SBTB:NOW! Exclusive: Lucky BELL Fan Writes About Meeting MPG and Tiffani 20 Years Ago!

We have a special blog post today! Irene, a BELL fan from the original days, has written to share with a fond memory from her childhood when she got the chance to meet Mark-Paul and Tiffani in France! Irene, I can totally relate to your fondness of the show. I am almost 30 years old and BELL still holds a special place in my heart. I just can't seem to give up this little fansite I started 10 years ago! Enjoy everyone.... -Erika

Irene writes:

It was 20 years ago. I got a call one day after school telling me that I had won a television contest and would get to have dinner with my idols, Tiffani Thiessen and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Some screaming and jumping up and down followed before my mother eventually calmed me down and celebrated with me.

My passion for Zack Morris started with the show “Good Morning Miss Bliss”, and soon my days were all revolving around “Saved By The Bell”. My friends and I would all rush home after school to watch a new episode and talk about it first thing in the morning the next day. I don’t think people know how popular SBTB was in France at that time, and that Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen and the rest of the cast were featured in teen magazines every week.

It was 20 years ago. We were six lucky kids waiting in a private dining room at the Hard Rock Café in Paris, magazines, pens and disposable cameras at hand, our hearts pounding and yes, some of us sweating excessively. And then they appeared. Of course it was surreal and my feet didn’t touch ground for two hours. Few of us spoke English so the conversations were short and awkward at times. But Tiffani and Mark-Paul, who had brought along his equally kind and beautiful mother, were very generous with us all.

I’m 34 years old now. I’ve watched all the episodes of SBTB, still remember some of them more vividly than I would like to admit as well as the lyrics of the song “Friends Forever”. It was 20 years ago. And it is still one of my fondest memories ever.