I left off with my parents wearing down Mr. Headset enough that he reluctantly agreed to get one of the more important Headsets. By this point, a crowd of people had formed around us, probably thinking that we were much more interesting than a taping of Saved By the Bell.
After waiting for a few minutes, the more important Headset approached us. Mr. Important Headset was much more sympathetic and apologetic than the first. Maybe he had been given a heads up by the first Headset that playing hardball with my parents was not a successful tactic and they decided that it was time to play a little "good headset wearer, bad headset wearer." He started by saying he understood our frustration, and that horrible guy back at the Chinese Theater did not work for the show directly, but worked for an independent company that they hired and that he made money based on how many people he got to the studio. He soothed the wild parental two-headed beast, and my parents began to speak at a normal decibel level again.
Important Sympathetic Headset offered to take me into the studio for a little while, and my parents and sisters could wait in a green room for me. Without even thinking that my family probably wanted to sit in a room with no windows almost as much as they wanted to sit on a smelly bus, I gave my parents the sad-eyed look that had been working for me all day long. With a little bit of hesitation, they agreed.
I was in! ISH brought me into the studio and I was standing in the same room as Zack Morris! ISH left me with Indifferent Clipboard Lady and went back to take care of my family. Indifferent Clipboard Lady told me that I could stand next to her at the camera. It was a little bit surreal seeing the television set in person. I was looking at a classroom, and to the left of where I was standing, I could see a little bit of another classroom. Beyond that wall, I'm assuming was Mr. Belding's office, and while I couldn't see around the classroom wall, I could see what happened there on a little screen next to me.
Tiffani Theissen and Screech were sitting in the classroom. Mario Lopez was standing off to the side. When he saw me, he came over and said, "hi there, I'm Mario." And I politely said, "Nice to meet you", while thinking, "Yeah, that's great, Mario. Where's Mark-Paul?" They were filming the episode where the students and teachers switch places. Zack became the principal and was sitting at Mr. Belding's desk. I could only see him on the little screen, but it was amazing...the only thing standing between Zack Morris and me was a fake cardboard wall! I had made it.
After a half-hour or so, ISH came back to get me to bring me to my parents. He handed me a packet of paper and said, "I was able to scrounge this up for you." It was Mark-Paul Gosselaar's copy of the script...complete with his coffee (I hope) stains on the cover. My sisters and I also got autographed pictures of the cast. And Stacy and Lori didn't mind that they didn't get to go into the studio because they had seen and talked to Jessica Spano in the bathroom.
ISH still felt bad about what had happened, so he told my family that he had arranged for us to go to a taping of Blossom that night. Blossom was a lot less strict about age-limits. After Blossom, as we headed back the hotel, my parents asked me what I thought of our day in LA, and whether I was sad that I didn't get to meet Zack Morris in person. To which I replied, "Zack Morris who? I'm in love with Joey Lawrence!!! whoa."
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