Broadway has had plenty of screen-to-stage adaptations, and one that got pretty close to appearing is Saved by the Bell. During the early two-thousands, pop star Debbie Gibson was approached to make a musical based on a 90’s property, and she immediately thought about the show. However, the project was shelved when the original series’ executive producer Linda Mancusa passed away in 2003.
From an interview in 2018, Gibson reminisced about the idea: “I found a first draft of that script in my garage when I moved and went, Oh my god, this is still a great idea.”
The Steps That Have Been in More Episodes than Anyone
If you go back and watch the show nowadays, you may feel a sense of familiarity as the kids are walking the halls. At first, you may think that it's just nostalgia, but there's more – the hallway and locker set was originally built for "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," which was used all the way through "Saved by the Bell," and was never torn down.
It's been used and reused in all kinds of high school shows that followed after 'Saved by the Bell,' starting with 'That's So Raven,' but the list also includes recent Disney shows such as "iCarly" and "Victorious."
A Friendship too Strong for Writing
One of the original ways the producers got conflict from the show was the love triangle of Zack Morris, Kelly Kapowski, and A.C. Slater. Zack Morris eventually wins out and even gets married to Kelly down the line after College Years, but it was touch-and-go for a while who Kelly would choose.
This conflict was originally going to tear Zack and Slater – good friends on the show – apart for further conflict, but the friendship between the two actors was so strong it bled too much into the show, and the writers decided to drop the idea.
The Zack Attack
The show never got made into a musical, but it had plenty of music in it from the beginning. The “Zack Attack” was a band the cast formed. Nearly the entire episode was a dream, with the fictional band – even in-show – going through formation, success, breakups, and reuniting. Their “hit” song was “Friends Forever.” The entire episode was filmed in the style of a documentary while Zack sleeps.
The entire cast is present, minus Elizabeth Berkely, who had to sit out due to a knee injury, which also forced her to miss the “All in the Mall” episode.
Another Reused Set
The show didn't have the biggest budget ever, which is why they reused sets a lot. In fact, every time viewers see a classroom, it's the same set – whether it's an English classroom, geography class, or science projects, it's always the same room. Thanks to different camera angles, different teachers present, and different set decorations, it can be hard to tell, but since most high school classrooms look pretty similar anyway, there was no reason not to just re-use the same room over and over.
Plenty of work went into the packed sitcom sets, and since they had to switch things out as the scripts demanded, it probably gave the set dressers plenty of work.