Johnny Dakota is a Hollywood actor who chose Bayside High for his next anti-drug commercial. There were several schools competing for the filming location, but the Bayside students and atmosphere won Johnny over.
Student Lisa Turtle was one of his biggest fans but always got too shy to talk to him. Johnny also became infatuated with Kelly Kapowski and became friends with Zack Morris, claiming that he pulled stunts similar to Zack's during his time as a student, such as using his school's parking lot as a place to sell used cars. He even gave Zack his bomber jacket as a gift.
During Johnny's visit, Zack and Screech Powers began selling merchandise that had belonged to or been used by Johnny. Mr. Belding immediately saw that this was clearly Zack's modus operandi, and stopped it over fear of alienating Johnny. However, Johnny told Mr. Belding he was fine with it as Screech and Zack intended to hand over all proceeds to charity.
Later, it appeared that everything was in jeopardy when a marijuana joint was discovered in the Boys' restroom. Zack, Screech and their other friend A.C. Slater suspected a student named Scud of being the culprit and confronted him, only to discover he had just been smoking a regular cigarette. Slater said that tobacco can be as dangerous and addictive as marijuana, but Scud was angrier with the trio for accusing him of drug abuse. Scud told them he knew nothing about the marijuana they discovered earlier, they realized he was being honest and dropped the subject, apologizing to him for making a baseless accusation.
However Zack, Kelly and the others found out during a party that Johnny himself was smoking marijuana. The next day at school, Zack told him it was wrong to do the commercial as it showed hypocrisy and deceit to the viewers.
Johnny however refused to listen and a disappointed Zack handed back his jacket. If Johnny wasn't going to listen to reason, the gang would have no part of it.
They each left the set, one by one. Lisa told Johnny that when she wanted to talk to him, she couldn't and now that she could, she didn't want to. Screech told Johnny that all action figures of him would now become lawn mulch, and finally Kelly broke off her relationship with him, as she didn't want to be with a deceiver and a hypocrite. Exasperated, Johnny then replied he didn't need the aggravation, no longer wanted any part of Bayside High and stormed off, to Mr. Belding's surprise.
Later when Zack and his friends recounted their side of the story, Mr. Belding praised them for standing up for what was right. Had the commercial gone as scheduled and Johnny's drug use was exposed, it would have damaged Bayside's reputation. Mr. Belding is able to pull some strings at NBC thanks to an old schoolfriend of his, Brandon Tartikoff, and the group is able to make an honest public service announcement.
Johnny was not seen in any future episodes. It may have been possible he abandoned his idea to do a PSA or he may have found another school to shoot it. Yet some other possibilties may have been his drug abuse may have been made public and he lost his fame, or he may have been inspired to quit using marijuana.
Trivia[]
Johnny Dakota was played by Eddie Garcia, who had starred in another NBC show, The Guys Next Door, which had aired after Saved by the Bell during its 1990 season.