On September 19, 1992, "Saved by the Bell" aired a very special episode. Well, it wasn't meant to be a very special episode, but it became one. It introduced Tori.

For those not up on their SBTB history, the show centered around a cast of friends: Zach, Slater, Kelly, Jessie, Lisa, and (barf) Screech. Now, all of the sudden, there was Tori... and Kelly and Jessie were gone. Did they transfer schools? Did they get eaten by sharks? Did they get tired of Zach sexually harassing them and stopped being friends? Your guess is as good as ours. It was never mentioned.

Instead, we got Tori, the leather-jacket-wearing "rebel", who first antagonized Zach, and then (obviously) dated him. (She also had a thing with Slater?) Her appearance on the show became known as the "Tori Paradox", and was even a subject of an essay by pop culture savant Chuck Klosterman. It really was baffling!

What made it even more confusing is that when season ended (obviously) at the prom, Kelly and Jessie miraculously returned, while Tori disappeared into the ether. She was never mentioned again, not in the movies or the follow-up series. It's as if she never existed.

Tori was played by Leanna Creel, for whom SBTB became the apex of her acting career. In real life, Creel, who was brought up very very Christian (she owned a huge collection of crosses), married a Jewish Orthodox woman. The two became a couple despite early fears of religious differences.

Now that would make a very special SBTB episode! Just not one that would have aired in 1992...