Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Saved By The Bell’ On Peacock, A Reboot Of The ‘90s Sitcom That’s Less Meta Than You Think

The reboot craze has shown us that not every show is worth returning to, especially if the reboot is more along the lines of a revisit of the original series’ characters (and the actors that play them). A show can just pick up with the characters doing what they’re doing later in life, they can add a “next generation” cast, or they can go meta. Saved By The Bell does a little of all three. But how much of each is what’s going to determine if it’s a viable show or just a series of meta jokes.

SAVED BY THE BELL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A campaign ad for California governor Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), featuring his wife Kelly (Tiffani Thiessen) talking about his $10 billion dollar cut in education funds.

The Gist: When confronted about his tax cuts, Governor Zack (that’s what he wants to be called) says that his son Mac (Mitchell Hoog) is a public school student, at his own alma mater, Bayside High. At Bayside, we see Mac hanging out with the football team’s quarterback, Jamie Spano (Belmont Cameli) — son of guidance counselor Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley Lauren) — and his cheerleader “frenemy” Lexi (Josie Totah). Like his father, Mac likes to pull schemes and “trick” his teachers into just sliding by.

Bayside, in a high-income district, wouldn’t be subject to those cuts. But Douglas High, where Daisy (Haskiri Velazquez) is running for sophomore class president, is in a lower-income district, and it’s getting the axe. Right in the middle of her speech, the school gets shut down. But under a new plan — concocted by a reporter at one of Governor Zack’s press conferences — sends students from Douglas to Bayside to start a new school year.

Daisy is one of the transfers, along with her competitive friend Aisha (Alycia Pascual-Peña), who played on the Douglas football team, and Devante (Dexter Darden), who tends to keep to himself. The Bayside football coach, A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) tries hard to recruit Devante, but Devante is annoyed that Coach Slater doesn’t even know anything about him. Meanwhile, Aisha decides to try out for the football team, making the super-sensitive (and coddled) Jamie run to his mom for comfort.

Daisy, with the encouragement of principal Ron Toddman (John Michael Higgins), runs for class president, but the overprivileged Mac and Lexi run against her, just because one of them wants the close parking space reserved for the president.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Since this is a “new generation” reboot of Saved By The Bell, it’s reminiscent of 90210, where some of the Beverly Hills 90210 characters played the parents of the teens on the show.

Our Take: It’s safe to say that the pilot of the Saved By The Bell reboot tries a little bit too hard to be self-referential and meta. While there are funny moments in the pilot, especially when it comes to how the Douglas students react to all the privilege they see at their new school, much of the first episode spends its time having Jessie and Slater make references to their time as Bayside students, with Zack just being the overall goof he used to be as a student.

There are jokes about how everyone can afford sit-down meals at The Max, which looks exactly the same as it did in the ’90s. Daisy even carries around an ’80s-era brick cell phone, because her mother keeps thinking she’ll take naked pictures of herself with a smartphone. It’s a lot to handle, even as the story of the three Douglas students trying to fit in is still one that’s worth watching.

But showrunner Tracey Wigfield (Great News), who comes from the combined Fey and Kaling comedy schools, would never let the reboot be a meta-fest for long, and the second episode is more of an indication of what the series will be like. There, the new characters settle in, as Lexi tries to get Devante, who knocked out his audition for the school musical in the first episode, to join her drama text chain, and he keeps leaving. We find out just how coddled Jamie is and how much Jessie has protected him from the truth about his lack of football skills — we also find out about the team’s “feelings helmet.” Daisy is determined to do the summer reading at the last minute, but Mac, who claimed “summer dyslexia”, does his best to get out of it.

Minimizing the metaness is key to making this reboot successful. Wigfield and her writers smartly decide to concentrate on the new group, with contributions and fleeting references from Jessie and Slater, but even their characters are acting more in the now than looking back at their past. The addition of Higgins as Principal Toddman is a great addition; he is more clued in than Principal Belding was, and of course Higgins is one of the funniest people out there, which helps.

Sure, we think there will be more self-referential stuff down the line; Gosselaar is recurring, and Lark Voorhies will reprise her role as Lisa Turtle (sorry, Dustin Diamond fans, there’s no place for Screech in this first season, though Wigfield has left the door open for him to come back if the show gets another season). But as long as the meta stuff is more of a side dish and not the main course, the reboot will be a success.

Sex and Skin: Nothing, thankfully.

Parting Shot: As Devante auditions with “The Greatest Love Of All”, Daisy tells Lexi and Mac, who schemed to let her win the presidency, that they’re not getting the parking space; she decides to use it for the school bus she and her Douglas classmates use to get to Bayside.

Sleeper Star: Josie Totah is hilarious as the competitive Lexi. If you’re not familiar with her work, you may recall her co-starring role in Kaling’s 2018 sitcom Champions, when she was known as J.J. She was the highlight there as the “show kid” son of the main character, and she’s really the standout among the new Bayside students.

Most Pilot-y Line: Slater’s sad tale about why he was at the PTA meeting where the parents said very racist things about the Douglas students was just too pathetic. “The hot dog I was cooking for dinner exploded in my microwave and I knew they’d have the little donuts I liked.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Saved By The Bell reboot makes the smart decision to be much more about the new kids at Bayside than about the middle-aged versions of the characters who went to the school 30 years ago. Sure, there’s going to be some self-referential jokes on the show, but Wigfield has that aspect under control so it won’t overwhelm the series.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Saved By The Bell On Peacock