5 TV Episodes That Make Us Desperate for Summer

The sun is out, pollen is everywhere, sunburns are rampant…it must be summer! J/k, but summertime definitely has me thinking about lots of things. Mainly, the beach, cold drinks and relaxation. I’m past the days of summer meaning total playtime, but there’s something about this time of year that still makes me feel like a kid waiting for summer vacation.

Obviously those thoughts then drive me right to TV (because, honestly, what DOESN’T make me think of television?). TV in the summer as a kid was always a weird time. Lots of reruns, lots of Nick At Nite Summer Block Party programming. And it’s still basically like that except with Netflix and Hulu and everything else, you can pretty much watch new stuff always. But in honor of the summer and just, yes, TV, here are five TV episodes that just make me yearn for summer deep down in my stomach. Get out that sunscreen, guys, it’s Summertime TV time!

1. Malibu Sands episodes of Saved By the Bell

Okay, this isn’t a specific episode so much as just this SERIES of episodes on Saved by the Bell. This all went down during the third season of the show (but really their air schedule was and is so confusing that who’s to say what info is correct) and basically involved the kids all getting jobs at the Malibu Sands Resort for the summer. This was my DREAM. I got close to that in high school.

Well, no. I worked at a hot dog stand in the park by my house and all the cool kids worked there and I had to work there with them and they were like, “ugh” but were mostly nice to me over the summer and then, LIKE I’M IN A TEEN DRAMA, when we got back to school in the fall they’d be like, “who are you?”

So not exactly the fun, volleyball playing summer the Bayside kids had. But a girl can dream!

2. Tiny Toon Adventures How I Spent My Vacation

This very special video release of one of my favorite shows was extremely important to the Erin of 1992. First of all, I distinctly remember watching this episode and finally understanding sexual tension. Okay, I mean, I don’t think I knew the word sexual but I knew Babs and Buster had chemistry and I wanted them to kiss and I knew that chemistry was based on them kind of hating each other and that colored my entire existence.

Man, I wish I were joking.

But this episode is great because it features everything you want from the summer: rafting, amusement parks and Elmyra Duff being too affectionate towards all living things.

3. “The One At the Beach” – Friends

Obviously this episode is difficult because at the end of season 3 of Friendsyou’re coming off all that “we were on a break” stuff but this episode finds the gang out on Long Island, trying to track down Phoebe’s dad but finding her birth mom instead. The weather turns out to be terrible BUT it created an awesome sand…dune INSIDE their beach house that they definitely use to its full advantage and also finds the gang drinking too much and playing strip “Happy Days” Game. Throw in the fact that Christine Taylor is playing Phoebe’s friend who Ross is dating who Rachel convinces to shave her head again and, to quote Monica, “you’ve got yourself a partay.”

4. “Bart of Darkness” – The Simpsons

When I was 12, I broke my arm on a family summer vacation. Which meant in the heat of July, I couldn’t completely get submerged in water. It was at that point that I finally understood Bart’s struggle in this episode.

The Simpsons get a pool and Bart, confused by Nelson’s “your epidermis is showing” taunt, falls and breaks his leg. Which causes him to be banned from the pool for the summer.

Great things that happen:

– Milhouse signing his cast “Milpool”

– Lisa becoming “Queen of Summer”

– Martin then wanting to become “Queen of Summer”

– Bart’s St. Swithin’s Day-referencing play

– everything in that episode

– this image:

5. Salute Your Shorts

Just the full series of this show makes me want to go to summertime and never return. It’s where I learned to start trying to make acorn earrings, it’s where I learned giraffes have black tongues and it’s where I learned you can take an oatmeal bath to cure poison sumac.

This show screams summertime and also shows the summer camp experience that I always wanted. Though the one time I went to day camp I had to leave because I hated being with strange kids, but that’s beside the point.