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Look out, preppies. A new chapter of Saved by the Bell is finally happening, after years of rumors and delays. The sequel will feature Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley reprising their roles as A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano, respectively. It’s headed to Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming new streaming service.
Of course, a project this big and — hello! — exciting is likely to undergo some big changes before it sees the light of day. Here’s everything we know about the revival of the classic NBC high school sitcom, which ran from 1989 to 1993 before spawning two spin-offs and a pair of TV movies.
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It’s expected to premiere in 2020: The Saved by the Bell revival is expected to debut later in 2020. No exact premiere date has been announced, and there’s been no word on whether the series’ launch date will be affected by the industry’s widespread production shutdowns due to COVID-19. The series will stream on Peacock, the new NBCUniversal platform, which launches April 15 for Comcast Xfinity users and July 15 for all users.
The first trailer will take you back to high school. Peacock released the first trailer for Saved by the Bell in April, taking viewers inside the modern Bayside which… seems a lot like the old Bayside, just with a lot of new tech and now it’s Zack’s (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) son stirring up trouble instead of Zack.
Zack is now the governor of California: In the updated Saved by the Bell, Zack Morris is a major politician, but he’s in for a crisis after “closing too many low-income high schools.” To clean it up, Governor Morris decides to send a bunch of students to the highest-performing schools in the state — including Bayside High — and the new students give the privileged Bayside students a much-needed and hilarious reality check.
Although Gosselaar, who currently stars on ABC’s Mixed-ish, previously indicated that he hadn’t been contacted about returning to the role, he later confirmed that he would indeed appear in a few episodes of the revival.
Gosselaar shared a first look of him getting totally Zack’d out in March.
Zack is just as messy as ever. According Gosselaar, Zack won’t be much different from the troublesome teen we got to know in the original series. The revival will see him “being a little offensive and sort of not being on the right side of things,” the actor told TV Line.
He also noted to the outlet that the Peacock revival is much more current than the original series. “Script-wise, these aren’t the scripts we got [31 years ago],” Gosselaar said. “I don’t think you could do that. That’s sort of just across the board with television: There’s a lot of things we did [then] that we’re not doing now… and I don’t know necessarily that it would be appropriate [to do things the same way].”
You’ll see faces you recognize: As previously mentioned, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez are reprising their roles as Jessie Spano and A. C. Slater, respectively — the “It” couple at Bayside High for much of the show’s run. There’s no word yet on whether other original series regulars like Tiffani Thiessen, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, or Dennis Haskins will return, but Lopez’s behind-the-scenes video from the set proves that the series will welcome back Ed Alonzo as the hip diner’s owner, Max.
There will be a ton of new faces: Given the updated plot, which involves an influx of new students, the sequel series is set to welcome plenty of newcomers to the franchise. In January, Peacock announced the comedy had found its first new lead in Champions alum Josie Totah, who will play the sharp-tongued cheerleader Lexie.
The rest of the new teens were revealed by The Hollywood Reporter: The Maze Runner‘s Dexter Darden will play DeVante, a “mysterious loner” who’s looking for a fresh start at Bayside; The Birch‘s Haskiri Velazquez will play Daisy, a “smart, ambitious sophomore”; Roswell, New Mexico‘s Mitchell Hoog will play Zack Morris’ privileged son Mac Morris; Alycia Pascual-Pena will play Daisy’s “ultra-competitive” best friend Aisha; and Empire‘s Belmont Cameli will play Jessie Spano’s sensitive jock son Jamie.
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The tone might be a little different… and fresh: Tracey Wigfield, who worked on 30 Rock and created Great News, has been tapped to provide a new take on show, so it’s not hard to imagine the new SBTB having at least some of the wacky and wild feeling of those zany comedies. Original series producers Peter Engel and Franco Bario will both serve as executive producers.
The original Saved By the Bell is available to stream on Hulu.
Source : TVGuide
