The show got so popular, so fast, that it marked an immense shift in Saturday-morning programming. Originally it was the only non-animated show on NBC’s Saturday-morning lineup, but before long it became known that fully half of the teenaged girls watched it every week. In addition to the failure of a number of animated shows such as ProStars and Yo Yogi! , NBC shifted to a lineup dominated by “Saved by the Bell,” a bunch of clones of the now-famous high school show, and a Saturday morning version of Today.
This was all the way back in 1992, and the network has stuck with this format ever since.
Sharing with 90210
Thiessen would later go on to be the bad-girl character Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills, 90210, but the drama series did more than nab actresses from Bell. A lot of the characters got part-time jobs at the beach club “Malibu Sands,” which was the same beach club used in Beverly Hills, 90210. A lot of people see 90210 as a spiritual successor to "Saved by the Bell," though the storylines are much heavier and more dramatic, and there is less humor.
It would have been much more difficult for 90210 to get off the ground if not for the success of the non-cartoon "Saved by the Bell."
Even More Successful
After the success of the original show, and the short-lived College Years, producers brought in a fresh cast for "Saved by the Bell: The New Class"...with the exception of Screech, who worked as Principal Belding's assistant. It was more successful than the original from a number-of-seasons standpoint, though the show never had the pop-culture impact that the original did.
It ran for seven seasons, all the way to the year two thousand, and kept things fresh by letting more senior characters graduate while constantly bringing in new faces as younger students. Now, with a reboot of the original series in the works, this pop-culture icon has plenty of history to draw upon.
Minimum Wage Actors
Despite the fact that the show was one of the most popular kid's shows of all time – even kids these days will know the name, though if they're interested they usually have to seek the episodes out other ways – the actors never brought in big paychecks. The producers had no idea how much of a hit it would be, which led to the actors not requesting better deals.
In fact, they barely got paid even during the show's syndication. Mark-Paul once said: “[The cast] made really bad deals. It is what it is. You move on, you learn. Great experience.”
Namesakes
The names of the characters didn't just come out of thin air. The show had plenty of unique names that helped them stick in the viewer's minds, but they were often inspired by people that producer Peter Engel knew in real life. For instance, Engel once met a producer by the name of Screech Washington.
Zack was the name one of Engel's friends called his son, Lisa Turtle was one of his classmates while he was in high school, and Slater was the name of someone Engel's son went to school with. Finally, Mr. Belding came from the name of an editor that Engel worked with.