By JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter
Popular NBC sitcom “Saved by the Bell” is coming back this spring—which means students are returning to Bayside High School, a fictional school based in Pacific Palisades.
In the reboot, a group of low-income high school students in California are transferred to Bayside High as part of a program designed by California Governor Zack Morris.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar will reprise his role as Bayside alum, Zack, as Elizabeth Berkley returns to her role as Jessie Spano and Mario Lopez as A.C. Slater.
The original series, a retooling of the Disney Channel’s “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” aired on NBC from 1989 to 1993.
Although the series was primarily shot in Hollywood, the sitcom featured many ties to the Palisades: A final TV movie, “Wedding in Las Vegas,” filmed the front of Palisades Charter High School to represent Bayside High and Zack’s house was filmed on Frontera in The Huntington.
The original creator of the show, Sam Bobrick, recently passed away on October 11, 2019, at age 87. Producer Peter Engel developed the series.
One of the spin-offs, “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” ran seven seasons from 1993 to 2000, and followed a new group of students at Bayside High.
This reboot cast transgender actress Josie Totah as the lead. The California native will be playing the role of Lexi, the most popular student at Bayside High. The 18-year-old has already appeared in numerous film and television hits, including “Glee,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and Disney Channel’s “Jessie.”
Totah came out as transgender in a 2018 essay for Time Magazine: “I realized over the past few years that hiding my true self is not healthy.”
Emmy Award-winning Tracey Wigfield (“The Mindy Project”) is a producer for the series.
Though there is no exact date for the show to return yet, the single-camera comedy will be streamed on NBCUniversal’s new service Peacock, which is set to launch in April.
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