This week’s Obscure Role Model is the first to come from a TV show rather than a movie.  And at the time I watched this show, not only did I not recognize that this character was a role model, but truth be told, I didn’t care for this person at all.  He was always a wet blanket, a buzzkill, a parasite sucking all the joy out of everyone’s lives.  He was Saved By The Bell’s very own Principal Belding.

For those Millennials or Gen Z folks that may be reading this blog, Saved By The Bell was a sitcom that followed the lives of six high school students and covered all their shenanigans.  This group included my (and every other guy who grew up in the 80s) favorite celebrity crush, Kelly Kapowski, and her friends Jessie Spano and Lisa Turtle.  And their counterparts were made up of Screech, A.C. Slater, and ringleader Zack Morris.

Each week, one of these six (usually Zack) would hatch wild some wild scheme, and hijinks would ensure. This was only to be eventually thwarted by their Principal, Mr. Richard Belding.  As a younger man watching the show, I would enjoy the episode all the way up the part where Mr. Belding would get involved with his “Hey, hey, hey hey! What’s going on here?” catchphrase.  Then the comedy would end.  The schemes would be foiled.  Lessons would be learned.  And I would be disappointed and bored with the ending. And the process would repeat itself the following week.

That’s how I viewed this show thirty years ago.  I watch it now (and yes, I still do watch it) through a different lens.  These days, I see Mr. Belding as not just the only voice of reason, but as the only true leader in this cast.  His job wasn’t a popular one, most leadership positions aren’t.  But Mr. Belding didn’t care about being popular, no great leader does.  He cared about taking care of those under his watch…his students.  There is a famous quote by Rosalynn Carter that states, “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”  And this is exactly what Mr. Belding did.

Looking back, a lot of the “fun pranks” I watched this group play included stunts that were actually illegal wiretaps, stalking, filing false police reports, and orchestrating a car accident.  And these are just the tip of the iceberg. As a younger person, I viewed these as harmless.  It’s lucky for this adolescent group that Mr. Belding was there.  He would stop the reckless road down which they were heading, explain the consequences of their actions, and give them opportunities to right their wrongs.  Yes, he would sometimes become the butt of the joke during the process, but he never cared.  In fact, sometimes he even embraced it.  Because deep down, he knew developing the people he was tasked to watch over was a much greater calling than what others thought about him.

Thank you Mr. B for being this week’s Obscure Role Model!  And thank you to my real high school principal, Mr. Shirley, for being the Mr. Belding to my Zack Morris back in the day!