Saved by the Bell (2020 TV series)

Set 26 years after Zach and Kelly's wedding, This higly anticipated reimagining of the beloved Saturday Morning TV series, follows the tight knit iconic gang of friends, now in their late 40s, are reunited and trying to navigate their lives. All the while, a new generation of students from California's affluent & working class communites enter the iconic high school, but conflict arises as they are forced to share the school after Zach Morris, now a California governor shut down all the low income high schools in the impoverished districts and transferred the less fortunate students to wealthier and more high preforming schools in the state's richer areas.

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Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom created by Sam Bobrick for NBC. The series premiered, in primetime, on August 20, 1989, a Sunday night. Targeted at kids and teens, Saved by the Bell was broadcast in the United States on Saturday mornings, later as the flagship series in NBC's TNBC lineup. A retooling of the Disney Channel series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the show follows a group of high school friends and their principal at the fictional Bayside High School in Los Angeles. Primarily focusing on lighthearted comedic situations, it occasionally touches on serious social issues, such as drug use, driving under the influence, homelessness, remarriage, death, women's rights, and environmental issues. The series starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Dennis Haskins, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mario Lopez. The series ran for four seasons, airing its final episode, again in primetime, on May 22, 1993, a Saturday night.

Working class

Working class

The working class comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations include blue-collar jobs, and most pink-collar jobs. Members of the working class rely exclusively upon earnings from wage labour; thus, according to more inclusive definitions, the category can include almost all of the working population of industrialized economies, as well as those employed in the urban areas of non-industrialized economies or in the rural workforce.

Governor of California

Governor of California

The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.

Main

• Haskiri Velazquez as Daisy Jiménez,^[2] a smart, ambitious, and underprivileged sophomore who is excited at the prospect of attending Bayside High after her local school gets shut down^[3]
• Mitchell Hoog as Mac Morris,^[2] the handsome, charming, privileged son of Governor Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski-Morris
• Josie Totah as Lexi Haddad-DeFabrizio,^[2] a sharp-tongued transgender cheerleader who has her own reality show
• Alycia Pascual-Peña as Aisha Garcia,^[2] Daisy's fun-loving but ultracompetitive best friend and Bayside High's new starting quarterback
• Belmont Cameli as Jamie Spano,^[2] the not-so-bright captain of the Bayside football team and Jessie's sensitive man-child son
• Dexter Darden as Devante Young,^[2] a new student at Bayside who has a love for high school musicals
• John Michael Higgins as Principal Ronald Toddman,^[2] who took over Mr. Belding's role as the head of Bayside High.^[4] He originally attended Bayside High along with the original gang, even if none of them (apart from Lisa) remembers him.
• Elizabeth Berkley Lauren as Jessie Spano, Jamie's mother and a school counselor at Bayside High. She has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, she's a New York Times best-selling author of parenting books, she gave TED Talks and was involved in politics. She is married to her struggling writer husband, René.^[5]
• Mario Lopez as A.C. Slater, a physical education teacher and football coach at Bayside High

Recurring

• Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris, a former Bayside High student who is now former Governor of California and Mac's father^[6] He admittedly ran for governor as a way to get out of a $75 parking ticket and he later cut $10 billion in education funding from the state budget, which forces the closure of poorly funded schools, including Douglas High.^[7] He is married to his high school sweetheart Kelly Kapowski.
• Tiffani Thiessen as Kelly Morris, Mac's mother, Zack Morris' wife, and the First Lady of California.^[8] Zack and Kelly appear (uncredited) in the first, eighth and tenth episodes of the first season.
• Lark Voorhies as Lisa Turtle, a fashion designer and former Bayside High student who now lives and works between Los Angeles and Paris^[9]
• Ed Alonzo as Max, a magician and the owner of The Max
• Tricia O'Kelley as Jade Huntington-Snell, a member of the Bayside PTA who advocates for the Douglas High kids to leave Bayside
• DeShawn Cavanaugh as Colt Cassidy, Jamie's friend who's also on the Bayside High football team
• Abraham Rodriguez as Spencer Buckley, one of the students at Bayside High
• Mariah Iman Wilson as Nadia, one of the students at Bayside High. Devante has a crush on her.
• Kellen Joseph as The Fish, star wrestler at Bayside High.
• Corey Michael Bangi as Mason, one of the students at Bayside High
• Brandon Marcel as Greg, one of the students at Bayside high
• Cheyenne Jackson as René, Jessie's estranged husband and Jamie's father who is a struggling writer
• Patrick Thomas O'Brien as Mr. Dewey, the Bayside High math teacher from the original series^[10]
• Matthew Sato as Gil Vatooley (season 2), Daisy's love interest
• Ariela Barer as Chloe (season 2), Aisha's love interest

Guest

• Selenis Leyva as Ms. Jimenez, Daisy's hardworking mother
• Courtney Lopez as Michelle, a woman whom Slater meets on a blind date and later starts dating

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Josie Totah

Josie Totah

Josie Totah, formerly known as J. J. Totah, is an American actress. She is known for her recurring role on the Disney Channel series Jessie and supporting role on the 2013 ABC comedy series Back in the Game. Totah received critical praise for her role in the 2016 film Other People. In 2018, she starred in the short-lived NBC comedy series Champions. She starred as Lexi in the 2020 revival of Saved by the Bell.

Transgender

Transgender

A transgender person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many experience gender dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through transitioning, often adopting a different name and set of pronouns in the process. They may undergo sex reassignment therapies such as hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery to more closely align their primary and secondary sex characteristics with their gender identity. Not all transgender people desire these treatments and others may be unable to access them for financial or medical reasons. Those who do desire to medically transition to another sex may identify as transsexual.

Alycia Pascual-Peña

Alycia Pascual-Peña

Alycia Pascual-Peña is an American actress known for her role in Saved by the Bell.

Dexter Darden

Dexter Darden

Dexter Darden is an American actor, best known for playing the role of Walter Hill in Joyful Noise, and Frypan in the Maze Runner film series.

John Michael Higgins

John Michael Higgins

John Michael Higgins is an American actor and comedian whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, the role of David Letterman in HBO's The Late Shift, and a starring role in the American version of Kath & Kim. He portrayed Peter Lovett in the TV Land original sitcom Happily Divorced and provided the voice of Iknik Blackstone Varrick in The Legend of Korra and Mini-Max in Big Hero 6: The Series. He also starred in the NBC sitcom Great News as Chuck Pierce for two seasons. Since 2018, he has hosted the game show America Says, which earned him a 2019 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host, though he lost to Alex Trebek.

Mario Lopez

Mario Lopez

Mario Lopez is an American actor and television host. He has appeared on several television series, in films, and on Broadway. He is known for his portrayal of A.C. Slater on Saved by the Bell, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, and the 2020 sequel series. He has appeared in numerous projects since, including the third season of Dancing with the Stars and as host for the syndicated entertainment news magazine shows Extra and Access Hollywood. He has also hosted America's Best Dance Crew for MTV. In 2012, he co-hosted the second season of the American version of The X Factor with Khloé Kardashian, and was the sole host for the third and final season.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar is an American actor. He is known for his television roles, most notably as Zack Morris in Saved by the Bell. In 1991, he won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series.

Zack Morris (Saved by the Bell)

Zack Morris (Saved by the Bell)

Zack Morris is a fictional character from the sitcoms Good Morning, Miss Bliss; Saved by the Bell; and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. He also makes a guest appearance in the spin-off series Saved by the Bell: The New Class. He is portrayed by Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Though the character appeared in several different television programs, Gosselaar made a concerted effort to keep the character fundamentally the same through its various incarnations. Zack also appears as a recurring character in the 2020 Saved by the Bell series.

Governor of California

Governor of California

The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.

Tiffani Thiessen

Tiffani Thiessen

Tiffani Amber Thiessen is an American actress who starred as Kelly Kapowski on NBC's Saved by the Bell (1989–1993), as Valerie Malone on Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210 (1994–98), and as Lori on Netflix's Alexa & Katie (2018–2020). Thiessen has also starred in other TV series such as Fox's Fastlane (2002–2003), ABC's What About Brian (2007), and USA Network's White Collar (2009–2014), as well as in a number of TV movies, and she has also appeared in several films, such as Son in Law (1993), Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th (2000), Hollywood Ending (2002) and Cyborg Soldier (2008).

Lark Voorhies

Lark Voorhies

Lark Voorhies is an American actress, singer, spokeswoman and model. Voorhies rose to fame playing Lisa Marie Turtle on the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell (1989–1993). Voorhies was nominated for the Young Artist Award six times, winning in 1990 and 1993 for her work on the show.

Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km², making it the fourth-most populated city in the European Union as well as the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world.

Series overview

Season 1 (2020)

Season 2 (2021)

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Tracey Wigfield

Tracey Wigfield

Tracey Wigfield is an American comedy writer. She created, produced and appeared in the NBC sitcom Great News. She also developed the Peacock teen sitcom Saved By The Bell, a revival of the original series of the same name created by Sam Bobrick.

Kabir Akhtar

Kabir Akhtar

Kabir Akhtar is an American television director and editor, who won an Emmy Award in 2016. His credits include work for Arrested Development, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Never Have I Ever, Behind the Music, and the Academy Awards.

Matt Warburton

Matt Warburton

Matt Warburton is an American television writer.

Matthew A. Cherry

Matthew A. Cherry

Matthew A. Cherry is an American film director, writer, producer, and former American football player. He wrote and directed two independent films, The Last Fall (2012), and 9 Rides (2016). He is best known for the 2019 Academy Award-winning animated short film, Hair Love. The Kickstarter campaign for Hair Love raised nearly $300,000 and broke the record for the highest amount raised for any short film on the platform.

Shantira Jackson

Shantira Jackson

Shantira Jackson is an American writer, producer, actress, and comedian. Her writing credits include Busy Tonight, The Amber Ruffin Show, Saved by the Bell, and Big Mouth.

Euphoria (American TV series)

Euphoria (American TV series)

Euphoria is an American teen drama television series created and principally written by Sam Levinson for HBO and based on the Israeli miniseries of the same name created by Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin. The series' main character is Rue Bennett (Zendaya), a recovering teenage drug addict who struggles to find her place in the world.

Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom created by Sam Bobrick for NBC. The series premiered, in primetime, on August 20, 1989, a Sunday night. Targeted at kids and teens, Saved by the Bell was broadcast in the United States on Saturday mornings, later as the flagship series in NBC's TNBC lineup. A retooling of the Disney Channel series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the show follows a group of high school friends and their principal at the fictional Bayside High School in Los Angeles. Primarily focusing on lighthearted comedic situations, it occasionally touches on serious social issues, such as drug use, driving under the influence, homelessness, remarriage, death, women's rights, and environmental issues. The series starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Dennis Haskins, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mario Lopez. The series ran for four seasons, airing its final episode, again in primetime, on May 22, 1993, a Saturday night.

Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas

Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas

Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas is the series finale for Saved by the Bell: The College Years. It was presented as a two-hour television movie that originally aired on NBC in 1994. When aired in syndication, it is commonly split into two double-length episodes. TBS aired the episodes as four standard episodes, but because TBS aired a two-hour block of Saved by the Bell every weekday morning, all four episodes typically air consecutively.

Title sequence

Title sequence

A title sequence is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound. It typically includes the text of the opening credits, and helps establish the setting and tone of the program. It may consist of live action, animation, music, still images, and/or graphics. In some films, the title sequence is preceded by a cold open.

Claire Scanlon

Claire Scanlon

Claire Elizabeth Scanlon is an American editor and director. She has been nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, winning one, for editing work on The Office and The Apprentice. She won an American Cinema Editors Award in 2014 and was nominated in 2016. She has directed for numerous television shows, including Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Good Place, Fresh off the Boat, Glow, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She made her directorial debut with the Netflix film Set It Up. Scanlon directed the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt interactive special for Netflix. She also directed the comedy-mystery series Mapleworth Murders for Quibi.

COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified in an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and later worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 10 March 2023, the pandemic had caused more than 676 million cases and 6.88 million confirmed deaths, making it one of the deadliest in history.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar is an American actor. He is known for his television roles, most notably as Zack Morris in Saved by the Bell. In 1991, he won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series.

Development

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.^[12] Wigfield would also executive produce the show alongside Franco Bario and Peter Engel, producer and executive producer of the original series, respectively.^[13] Funny or Die's Dashiell Driscoll, the executive producer of the web-series Zack Morris Is Trash, was hired as a staff writer for the show,^[14] along with 50 Central's Shantira Jackson, among others. On January 19, 2021, Peacock renewed the series for a 10-episode second season.^[15] On May 4, 2022, Peacock canceled the series after two seasons.^[16]

Writing

Executive producer and showrunner Tracey Wigfield developed the idea alongside Berkley and Lopez, who joined the show also as producers. Wigfield called it “a reimagining” of the original series, not a reboot. “While the original show was a Saturday morning show for kids, this is a single-camera, kind of edgier comedy. If you never saw the (original), it's just a funny show about high school in 2020”.^[17]

Berkley noted that the new series would “maintain that heart with all of the humor”,^[17] appealing to both the new generation and the original fans. In order to maintain consistency with the original series, “time-outs” were included in the plot, along with fourth wall breaks, other Easter eggs and in-jokes. Wigfield encouraged her staff to watch the old episodes and "think about them through a 2020 lens."^[18] Due to his knowledge of the original show's storylines, writer Dashiell Driscoll was often the writers' room's advisor regarding trivia and story consistency.^[19]

Lopez stated that the way writers had set the characters to where they are now “was pretty clever”.^[20] According to Wigfield, Berkley was "very smartly protective of Jessie" in the way the character was conceived in the new series.^[21] "I wanted to remain true to the fact that Jessie was a bit ahead of her time. So I wanted to make sure that when we reconnected with her we understood what she actually has accomplished"^[22] Mark-Paul Gosselaar publicly appreciated the fact that new Zack was "a little offensive and sort of not being on the right side of things".^[23] The character of Mr. Toddman was written as a principal “constantly being pranked by his privileged students and yelled at by their entitled parents” but gets a second chance to make a difference when Bayside High “gets an influx of new, low-income students.”^[4]

When Wigfield approached transgender actress Josie Totah to play transgender cheerleader Lexi, she offered the actress a producing credit in order for her to have a voice in the writing process.^[24] "The more we got to talking about the character and her storyline, specifically her gender identity, it became clear to me that if I was going to do the show, I needed to have more stake in it. I was so grateful that Universal and [showrunner] Tracey Wigfield really championed me and allowed me to be a producer on this project because I didn't feel comfortable doing a show that explored my character's gender identity if representation didn't exist".^[24]

The production shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the writers to change the three remaining teleplays and to simplify some details in order for the shooting to be viable for the new protocols. The writing team was reassembled for a couple of weeks in August and, according to Wigfield, most of the changes "was just stuff that we had to simplify or we couldn't shoot at the school anymore. Anything that took place at the gym or in the theater, or anything else in an actual school, we had to move to the lot. So we had to make some changes there."^[25] A reference to the coronavirus was also added.^[25]

Casting

Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez were initially announced as the only cast members of the original series to be reprising their roles^[12] and it was reported that they would also serve as producers on the show. Mark-Paul Gosselaar confirmed at the time that neither he nor his former co-star, Tiffani Thiessen had been officially approached.^[26]

On December 17, 2019, it was reported that John Michael Higgins had signed on to play Mr. Toddman, Bayside High's newest principal.^[4] On January 6, 2020, The Hollywood Reporter reported that 18-year-old actress Josie Totah had joined the cast of the comedy as Lexi and that she would also be credited as a producer on the show.^[27][28] On January 24, 2020, Deadline announced that Dexter Darden had joined the cast as well in an undisclosed role^[29] and on January 27, Haskiri Velazquez, Mitchell Hoog, Alycia Pascual-Pena and Belmont Cameli were announced.^[30]

In January 2020, it was confirmed that Mark-Paul Gosselaar would also be returning but only for three episodes due to his commitment as a series regular on ABC's Mixed-ish. It was reported that Gosselaar would also be serving as an executive producer.^[31] In March 2020, Gosselaar also confirmed that Tiffani Thiessen would be reprising her role in one episode.^[8] Thiessen later ended up appearing in three episodes of the first season. Both Gosselaar and Thiessen decided to go "unbilled" for their acting work and were merely credited as producers.

In early 2020, Lark Voorhies explained that she was not initially invited to be part of the show's reunion as well as other cast members events while appearing on television for the first time in years on The Dr. Oz Show to discuss her mental health issues.^[32][33] During an interview in September 2020, Lopez stated that Voorhies would indeed be guest-starring as Lisa Turtle,^[34] and NBC officially announced Voorhies' involvement with the series the following month.^[35]

Allegedly, Dustin Diamond publicly expressed disappointment for not being invited to reprise his role of Screech Powers in the new series, as the only cast member who had been featured as a leading character in every previous incarnation of Saved by the Bell.^[36] The character of Screech, however, was referenced throughout the show's first season.^[34] Tracey Wigfield stated that the role of Screech, despite being mentioned, "wasn't tied to any of the new characters or anything" in the first season but that the door was open for Diamond to appear in future seasons.^[21] Diamond died on February 1, 2021, after having revealed he had small-cell lung carcinoma just a few weeks earlier, precluding any future appearances.^[37]

In November 2020, it was announced that Dennis Haskins would not be reprising the role of Mr. Belding in the first season of the new series.^[38]

Actors Troy Fromin and Matt Kaminsky, who had appeared in the original show as Ox and Russian chess player Peter Breschnev respectively, made brief appearances as different characters: Fromin played the second man in line in the episode All in the Hall, while Kaminsky appeared as a delivery man in The Bayside Triangle.^[39] Rich Eames and Scott Gale, the music composers of the original show, made a cameo appearance together as part of the Birchwood Boys band.

Filming

Due to their involvement as producers during the pre-production process, both Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley had to cancel their appearances at the Steel City Con in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, originally scheduled on December 7–8.^[40]

The first table read was held at Universal Studios on December 17, 2019, as announced by both Berkley and Lopez on their Instagram accounts.^[41] Throughout pre-production, DVDs of the original series were available in the production office for the young actors to watch, if needed.^[42]

Filming officially began on January 10, 2020, with Lopez giving fans a first look of the new series with a video of Berkley, Ed Alonzo and himself shooting their first scene at The Max diner,^[43] built at Universal Studios. The pilot, shot in 7 days, wrapped on January 20. Unlike the original series (that was almost-completely directed by one single helmer, Don Barnhart), the new show was scheduled to be directed by different directors for different episodes. Primetime Emmy-winner Kabir Akhtar,^[44] Academy Award-winner Matthew A. Cherry^[45] and Daniella Eisman^[46] were among the new directors hired to helm each episode. The series was shot using single-camera setup and without a live studio audience, unlike the original, multi-camera sitcom.^[20]

Since the original sketches were lost, production designer Joseph Lucky had to use screenshots and pictures as references in order to recreate the iconic original sets, including the school's hallway, Mr. Belding's office and The Max. "Trying to mimic someone else's work isn't as easy as it seems, so the challenge there for me was to actually get it right and then to put my touches on it", Lucky said to Variety.^[47] For the textures and design elements of the new sets, Lucky took inspiration from Piet Mondrian's work "for additional flare" and the red color of the lockers (originally used only in the first two seasons of the show) was chosen to complement the maroon in the Bayside logo.^[47] Exterior scenes were shot in several locations in Burbank and Los Angeles, including the Universal Studios backlot.

On March 13, 2020, production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States during the pre-production of episode 1.08, before Gosselaar, Thiessen and Voorhies could film their scenes.^[48] With three episodes left to be filmed, the series eventually resumed production on August 17^[49] and wrapped five weeks later, in mid-September 2020.^[50][51]

On May 4, 2021, Mario Lopez told Yahoo! Entertainment that the show's second season would feature a tribute to Dustin Diamond, saying: “We’re planning something special we haven’t gotten into yet.”^[52] After a series of virtual table readings,^[53] filming for Season 2 officially began on Monday, June 7, 2021, at Universal Studios, as shared by Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley in their social media.^[54]

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Franco Bario

Franco Bario

Franco E. Bario is an American television line producer.

Funny or Die

Funny or Die

Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staff of in-house writers, producers and directors, and occasionally from a number of famous contributors including Judd Apatow, James Franco and Norm Macdonald. The associated production company continues to make TV shows including truTV's Billy on the Street, Comedy Central's @midnight and Zach Galifianakis' web series Between Two Ferns.

50 Central

50 Central

50 Central is an American sketch comedy television series hosted by 50 Cent. The series premiered on BET on September 27, 2017.

Josie Totah

Josie Totah

Josie Totah, formerly known as J. J. Totah, is an American actress. She is known for her recurring role on the Disney Channel series Jessie and supporting role on the 2013 ABC comedy series Back in the Game. Totah received critical praise for her role in the 2016 film Other People. In 2018, she starred in the short-lived NBC comedy series Champions. She starred as Lexi in the 2020 revival of Saved by the Bell.

COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified in an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and later worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 10 March 2023, the pandemic had caused more than 676 million cases and 6.88 million confirmed deaths, making it one of the deadliest in history.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar is an American actor. He is known for his television roles, most notably as Zack Morris in Saved by the Bell. In 1991, he won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Primetime Series.

John Michael Higgins

John Michael Higgins

John Michael Higgins is an American actor and comedian whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, the role of David Letterman in HBO's The Late Shift, and a starring role in the American version of Kath & Kim. He portrayed Peter Lovett in the TV Land original sitcom Happily Divorced and provided the voice of Iknik Blackstone Varrick in The Legend of Korra and Mini-Max in Big Hero 6: The Series. He also starred in the NBC sitcom Great News as Chuck Pierce for two seasons. Since 2018, he has hosted the game show America Says, which earned him a 2019 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host, though he lost to Alex Trebek.

Deadline Hollywood

Deadline Hollywood

Deadline Hollywood, commonly known as Deadline and also referred to as Deadline.com, is an online news site founded as the news blog Deadline Hollywood Daily by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with entertainment industry news as its focus. It has been a brand of Penske Media Corporation since 2009.

Mixed-ish

Mixed-ish

Mixed-ish is an American single-camera sitcom created by Kenya Barris, Peter Saji and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered on ABC on September 24, 2019. The series is a prequel to Black-ish, and the second series to be spun off from the parent series after the Freeform series Grown-ish. In May 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on January 26, 2021. In May 2021, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Billing (performing arts)

Billing (performing arts)

Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, directors, producers, and other crew members.

Lark Voorhies

Lark Voorhies

Lark Voorhies is an American actress, singer, spokeswoman and model. Voorhies rose to fame playing Lisa Marie Turtle on the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell (1989–1993). Voorhies was nominated for the Young Artist Award six times, winning in 1990 and 1993 for her work on the show.

Dustin Diamond

Dustin Diamond

Dustin Neil Diamond was an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his role as Samuel "Screech" Powers throughout the Saved by the Bell franchise.

The show was originally set to be released over the summer. When production for the last three episodes were delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the release date was pushed back to November 25, 2020.^[55] All ten episodes were released exclusively on Peacock Premium, with only the pilot being available to stream for free in the platform.^[56] The second season was released on November 24, 2021.^[57]

Marketing

On April 15, 2020, Peacock released the first official teaser for the series, featuring scenes from the first seven episodes of the show^[58] It was followed by a second teaser launched on August 10, 2020.^[59] On October 27, 2020, an official trailer featuring Gosselaar and Thiessen was released.^[60] Two days later, Peacock released a first-look promotional still of Lark Voorhies back in character.^[61]

On July 29, 2020, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Dashiell Driscoll launched Zack to the Future, a weekly podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Entercom's Radio.com and other platforms. Every week, Gosselaar and Driscoll dissected one episode from the original series' first run, "analyzing iconic show moments and discussing “never-before-heard stories” from the set with featured guests".^[62] Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez, Tiffani Thiessen, Breckin Meyer, Ed Alonzo, Bennett Tramer (writer of the original series) along with Allyson Thurston and Jennifer Schelling (who played the Zeffirelli Twins from 1989 until 1991) were among the special guest stars of the podcast.^[63]

On November 15, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez were presenters at the 46th People's Choice Awards ceremony, where host Demi Lovato dubbed their appearance "a Saved by the Bell reunion".^[64] The Los Angeles Times described their moment as a "must-see",^[64] also because award receiver Jimmy Fallon gave his acceptance speech on mute via Zoom. On November 16, Peacock launched a free Saved by the Bell channel including the original series, the two TV movies Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style and Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas and the spin-off series Saved by the Bell: The College Years.^[65] The following day, the main cast described their feelings on returning to Bayside High in a featurette video exclusively debuted by People's official website. In the video, actor Dexter Darden made it clear that there were "no laugh tracks" in the new show.^[66] On November 18, Peacock unveiled the new theme song, an updated version of the original one performed by rapper Lil Yachty.^[67]

On November 25, the day the show premiered, original cast members Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tiffani Thiessen were guests on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.^[68]

A three-day marathon of the original episodes aired on E! starting on Friday, December 11 at 12 p.m. The marathon included the U.S. television premiere of the new show's pilot, that aired on December 13 at 9 p.m.^[69]

Discover more about Release related topics

COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified in an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and later worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 10 March 2023, the pandemic had caused more than 676 million cases and 6.88 million confirmed deaths, making it one of the deadliest in history.

Breckin Meyer

Breckin Meyer

Breckin Erin Meyer is an American actor, musician, writer and producer, known for his roles in films such as Clueless (1995), Road Trip (2000), Rat Race (2001), and Garfield: The Movie (2004), he's also known for providing voices for the television series Robot Chicken (2005–present) and for voicing Joseph Gribble in King of the Hill (2000–2010). He portrayed lawyer Jared Franklin in Franklin & Bash (2011–2014).

46th People's Choice Awards

46th People's Choice Awards

The 46th ceremony of the People's Choice Awards was held on November 15, 2020, to honor the best in popular culture for 2020. The show was hosted by Demi Lovato and was broadcast live by E! at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. The show had a 43% jump in viewership from the year prior and received generally good ratings from the viewers.

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato

Demetria "Demi" Devonne Lovato is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004), Lovato rose to prominence for playing Mitchie Torres in the musical television film Camp Rock (2008) and its sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). The former film's soundtrack contained "This Is Me", Lovato's debut single and duet with Joe Jonas, which peaked at number nine on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times, abbreviated as LA Times, is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the Los Angeles suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper's coverage has evolved more recently away from U.S. and international headlines and toward emphasizing California and especially Southern California stories.

Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon

James Thomas Fallon is an American comedian, television host, actor, writer, and singer. Best known for his work in television, Fallon's breakthrough came during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2004. He was the host of the late-night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014, and became the anchor of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon following his departure from Late Night.

Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom created by Sam Bobrick for NBC. The series premiered, in primetime, on August 20, 1989, a Sunday night. Targeted at kids and teens, Saved by the Bell was broadcast in the United States on Saturday mornings, later as the flagship series in NBC's TNBC lineup. A retooling of the Disney Channel series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the show follows a group of high school friends and their principal at the fictional Bayside High School in Los Angeles. Primarily focusing on lighthearted comedic situations, it occasionally touches on serious social issues, such as drug use, driving under the influence, homelessness, remarriage, death, women's rights, and environmental issues. The series starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Dennis Haskins, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mario Lopez. The series ran for four seasons, airing its final episode, again in primetime, on May 22, 1993, a Saturday night.

Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style

Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style

Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style is a 1992 American made-for-television comedy film based on the television series Saved by the Bell and featured the regular cast of that series.

Saved by the Bell: The College Years

Saved by the Bell: The College Years

Saved by the Bell: The College Years is an American television sitcom, and sequel to Saved by the Bell. It is the third incarnation of the franchise, and ran for one season, premiering on May 22, 1993, and airing its final episode on February 8, 1994. It is the only series of the franchise to air on primetime television instead of Saturday mornings – it aired on NBC on Tuesday evenings. The series follows Zach, Screech and A.C. Slater, and their three female suitemates, including Kelly Kapowski, in the dorms at college. It was followed by a television film, Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas, which aired in October 1994.

People (magazine)

People (magazine)

People is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, People had the largest audience of any American magazine, but it fell to second place in 2018 after its readership significantly declined to 35.9 million. People had $997 million in advertising revenue in 2011, the highest advertising revenue of any American magazine. In 2006, it had a circulation of 3.75 million and revenue expected to top $1.5 billion. It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial, circulation, and advertising. People ranked number 6 on Advertising Age's annual "A-list" and number 3 on Adweek's "Brand Blazers" list in October 2006.

Lil Yachty

Lil Yachty

Miles Parks McCollum, known professionally as Lil Yachty, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He first gained recognition on the internet in 2015 for his singles "One Night" and "Minnesota" from his debut EP Summer Songs. He released his debut mixtape Lil Boat in March 2016. In June 2016, Yachty announced that he had signed a joint venture record deal with Motown, Capitol Records, and Quality Control Music.

E!

E!

E! is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast.

Critical response

For the series, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 76% based on 42 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10.The website's critical consensus reads, "Though the intended grade isn't always clear, Saved By The Bell’s capable cast of newcomers make Bayside's halls their own in a reboot that's smart, self-aware, and seriously funny."^[70] Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 71 out of 100 based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[71]

Several critics were given three non-sequential episodes to review, including the pilot. Jen Chaney of Vulture gave the series a positive review, dubbing it "a self-aware satirical delight" and described the pilot as "the strongest first episode of a comedy I’ve seen all year." She also appreciated the "charming" new cast and complimented Hoog's "particularly strong" performance and the work of "the reliable great John Michael Higgins."^[72] According to Variety’s Amber Dowling, the show was a "pleasant surprise" led by a "brilliant young cast". She applauded showrunner Wigfield and the writing team for "masterfully" weaving all the best elements of the original show into the new series and was impressed by the trans character Lexi, "whose history is explained but never told through the filtered lens of trans struggle. It's a significant portrayal that pushes the conversation beyond gender identity".^[73] David Betancourt of the Washington Post gave the show a positive review, noting that it had "a big advantage over other reboots [being] really good". Describing the series as "a funnier and more culturally relevant reimagining of Bayside High", Betancourt applauded it for its "standout cast of young newcomers", especially the "much needed Afro-Latina representation" personified by Haskiri Velazquez and Alycia Pascual-Peña. "Having these chicas take center stage in a new SBTB world matters".^[74] Josh Sorokach of Decider described the series as "an irreverent, immensely enjoyable blast from the past, but also a worthy successor to the original series" and praised the "standout" performances of Josie Totah and Mitchell Hoog. "In the wrong hands, the characters of Lexi and Mac Morris could skew towards unlikable, but Totah and Hoog imbue these posh teens with an inherent affability." He also described Higgins’ portrayal of Principal Toddman as "an absolute joy to watch."^[75] In his review forTVLine, Dave Nemetz gave the series a B+ grade, calling it "surprisingly good" and "a cleverly constructed, highly tongue-in-cheek reinvention that pokes plenty of fun at its inspiration while finding genuine laughs of its own."^[76]

Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone described the series as a "clever recontextualization by Wigfield, acknowledging that some of the antics that seemed adorable in the Nineties were actually awful". He thought that it was "a bold choice not only to treat Zack as an outright villain, but to cast his doppelganger of a son in the same light" but on the other hand, being the series also addressed to the original fans, it wasn't "the safest choice to rub their noses in Zack having been a monster all along." He praised Totah's "very funny and utterly natural" performance but noted that "the grand unified field theory behind what Wigfield's attempting makes more sense than, say, the weird blend of sitcom antics, soap plot-twists, and faux documentary realism of the short-lived BH90210, but it doesn't quite hang together."^[77] Samantha David-Friedman of Attractions Magazine appreciated the "always-hilarious" John Michael Higgins and noted how the show, despite being a comedy, addressed "more complicated issues like financial disparity, racial profiling, and the complex social challenges faced by modern teens." She described the series as "the perfect mix of new and old" and that "the only thing missing so far" was Screech.^[78] Margaret Lyons of The New York Times appreciated the "quick and funny" series and the "strong performances from the new cast" but criticized "the moments of friction [...] from the adult characters grafted in from the original". She called Zack and Kelly "vacuous and awful" but commended the overall product as a "good" and "wholesome revival".^[79]

Alex Maidy of JoBlo.com was more negative in his review, giving it a 4 out of 10 vote and describing it as "one of the worst shows of 2020." Maidy criticized the series for not having "idea who its target audience is" and for being "poorly written", although he highlighted the "decent cast" and described the roles of Daisy, Aisha and Devante as "far more interesting characters than they deserve to be."^[80] Also negative was Charles Bramesco's review for The Guardian, who disliked the work of the "pretty bad [young] actors" and criticized the "laziness" of the writing ("About every third joke lands, and that's a generous estimate"). He recognized that Wigfield had "good sense to realize that a show set at a moneyed SoCal high school cannot avoid the question of income inequality and how it trickles down into the public education system" and that the project "needed a justification for its own existence beyond nostalgia for the first Bush administration, and notwithstanding its many other flaws, Wigfield has smartly managed that much." He gave the show a 2 out of 5 rating and added that "the relative praise of 'for a Saved by the Bell reboot, it's pretty good!' has been fairly earned. Still, a show about the subtle patronization of lowered expectations shouldn't be aspiring to little more than exactly that."^[81] Jamie Jirak of Comicbook appreciated the episodes and called the series a "perfect blend of laughs, nostalgia, and social awareness". She also described the series as "the best attempt at reviving a sitcom we've seen" and added that it was "absolutely worth a Peacock subscription." She praised the "excellent use of A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano", the cast's "great work" and the "solid writing." ^[82] Angela Henderson-Bentley of The Herald-Dispatch found the show to be more intense than the original: "This is not the same Bell, nor does it even try to be. And I honestly think that's why it works. There are lessons at the end of each half-hour, only now they feel much deeper and more important than they did in the 1990s."^[83] The Detroit News’ Adam Graham gave the series a B score and defined the "progressive" show as "a throwback that looks forward, embracing the past while living in the now" able to show "that you can teach the old school some new tricks." He also appreciated the art direction ("the set is lovingly recreated in sharp detail").^[84]

Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review felt that tonally, "the new Bell rings cheekier and more meta than any previous iteration" but that "Daisy's tendency to break the fourth wall to confer with viewers produces some chuckles, but after a while the gimmick wears thin." He praised Josie Totah's performance ("she steals focus in every Bell scene she's in) and dubbed her "the most original element" in the show. Having seen only three episodes, Owen added: "More writing like [Totah's lines] and this Bell might be worth saving".^[85] Candice Frederick of TV Guide gave it a 2.5/5 score in her mixed review. She described the updated versions of the original characters as "funny" (dubbing Elizabeth Berkley's Jessie as "smart and ambitious") but found it hard to understand if the show was aimed for the original fans, for the new generation, or if it was just a satire of itself. "If it's all of those things, Saved by the Bell is having way too much fun to make any of these statements very well."^[86] Judy Berman of Time approved Velazquez' "effervescent" performance and descrived Totah as "the strongest performer in the franchise" but wasn't convinced by Wigfield's too "pessimistic depictions of systemic inequality" pushed to "the verge of [triviality]" and ultimately dubbed the show "a punchy, intermittently inspired, well-intentioned mishmash".^[87]

The second season has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 8.2/10 based on 5 reviews.^[88]

Controversy

The series sparked controversy over its references to Selena Gomez's 2017 kidney transplant. In the series' sixth episode "Teen-Line", two jokes were made regarding the identity of the artist's kidney donor (who was in fact her close friend, Francia Raisa). The jokes drew backlash from fans, who perceived them as offensive and disrespectful; the phrase "Respect Selena Gomez" trended on Twitter. Peacock, Universal Television, and the show's executive producers subsequently issued a statement, "We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of [Gomez]'s health. We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC."^[89] The scenes were subsequently removed from the show by Peacock.^[90]

Accolades

Discover more about Reception related topics

Review aggregator

Review aggregator

A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services. This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users can view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies, and creating databases for companies to learn about their actual and potential customers. The system enables users to easily compare many different reviews of the same work. Many of these systems calculate an approximate average assessment, usually based on assigning a numeric value to each review related to its degree of positive rating of the work.

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the original inspiration comes from a scene featuring tomatoes in the Canadian film Léolo (1992).

Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged. Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999, and is owned by Fandom, Inc. as of 2023.

New York (magazine)

New York (magazine)

New York is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of New Journalism. Over time, it became more national in scope, publishing many noteworthy articles on American culture by writers such as Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Nora Ephron, John Heilemann, Frank Rich, and Rebecca Traister.

New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The Post also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.

TVLine

TVLine

TVLine is a website devoted to information, news, and spoilers of television programs.

Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with The Star-Ledger in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He then wrote for Uproxx, where he worked for two years. Since 2018, he has been the chief TV critic for Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its coverage of rock music and political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine broadened and shifted its focus to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music. It has since returned to its traditional mix of content, including music, entertainment, and politics.

JoBlo.com

JoBlo.com

The JoBlo Movie Network includes a website, JoBlo.com, which focuses on news, film reviews, and movie trailers; and YouTube channels that focus on trailers, movie clips, celebrity interviews, original content, and as film distribution.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Although it transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, it remains the second largest daily in the state, with nearly one million unique page views a month. Founded on August 22, 1811, as the Greensburg Gazette and in 1889 consolidated with several papers into the Greensburg Tribune-Review, the paper circulated only in the eastern suburban counties of Westmoreland and parts of Indiana and Fayette until May 1992, when it began serving all of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area after a strike at the two Pittsburgh dailies, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Press, deprived the city of a newspaper for several months.

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez

Selena Marie Gomez is an American singer, actress, producer, and businesswoman. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring as Alex Russo on the Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). Alongside her television career, Gomez appeared in the films Another Cinderella Story (2008), Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009), Ramona and Beezus (2010), Monte Carlo (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and The Dead Don't Die (2019), and voiced Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise (2012–2022).

Francia Raisa

Francia Raisa

Francia Raisa Almendarez is an American actress. Raisa is known for her roles in Bring It On: All or Nothing, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Grown-ish, and How I Met Your Father.