What happens when you get tired of worshiping rocks and dirt? Why, you worship the moon, of course - but not knowing what a moon is, you have to make up a little story for it, and that story pretty much always involves a god, because burning offerings to a giant hunk of glowing rock in the sky is just silly. Thus begins polytheism.
In the narratives of western religions, Polytheism tends to be a transition phase - you find new gods, but you don't just want to dump on the old chthonic gods, so you start coming up with all sorts of new gods because, as the old maxim goes, you can either have one god with infinite power, or infinite gods with finite powers. It's as if the ancients had to splinter and fracture their mighty earth gods into less powerful, but more numerous and usually anthropomorphised, pantheons.
But what does this have to do with Saved by the Bell?
Polytheistic pantheons exhibit archetypal characteristics. For those unfamiliar - when unrelated characters in literature, religion, culture (etc) are very much like each other in form and / or function, they are said to conform to or mimic an archetype. You could say that they are cast from the same mold, and only the accents and affectations of culture, language, and geography change their superficial appearance. Many classical gods conform to archetypes, and, get ready to have your fucking mind blown, the key characters of Saved by the Bell appeal to these same archetypes.
(Please note - I've focused primarily on the Greeks here, but thrown in appropriate Norse, Celtic, and Aztec analogs when possible)
Archetype 1: The Trickster
Zack Morris, like Hermes, Ananzi, the Coyote, and Odin, is able to walk between worlds. Not so much a leader as an instigator, Zack Morris carries communication from the older "gods" down to the core pantheon (Zack, plus AC Slater, Jessi, Kelli, Lisa, and Screech). He is smarter (or at least more savvy) than his peers, and more energetic than his seniors, giving him rare license to tread where no other can, and do things that no other would dare. As Hermes had his winged sandals and travelers brim, so to is Zack Morris never without his cell phone and never-expiring hall pass.
Archetype 2: The Innocent
Kelly Kapowski is arguably the most lovely, and most pitiable, of the Bayside Pantheon. While a more obvious comparison might be to call her a love goddess, she is more akin to a bravely suffering Persephone (other suffering gods and goddesses include Xipe Totec and the celtic Aife). She endures in order to bring cheer to others, whether that means she goes without a prom dress because her father god laid off, or that she presents her bright red face (an unfortunate side-effect of Zack's untested acne treatment) as an intentional demonstration of school spirit.
Archetype 3: The Good Son
Not just any son, but the first-born and eager-to-please son. AC Slater is a model Apollo-figure: First born, physically fit, good-natured, and eager to please his father, and yet constantly outwitted by the trickster (for AC, that's Zack - for Apollo, it was Hermes), and inept in matters of courtship (AC loses Kelli to Zack, Daphne would rather turn into a tree than be with Apollo). In Norse mythology, the powerful (but sometimes dumb) Thor is the son, suffering from an unlucky combination of big muscles and small brains.
Archetype 4: The Warrior Goddess
The Warrior Goddess exhibits wrath and wisdom in equal measure. In Greek mythology, Athena was the goddess of wisdom, strength, and civilization, as well as being a powerful warrior figure. In Saved by the Bell, Jessi Spano is the conscientious voice of compassion, but is also fiercely defensive, especially of her patron causes and ideals. The Celts also had a warrior goddess named Brigid, and Jessi Spano is the closest direct analog to the Nordic Freyja in all of Bayside.
Archetype 5: The Lover
Lisa Turtle, played by the lovely Lark Voorhies, is not only beautiful, but is obsessed with fashion and style, very much befitting a goddess of passion and beauty. In analog, she exemplifies the beauty aspects of Freyja (Norse) and dozens of other beauty goddesses throughout the world, but the most interesting element of this comparison is in how perfectly she mimics the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who is married off to...
Archetype 6: The Maker
Hephaestus is often described by his epithet "the lame god," and if you're up on your 80's slang, you know that lame is also a derogatory descriptor an uncool person (see also: spazz, dweeb, re-re, or any movie with the two Cory's). Who is lamer than Screech? And yet, who brings more innovation to the group? Screech is the computer programmer (as evidenced by his robot Kevin), the hacker, the subdued genius who makes many of Zack's schemes possible, and yet receives little love or recognition in return. Like Hephaestus, he is bound (by the conventions of screenwriting, to a woman who will never return his affections, but also like Hephaestus, he keeps on doing the best he can, and taking some small measure of pleasure in self-satisfaction. Then he bangs Tori Spelling, so...okay, nevermind, sucks to be Screech.
Archetype 7: The Father
There are others, of course, but Mr. Belding as all-father is the most compelling first because it is the most accurate (Hesiod describes Zeus as a king who oversees the Universe - in this case, Bayside). Natural comparisons to Odin, Ogmios, Huehueteotl and so on are barely worth mentioning - Belding is the creator-protector. He rules over the lesser gods, and is capable of bearing down with terrible wrath, but his primary intention is to preserve order and strengthen his domain. By the main series of Saved by the Bell, Belding has completely surpassed and suppressed Miss Bliss, the now-forgotten earth-mother of earliest creation.
The Cult of Morris goes beyond making analogs between gods - it also extends to understanding hierarchy, gender roles, and group psychology. The world of Bayside is male-dominated, and only occasionally does the show pass the Bechdel test (" 1. It has to have at least two women in it, 2. Who talk to each other, 3. About something besides a man"). The roles of the women are frequently interchangeable - their interests change episode by episode, apparently as interests, hobbies, and passions are assigned by drawing names from a hat. Likewise, the popularity and authority of Zack's little clique is never challenged or questioned - it just is.
March right back to the kitchen, ladies
And finally, the core series reads very much like Classic mythology - stories of the great gods of Bayside descending from the Max (on high) to solve the problems of the little folk. The show focuses on their petty squabbles and incestuous couplings in much the same fashion as Hesiod's Cosmogony and accompanying folktales. Unfortunately, the gods have a funny way of not sticking around. Usually excuses go something like "olden times were the ages of miracles, not today" or "god works in mysterious ways," but as the series wound down and the spin-offs revved up (well, sort of) the miracles of the core Saved by the Bell series would survive only as testament - divinely inspired revelations passed down to a new age of man.
To Be Continued...
***When you buy off Amazon through this site, I make money***
2 comments: