This NBC series (a revamp of a 1988 Disney series called Good Morning, Miss Bliss starring Hayley Mills) featured the comedic misadventures of six students at (fictional) Bayside High School in Palisades, California, where Mr Richard Belding (Dennis Haskins) was the Principal.
Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) was the cool troublemaker and natural-born con artist, A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) was the kind-hearted jock and captain of the football and wrestling teams, “Screech” Powers (Dustin Diamond) the smart and funny nerd, Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Thiessen) the teen dream and head cheerleader (she was also Zack’s obsession), Lisa Marie Turtle (Lark Voorhies) the gossiping fashion lover who loved to shop, and Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) the feminist straight-A student and member of the Honors Society.
The series was notorious for frequently introducing new characters who subsequently disappeared in later episodes.
Some of the more glaring examples of characters who fell victim to this trend were Jessie’s new stepbrother, Eric Tramer (Joshua Hoffman), who, after agreeing to live with Jessie permanently, was never seen or spoken of again; Violet Bickerstaff (Tori Spelling), Screech’s girlfriend, who disappeared mid-way through season three; and Laura (Jennifer McComb), a homeless girl and Zack’s love interest from the two-part Christmas episode, who was to live with the Morris family until her father found a job, but who was never seen or referred to after these episodes.
The most obvious example was Tori Scott (Leanna Creel), a tough biker chick who transferred to Bayside at the beginning of season four and appeared sporadically throughout the season but disappeared before the graduation episode. Her fate was never revealed.
Zack broadcast on Bayside Radio as “Wolfman Zack” and later formed Kelly, Jessie and Lisa into a very sexy singing group called Hot Sundae.
He later formed the band The Zack Attack (with Kelly, Lisa, Slater and Screech). In 1992, he formed the group The Five Aces (with Tori replacing Kelly and Jessie).
Saved By The Bell spawned two unnecessary spin-offs – Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which inexplicably ran for seven years, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years which was just ill-conceived.
College Years struggled to adapt its parent series’ enduring corny humour to the heavy-handed “mature” situations it portrayed and introduced completely dull replacements for Lisa and Jessie.
At least the one-season non-wonder ended on a good note: Zack and Kelly finally got married in a Vegas-set TV movie.
Dustin “Screech” Diamond died of lung cancer in February 2021. He was just 44.
Zachary “Zack” Morris
Mark-Paul Gosselaar A.C. (Albert Clifford) Slater
Mario Lopez Samuel ‘Screech’ Powers
Dustin Diamond Lisa Marie Turtle
Lark Voorhies Mr Richard Belding
Dennis Haskins Kelly Kapowski
Tiffani Thiessen Jessica “Jessie” Spano
Elizabeth Berkley Max
Ed Alonzo Tori Scott
Leanna Creel
Audio
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Some of the more glaring examples of characters who fell victim to this trend were Jessie’s new stepbrother, Eric Tramer (Joshua Hoffman), who, after agreeing to live with Jessie permanently, was never seen or spoken of again; Violet Bickerstaff (Tori Spelling), Screech’s girlfriend, who disappeared mid-way through season three; and Laura (Jennifer McComb), a homeless girl and Zack’s love interest from the two-part Christmas episode, who was to live with the Morris family until her father found a job, but who was never seen or referred to after these episodes.
He later formed the band The Zack Attack (with Kelly, Lisa, Slater and Screech). In 1992, he formed the group The Five Aces (with Tori replacing Kelly and Jessie).
