It’s impossible to think about athlete and goofball A.C. Slater and not picture a young Mario Lopez. However, it wasn’t always to be – originally, Slater was going to have a very different look. The character was originally going to have a John Travolta style, such as the dancing king himself from Saturday Night Fever, though obviously not with the same fate – but with the same panache, charm, and charisma.
Yet when producers started the actor search, they failed to find the guy, at least among Caucasian actors. Producer Engel expanded the search to Latino, Asian, and Black actors, and came up with a winner with Lopez.
Old Shame Episode
In what is certainly a very memorable episode, Zack discovers that he has Native American heritage in the episode “Running Zack.” It's made a focal point of the episode but is never brought up again. While Mark-Paul once said it was his favorite episode, his opinion has changed as of 2016, at which point he apologized for the episode, stating it was insensitive.
The episode, which features Zack in quite cringe-worthy, stereotypical Native American costuming, certainly could never be made today. (Interestingly, Mark-Paul is mixed race, though not Native American – he's part-Indonesian on his mother's side.)
A Show by Any Other Name
At a pre-production meeting, NBC President Brandon Tartikoff suggested the show have a name incorporating the word “bell” as befitting a show set entirely in a school. Tartikoff's original suggestion was “When the Bell Rings,” and when one of producer Peter Engel's colleagues suggested “Saved by the Bell,” Tartikoff liked it.
Engel disliked the title, but went along with it, under the assumption that someone else owned the rights to the phrase. To his great surprise, NBC's legal department found no one owned the rights, and the very next day Engel's office was covered in banners that said: “Saved by the Bell.”
Named After an Executive
In a well-known episode, geeky Screech builds a functioning robot. While the robot only appeared in three episodes, it was a famous detail of the character, and one of the ways he set himself apart from the other members of the cast – none of the other principal cast members could have done such a thing, that's for sure (except for maybe Jessie if it was for extra credit).
The robot's name was Kevin, which was the name of the NBC executive who was in charge of the show. While we have on the confirmation, we like to imagine the executive loved getting his name in the show in such a way.
Worked with Miss Bliss
Leanna Creel, who played Tori in the fourth season, might not have appeared in "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," but she did act with Miss Bliss's actress, Hayley Mills. Leanna, as well as her triplet sisters Joy and Monica, appeared with Mills in two of the three television sequels to the original "Parent Trap," almost thirty years after the original was released.
The Creel sisters appeared in "Parent Trap III" and "Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon." Both movies premiered in 1989, the same year Saved by the Bell made its debut. Hayley Mills was the actress who played both twins in the original "Parent Trap" and sings a duet with herself.