Minus that late night reunion sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and that redonk Lifetime movie, Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski haven't shared any scenes together since 1994's TV movie Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas. That will all change soon thanks to NBC's new streaming service Peacock, which is reviving Saved by the Bell for 2020 audiences. Of course, knowing about Zack and Kelly's return to TV doesn't really tell us how much of the coupling fans are going to see.
Thankfully, Zack himself Mark-Paul Gosselaar shed a little light on the matter, although his answer probably won't provide all the satisfaction that longtime fans are hoping for. When asked to clarify how much we'll see his Zack alongside Tiffani Thiessen's Kelly Kapowski-Morris, Gosselaar said:
As far as I know, she will be in an episode or two with me. She was, at the time, working on [Netflix’s Alexa & Katie]. . . . [The lack of episodes] wasn’t necessarily because of our desire to do it. It was more of a commitment to other things.
Just one or two episodes? For the biggest power couple in Saturday morning TV? Perhaps Mark-Paul Gosselaar's answer to TVLine might not be so disappointing if we knew that the Saved by the Bell revival was only meant to last two or three episodes, but we already know it'll last longer than that.
By all means, it's possible that scheduling snafus could work themselves out to allow both Tiffani Thiessen and Mark-Paul Gosselaar to pop up in Peacock's Saved by the Bell more often. But for now, we can only anticipate limited appearances.
At least it's already confirmed that Zack and Kelly are still together as a married couple, and the show doesn't seem like it'll be focused on showcasing their drama. My money is still on Zack proving himself to be a jealous doofus during at least one point, even if it won't be Mario Lopez's Slater also vying for her affection.
While Tiffani Thiessen is busy filming the younger-skewing Netflix comedy Alexa & Katie, Mark-Paul Gosselaar is one of the stars of ABC's mixed-ish, a spinoff of the hit sitcom black-ish. While Gosselaar's gig is more timely, in that the episodes' weekly filming schedule is structured accordingly, Netflix almost exclusively films entire seasons of shows in one fell swoop, since the majority of their premieres contain all of a season's episodes. So it was possibly a little trickier for Thiessen to dip out in order to make her Kelly cameo happen.
At this point, Mark-Paul Gosselaar has been tapped for three confirmed appearances in Saved by the Bell, which he's also serving as executive producer on. He says he's only read the scripts for Episode 1 and Episode 8 so far, though, so he can't speak to anything that goes down in the middle six episodes.c
Which means he can't speak to how the new Saved by the Bell will drop any mentions for other beloved characters. It's already been confirmed that Elizabeth Berkley's Jessie Spano will be involved, as will Mario Lopez's A.C. Slater. But what about Lark Voorhies' Lisa Turtle or Dustin Diamond's Screech Powers?
Both Lark Voorhies and Dustin Diamond have voiced their issues with any Saved by the Bell projects moving forward without anyone contacting them about making appearances. It's certainly possible that producers could get in touch, though Diamond's sketchy past (involving his co-star-trashing memoir, his sex tape and his legal issues) may keep him from ever returning to Bayside in the future.
For the new iteration of the show, Zack Morris will be the governor of California (since shit floats uphill in this universe), and he'll be in trouble over too many low-income schools getting closed in the area. His plan is to send the ousted students to the state's highest-performing schools, which means Bayside High gets a slew of new students that will provide much-needed reality checks to the pampered Bayside students.
Some of the new faces fans can expect to see are MItchell Hogg as Zack's son Mac Morris, Belmont Cameli as Jessie's son Jamie Spano, Josie Totah as sharp-tongued cheerleader Lexi, Haskiri Velazquez as new student Daisy, and Alycia Pascual-Pena as Daisy's best friend Aisha. Taking over for Mr. Belding as Bayside's principal will be frequent Christopher Guest collaborator John Michael Higgins, though there's no sign of whether Dennis Haskins will pop by for a Belding cameo.
Saved by the Bell fans can watch Zack and Kelly together at least one more time when the Peacock revival hits streaming at some point later this year.
