An in-depth analysis of the similarities between Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood”, and the episode of Saved By the Bell where Zack makes friends with a duck, Becky, just before they strike oil at Bayside and everything comes undone in a wash of capitalist deception and greed. Anderson pretty much ripped off SBTB, and you’ll see how very soon…
well dude to be fair, “Bell” actually took that whole plot from an old episode of “Square pegs”; who actually got the idea from an old Randy Newman b-side.
Actually SBTB stole that whole show from an older episode of “Squire Pegs”; who in tern got the idea from a rare Moody Blues B-side which was later covered by Huey Lewis and the News but never officially released. Anderson actually got the inspiration for the film from a bootleg of Lewis’ version first. (not surprising as he has the largest unofficial HLN collection in the western world. Shadowing the bands own and rivaled only by a deposed Saudi prince’s collection… who’s over in some bumfuck Middle Eastern country somewhere.)
Anderson then later went back and filled in the structural holes by using both the Saved by the Bell and the Squire Pegs episodes as reference. Which, all in all, was a wise choice. While the SP episode was more historically and technically accurate, the SBTB episode was far more interesting and satisfying on an emotional and character based level. Uncut actually did a whole article on this in it’s last issue.
it was so sad when Becky died. and so hot when kelly and jessie chained themselves to the oil rig in the hall.