Flashback: Zack Morris and Friends Become Rock Stars on ‘Saved by the Bell’
A new trailer for Peacock’s Saved by the Bell revival landed earlier this week. It provides a broader look at the Bayside universe circa 2020 where A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) is the gym teacher, Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) is the mother of the football team captain, Max (Ed Alonzo) is still running everyone’s favorite diner, and a whole new generation of kids are causing trouble. It doesn’t show Governor Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) or California First Lady Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Amber Thiessen), but they will be on the show in a limited capacity due to Gosselaar’s commitments to the new ABC show Mixed-ish.
The new show centers around a group of new students from low-income families sent to Bayside by Governor Morris. They interact with the wealthy Bayside kids and wackiness and hijinks are sure to ensue, along with a few heartfelt lessons. Principal Toddman (John Michael Higgins) has replaced Principal Belding (Dennis Haskins) and there are no plans, at least as of yet, to bring on Screech (Dustin Diamond) or Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies). (Voorhies is none-too-pleased about this. It’s hard to imagine Haskins and Diamond are thrilled either.)
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The trailer has a callback to Spano’s infamous “I’m So Excited” caffeine-pill freakout. If they plan on adding in other throwback moments for OG fans, we’d love to see a reunion of the Zack Attack at some point. For those that don’t remember, that was a band lead by Zack Morris that occasionally came together to play school dances and other Bayside events. Zack played guitar, Lisa handled the bass, Slater drummed, and Screech was on keyboards. The lip-syncing was as clumsy and obvious as you can imagine.
Their big episode came near the end of Season Three when Zack has an elaborate dream where the band finds fame and fortune. Casey Kasem narrates the Behind the Music–style saga that shows them turning on each other once they become popular, only to reunite at the end. Here’s an early scene where they play their masterpiece “Did We Ever Have a Chance?” There are a lot of great moments, but Slater singing the bridge from the drum kit is probably the best. They didn’t even make the slightest effort to find a singer that sounded anything like him.
Not much is known about the new Saved by the Bell other than brief character descriptions and what was revealed in the trailers. It seems unlikely that Zack will step out of the governor’s mansion to front the band again, but the show has never been afraid to stray very far outside the realms of logic to tell an inane story. It would be a chance to bring Dustin Diamond and Lark Voorhies back into the fold. Keeping them out of this new show feels unfair. In the Zack Attack’s most famous song, they said that they were “Friends Forever.” They should prove it by bringing everyone back, even Mr. Belding.
