Saved by the Bell

In casting Good Morning, Miss Bliss, Peter Engel knew the success of the show would not hinge on Miss Bliss herself, but on her students. Engel particularly envisioned one character, Zack Morris, who "would be that incorrigible kid who could lie to your face, letting you know very well that he's lying, and make you love him for it all the same."[5] Engel insisted that the show could not go on without Zack Morris, but he turned out to be one of the most difficult characters to cast. Engel's casting director, Shana Landsburg, finally happened across fourteen-year old Mark-Paul Gosselaar and was immediately struck by the teen's charisma, charm, and good looks. After a quick read-through, Gosselaar was immediately given the role.[5]

After casting Zack Morris, the next character sought after was Morris's nerdy friend, Samuel "Screech" Powers. Gosselaar was asked to read through the script with a number of kids, and a second audition was scheduled for finalists. It was Gosselaar himself who insisted that Dustin Diamond was right for the part as he believed Diamond was Screech in real life. After reading through the script, Diamond was given the part, although Engel later found out that he had misread his head shot and Diamond was considerably younger than the rest of the cast—a fact that, had he been aware, might have prevented Engel from casting him.[6]

Lisa Turtle was originally conceived as a rich Jewish princess from Long Island, spoiled, materialistic, and obsessed with shopping. While still casting for the role, actress Lark Voorhies was brought into Engel's office, and he immediately knew she was perfect for the role despite the fact that it meant rewriting the character.[7][8]

The school principal, Mr. Gerald Belding, as originally conceived on Good Morning, Miss Bliss, was an older, humorless man, and was played in the 1987 pilot by character actor Oliver Clark.[8][9] After the show was retooled for Disney Channel, the character's first name was changed to Richard and he was recast, with Dennis Haskins ultimately winning the role. Mr. Belding was rewritten to be significantly younger and to have a much different sense of humor.[8]

When Good Morning, Miss Bliss was retooled as Saved by the Bell, four actors and their respective characters from the original series were brought over to the new series: Gosselaar, Diamond, Voorhies, and Haskins. The rest of the cast was fired, and Engel sought to replace them with new characters who would complement the old ones.[10]

The cast of Saved by the Bell, clockwise from left: Screech, Slater, Lisa, Mr. Belding, Jessie, Zack, and Kelly

The first of the new characters, A.C. Slater, was conceived as a young John Travolta type who would be an army brat and wear a leather jacket. He was originally conceived of as Italian-American. However, when all efforts to cast the character were unsuccessful, Engel asked that the part be opened up to other ethnicities. Two days later, Mario Lopez, a dancer and drummer of Latino descent from Kids Incorporated auditioned for the role. Lopez was judged the best actor who auditioned, and was cast.[10]

For Kelly Kapowski, the love interest of both Zack and Slater, producers were able to narrow the field down to three actresses: Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Jennie Garth. Engel had originally met Thiessen in 1988 while casting for Good Morning, Miss Bliss and was impressed with how much her acting had improved. He wanted her for the role, believing she had the perfect all-American girl appeal for the role, while others felt that Berkley, as the more experienced actress, would be a more reliable choice. Ultimately, Engel convinced the others after a read-through with Lopez, and Thiessen received the role.[10][8]

Engel and the other producers did not want to lose Berkley, however, as she was the strongest actress they had seen during casting. Berkley originally auditioned for the role of Karen, a love-interest of Zack's on Good Morning, Miss Bliss, but lost the role because she was so much taller than Gosselaar at the time. Engel believed that, now that her height was more even with the rest of the cast, she could be perfect. They were not having much luck in casting the third new character, Jessie Spano, who was conceived as a strong, feminist activist and a straight-A student, so Engel suggested offering the role to Berkley, who gladly accepted it.[10][8]

Rounding out the new cast was real-life magician Ed Alonzo as Max, the owner of the gang's frequent cafe hangout, The Max, who frequently performed magic tricks.[11] Alonzo's role, however, would ultimately only last through the end of the first season, and he left after a single guest appearance during season two.[12]

In 1992, Saved by the Bell unexpectedly received an order for an additional eleven episodes to be shot after the graduation episode. However, Thiessen and Berkley had already decided to leave the show. Though producers knew they could not replace Kelly and Jessie, they also knew they could not leave Lisa as the only girl on the show. A new character, Tori Scott, was created as a cool but pretty biker girl who would also serve as a love interest for Zack and also act as a nemesis for him initially. Leanna Creel was cast for the part. Rather than develop a second new character, the producers decided to rely more on minor recurring characters such as Ginger, Ox, and Big Pete.[13]

The theme song for Saved by the Bell was written by composer Scott Gayle against the implicit instructions of Engel. Though Engel had not been able to keep the show from being named Saved by the Bell, he was determined to prevent the phrase from showing up in the theme. He gave explicit orders to his team of composers that he would not accept any theme that referenced the title, and the group agreed to leave out the phrase.[8][17]

A week later, Engel listened to the first four composers and, though they followed his instructions, the songs were flat and nothing special. Gayle played his song next and, though he explicitly violated Engel's instructions, Engel couldn't help but admit it was the best and perfect for the show. Engel would later comment that he was glad Gayle had not followed his instructions.[8][17]

Lionsgate Home Entertainment released all four seasons of Saved By The Bell, which contains 86 episodes, broken into five seasons (season 4 split in two) on DVD in Region 1. However, the episodes on these and all subsequent releases are the edited versions as used in syndication, with scenes cut for time. Lionsgate released the two feature-length TV movies on DVD, in Region 1, on August 7, 2007.[22] On March 13, 2012, Lionsgate (distributed by Alliance Films) released Saved By The Bell: The Complete Collection on DVD in Canada.[23] The 13-disc set features all 86 episodes of the series as well as the two television films.

On November 5, 2013, Lionsgate released a complete-series set in the United States.[24] It does not contain the reunion movies but does include some bonus commentaries.

On October 16, 2018, Shout! Factory re-released the complete series on DVD in Region 1. Unlike the previous releases, the set includes season four in its entirety, rather than having it being broken up into two parts. Bonus features include selected episodes commentaries by pop culture historian Russell Dyball, executive producer Peter Engel, and cast members Dustin Diamond, Dennis Haskins, and Lark Voorhies.

In Region 2, Fabulous Films has released all 5 seasons on DVD in the UK.[25][26][27][28]

Contender Entertainment Group released the 2 reunion tele-films on DVD in the UK in 2004.[29][30]

In Region 4, Shock Entertainment released Season One on DVD in Australia on February 10, 2010.[31]

The show was popular enough to justify two spin-offs, both of which premiered in 1993.

On April 9, 2006, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim announced that Saved by the Bell would air at midnight as a two-week special starting April 17. On April 19, 2006, Adult Swim also posted on their website that Saved by the Bell was back in production. A week later, the announcement was exposed as a joke.[35]

On March 27, 2009, NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon launched a campaign to get the cast on board for a Saved by the Bell reunion. Fans signed an online petition and pledged their support for the cast to reunite on the show. Dennis Haskins, Lark Voorhies, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar agreed to a reunion.[36][37] Gosselaar reprised his role as Zack Morris in a skit on Late Night on June 8, 2009, while promoting his then current TNT drama, Raising the Bar. The spoof interview closed with a performance of "Friends Forever," originally by Zack Attack, where Zack played guitar and sang with backing from Fallon's house band, The Roots. Tiffani Thiessen posted a parody video to the website Funny or Die, where she claimed she was too busy to join the reunion.[38]

The cast reunited in August 2009 for a photo shoot in People. Diamond was not invited to participate in the photo shoot because of poor relationships with the rest of the cast. Diamond's image was also edited out of the 1989 cast photo that was used on the cover inset of an issue of People to show how the cast looked 20 years later.[39][40]

The cast convened again when Haskins, Diamond, Gosselaar, Voorhies, and Lopez did their own voices in a Saved by the Bell Saw parody, called "Sawed by the Bell", on "Boo Cocky", a season three episode of Robot Chicken. Gosselaar also provided audio commentary for the episode on the DVD.

On February 4, 2015, the cast appeared on a skit on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon while episodes of the program were taped in Los Angeles. Haskins, Gosselaar, Lopez, Berkley and Thiessen all participated, though Voorhies and Diamond did not, with Thiessen's real-life pregnancy, Lopez's involvement with Dancing with the Stars and Berkley's film Showgirls the targets of some of the humor.[41]

On September 17, 2019, it was announced that a single-camera revival of the series was in development for NBC's planned streaming service, Peacock, with Tracey Wigfield serving as showrunner. The series will center around a new group of Bayside High students from "overprivileged" and working-class families, among the latter of which were transferred to the school as part of a plan by now-California Governor Zack Morris—whose administration experiences controversy for closing too many low-income high schools—to send lower-income students to the highest-performing schools in the state.[42]

Berkley and Lopez were initially announced as the only cast members of the original series to be reprising their roles,[42] though by January 2020, it was confirmed that Mark-Paul Gosselaar (who was confirmed to appear in three episodes of the revival series' first season as well as receive an executive producer credit) and Tiffani Thiessen—both of whom were confirmed by Gosselaar in separate September 2019 interviews with Variety and TMZ to have not been initially approached to reprise their characters—would also be returning in some capacity; however, it is currently unclear as to which of the other cast members would return.[43][44] Lark Voorhies reprised her role as Lisa Turtle for one episode and Ed Alonzo also returned as Max.[45][46] Other actors confirmed to appear as new characters in the series are John Michael Higgins (as Principal Toddman, who took over Mr. Belding's role as the head of Bayside High)[47] and Josie Totah (as Lexi, described as a "beautiful, sharp-tongued cheerleader and the most popular girl at Bayside High who is both admired and feared by her fellow students").[48][49]

• List of Saved by the Bell episodes

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