The ‘Saved by the Bell’ Reboot Will Make You Feel All the Nostalgia Feels
The Saved by the Bell reboot has officially wrapped and will be coming to NBC's streaming service, PeacockTV, sometime during the 2020 holiday season. "It was great to be back," Mario Lopez tells Woman's Day about reprising his role as A.C. Slater in the Saved by the Bell reboot. "We had a great showrunner in Tracey Wigfield. She's awesome." Lopez, who also produced the reboot, will star alongside Saved by the Bell veteran Elizabeth Berkley (also known as Jessie Spano), and a new group of Bayside high school students.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, and Lark Voorhies — Zack Morris, Kelly Kapowski, and Lisa Turtle, respectively — will all make reboot appearances. The only original cast member who won't be returning this season is Dustin Diamond's lovable Screech. He's referenced throughout the season, but he doesn't make a cameo appearance. "You never know," Lopez says about the possibility that Diamond will show up in future seasons of the reboot.
There are underlying differences between the original series and the reboot, so while you're sure to feel nostalgic watching the new series, there will be some obvious differences. "It's got a different look and feel and much more mature Saved by the Bell, but I think they [struck] a good balance with this nostalgia in the new version," Lopez says. "Hopefully people check it out and like it."
A post shared by Mario Lopez (@mariolopez) on Sep 15, 2020 at 9:49am PDT
The reboot writers found a way to successfully incorporate easter eggs and throwbacks to the original Saved by the Bell series, Lopez says, explaining that the tone of the two shows are the same, "but the updated version, I think, is much funnier, to be quite honest."
According to the show's synopsis, Zack Morris is the governor of California when he finds himself in hot water for closing too many low-income high schools. In an attempt to save himself from political ruin, he proposes sending the affected students to some of the highest performing schools in the state, including Bayside High. The influx of new students gives over-privileged Bayside kids a much needed dose of reality. "The new crop of kids we have are very talented, very cool," Lopez says.
Slater is now Bayside's gym teacher, and Jessie Spano is the school's guidance counselor. Based on the Saved by the Bell reboot trailers that have been released (here and here), it seems like Slater is still mentally stuck in high school. He constantly talks about how much he misses it, how fun it used to be, and how he always used to fight with his best friend (Zack) over a girl (Kelly) until he found another girl to "hookup with" (Jessie).
A post shared by Elizabeth Berkley Lauren (@elizberkley) on Sep 17, 2019 at 12:49pm PDT
"I was surprised," Lopez says about how the writers created his now older character. "It was a lot of fun to play, and it's pretty funny," he continues. "I know a lot of people like that in real life, so it was easy to draw from."
There is no official release date for the Saved by the Bell reboot, but Lopez says you can expect to see it on Peacock some time in December. In the meantime, you can stream the original Saved by the Bell series on Hulu.
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