Ya know, I used to love how Marvel and DC always had big crossover summer events. I mean, other than it being “tradition”, it was also a good way to spike their numbers and get folks excited about their products. So, if it’s good enough for comics, it’s good enough for us!
Over the course of the past 15.5 episodes, we’ve covered shows where the audience’s familiarity ranged from “Never heard of it” (The Mini-Monsters) to “Oh, yeah! THAT show!” (Parker Lewis Can’t Lose). This summer, however, we’re tackling a show where every listener is probably going to ask “Are you kidding me?!” I mean, who hasn’t heard of Saved By The Bell?!
Your relationship with Saved By The Bell may vary, but you’re at least aware of its existence. What many don’t realize, though, is that Saved By The Bell wasn’t just a show, but a franchise. What unwittingly began with NBC’s Good Morning, Miss Bliss (which found a one-season home on Disney Channel), would go on to spawn Saved By The Bell, Saved By The Bell: The College Years, Saved By The Bell: The New Class, and Peacock’s recent Saved By The Bell “reimagining”. So, while you might remember Zack, Kelly, Slater and the rest, chances are you’re not as familiar with Nikki, Mikey, Weasel, Maria, R.A. Mike Rogers, Professor Lasky, Daisy, or Mac Morris. Well, you’re about to learn all about them and more this summer, as we bring you Saved By The Summer!
We’re kicking things off with Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was originally developed as a “Hayley Mills vehicle” for NBC in 1987. Mills was best known as a former child star with a Disney contract – kinda like Miley Cyrus or Zendaya, but without the rebellious raunchy VMA performance or Challengers phase. The original pilot was about a recently-married middle aged teacher, as she tried to balance her job with her personal life. She was an independent 80s gal, who occasionally taught kids. And these kids included a lot of folks who would become household names, like Brian Austin Green, Jaleel White, and Jonathan Brandis. I mean, the show tried to give equal balance to both aspects of Miss Bliss’s life, but nobody cares about teachers (No, seriously. Look at how society treats them!), so it was retooled into a show about a class of kids, that occasionally focused on its now-widowed, middle aged teacher. And it was this version of the show that ended up on Disney Channel (and later as flashback “Junior High” episodes during Saved By The Bell‘s syndicated run). Having not grown up with cable, I didn’t experience these episodes until that syndicated run, so I learned a lot about this era of the show, as well as how it would become the thing that we all know and love and/or hate.
Adam and I give Miss Bliss the standard Remember That Show? treatment, but in lieu of our Show Doctors segment, we instead focus on What Might Have Been, had Miss Bliss been granted a second season. You don’t wanna miss out, so you can find the episode here, or at The Max, next to that Johnny Dakota poster near the bathroom!
