No Commercials

Saved by the Bell permanently altered the Saturday morning landscape in 1989, replacing animated slapstick with sitcom pratfalls and cartoon-induced chuckles with a canned laugh track. Surreal Saturdays, a weekly viewing party at the Kansas City Public Library, flashes back to an earlier era, when kids celebrated the week’s only no-school, no-church morning by reveling in the adventures of superheroes and the antics of talking animals. The Surreal Saturdays crew occasionally delves into the Looney Tunes archives, but the usual attractions span The Princess Bride to Princess Mononoke, drawing largely from the anime, science fiction and fantasy. The young viewers in attendance (largely in the 12-to-17 range, with a few younger or older outliers) choose films from the library’s catalog or bring their own. The group recently completed a marathon run of teen-friendly sci-fi serials, exhausting two seasons of Supernatural and several discs’ worth of The 4400. Surreal Saturdays doesn’t select its schedule in advance, but though newcomers might not know exactly what to expect, at least they can feel secure that they’ll be safe from Screech. Catch it from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Plaza Branch (4801 Main, 816-701-3481).

Saturdays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 2008