Saved by the Bell is a beloved touchstone for '90s kids everywhere. But for all its
wholesome hijinks, the show's set was more than a little sordid. These are the hook-ups, parties,
and weirdest fashion choices that went on behind the scenes of Saved by the Bell.
You may be surprised to learn that Bell started off as a completely
different show called Good Morning, Miss Bliss. The pilot episode aired in 1988,
starring Hayley Mills, a British actress, as the titular Miss Bliss.
The show lasted for 13 episodes on the Disney Channel before it got canceled.
When Miss Bliss didn't make it in the ratings, executive producer Peter Engel went back to the
drawing board. The series was retooled into Saved By the Bell, taking four cast members with it:
Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zachary "Zack" Morris, Dustin Diamond as Samuel "Screech" Powers,
Lark Voorhies as Lisa Turtle, and Dennis Haskins as Mr. Belding. Brian Austin Green
and Jaleel White also appeared in a scrapped pilot of Miss Bliss, but did not make the jump.
Though Miss Bliss takes place in Indianapolis, Engel decided to move
the kids to California. He also changed the age range of the kids on the show,
from eighth graders to full blown high-schoolers.
Saved by the Bell's beloved Zack Morris was inspired by another high school smart aleck:
Ferris Bueller. As Gosselaar detailed to Jimmy Fallon, he snagged quite a lot
of swagger from that cinematic slacker. Morris' infamous moments of breaking the
fourth wall to speak to the audience, for example, are directly inspired by Bueller.
"That was done by Ferris Bueller, we were just copying him."
Similarly, the character of A.C. Slater was inspired by Vinny Barbarino,
the character John Travolta made famous on the '70's sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
"The first thing you gotta do is the Vinny Barbarino look. Okay? Your hair
for instance. Very casual. It should look like it's being blown by unseen winds."
Engel recalled:
"Slater was supposed to be Vinny with a leather jacket.
Italian kid, who was a street kid, an army brat."
Mr. Belding was also inspired by someone else, but not in a way the man in question
might have liked: The character was named after Richard Belding,
a pain-in-the-butt editor Engel had to work with at Universal.
Lisa Turtle's name came from a real girl Engel knew, and Slater was named after a friend of
Engel's son in kindergarten. By the way, the A.C. in A.C. Slater stands for Albert Clifford.
While Gosselaar, Diamond, Haskins, and Voorhies all made the move to Bell,
Jennie Garth, who was up to play Kelly Kapowski, didn't get the role. She went on to major success,
however, on Beverly Hills 90210. Which might have been for the best, since not everyone who did get
cast in Saved by the Bell was thrilled about it: Mario Lopez initially didn't want to play Slater,
and admits in his autobiography he was more interested in chasing girls than,
quote, "trekking up to L.A. to read for a part that had barely been sketched out on paper."
Engel reportedly fought to have Tiffani Amber Thiessen on the show, knowing she was, quote,
"going to be a major star." Elizabeth Berkley was also up to play Kelly, but wound up
playing Jessie, a much smarter, more evolved character specifically created for Berkley.
As she reflected on Bethenny, she wasn't super into her wardrobe, saying:
"Just because you are a feminist,
why can't you also dress in things that make you feel girly and empowered?"
As you watch even the most wholesome family sitcom, you just can't help but wonder:
Who's hooking up with whom behind the scenes? Unsurprisingly, putting a bunch
of teenagers together resulted in a whole lot of romance on the Saved by the Bell set.
(couples kiss, audience "whoo")
As Gosselaar told People:
"All of us dated at one point or another — it was incestuous!"
While much of what went on behind the scenes was innocent, some of it became
messy. As Lopez details in his memoir, he dated Thiessen, but did not stay faithful, admitting:
"I can't say that I was capable at that age of following through on my noble intentions.
There was so much beauty everywhere and I had so much affection to share."
With Saved By the Bell being full of teens, it's no surprise they did some partying.
Theissen has admitted the first time she sipped alcohol was with Gosselaar in Paris
during a press tour. Gosselaar told ABC News he did the time-honored show biz tradition
of using his celebrity to get into adult clubs at the age of 16, although he insisted:
"But I didn't abuse it, and neither did my castmates. I can't stress how good we were."
Most of us probably have regrets about our high school hair,
and the Saved By the Bell gang is no exception. Many fans don't know
that Gosselaar is a natural brunette who had to bleach his hair blond for every single episode.
“When they sent me the notes on you last night,
it said you dyed your hair blonde for every single episode.”
"For six years! I'm surprised I have hair! I can't believe I have hair now."
Gosselaar's hair style looked different every season because, surprisingly enough,
the Bell gang thought every season would be their last.
The show ultimately lasted six years, but as Gosselaar explained:
"At the end of [every] season, we all left, we said goodbye to each
other. And that's why every season my hairstyle was so radically different."
Hair drama spared no one. Not even AC Slater.
"I didn't even know I had a mullet, it was like an unintentional mullet."
Elizabeth Berkley had trouble keeping her wild, curly hair under control,
and was subjected to endless procedures, treatments, and techniques. The actress recalled:
"They diffused my hair, flipped it, teased it,
sprayed it with hairspray. I practically went through a can of hairspray a show."
One of the most infamous and parodied Saved By the Bell episodes is "Jessie's Song."
In it, Jessie gets hooked on caffeine pills and finally has
a breakdown in Zack's arms as she sings the Pointer Sisters hit, "I'm So Excited."
"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so… scared."
This moment is widely derided as cheesy, melodramatic, and unintentionally funny.
What few know is that this scene was initially going to be a lot more serious.
As Engel has detailed, Jessie was originally going to be hooked on speed,
but NBC's Standards and Practices stepped in
and told him to tone the episode down. Still, the point came across. Engel said:
"Today, when I meet fans of the show, 'Jessie's Song' is almost always the episode that comes up
first. No one was making programming for kids like that at the time. It made an impact. It
helped them grow up. And I'm still, to this day, proud to have my name on that episode."
Like so many child stars, the Bell cast got screwed by the deal they signed. At the time, no
one suspected that Saved by the Bell would become a huge phenomenon. Being young and naïve, the
stars signed iffy contracts, meaning they didn't make anywhere near as much money as you'd think.
"We made really bad deals. Poor deals back then."
"It is what it is. You move on, you learn."
Moreover, the cast do not make money from the show's syndication, nor from its merchandise.
Everyone makes mistakes when they're young, but most of us don't have to live with the
knowledge that those mistakes are still costing us thousands of dollars every day.
Dustin Diamond fell on hard times after the show ended.
The past few decades have been littered with scandal and arrests.
Most infamously, he wrote a salacious tell-all book, 2009's Behind the Bell.
Its veracity is forcefully disputed by his former castmates.
"I'm guessing you have not read that, or have you?"
"I've read excerpts."
"This guy's such a d---."
To some degree, Diamond seems to agree with their point of view. In recent years, he has claimed
that his ghostwriter, quote, "fabricated a whole bunch of stuff," and that he was "railroaded."
So that's a bummer. But you know what isn't? Dennis Haskins, who played Mr. Belding,
finally graduated college in 2015 at the age of 65,
earning a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech. For his part,
Haskins looks back fondly on his time as part of a much-beloved TV classic, saying in 2013:
"I knew it was something special because the energy was different. The kids were a
little bit older, the dynamic was great between everybody, and we were having a great time."
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