Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell was a popular teen sitcom which ran from 1989 to 1993 and built a large, loyal fanbase. Its original incarnation, Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987), starred Hayley Mills as the good-natured Miss Carrie Bliss who oversaw later Saved by the Bell cast Lark Voorhies, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Dustin Diamond as well as other students. Good Morning, Miss Bliss would later be retitled Saved by the Bell.

Season Four Controversy

A subject of great controversy was the show's fourth and final season, as NBC doubled the order of episodes for the final season despite the fact that they would have to resign the entire cast to new contracts in order to film them. Thiessen and Berkley refused to resign for these new episodes, resulting a block of episodes that featured Zack, Slater, Screech, Lisa, and a new character played by actress Leanna Creel called Tori Scott. A tomboy and motorcycle rider, Tori was introduced as Zack's foil and later love interest in these episodes. Ultimately Thiessen would return for several final episodes under a deal she made with NBC that included several made-for-TV movies that the actress would star in.

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The final episode of the series would air in prime time on May 22, 1993. The episode, which had the cast graduate high school, was ironically filmed as the last episode of the series, before Thiessen and Berkley left the show. The series finale was followed by a special airing of the Saved By the Bell: The College Years pilot episode, to set up the next phase of the character's lives.

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