Full disclosure: I was recently sent a screener copy of the new reality show Mario Lopez: Saved by the Baby. You may remember Mario Lopez from his groundbreaking portrayal of Southern Californian high school jock A.C. Slater on the hit early 90s after-school show, Saved by the Bell.
Like most people I have no clue what Mario Lopez has done since the early 90s, hence the show’s title of Mario Lopez: Saved by the Baby and not Mario Lopez: Baby Pun About a More Recent Endeavour.
Fuller disclosure, my wife has no clue who Mario Lopez/A.C. Slater is. She has never seen an episode of Saved by the Bell. She has however seen one full episode of Saved by the Baby. During which when I made an expected comment about Screech. She replied, “Wasn’t Screech on Degrassi?”
So if you are like my wife and have never seen an episode of Saved by the Bell, then every single reference in this review will go over your head like Zach Morris’s elaborate pranks went over Mr. Belding’s. See what I mean.
The crux of the pilot episode of Saved by the Baby (aside from introducing us to Mario Lopez and his expectant wife Mazza) is the “should we or shouldn’t we” argument over discovering the gender of the baby. Mario Lopez is pro-surprise. His wife is pro-discovery. Mario Lopez, obviously being new to marriage and especially fatherhood, still believes that this is his decision to make. He has so much to learn.
Saved by the Baby reinforces what the unfortunate careers trajectories of most of his Saved by the Bell cast mates had inferred, that Mario Lopez seems to be the most normal and grounded of the Bayside High gang. This show is much better than Showgirls and any reality show that Dustin Diamond has been attached to (I’m talking about you, Celebrity Boxing).
It’s sort of like the video equivalent of those “Celebrities: They’re Just Like Us” features found in most tabloid magazines. “Look, they walk their dogs!” “Sometimes they don’t wear makeup!” “They have fears and concerns about their impending fatherhood.”
They just broadcast it, on television. Of course, I can’t disparage a proud parent who wants to document his foray into fatherhood. Especially one with abs as equally toned as my own.
Mario Lopez’s reaction shares the same reaction that most men who are going to be involved fathers have: elation and fear and concern and more elation. To put it in Saved by the Bell terms: it’s Jessie Spano’s caffeine pill-induced meltdown.
“I’m so excited. I’m so excited. I’m so… scared.”
Except fatherhood doesn’t begin with a tearful collapse into Zach Morris’s blazer. It begins with a baby, and whether or not your baby is a boy or a girl, you’ll love that baby more than Kelly Kapowski loves off-the-shoulder sweaters.
Mario Lopez: Saved by the Baby airs Mondays at 9pm ET starting March 7 on Twist TV. Photo credit: Twist TV.
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