No television show is perfect. While a series might be well-written, well-acted, and popular, there are always small issues and errors that are part of the overall experience. Sometimes, it’s something small, like a random item left out while cameras are rolling (we’re looking at you, Game of Thrones) and the discovery of the item turns into a moment and a meme. Others, it’s a situation where there are changes made in broadcast that change how the series is perceived, as was the case with Firefly. And then there’s Saved By the Bell.
While Saved By the Bell isn’t necessarily known for having errors and idiosyncrasies, it does have its quirks. The iconic NBC Saturday morning series got its start as a different program entirely — the Disney Channel’s one-season series Good Morning, Miss Bliss. Saved By the Bell would eventually repackage that series’ episodes as part of the series’ syndication rerun package, incorporating it as part of the overall series despite having a somewhat different cast and entirely different setting. But that wasn’t the weirdest quirk. Saved By the Bell also had a habit of airing episodes out of order — including some that had been held back from other seasons and 33 years ago today on November 14, 1992, two episodes aired back-to-back that highlighted the issue in the weirdest way.
A Birthday Out of Time (And It’s Obvious)
On November 14, 1992, Saved By the Bell aired two episodes, “Screech’s Birthday” and “Snow White and the Seven Dorks”. The two episodes were aired as part of the series’ fourth and final season with “Screech’s Birthday” centering around the group of friends forgetting Screech’s birthday and trying to make it up to him with an oddly-placed birthday party while “Snow White and the Seven Dorks” sees them put on a rap version of Snow White, which leads to Jessie and Zack questioning if they might actually have romantic feelings for one another. While it wasn’t uncommon for Saved By the Bell to air two largely unrelated episodes together, what made this pairing so jarring is that they weren’t filmed for the same season at all — and it they certainly weren’t filmed for Season 4.
Both episodes were actually filmed for previous seasons — “Screech’s Birthday” had actually been filmed for season 1 while “Snow White and the Seven Dorks” had been filmed for season 2. With “Screech’s Birthday,” that timing difference was extremely noticeable. In the episode, the cast looks dramatically younger than in other episodes. There are also noticeable “issues” with “Snow White and the Seven Dorks”. That episode sees the characters looking younger, but while “Screech’s Birthday” was an episode that had previously been held back for undisclosed reasons, “Snow White and the Seven Dorks” was originally intended to be the season 2 finale — which is where it aired in syndication which airs episodes in order of production.
Saved By the Bell’s Season 4 Episode Timeline is Kind of a Mess
What’s even more interesting — and weird — about “Screech’s Birthday” and “Snow White and the Seven Dorks” is that they are part of a trio of episodes that air in a strange place in Saved By the Bell’s broadcast continuity. Just one week prior on November 7, 1992, the series aired “Video Yearbook” which was also originally filmed for season 2. That makes three episodes back-to-back (albeit, spaced out by a week for one of them) presented years after they were originally filmed and, thus, out of order.
As for why this was done, there are a number of theories. Some fans theorize that the decision to stick these out of sequence episodes into season 4 was a push to get the series to 100 episodes, but that doesn’t quite pan out. Even with adding the season of Good Morning, Miss Bliss as part of the overall lineup would only bring the series to 99 episodes. Others have suggested that some of the episodes had been held back for various production reasons while even others cite that, at the time, some series would film a bulk number of episodes and then wait for the network to decide how many episodes they wanted per season and would then deliver what they felt were the strongest, holding others back for future seasons or whenever they were needed. Whatever the actual reason Saved By the Bell frequently aired episodes wildly out of order — something that caused a number of continuity errors, particularly with the character relationships — it makes for an interesting experience watching now, especially since the episodes are largely aired or streamed in production order.
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