Don't ask. I was looking through the Washington Post online, reading about the new Washington Nationals baseball team and the unveiling of their new mascot, "Screech". I thought, hey, new mascot, maybe there's some designerey thing I can go off on a tangent about for BE A Design Group. And maybe at some point I will. But there's far more important things to discuss from my perusal of that fine newspaper. Namely, an online chat with Dustin Diamond, the cat who played Screech on Saved By The Bell. (I would link to it, but the Post makes you register, and I don't like linking to sites that require registration. Not going to direct traffic to sites that do that.)
Quite a reach, there. To celebrate the unveiling of the Nationals' new bald eagle mascot, they invite...Screech? That's some creative genius there.
And don't even deny that Saved By The Bell was an enjoyable little show that we all used to watch. You know you did. Even you, Kadavy. Admit it. Hell, I do. Am I proud of it? Not necessarily. But why tell lies and say I was watching History Channel, when I was totally watching Saved By The Bell? Yeah.
Anyway, I did my usual in these chat things, meaning I asked the Harry Caray question:
"Now {name}, we all know that the moon is not made of cheese. But what if it were made of barbequed spare ribs, would you eat it then?"
And it totally never gets shown, much less answered. But Screech actually answered it. His answer: "Pizza"
I got to admit, kinda disappointing. I've been trying this question for a long time, and no one ever takes the bait. The suspense probably built up my hopes to where damn near any answer would be disappointing. The worst part is that now I need a brand new stupid question to ask...
There were some answers that cracked me up. When asked of his relationship with the actor who played Mr. Belding, his reply: "Dennis can drink. You walk in on Mr. B with 4 or 5 girls in his dressing room and all of a sudden it's YOU saying "Hey hey hey hey hey, what is going on here?"
Does he keep in touch with any of his fellow cast members? "I don't visit the unemployment office that much."
In that one episode where Zack and Slater fight, and it looks so real, was it real? "When you mix adolescent youth - steroids - and unrequited love, you have a recipe for comedy."
Any romances on the set? "I dated a lot of the background cast (the people you see walking through the scenes). There were 30 new girls every week. Put me in coach."
Upset about the demise of the Expos mascot Youppi! (the Expos moved to Washington, becoming the Nationals, whose new mascot is Screech, a giant bald eagle)? "There's always the surreal life."
If Zack scored a 1500 on his SATs what did Screech score? "The Writers did not score a 1500 as you can probably tell."
And then lots of other stupid questions no one cares about. But for answering my question, however disappointing the answer, Screech moves up a peg in my book. That puts him at peg two.
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