Rest In Peace, Dennis Haskins - Best Known As The Iconic Mr. Belding on Saved By The Bell
As you may know, I’m a massive Saved By The Bell fan like many other 39 year olds in the world. I’ve been lucky enough to meet Tiffani Theissen and Mario Lopez and even Ed Alonzo (Max) on a cruise ship where I didn’t even know he was appearing but obviously I already packed my Saved by The Bell shirt because it was sick. The line of kids to take a picture with Ed Alonzo the magician- was legit everyone under 9 years old. I was there at 19 to take a picture with Max. My Dad stood there just shaking his head.
People say they were Saved by the Bell fans. I was a diehard. All time favorite show. I even ran a Facebook trivia group in college and kept standings. Sent out a question every night at midnight on the dot. Monday through Friday. I knew I was gaining steam when a buddy of mine came back from a weekend visiting friends and told me it had spread to Bridgewater State because he saw a friend of a friend join them he joined etc. before you knew it I had people I never even knew in the group. People played for the love of the game.
Seriously - here’s the old questions I dug up if you want to test yourself.
Like lunacy. But hey, everyone needs a hobby.
Anyway. Grew up on the show. Before school, after school, before practices, hungover in college on a Friday morning in the dining hall. Saw them all a ton of times. One morning in my attic my brother was leaving early for a job and I half asleep told him turn on TBS before he left. I half looked at the episode within 3 seconds and identified which one it was by the opening shot. He was not impressed.
Guess he never read my work.
It was the soundtrack (is that the word) of childhood. You or at least I looked up to these kids as role models. You had high school built up in your head of everyone going to the burger joint. Or hatching schemes to get away with things, or helping a friend out, or somehow weirdly yet ALWAYS only interacting within 1 hall way of a giant school. We didn’t know any better. You were a kid.
Anyway, obviously Zach and Kelly and the gang was a big part of that, but maybe the one guy who seemed to embrace the role the most after the fact was Dennis Haskins as Mr. Belding. He was beloved as the goofy principal - and he really did play the role well. Great comedic timing, was dopey when he needed to be, serious when he had to be. and even when Zack and that gang moved on he stayed for years and years after with a ton of “The New Classes”. Which hits the core of what Mr.Belding and high school was all about both in TV life and real life. Kids come and go in 4 year gaps. Teachers, and principals for that matter stay there for what feels like forever. Passing on life advice to generations of kids in a point in their life when they need it most. A shoulder to cry on, a person to help guide them, and in many of Zack’s cases - a kick in the ass. We or I have all broken teachers balls in high school and when your a wise ass 13-17 year old you don’t fully appreciate just how tough that role is for a guy like Belding. Where you have to manage the fine line of inspiring and disciplining. You start as a hard ass, and by the end of your lucky- they take the advice and consider you a friend at the end. There’s an old quote about fathers and sons my dad always says “when I was 14 I couldn’t believe how dumb my dad was… when I was 18 I couldn’t believe how much he learned in just 4 short years.” The point/joke of course being that it’s in fact the sons who learn to grow up in that span and start to appreciate all the lessons their fathers taught them and see them paying off in the real world. I think that’s the kind of message Saved By The Bell went for with Belding and he nailed it. He was a beloved principle because in him we saw all our favorite teachers and administrators. The guy there for you when you need it. No scene spoke more about the heart Belding had than this one.
Rod his brother comes into town and is the cool new hip teacher but when the class trip comes he gets too busy chasing skirt with Inga the Stuartess (trivia answers) and blows off the gang. Belding is there to pick up the pieces even though he doesn’t know a thing about white water rafting. The kids need him- he’s there no questions asked. Teachers have the ability to do that. They moderate a club they couldn’t tell you a thing about but a student that looks up to them asks. They help coach a sport when needed, they chaperone a dance, etc etc. They sacrifice time with their own family to help other people’s kids. A truly selfless act.
I think after all these years people wonder why Saved By The Bell was so beloved and it’s because at its core it was everything that was good not only with high school but with people, and Belding was a big part of that. Your closest friends become family, your teachers inspire you and help guide you in a time when you need it most and that big building that seems so scary when you walk in- feels like a home you can always come back to for so many years after.
Rest in peace to Dennis Haskins, Mr. B, The Big Bopper… Mr. Belding. You played a huge part in many children’s lives and inspired more than you know.
Thank your teachers … they were there before you got there and they’ll be there after your leave. Cherish them.
One last time…