It's the Homecoming game against Valley and the two schools play their annual round of pranks. Valley steals Screech, the Bayside mascot, who escapes in time for the game.

It's the first day of school and Zack sets his sights on getting Kelly to notice him so he can ask her on a date. However, Slater is just starting at Bayside High and starts throwing a wrench in Zack's plan when he notices how pretty Kelly is.

When their teacher Miss Wentworth spends some time in class talking about how subliminal advertising works in the business world, Zack decides to use it to his advantage by getting out trouble with Mr. Belding, and by getting Kelly to ask him out to Bayside's Sweetheart dance. However, when Kelly, Jessie, and Lisa find out what he did, they turn to Miss Wentworth for help in formulating a plan to get back at him.

When Zack overhears Mr. Belding and Mr. Dewey talking about Bayside being awarded a grant that allows the Student Body President to get a free trip to Washington, D.C., he decides to run against Jessie for the job.

Mr. Belding pairs up Kelly and Zack, Jessie and Slater, and Screech and Lisa in a class assignment where they spend the week as married couples. When things don't go as Zack, Slater, and Screech plans, Mr. Belding changes things up to see how the students adjust to his curveball.

As part of an assignment for economics class, the gang forms a friendship bracelet company, but infighting soon leads to trouble and defection.

After Kelly wins a pair of tickets to see George Michael in concert, she realizes she won't be able to go unless she gets an A on her upcoming Science test. Zack decides to stack the deck in his favor to be Kelly's plus one to the concert, so he arranges for Screech to tutor her. However, things don't go as Zack expects when she develops a crush on him and instead invites Screech to the concert instead of him.

It's career week at school and Slater starts to fear that wrestling won't lead him down a successful career path. As a result, he decides to quit the team right before a big meet, where he's scheduled to face the best wrestler at Bayside's rival school. When Zack finds out what Slater did, he frantically tries to find a way to get him back on the team so he can win a bet.

When Screech inadvertently creates a zit removal cream in chemistry class, Zack decides to team up with him in order to mass produce it and market it to the students of Bayside High. It appears to work well, until the cream accidentally turns the person's face maroon. After selling some of the cream to Kelly the day before the school votes for homecoming queen, Zack fears that Kelly will never want to talk to him again when the side affects hits.

Mrs. Simpson accidentally throws her back out in class one day, resulting in Mr. Belding bringing in a substitute English teacher. When the girls in the class see how handsome Mr. Crane is, Zack and the rest of the guys in class start plotting to find a way to get the girls to notice them again.

When Zack learns that Slater's father has the opportunity to get stationed to a base in Hawaii, he begins to plot a way to get Slater to agree to move to Hawaii instead of staying at Bayside.

Zack gets teamed up with Screech to work on a science project at school. However, he soon discovers that Screech is rather depressed about not having a girlfriend and can't concentrate on getting their project done. As a result, Zack takes some drastic measures in finding Screech a date.

Zack enlists the help of Screech in the bugging of Jessie's room when she invites Lisa, Kelly, and some friends over for a slumber party, with the hopes of finding out who Kelly plans on asking to an upcoming dance. When the girls find out what Zack did, they decide to get even.

After helping Zack unhook his ham radio, Screech accidently gets struck by lightning. As a result, Screech can now see into the future, resulting in Zack wanting to use his friend's new ability to his advantage: finding out what questions are going to be on the upcoming test that the school's toughest teacher gives as his midterm.

Zack and his friends have gotten their quarterly report cards and their respective parents have gotten everyone presents for a job well done. However, when Lisa goes overboard with her father's credit card at the mall, she and her friends take some drastic measures to pay Mr. Turtle back for all the money Lisa spent, including getting a job at the Max.

When the students of Bayside High learn that famed Casey Kasem will be hosting a dance contest at The Maxx, both Zack and Slater vie to ask Kelly for the chance to dance with her in the contest. However since Zack doesn't know how to dance, he turns to Jessie for help in learning how to dance so he can woo Kelly. However, after their lessons conclude, Zack decides to ask Jessie instead as a way to say thanks for his lessons. Meanwhile, Lisa reluctantly agrees to go with Screech after her date dumps her after she sprains her ankle.