Special Guest Star...Mario Lopez

I was born in 1980. Many, many of the special guest stars from the GG's Hall of Fame are people I am only barely familiar with, and usually those I do know, I know through my parents. But one of the few guest I actually did know was good ol' A.C. Slater...I mean Mario Lopez.

This was years before Saved By The Bell, but Mario had a nice beefy role in Episode 21 of Season 2, "Dorothy's Prized Pupil". Mario played "Mario" (that must have been hard for him to remember), a student that Dorothy is tutoring after school. He writes a nice, cheesy speech about going to the movies with his Uncle, and how that makes America wonderful something something...and Dorothy submits his speech for some great prize. The prize he wins is deportation! YAY! Back to Mexico Mario, or wherever the hell you are from!

Of course, Dorothy feels awful and the girls try to fight the deportation, but he gets sent back home in the end. Sad ending for poor Mario.

I think wee Mario did a pretty good job, he was convincing, endearing and even a little charming. Would it have been more convincing for the actor to have had an accent, so it didn't seem like they were deporting a non-white American kid? Sure. But whatever. Besides it all worked out for him in the long run, even if I hated Saved By The Bell and A.C. Slater...

Why a mullet of all things?