25 years of Chattanooga’s Mr. Belding and “Saved By The Bell”

UPDATE: Dec. 12, 2015:  Dennis Haskins graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, with a Bachelor’s degree in Theater.  What a great milestone for Dennis, at the age of 65!  Please don’t tell the kids from “Saved By The Bell” that Mr. Belding was a few credits shy of his diploma, for all those years.  They thought he was a few bricks shy of a load, but that’s another story.  PLUS: He’s lost 70 pounds (so far) this year, another great achievement.  Congrats Dennis on this great day for you, your fans, and UTC!

 

Previous story from June 28, 2014:

Every now and then, you’ll hear someone say, “If you ever make it to Hollywood, don’t forget your friends!”  Well, Dennis Haskins made it to Hollywood about thirty years ago, and he sure hasn’t forgotten his friends.  The Chattanooga native, a proud alumnus of Notre Dame High School and UTC, is a frequent visitor to his hometown, and he always makes us smile.

Prior to his acting career, Dennis managed and promoted several acts back in the 1970s, including Overland Express.

Dennis first got national attention as “King of the Don’t Blinks,” as in, don’t blink or you’ll miss him.  He was often cast in bit parts, including the first episode of “Dukes of Hazzard,” playing a long-haired, mouthy rascal who got a little too close to Daisy Duke.  Soon he was turning up in various sitcoms and dramas, but rarely for more than a minute or so.  That all changed in 1988 when he was hired to play the principal in a Saturday morning sitcom called “Good Morning Miss Bliss,” which soon morphed into “Saved By The Bell.”  NBC picked up the show, and it’s been on TV ever since it premiered on August 20, 1989.  You can bet that somewhere in the world, right now, one of those reruns is on the air.

As principal Richard Belding, Dennis played the well-meaning, but often befuddled authority figure at Bayside High School.  Zack, Slater, Screech, Jessie, Lisa and Kelly were always up to something, and Mr. Belding was there to smooth things out.  On more than one occasion, the gang would try to sneak something past him, usually resulting in Mr. Belding exclaiming, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey….WHAT is going ON here?”  Things usually worked out fine, and kids across America wished they had a principal who was that cool.

I got to know Dennis pretty well while he was filming the show, and have a lot of great memories from those years.  Each Christmas he would come back home to visit his family (in fact, he had a framed picture of them in his TV principal’s office).  He would always ask me to line up a visit to Children’s Hospital.  The kids were thrilled to see a genuine TV star, and he was even happier to pose for pictures and sign autographs.

In 1992, I somehow talked my boss into flying a news photographer and me to Los Angeles to do some behind-the-scenes stories on Dennis and his show, and we had a great time.  The cast members and producers couldn’t have been nicer, despite the fact they were cranking out shows one after another, with little time to socialize.

After the original cast “graduated,” there were several sequels: The College Years, The New Class and others.  New cast members floated in and out, but Mr. Belding was the one constant, and Dennis remains happily attached to the show even today.

When word leaked that Dennis would be in the Channel 3 studio earlier this year, several of my younger co-workers eagerly lined up for selfies, and Dennis never disappoints.  He’s always approachable, and is genuinely grateful for the fame and friendships he’s gained over the years.

In recent years, he’s appeared in “How I Met Your Mother,” “Mad Men,” “Tonight with Jimmy Fallon” and Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”

Dennis is a huge fan of the UTC Mocs, often showing up at games, or tweeting about their big wins.  His parents have both passed away in recent years, but he still comes back to Chattanooga during the holidays to reunite with his old friends from radio, TV, music and sports.  We call our radio-TV luncheon “A Very Dennis Christmas,” because it just seems right.

Dennis will always be part of our family here in Chattanooga, and it’s fun to keep up with him on both the small screen and the big screen.  Thanks for always making us smile, Dennis.