Wednesday, September 10, 2003

 

Nothing's too good for Max...except for paying him

Screech takes Zack to the basement, which is full of things with sheets over them. Zack is amazed because he’s never seen this place before and he asks Screech how he found it. I’m guessing by walking down the steps, but that’s just me. Zack rips of the sheets and discovers radio equipment. Golly! A radio station. Screech plugs it in (as if an entire radio station runs on one plug) and Tiger Radio is up and running. The gang storms into Belding’s office and demands that the radio station be reinstated. After some brief ego stroking, Belding gives the OK. Don’t they need a transmitter? Some kind of FCC OK? A station number? Apparently not. All they need is good ol’ fashion get-to-it-tiveness.

Zack divvies up all radio segments between everyone but Slater. Slater’s all amped to do the sports report because he wants to spread his wings, diversify his palate. I would have never guessed him to be a sports person. Max brings their orders and…wait! Max is back? When did that happen? Anyway, Max brings their food, which looks like some White Castle burgers and explains that he’s had to cut back because times are hard. You know, most people would scale down on the help or raise prices. Not Max. He uses his magic wand to shrink the food. Everyone feels bad and commences to dig in, needing their energy for the opening broadcast.

Speaking of the opening broadcast, Zack kicks it off and everyone stands around grinning like a bunch of idiots. A montage of the gangs’ contributions flashes across the screen. With segments like “Kelly Desire” (is that name really appropriate for a high school broadcast?) and “Screech’s Mystery Theater” I can see why this was an instant hit. Slater brings the whole train to a screeching halt when he emphasizes the wrong words and accentuates dumb punch lines with a clown horn during his particularly long recap of sports scores. Zack tries to eliminate him from the roster but the girls convince him to simply shorten his airtime. Later Jessie runs in because she just found out that the Bayside School District (since when is a school district named after a school and not the city?) owns the Max. Makes sense; the Max is an extension of Bayside. Anywho, if Max doesn’t come up with $10,000 in back rent, the Max’ll be closed. Um, exactly how did he accumulate that much back rent? Isn’t one evicted after two months of delinquent payments? But back to the news: the gang’s shocked and appalled and desperately they try to figure out a way to help Max. I know! Why don’t you pay for your food! But no. They decided to blast the school board for wanting money owed to it by using the power of the airwaves.

Belding berates them for being irresponsible, but he lets it slip that he’s defended the station before. Meanwhile the school newspaper reviews the station and gives everyone great reviews except for Slater. He’s hurt when he realizes his friends didn’t tell him how bad he was and he quits. Like that’s a bad thing or something. Later, Jessie shows Zack the exact paper they were reading their reviews out of earlier. Only this one is supposed to be from the sixties and it has an article about Belding mooning the school board because they banned long hair and jeans. Zack goes to Mr. B. and tries to draw a comparison. No go, Morris. One struggle was for a changing social climate, the other’s for a man who can’t budget. But somehow Ritchie falls for it and he and Zack put their noggins together to find a way to save the Max. I’ll bet they have a dance! Well, I was only partially right.

They decided to take the radio station out of the basement and on to the streets where it’s needed – well, to the Max where it’s needed – to host a telethon with – that’s right, you guessed it – people dancing around. But what kind of students have $10,000 to spend on a local diner? Bayside students; they’ve raised over $8,000 in a few hours. Must be from all that money they saved from walking out on the bill. Slater calls and pledges his life savings, but soon afterward the phones stop ringing. That Slater. He wrecks everything. Around 3 in the morning, I’m guessing, Slater comes in to hand over his money, but everyone is asleep. He grabs the broadcast mike and starts yelling into it, rallying the troops. Now, I’m not really sure if he’s talking to the people at the Max or the people listening to the broadcast. I think he switched his audience in the middle of his speech. The 4 people still listening were inspired to call in, which was all they needed as they did the big group hand thing signaling that all is well.

--Kia

Quote of the episode:
Mr. Belding: I was the Master Blaster. The Boss.
Lisa: I thought Springstein was The Boss.
Mr. Belding: Ah, he stole it from me.

Grade: Kia: C+. Who actually wants to put in the effort to run a radio station in high school? The fact that they never pay Max a dime and wonder why he's broke has got to be the most hilarious thing I've ever seen on here.

2:41 PM