Saved by the Bell was a show that survived against terrible odds on numerous occasions. It started out as an NBC pilot for a different show, called Good Morning, Miss Bliss that focused on a teacher and the faculty at her school. This pilot led to an initial season, which was passed on by NBC and picked up by the Disney Channel. The show would later be retooled into Saved by the Bell, which focused on the kids at the school.

Saved by the Bell was savaged by critics throughout its run, as they felt that the humor of the show was juvenile and the storylines were trite. The opinion of the critics would turn out to be meaningless, as Saved by the Bell was a huge hit in the ratings and would go on to be fondly remembered by the audience for years to come.

The cast of Saved by the Bell had to endure a lot of hardships on the set. This was due to the cast all being teenagers when the show began, which meant that they were scrutinized by the whole world as they grew up. The impact of Saved by the Bell would also have a negative effect on their careers and make it harder for them to find work as they grew older.

We are here today to uncover the uncomfortable truths behind Bayside High and the students who attended the school. From Zack's misguided attempt at discovering his heritage, to the alleged reason behind the changing of the cast's appearance.

Here are Twenty Secrets About Saved By The Bell That Makes Us Screech!

20 Saved By The Apology

It's not uncommon for actors, producers, and writers to regret their association with certain movies and TV shows, due to changing sensibilities. The recent controversy surrounding Apu in The Simpsons is a recent case where a classic character has come under scrutiny due to the changes in society, which was only inflamed by the show's peculiar response to the issue.

Saved by the Bell has several episodes that seem shady in hindsight, but these are mostly written off as products of the time. 

There is one episode which has caused one of the Saved by the Bell stars to issue an apology due to its offensive content. The episode in question is called "Running Zack" and it focuses on Zack learning about his Native American heritage.

"Running Zack" is highly inappropriate for many reasons, but the reason Mark-Paul Gosselaar apologized was likely due to a scene where Zack comes to terms with his heritage, which involves giving a speech that lists off a bunch of Native American stereotypes, which he performs while wearing a giant feather headdress. This follows a scene earlier in the episode where Zack lists off a bunch of stereotypes while Screech talks like a caveman and has his face painted.

19 Saved By The Contract Dispute

The show that we know of as Saved by the Bell lasted four seasons, which ran from 1989 to 1993. You can extend this further by adding in the retooled Good Morning, Miss Bliss episodes, as well as the short-lived Saved by the Bell: The College Years and the two TV movies.

The fourth and final season of Saved by the Bell was intended to have a shorter run than the previous season, with only fifteen episodes covering the cast's final year at Bayside.

The network suddenly asked for an additional eleven episodes while the final season was being produced. This caused a huge issue for the producers, as Tiffani Amber Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley refused to return for more filming and were not contractually obliged to appear in any more than the originally planned number of episodes.

This is why the divisive character of Tori was created for the final season of the show. The producers wanted another girl on the show, so they decided to create a biker chick who would initially clash with Zack, before becoming his love interest.

The final run of episodes mixed the Tori and non-Tori ones together. This means that Kelly and Jessie were absent from many episodes without any explanation and Tori didn't attend her own graduation, as she hadn't been created when the episode was filmed.

18 Saved By The Budget

It's not unheard of for famous TV shows to share sets, even if they are filmed years or even decades apart. This mostly happens with shows that have a contemporary setting, as you are more likely to see homes, schools, and shopping malls appearing in multiple different stories that are set in the present day. You aren't likely to see many shows that need to reuse the bridge of the Enterprise or the Red Keep from Game of Thrones, which is part of what makes those shows so unique.

Saved by the Bell and That's So Raven were two shows that shared a set, which led to speculation that the two might share a continuity. 

Saved by the Bell and That's So Raven shared a writer, which means that the fact that both series use the same set for a school called Bayside High was likely an intentional shoutout.

They can't actually be the same school, considering the fact that Saved by the Bell was set in Los Angeles and That's So Raven was set in San Francisco. This means that the That's So Raven incarnation of Bayside High could be thought of as a homage instead of being the same place.

17 Saved By The Spin-Off

The X-Men movies weren't the only media franchise to use a reboot that removed unwanted parts of the continuity and kept the pieces that everyone liked. Saved by the Bell was doing it back in the '80s, as it originally started out as a different show, called Good Morning, Miss Bliss. 

Good Morning, Miss Bliss starred Hayley Mills as the titular teacher. This was the main difference between the two shows, as Good Morning, Miss Bliss focused on the faculty, while Saved by the Bell was all about the lives of the students at the school.

Three of the students in Good Morning, Miss Bliss proved to be so popular that they would later be made into the stars of Saved by the Bell, these were Zack Morris (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Lisa Turtle (played by Lark Voorhies) and Samual "Screech" Powers (played by Dustin Diamond.)

Good Morning, Miss Bliss was later repackaged as Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years, which included a new opening scene where Mark-Paul Gosselaar explained the context of how the show predated Saved by the Bell and why the characters and scenarios are different from the later incarnation of the show.

16 Saved By The Dancing

Elizabeth Berkley played Jessie Spano in Saved by the Bell and Nomi Malone in Showgirls. These are by far her two most famous roles and she will likely be associated with them even after her demise.

When Elizabeth Berkley appeared in the seventeenth season of Dancing with the Stars, she decided to perform a dance based on her most infamous scene from Saved by the Bell. This was the smart choice, as even her worst scene in Saved by the Bell is better than anything related to Showgirls. 

The scene in question happened during the episode called "Jessie's Song" where Jessie became addicted to caffeine pills, as she had taken on too many different responsibilities. This led to a scene where Zack catches her taking the pills, which causes Jessie to break down and start singing "I'm So Excited" before admitting that she needs help.

It was during the fifth week of the show that Elizabeth Berkley and her partner performed a dance number to "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters. This erupted from a skit where she reenacted the famous caffeine freakout scene from Saved by the Bell. 

Elizabeth Berkley was eliminated during the ninth week of Dancing with the Stars.

15 Saved By The Retcon

Good Morning, Miss Bliss was repackaged as Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years, which meant that it now became an unofficial prequel to the show. We say that it's unofficial due to the fact that many story elements were abandoned when the show turned into Saved by the Bell. 

One of the biggest changes between Good Morning, Miss Bliss and Saved by the Bell was the location. Good Morning, Miss Bliss was set in John F. Kennedy Junior High, which was in Indianapolis, while Saved by the Bell was set in Bayside High School, which was in Los Angeles.

Mr. Belding was also different in the pilot of Good Morning, Miss Bliss. He was originally played by Oliver Clark, who was an older man with less of an interest in engaging with the kids. The role of Mr. Belding was recast when the first series was produced, with Dennis Haskins taking the role. He would go on to appear in the most episodes of any character in the series.

Screech also underwent some changes during the transition of Good Morning, Miss Bliss to Saved by the Bell. He was originally said to have had a brother, yet this aspect of his character was abandoned in the later iterations of the show, where it was established that he was an only child and that Zack & Slater fulfilled brother-like roles in his life.

14 Saved By The Scam

The people at Adult Swim are known for being pranksters and riling up their audience with false announcements. This has included several April Fools' Day pranks, such as playing Mr. T and Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos and numerous showings of The Room, featuring new bumpers, and interviews with Tommy Wiseau.

Adult Swim fans suspected that they were up to shenanigans once more when they started to show random episodes of Saved by the Bell during their programming hours. This led to a backlash from the fans, as Saved by the Bell is the opposite of what people tune in to Adult Swim for.

It seemed for a moment that Adult Swim airing episodes of Saved by the Bell was making sense, as they released a statement claiming that they were collaborating with Cartoon Network on producing new episodes of the show. A lot of news outlets picked up this story and ran it, even though the whole thing seemed fishy.

The skeptics of the story were proven to be correct, as it turned out that the statement had been released Matt Laster, who claimed to be the VP of the '80s Reclamation Department, was actually just a regular employee at Adult Swim.

13 Saved By The Adaptation

It's surprising that we have yet to see any kind of modern reboot of Saved by the Bell. The show certainly has the popularity and the name value to justify a new iteration. All you would need to do is use the same characters in a modern setting and see how they would react to how society and technology have changed since the '80s/'90s.

You have a setting where Screech's interests have become mainstream and where Jessie is constantly looking for things on Tumblr to be outraged by. 

A modern Saved by the Bell remake has already been done in the form of a comic book story, where we get to see a Bayside High School that has students watching videos on their tablets and auditioning for lame reality shows.

The Saved by the Bell comic series was created by Lion Forge, which was a company that had bought the rights to several old TV shows in order to make comic books out of them. They also purchased the rights to make comics based on Airwolf, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, and Punky Brewster. 

IDW Publishing released a collected volume of their Saved by the Bell series, which helped to modernize the series and show the old characters in the ever so slightly more modern world than the one they lived in before.

12 Saved By The Casting Director

Lisa Turtle might be the most one-dimensional character on Saved by the Bell, though that isn't really saying much. Lisa was obsessed with fashion and popularity, which earned her the unwarranted romantic attention of Screech. This meant that she spent most of the show turning down his lame advances.

Lisa has since become infamous for the relationship that she did not have, as many fans wanted her to date Zack, as they believed that the two of them had far more in common than the other girls on the show. This was restricted to a single episode story arc which resulted in them remaining friends. There have been a lot of rumors that the episode was controversial and resulted in complaints, due to it showing an interracial relationship on a show meant for kids.

Lark Voorhies should be commended for nailing the role of Lisa, to the point where she changed how the producers originally envisioned the character. 

The original casting call for Lisa was for a girl who was described as a "White/Jewish Princess" who was obsessed with fashion. Lark Voorhies was so impressive during the audition that the producers threw out everything they knew about the character and tailored it to her performance.

11 Saved By The Defense Lawyer

The global popularity of Saved by the Bell has ensured that the cast will forever be known for the roles that they played in their teens. It would take a massive amount of success for one of the cast members to become known for something different, such as starring in the next Star Wars movie or coming up with a cure for cancer.

The Saved by the Bell cast has also become known for their behavior outside of acting. The biggest example of this has to be Dustin Diamond, who has run afoul of the law on several occasions since leaving the show. Dustin Diamond was arrested in 2014 for having a blade which he was said to have drawn during a fight. Diamond's fiancee was also arrested during the altercation.

This arrest led to Dustin Diamond being convicted of carrying a weapon and disorderly conduct, which resulted in a sentence of three months in the clink. Diamond served three months of the sentence and was released on probation. This would lead to Diamond's probation officer ruling that he had broken the rules of his probation, which led to him being sent back to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence.

10 Saved By The Divorce Lawyer

The success of Saved by the Bell meant that several imitators were created to try and leech off the popularity of the show. These included California Dreams (which was Saved by the Bell if the cast were in a band together), Hang Time (which was Saved by the Bell if the cast was obsessed with basketball), and City Guys (which was Saved by the Bell if it was set in the inner city and had a more diverse cast.)

All of these shows were actually the brainchild of Peter Engel, who was a producer at NBC. Peter Engel is proud of his work on Good Morning, Miss Bliss and Saved by the Bell and has discussed the shows in many interviews. He even released a book that discussed his time working on the show, called I Was Saved by the Bell: Stories of Life, Love, and Dreams That Do Come True.

It was during the promotion for this book that Peter Engel revealed the fates of the cast of Saved by the Bell. According to Engel, Kelly and Zack's marriage wouldn't last and they would get divorced. Zack went on to remarry and became a game show host, while Kelly also remarried and had kids, before becoming the host of a cooking show. Lisa and Screech would go on to find success in their related fields while Slater became a gym coach. Jessie would have been the Hilary Clinton of her world and lost the election against Donald Trump.

9 Saved By The Double

Dominic Diamond had one of the longest tenures on Saved by the Bell, as he debuted on Good Morning, Miss Bliss and would appear in every season of Saved by the Bell, as well as the one season of the College Years and the two TV movies. He would reprise the role of Screech in Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which involved Screech returning to Bayside High School during the show's second season, as he became Principal Belding's new assistant.

Dominic Diamond wasn't able to maintain the same success outside of the show, as he has mostly worked as a stand-up comedian in recent years. This hasn't gone well, as Screech was forced to go on The Howard Stern Show beg for help and in order to raise money to save his house. He did this by selling T-shirts that had "I paid $15.00 to save Screeech's house" with the extra e being added to avoid a lawsuit.

8 Saved By The Lipstick

We are currently in the grip of nostalgia for '90s clothes, music, TV shows, and video games. The SNES Classic is selling more copies than a glorified emulator with an HD output has any right to, while it seems like every crappy boyband and Britpop group has been gluing themselves back together in order to reclaim their old audiences.

Saved by the Bell has not been spared from the nostalgia. One example of this happened during a segment on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon when most of the cast reunited for a segment where Fallon imagined himself as a character on the show. The makeup manufacturer known as Sola Look has released a range of lipsticks inspired by Saved by the Bell.

The pack comes with three lipsticks, with each one being inspired by one of the girls on the show.

As a reader of TheGamer, you are likely the target audience for such a product and will have to make the terrible choice between the peach colored Kelly lipstick or the metallic one that was meant for Lisa. The caps on the lipstick also have the same wacky pattern from the Saved by the Bell intro, which would be nostalgic for any of the fans of the show.

7 Saved By The Tongue

It can't have been easy for Dominic Diamond during his time on Saved by the Bell, as he was several years younger than his cast mates, which is one of the reasons why he was so mean to them in Behind the Bell. He was also playing the goofy nerd with an odd-looking appearance, which meant that he would never be as popular as his prettier associates.

Screech was given a nerdy love interest in Saved by the Bell, which took the form of a bespectacled girl, named Violet Bickerstaff. The role of Violet was played by Tori Spelling, which would become the first of many major acting roles for her.

Violet Bickerstaff would appear in three different episodes of Saved by the Bell. She would leave her original boyfriend for Screech, despite opposition from her parents. It seems that this relationship did not last, as she was never seen again after Season Three. There was a scene where Screech and Violet kissed in one of the Saved by the Bell episodes. This was actually Dustin Diamond's first ever kiss and it took place on a TV show.

It seems that Dustin Diamond was interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with Tori Spelling outside of the show, but it turns out that she only had eyes for Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

6 Saved By The FCC

"Jessie's Song" is the infamous episode of Saved by the Bell where Jessie becomes addicted to things in order to maintain her busy schedule. Her substance of choice is a curious one, considering the fact that it can't be fun to be swallowing caffeine all day. Why couldn't she just drink a few coffees instead? If she needed an extra buzz then she could have poured a Red Bull into it.

It turns out that Jessie's addiction to caffeine was a late addition to the script.

Peter Engel had originally wanted Jessie to be into something else, which makes more sense in terms of her wanting to stay alert and awake for so long. Peter Engel had wanted to tell a more realistic story of this kind of thing, but he was overturned by the Standards & Practises people at NBC, who felt that showing a Saved by the Bell character becoming hooked on speed was going to be too much for a Saturday morning cartoon. This led to Engel using a more family-friendly alternative in the form of caffeine.

It seems that the people at NBC were far more skittish than their British counterparts, as Grange Hill (a show set in a school that was intended for a similar audience as Saved by the Bell) had already shown one of their main cast members strung out on something.

5 Saved By The Nostalgia

The principal cast members of Saved by the Bell were the six kids and Principal Belding. There was another character on the show who appeared in a lot of episodes, due to the fact that he owned the diner where the kids hung out after school. This essentially made him into the Gunther of the group.

The Saved by the Bell kids liked to hang out at a diner called The Max, which was owned by a magician of the same name. Max appeared many times throughout the first two seasons of the show and would often encourage the kids in whatever wacky schemes they were getting up to that week.

Max was played by Ed Alonzo, who is a real-life magician. Alonzo is proud of his time on the show, to the point where has become the owner of a pop-up establishment that is based on The Max.

Pop-up locations are temporary establishments that can be disassembled and taken on tour. "Saved by the Max" is the Saved by the Bell equivalent, as it based on The Max. It has been taken to several different cities, where it is used to host Saved by the Bell-themed events and parties.

4 Saved By The Cyclones

The Brooklyn Cyclones are a minor league baseball team who are known on social media for their nostalgia nights, where the team will wear unique uniforms that are based on certain franchises, such as Seinfeld. The Cyclones also encourage their fans to do the same thing and come to the games dressed like their favorite characters.

In 2015, the Brooklyn Cyclones decided to honor Saved by the Bell with a themed event that took place during a match against the Tri-City ValleyCats. This match came with several unique features, such as a Kiss Cam that played a cheering live studio audience crowd noise whenever anyone smooched.

There were several games planned for when the match ended. These included a variant of musical chairs where the kids had to stop when someone made the timeout gesture with their hands (like Zack did on the show whenever he unleashed his godlike powers) and giving anyone with a perm or acid-washed jeans a chance to run the bases.

The first pitch during the game was thrown out by Dennis Haskins (who played Principal Belding) and the players were forced to wear horrific jerseys that had a similar pattern to the animated intro of Saved by the Bell.

3 Saved By The Voodoo

One of the downsides of becoming a celebrity at a young age is the increased potential to be exposed to substances by the people around you. Saved by the Bell was a hugely popular show, so it was only natural that the cast would be given more opportunities to engage in strange acts of all kinds, due to their celebrity status.

Dustin Diamond was the author of a book that was released in 2009, called Behind the Bell. This book lists the alleged strange behavior that was going on behind-the-scenes on the set of Saved by the Bell, which included rampant substance use and Screech's (supposed) impressive list of romantic conquests.

The acts listed in Behind the Bell have been refuted by the other cast members on the show. Diamond himself has also claimed that the book was exaggerated by an uncredited ghostwriter, though this claim hasn't been proven. It wasn't just the cast of Saved by the Bell who was crazy, as Dustin Diamond has talked about the numerous bizarre encounters he has had with fans over the years. This extended to strange gifts being sent to him, which have included the components for making a voodoo doll.

2 Saved By The Performance

Lark Voorhies was able to win the role of Lisa Turtle despite looking nothing like how the creators imagined the character to look. She was given a foundation for the character and managed to win the part, even though she didn't match what the producers were looking for. Elizabeth Berkley managed an even more impressive feat, as her performance during casting was so good that she convinced the producers to create a whole new role in the show for her.

The role of Kelly Kapowski was created when the show abandoned Miss Bliss and focused on the kids. It was decided that Zack should have a love interest who would be friends with Lisa, which resulted in a casting call for teenage actors. The final two actors considered for the role of Kelly were Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffani Amber Thiessen. The role would eventually go to Thiessen, but Berkley impressed the creators so much that they created a whole new character for her to play on the show.

Jessie Spano was created to be a socially conscious character who cared about the relevant issue of each episode. Jessie also rounded up the number of girls and acted as a love interest for Slater, despite how different they were.

1 Saved By The Juice

It's not uncommon for actors who are associated with famous roles to want to drastically change their appearance so that they can distance themselves from the role. This is why Mark Hamill and Tim Curry bulked up and grew facial hair, as they were trying to separate themselves from the roles of Luke Skywalker and Dr. Frank-N-Furter. It didn't work in their case, as both ended up returning to Star Wars and The Rocky Horror franchises at later points in their lives.

The cast of Saved by the Bell was keen to shed their family-friendly image so that they could find more adult roles once the show ended. This is one of the reasons why Elizabeth Berkley appeared unclothed in Showgirls. Some of the Saved By The Bell cast did the same thing.

It seems that some of the actors turned to outside help in order to change their appearance, or at least Dustin Diamond thinks that they did. Dustin Diamond alleged in Behind the Bell that Mark-Paul Gosselaar was taking supplements, in order to quickly pile on muscle and change his physical appearance, so that he could distance himself from the role that he had been playing since his early teens.