One of the most iconic Saturday morning programs of all time is Saved By The Bell, an experimental live-action sitcom. The show was a phenomenal success for NBC… but did it lead to the collapse of Saturday morning kids’ programming? Well… kind of. Its success ultimately did lead to NBC being the first major network to drop animation from its Saturday a.m. lineup, something that the other major networks would eventually also do.
But first, let’s take a look at the series itself. NBC aired a prime-time pilot called Good Morning Miss Bliss in 1987. The show focused on sixth-grade teacher Miss Carrie Bliss, portrayed by former child star Hayley Mills, although at one point, Sandy Duncan had been courted for the role. Mills had previously starred in, among other things, The Parent Trap for Disney. But even though NBC aired the pilot, the network had already chosen not to pick up the series, which was meant to air in prime-time.
After that, series creator Peter Engel struck a deal with the Disney Channel, which was still pretty new at the time. The Disney Channel ordered 13 episodes, but only Mills was kept from the pilot’s cast, which had included future stars Jonathan Brandis, Brian Austin Green, and Jaleel White.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar was cast as the main kid character on the show, the scheming Zack Morris. Dustin Diamond was cast as his nerdy sidekick, Samuel “Screech” Powers. The character of Lisa Turtle was conceived of as a materialistic Jewish American princess, but upon meeting African American Lark Voorhies, Engle rewrote the part for her. Good Morning Miss Bliss also featured two other kids, Mikey Gonzalez played by Max Battimo, and Nikki Coleman played by Heather Hopper. Dennis Haskins landed the role of the school’s principal, Richard Belding. Other faculty members included maintenance supervisor Mylo Williams (T.K. Carter) and teacher Tina Paladrino (Joan Ryan). The series was set in Indianapolis, Indiana at the fictional John F. Kennedy Junior High. The pilot had the children in the sixth grade, while the series aged them up to the eighth. Tiffani Amber Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley both auditioned for Good Morning Miss Bliss but did not make it onto the show. In Berkley’s case, she auditioned to play Karen, Zack’s love interest, but she was too tall compared to Gosselaar.
Good Morning Miss Bliss was equally focused on the adult faculty members and the children. Unfortunately, it was not a hit for the Disney Channel, who chose not to order a second season.
Engel then took the series back to NBC. This time, rather than prime-time, it was decided that this show would be an experiment — a live-action sitcom on Saturday mornings. NBC had noticed it was losing a lot of older kids in the 10-12 year range with its typical animated offerings. It was hoped that this program would appeal to those older children. Boy, did it ever!
Retooled as Saved By The Bell, the show’s setting was changed to the fictional suburb of Los Angeles, “The Palisades.” Dennis Haskin’s Mister Belding was the only adult cast member kept, but his role was diminished as this new series would focus mainly on the teens. Of the kids, Zack, Screech, and Lisa were also carried over from Good Morning Miss Bliss.
The character of A.C. Slater was originally conceived of as an Italian-American, like a younger John Travolta type, but after failing to find a suitable actor, the casting was opened up to actors of other ethnicities. In walked Mario Lopez, who had previously starred on Disney’s Kids Incorporated, who landed the role.
The part of girl-next-door Kelly Kapowski came down to three actresses– Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Jennie Garth. While Berkley was the most experienced among them, Thiessen nailed a chemistry test with Lopez, earning her the gig. Not wanting to lose out on Berkley, however, Engle offered her the role of feminist straight-A student, Jessie Spano, which she accepted.
Garth, of course, went on to success on another teen series, Beverly Hills 90210. It just so happens that her character on that program was also named Kelly — Kelly Taylor. And following the conclusion of Saved By The Bell, Thiessen went on to join the cast of 90210 as bad girl Valerie Malone. This won’t be the last mention of 90210.
The first season of Saved By The Bell also featured the magician Ed Alonzo as Max, the owner of the gang’s hangout The Max, basically a modern version of a “malt shop.” Alonzo made one appearance in Season 2 but was never seen on the original series after that.
The first season of Saved By The Bell consisted of 16 episodes and debuted in the fall of 1989. NBC upped the order to 18 for the second. The show really took off after that, so Seasons 3 and 4 contained 26 episodes each.
Season 3 contained the famous episodes in which most of the main characters got jobs at the Malibu Sands beach club. (Rich girl Lisa was a member of the club, not an employee.) Ernie Sabella portrayed their boss, Leon Carosi, and famously, Leah Remini played his daughter, Stacy Carosi, a new love interest for Zack, as his relationship with Kelly was on the rocks at this point, partly due to Kelly’s attraction to her boss at The Max, Jeff Hunter played by Patrick Muldoon.
Remini was just one of the various “new girls” introduced on Saved By The Bell, and arguably the most popular.
Tori Spelling, who would later go onto fame on Beverly Hills 90210, portrayed Screech’s love interest Violet Ann Bickerstaff in Seasons 2 and 3.
The one character who garners the most confusion from Saved By The Bell fans is Tori Scott, who was introduced in Season 4.
It turns out that Saved By The Bell was supposed to end with Season 3, with the episode “Graduation” slated to be the last. After wrapping that season, Thiessen and Berkley moved on, but NBC placed a surprise order for a fourth season. Some episodes, including “Graduation”, were not aired as part of Season 3 but were instead sprinkled into Season 4.
Not wanting Voorhies to be the only female cast member, Engle, and the producers created the new character, Tori Scott, played by Leanna Creel, a biker chick that was initially pursued by both Zack and Slater, but she eventually wound up dating Zack although they broke up in the episode “The Will.”
But as mentioned, to further confuse the matter, there were some episodes with Kelly and Jessie that aired during the fourth season, along with the Tori episodes. Then, at the end of the series, NBC aired “Graduation” with Kelly and Jessie, but without Tori.
Following the series’ conclusion, the main cast, including Thiessen and Berkley, reunited for the prime-time TV movie Saved By The Bell: Hawaiian Style.
Gosselaar, Lopez, and Diamond reprised their characters for the prime-time sitcom Saved By The Bell: The College Years, which flopped and only lasted for one season. (Thiessen eventually joined the cast to save the show, but that failed.) Once again, the main cast returned for the TV movie Saved By The Bell: Wedding In Vegas, in which Zack and Kelly finally tied the knot. And that was the end of the O.G. Saved By The Bell saga.
Saved By The Bell was such a massive hit, earning prime-time level ratings, that NBC scrapped its animated Saturday morning offerings. By delivering such numbers, this allowed NBC to generate more money from advertising, and to advertise to an older audience. Cartoons only attracted cereal and toy manufacturers and fast-food chains, but teens had more money than little kids and more needs, so NBC was able to run ads for hygiene products, clothing, music, and more, which generated more money than the revenue generated by the ads aimed at younger kids.
Starting in 1992, multiple hours of NBC’s Saturday morning schedule were taken up by Saturday Today, an extension of the weekday infotainment chat program, The Today Show. That was followed by Saved By The Bell and California Dreams.
California Dreams was also created by Engel and was another live-action teen-targeted sitcom that focused on a young garage band. That show debuted in 1992 and lasted for five seasons.
Lopez landed a second series on NBC Saturday mornings, a reality show called Name Your Adventure. Lopez co-hosted with Jordan Brady and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air‘s Tatyanna Ali. It lasted for three seasons from 1992-95. One episode had Lopez taking a teen to meet Olympic diver Greg Louganis, whom Lopez would later play in a TV movie. Name Your Adventure lasted for three seasons, from 1992-95.
Later on, NBC added two game shows, Double Up, which only lasted for one season of seven episodes in 1992, and Brains and Brawn. As was the case of Name Your Adventure, NBC connected this show to Saved By The Bell by selecting Mark-Paul Gosselaar as the host. Originally, his co-host was Danielle Harris, who had starred on One Life to Live and in two movies in the Halloween franchise.
Coincidentally, Harris was replaced as Gosselaar’s co-host by Tatiana Ali, Lopez’s co-star on Name Your Adventure.
Brains and Brawn only lasted for one season.
NBC closed out its Saturday mornings with the sports show NBA Inside Stuff. That series lasted from 1990-to 2002, after which it moved to ABC. It lasted for four more seasons there. NBA Inside Stuff was meant as a bridge between kid/teen programs and afternoon sporting events.
As mentioned, Lopez, Gosselaar, and Diamond starred on the primetime sitcom Saved By The Bell: The College Years, which Thiessen later joined, although it only lasted for one season.
Much more successful was Saved By The Bell: The New Class which replaced the original series on Saturday mornings. Haskins returned as Principal Belding with a new young cast. The first season cast consisted of Robert Sutherland Telfer as Scott Erikson, Isaac Lidsky as Barton “Weasel” Wyzell, Jonathan Angel as Tommy “D” De Luca, Bianca Lawson as Megan Jones, Natalia Cigliuti as Lindsay Warner, and Bonnie Russavage as Vicki Needleman. However, this cast never solidified the way the original did, and cast members came and went every season.
After the cancellation of The College Years, Diamond joined the cast of The New Class starting with Season 2. Screech returns to Bayside at first on a work-study program, hinting that he is still in college, but in Season 3, he becomes Belding’s assistant and college is never mentioned again.
Even though The New Class isn’t really the same classic that the O.G. series was, it lasted longer. NBC kept this series on the air for seven seasons. Season 1 consisted of 13 episodes, which is average for a Saturday morning show. But for Seasons 2-5, NBC upped the episode count to 26. Originally, the show was supposed to end with the sixth season, consisting of 26 episodes, but NBC decided to split this season in half, so the sixth season is actually 13 episodes and there is a seventh also containing 13.
Peacock recently launched a revival of Saved By The Bell created by Tracey Wigfield. Engel and original series producer, Franco Bario, serve as executive producers. Two seasons, each comprised of 10 episodes, have been released so far via the streaming service Peacock.
Lopez and Berkley (now billed as Elizabeth Berkley Lauren) have returned as Slater and Jessie. Slater is now the Bayside football coach and gym teacher, while Jessie is the guidance counselor. Gosselaar recurs as Zack, who is now the governor of California and is married to Kelly, with Thiessen reprising the role. Lark Voorhies has appeared as Lisa on occasion. Perhaps most surprisingly, Ed Alonzo has also returned as Max. Also from the original series, Patrick Thomas O’Brien reprised his role as Mr. Dewey, the math teacher.
Lopez, Berkley, Gosselaar, and Thiesen receive executive producer credits.
Diamond had a strained relationship with the rest of the cast and he was not invited to be part of a People magazine reunion in 2009 or this new series. After Diamond expressed disappointment, Wigfield stated that the door was open for him to possibly appear in a future season. Unfortunately, Diamond died in early 2021, in between the first and second seasons. His character, Screech was mourned in the first episode of Season 2.
Dennis Haskins was apparently not invited back, but no explanation was given. John Michael Higgins joins the cast as Principal Ronald Toddman, who attended Bayside at the same time as the original cast, although none of them remember him.
But the new show is mainly focused on a new batch of kids. Mitchell Hoog portrays Zack and Kelly’s son, Mac Morris, while Belmont Cameli plays Jamie Spano, Jessie’s jock son.
Haskiri Velazquez plays the brainy Daisy Jiménez, while Alycia Pascual-Peña plays her best friend Aisha Garcia, a gifted athlete who becomes Bayside’s star quarterback. Josie Totah portrays Lexi Haddad-DeFabrizio, a popular transgender cheerleader, and Dexter Darden plays the musically talented Devante Young.
The revival series incorporates elements from the original such as “Time Outs” and breaking the fourth wall.
While the revival of Saved By The Bell seems to have been well-received, it has not yet been renewed for a third season. But Wigfield has teased that she would love to take the show back to the Malibu Sands beach club with a possible appearance by Leah Remini. Wigfield has also expressed a desire to film in Hawaii, a la the Hawaiian Style TV movie.
There is no question that Saved By The Bell is iconic and still fondly recalled by fans, but it does have a questionable role in the history of Saturday morning TV, as its monumental success led to NBC taking cartoons off their schedule entirely. Throughout the ’90s, ABC and CBS did the same, while newer networks like The UPN, The WB, and FOX kept animation from going completely extinct. Sadly, the last network to air cartoons on Saturday mornings was The CW, which discontinued the practice in 2013.
Now that isn’t Saved By The Bell‘s fault. It has more to do with money and the availability of cartoons in a variety of ways, including streaming and home video, no longer necessitating a special time just for kids’ TV. But Saved By The Bell at the very least CHANGED Saturday morning TV in a very big way.
The original Saved By The Bell, Saved By The Bell: The College Years, and Saved By The Bell: The New Class were all released on DVD in the 2000s, but most of those are out of print now.
What do you think of Saved By The Bell? Do you fondly remember it or do you consider it the beginning of the end of an era?
