25 of TV’s messiest meltdowns

Jesse Is So Excited. So, So … Scared — Saved by the Bell

For people of a certain age, this might be the most famous of all the TV freakouts. Jesse Spano, resident over-acheiver and straight-A student, succumbs to the pressure and becomes addicted to caffeine pills in the most iconic Saved By The Bell episode. She takes the pills to deal with hardships of joining a girl group when she becomes overwhelmed with trying to balance everything.

Because this was Saturday morning television, Jesse becomes addicted to diet pills instead of something harder like heroin, so her subsequent meltdown is rife with histrionics and melodrama — just like we like it. The scene in which friend and girl group manager, Zack, discovers her addiction and tries to talk some sense into her lives on in the history of silly teen moments. I don’t know one woman over the age of 30 who hasn’t quoted her famous line of “I’m so … so … scared. ” And if you haven’t, you need to check your heart.

If I’m going to have a girl-group induced breakdown, I hope I can do it with half as much pizzazz as Jesse. And I can only hope I look half as snazzy as Jesse Spano while I lose my marbles. And if my tantrum could gain as much notoriety as hers, then my life would be complete. To be frank, Jesse Spano is my meltdown hero.