Saved by the Bell is iconic. From 1989 to 1993, the teens of Bayside High defined cool
for teens and tweens. But whether you watched the show during its initial run, caught it
later in reruns, or only know about the show because of its 2020 reboot, there's plenty
about this show to discover.
Even if you've been a fan of Saved by the Bell since the beginning of its run, you may
not have realized that the high schoolers at Bayside were actually middle schoolers
on another show, Good Morning, Miss Bliss. The pilot episode of Good Morning, Miss Bliss
focused on Miss Carrie Bliss, played by Hayley Mills, and her sixth grade class in Indianapolis,
Indiana. After the pilot, the class was recast and the students were aged up a little.
Zack Morris, Samuel "Screech" Powers, Lisa Turtle, and Principal Belding were part of
this version of Good Morning Miss Bliss, although the show was canceled after 13 episodes.
After Good Morning, Miss Bliss was canceled, the show was changed into Saved by the Bell.
Mills was dropped from the cast, and the setting was moved to Los Angeles with the characters
now in high school. Good Morning, Miss Bliss was later renamed Saved by the Bell: The Junior
High Years.
Given Saved by the Bell's already rocky history as a retooled version of Good Morning, Miss
Bliss, it's not too surprising that people did not have high hopes when it debuted. As
Mark-Paul Gosselaar put it in a 2019 interview with USA Today,
"Every season it was like, 'OK, we had our run and we'll see each other at some point.'
And then we were always surprised to come back."
Even the network didn't believe in the show. As producer Peter Engel explained on the podcast
Industry Standard, NBC only ordered seven episodes, convinced that the Saturday morning
show would flop. Engel fought for an additional 13 episodes, heading to the office of NBC
president Brandon Tartikoff demanding either a greenlight for the additional episodes or
for security to be called to throw him out. Engel said,
"In retrospect, if I hadn't done that, we'd be seven episodes and out."
Contrary to expectations, Saved by the Bell ended up lasting for four seasons, long enough
for our favorite Bayside High students to get their high school diplomas.
It's hard to imagine Saved by the Bell without Jessie Spano, but the character wouldn't have
been part of the Bayside High crew at all if it hadn't been for Elizabeth Berkley. Jessie
wasn't one of the characters originally envisioned for the series, but when Berkley auditioned
for the role of Kelly Kapowski, and lost the part to Tiffani Thiessen, the role was created
just for her.
Producer Peter Engel revealed on the podcast Industry Standard that most of the people
involved in casting actually wanted Berkley to be given the role of Kelly, but he and
NBC president Brandon Tartikoff fought the casting department. As noted by Complex, the
role of Jessie was created so that Berkley and Thiessen could both join the cast of Saved
by the Bell. Clearly that was the right call.
The characters of A.C. Slater and Lisa Turtle were imagined to be quite different from how
they eventually ended up being portrayed on Saved by the Bell. As producer Peter Engel
said on the podcast Industry Standard, A.C. Slater was originally envisioned as Italian.
Engel described the original iteration of A.C. Slater as "a street kid" and "an Army
brat." They had a hard time casting the role, though, until they opened up the part to other
ethnicities. The character of A.C. Slater, of course, eventually went to Mexican-American
actor Mario Lopez.
Fashionista Lisa Turtle, according to Engel, was originally planned to be a Jewish girl
from Long Island. When Lark Voorhies read for the role, Engel said that the casting
team protested, saying, "Lisa Turtle's not Black." Engel answered, "Well, she is now,"
and Voorhies won the part.
To kids growing up in the '80s and '90s, Zack Morris was the epitome of cool. Saved by the
Bell wouldn't have been the same without Zack, the most popular kid at Bayside High. Who
can forget his effortless charm, his trademark blond hair, and, of course, his cell phone?
Fans probably think of actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar being just as cool as his Saved by the Bell
character, yet he revealed that he was anything but on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter
podcast in 2019. He said,
"Zack Morris was a character that I created from seeing the really cool kids in my school.
I was not one of those kids."
Not even Zack's flaxen locks were the real deal. Gosselaar maintained the golden hairdo
with lots of hair dye — so much hair dye, in fact, that Gosselaar told Live with Kelly
& Michael that he's surprised his hair didn't all fall out.
Samuel "Screech" Powers may not have had the effortless cool of the rest of the Bayside
gang, but his nerdy persona led to a lot of comedic moments on Saved by the Bell that
wouldn't have been as memorable if they'd been portrayed by anyone but Dustin Diamond.
Screech always seemed a bit less sophisticated than his pals on the show, and it turns out
that, in real life, he actually was a bit behind his peers, at least as far as his age
was concerned.
When Diamond was cast, he was actually quite a bit younger than the rest of the cast. Diamond
was born in 1977, making him just 11 years old when he first appeared on the show. Producer
Peter Engel said on the podcast Industry Standard that he initially had no idea Diamond was
so young, admitting that he never would have hired him if he had known.
Saved by the Bell may have been a teen comedy, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a
lot of teenage drama both on and off the set. Quite a lot of time was invested in the romances
between the show's characters, who were apparently also hooking up in real life. Mark-Paul Gosselaar
told People in 2009,
"All of us dated at one point or another — it was incestuous!"
Fortunately for the young stars, the details about their dating lives managed to stay out
of tabloids and the cast kept quiet about the dating scene on set for years. Years after
the show wrapped, Gosselaar explained on the Anna Faris Is Unqualified podcast that working
on the show was like being "in a bubble." He explained that as they spent so much time
on set and didn't go to school they didn't have a lot of choices when it came to dating.
While the Saved by the Bell cast may have been friends with each other and even more
than friends at times, they didn't always get along. Mark-Paul Gosselaar told People
that sometimes the girls would quote, "gang up on the guys." The cast may not have actually
attended classes, but Gosselaar described the whole thing as very high school.
On the Awards Chatter podcast, Gosselaar said that the cast had something of a love-hate
relationship with each other. While there were times when everyone was close and got
along, at other times, producer Peter Engel would have to step in to help them keep the
peace. Gosselaar admitted that some of the fighting was due to the "romantic entanglements"
among the Saved by the Bell cast members, saying,
"It was a very small universe that we lived in and that we operated in."
Jessie getting hooked on caffeine pills and suffering a breakdown is one of the Saved
by the Bell's most memorable moments. The show handled the topic of addiction sensitively,
but Jessie's meltdown seemed a bit over the top.
"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so… scared."
It turns out that there's a good reason for that, though, as Jessie was originally intended
to get hooked on speed, not caffeine. As show producer Peter Engel explained in his memoir,
I Was Saved by the Bell: Stories of Life, Love, and Dreams That Do Come True, NBC wouldn't
greenlight the storyline, saying that speed was too serious for Saturday mornings. Engel
protested but eventually gave in, swapping out speed for caffeine, even though, as he
notes in his memoir, the average caffeine pill is as safe as a cup of coffee.
Saved by the Bell was never big on continuity, and the scenarios the students of Bayside
High found themselves in often didn't make much sense. That's why it was confusing but
not totally jarring when Kelly and Jessie disappeared partway through the show's final
season, only to turn up again with no warning at graduation.
Pop Matters explained that this was the result of the season getting a larger-than-usual
number of episodes. Since Tiffani Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley had already decided
to leave Saved by the Bell, they disappeared from the show and were replaced by a new character
named Tori, played by Leanna Creel. In the final episode, however, Kelly and Jessie are
seen graduating with the rest of the class, and Tori is nowhere to be seen.
If this has baffled you for years, you're not alone. It turns out that the series finale
was filmed before Thiessen and Berkley left the show and before Creel had been cast. When
they decided to quit Saved by the Bell, a new finale was never shot.
Given the enduring popularity of Saved by the Bell, it would be reasonable to assume
that its stars would be financially set for life. While the show did indeed serve as a
launching point for many of its stars to go on to lucrative careers, they didn't exactly
make a fortune on the show.
As Mark-Paul Gosselaar explained during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with
Andy Cohen, even though Saved by the Bell entered syndication and has also been added
to streaming platforms, its cast members didn't make a cent for their roles after the show
wrapped.
"We made really bad deals. Poor deals back then."
In spite of losing out on what could have been a fortune, Gosselaar didn't seem upset
but instead looked at the experience as a learning opportunity.
"It is what it is. You move on, you learn."
While Saved by the Bell may have wrapped in 1992, that wasn't the end of the beloved show.
The following year, Saved by the Bell: The New Class premiered, focusing on a new set
of Bayside students. Dennis Haskins reprised his role as Principal Belding, while Dustin
Diamond joined the cast in Season 2, again playing the character of Samuel "Screech"
Powers.
In 1993, some of the Bayside High crew went off to college in Saved by the Bell: The College
Years. On the show, Zack, Screech, and Slater went off to California University where they
shared a suite with some new characters. Tiffani Thiessen reprised her role as Kelly Kapowski
after the pilot, but Lark Voorhies only appeared in one episode as Lisa. Elizabeth Berkley
did not return as Jessie.
Series producer Peter Engel regrets introducing new characters on the spin-off instead of
focusing on the same teens. He told TheWrap he made a mistake not taking all six main
characters to college. Fans seemed to think so too, as the spin-off only lasted one season.
It may have been decades since Saved by the Bell wrapped, but the Bayside High crew is
still friends for the most part. In 2019, fans went wild when Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth
Berkley, Mario Lopez, and Tiffani Thiessen got together along with their spouses and
posted a picture of the reunion on Instagram. Gosselaar wrote in the caption,
"This is what 30+ years of friendship looks like."
The gang had previously reunited for a 2015 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy
Fallon, although Lark Voorhies and Dustin Diamond were notably absent. Most of the cast
also worked together again on the 2020 Saved by the Bell sequel series. As noted by People,
the only core cast member who didn't eventually join the 2020 revival was Dustin Diamond,
although that might not be too surprising considering the scandalous tell-all he published
about his castmates.
Ahead of the series premiere, Berkley said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
that, while she hasn't had any contact with Diamond since the series wrapped, there's
no bad blood between them and that he could appear on the show at some point in the future.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more List videos about your favorite
'90s shows are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't
miss a single one.