Zack and Kelly Are Back

Before The Office’s Jim and Pam were America’s sweethearts, there were Saved by the Bell’s Zack and Kelly. Many of us grew up watching the reruns on T.B.S. early in the morning before school.  Some people were lucky enough to watch the new episodes on Saturday morning on N.B.C.  Believe it or not, Saved by the Bell only lasted four seasons, not counting the College Years.  In the four seasons of the show, it produced more than 80 shows, each episode more beloved than the previous.

After the show ended Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Kelly (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen) seemed to vanish off the map.

It took them more than 15 years, but both of them reappeared on two of the best new shows on television.

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen resurfaced in late 2009 in the U.S.A. Network show, White Collar.  She plays the wife of F.B.I. agent Peter Burke, who is in charge of the F.B.I.’s white-collar crime division in New York.  Burke’s criminal consultant is conman Neal Caffrey, who is on a work release program after being caught twice by Burke—once for being a mastermind thief and the second after he escaped from prison to see his ex-girlfriend.  He now needs to wear an ankle monitor so that the F.B.I. can monitor his every move. 

The show focuses on the dynamic relationship of Caffrey and Agent Burke.  Burke tries to show Caffrey that a man can either be a man or a con.  He cannot be both.

The show is similar to end of the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” where Leonardo DiCaprio character helps Tom Hanks catch other criminals.

The show has stronger main characters, where Thiessen plays Elizabeth Burke.   Who proves that behind every great man is a great woman.

The show is just finishing up the third season. 

Seventeen years after Saved by the Bell ended, Mark-Paul Gosselaar landed a starring role in T.N.T.’s new show Franklin and Bash. The show just finished its first season, and it’s a story about a pair of lawyers who use unconventional ways to win their cases.

Franklin, who is played by Breckin Meyer, and Bash, who is played by Gosselaar, are best friends who live a bachelor lifestyle that would make Hugh Hefner envious.  

Both shows mix in dry humor with the drama.  It is a shame that both shows are not on a major network so they could gain the popularly they both deserve.