Zack Morris Is Returning To Bayside For The “Saved By The Bell” Revival
NBCUniversal better set aside some extra cash in the budget for hair-grade peroxide cream, acid-wash denim, and a machine that freezes time (that’s how they did that, right?). Because The Hollywood Reporter says that Zack Morris will be a character on NBCUniversal’s revival of Saved by the Bell. And of course he’ll be played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
In the Saved by the Bell revival, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez will play Jessie Spano and A.C. Slater as adults with high school aged children of their own. Josie Totah got the lead role of the most popular girl at Bayside. There was a rumor that Mark-Paul would be brought back to play Governor of California Zack Morris. It seemed likely that Mark-Paul might have something to do with it, since he’s been known to hang around Elizabeth and Mario. No one should be really that surprised then that THR says Mark-Paul just reportedly closed a deal to join the cast. Mark-Paul’s role is critical to the show. The series is based around the Governor of California closing too many low-income schools, and dumping those students at bougie schools like Bayside.
Except unlike the original Saved by the Bell, Zack Morris isn’t exactly the star of the show. Sorry, preppy! Sources say that Zack Morris will appear in three episodes. He’ll also be credited as a producer. Mario Lopez is probably thrilled that there will only be three opportunities to get upstaged by the former King of Bayside High. But it sounds like there could have been much more if Mark-Paul didn’t already have another job.
Mark-Paul plays Paul Johnson on Mixed-ish (aka young Bow Johnson’s dad). SBTB and Mixed-ish are produced by different studios, which means a three-episode appearance was the best compromise anyone could hope for. There’s a TV industry standard rule when it comes to a series regular appearing on another series, and it’s three episodes.
But when Zack is missing, they might be able to fill in the gaps with Kelly Kapowski. Sources tell THR that Tiffani Amber Thiessen is in talks to reprise her role on the SBTB revival. But neither NBCUniversal nor Peacock had any comment on that. Frankly, do they even have to? Kelly will totally be back. After all, she was married to Zack Morris. I say “was,” because there’s no way she still is. Not only is Zack Morris a politician, he also sounds like a shady one. You can’t tell me Governor Morris wasn’t caught sending dick pics over Facebook to a private citizen named Stacey Carosi.
Pic: Wenn.com