Get your hairspray cans at the ready, because high school sitcom, Saved by the Bell, is returning to our screens with a sequel. Mario Lopes and Elizabeth Berkley are reprising their roles as AC Slater and Jessie Spano from the original show, which ran on NBC between 1989 and 1993.
Set for release April next year on NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, Peacock, the straight-to-series show will be directed by Great News creator Tracey Wigfield, and co-produced and written by original series creators Peter Engel and Franco Bario. It will follow Slater and Spano as parents of students at the show’s Bayside High, which has recently gained a number of students from low-income high schools – a move implemented by California governor Zack Morris (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar). “The influx of new students gives the overprivileged Bayside kids a much-needed and hilarious dose of reality,” reads a synopsis on the Hollywood Reporter.
The reboot marks the 30th anniversary since the show first graced TVs back in 1989. The success of the original show, about a group of high school students navigating the world of dating, exams, breakups, and drugs, became a massive hit, inspiring two spinoffs, Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and a two further TV films.
In the meantime, watch the original trailer below, and also read our piece on the unbearable crisis of originality that is besieging film and television.