim Tebow. Each challenge is different, and paychecks truly mean a whole new ballgame. One day you're on top of the world, winning the last game of the year with your talented teammates and great coach. Then you make the leap, and the way college announcers confuse scrunching your nose for true leadership gives way to a different kind of challenge that few can muster. It's not your fault if the expectations become too great or the praise heaped too high. But it just makes your climb more difficult. There is no shame in greatness at any level. Just remember (and this goes for you as well, Chicago sports franchise with a draft pick): not everything translates.

Cinco Swim: Things learned while teased by 80 degrees

My extended nuclear family (12 in all) spent six days in the greater Orlando area to close out 2008 and ring in 2009. Besides revealing how much time it would take to catch up on my normal week's worth of Internet reading and podcast listening (even on a holiday week, way too long), other truths emerged in odd places. Here are just a few.

1) We are all connected, and those joints usually involve suitcases - The weather wasn't bad on Dec. 27 in Chicago, as a burst of 50 degree air melted all the ice and snow that covered Illinois' roadways the day before. But delayed flights impeded on our travels, to the tune of a 2-plus hour line just to check our bags (an early arrival and printing our boarding passes the day before did just about nothing). We only made our plane because it was delayed one hour in the search for a pilot. Even then, I found myself running down the automatic walkways with my belt in one hand and my drooping jeans held up by the other just to make the plane with seconds to spare. The airlines (Southwest, in this case) show that things planned the day before, in far off locales, can impact your daily plans. The world felt a little smaller, particularly when crammed into a line that extended outside into the parking garage.

2) Penn State doesn't fly in extravagance - On the return flight, our connection between Columbus and Chicago was delayed because our plane was delayed in Pennsylvania. It happened to be the one the Penn State Nittany Lions flew home from after a poor performance in the Rose Bowl against USC. It didn't meet any definition of extra frills, except the air fresheners that potentially masked any lingering old man Joe Pa stink.

3) There is one universal language, and its vocabulary includes "Fastpass": Anyone who visits Disney World knows how the parks attract visitors from every corner of the tourist world (especially these days, when local economies might be in better standing than the one they are visiting). A trip through the line of Space Mountain can sound like a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. No matter your sexy accent, though, by the end of your trip you will know the word "Fastpass." The parks use this advanced ticketing system to clear out their lines and provide anal retentive planners a proper outlet for their social shortcomings. Trips to the park take on military precision in their preparations, requiring a knowledge of when the Fastpass will allow access to the shorter line (say, between 1:15 and 2:30 p.m.) and when the next magic ticket can be procured (one hour after receiving the last Fastpass). Do it right, and you're breezing through the day with the remnant breeze from the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster in your hair. Screw up, and the Jungle Cruise line takes an hour just to get a personality challenged host for your animatronic animal viewing. This understanding crosses all cultures.

4) Playmobil and their weird, weird toys: I grew up in an interesting age for toys. Before my parents allowed me to try and collect all 174 different He-Man figures, I used various barnyard animal figures to play out the cartoon stories I just watched. These horses and such were joined by Playmobil sets, featuring little people with movable limbs and a variety of cars and setpieces. I had completely forgotten about those toys until I stumbled across a few boxes in an Epcot Center Germany gift shop. I laughed at the memories (and the outrageous eyelashes painted onto each female figure) before my cousin Jorie pointed out the most random setpiece I've come across. For the kid who has it all ... an incubated baby set!


5) Toys have changed, part two: The trip helped us celebrate my nephew Dylan's birthday on Dec. 31. This smart kindergartener has always been a car kid, when he wasn't a Thomas the Tank kid. He made the leap into Legos last year, and has delighted in putting things together for his Lego City. He then started listing "Bionicles" on his Christmas list. These scary things are put together piece by piece, and their adventures can be found on the Lego Web site, where you can play games, watch computer-generated videos and immerse yourself in the world without having to wait for a Saturday morning cartoon. Dylan loves the things, which was readily apparent when a birthday trip to Downtown Disney included a trip to the Lego Store. His eyes may never have been as big.