One Beloved '90s Sitcom Started Life As A Totally Different Show

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"Saved by the Bell" is a quintessential '90s sitcom, but without "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," the show would never have happened. What's "Good Morning, Miss Bliss?" Well, it's essentially a proto-version of "Saved by the Bell" that aired prior to the series proper and introduced many of the main characters before being retooled as the great '90s sitcom we all know and love.

The 1990s was a true golden era for sitcoms. In fairness, the format had been enjoying widespread success since the '50s and '60s, which is typically thought to have been the true "golden age." But if you grew up in the '90s, you did so with "Friends," "Frasier," and "Seinfeld" as part of the cultural wallpaper. If that's not a golden age for sitcoms, I'm not sure what is. Of course, these weren't the only series to dominate the era. Younger viewers had plenty to choose from. Some of the best shows of the '90s were sitcoms made for kids and teens, whether it was "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" or "Saved By the Bell." In the latter's case, the beloved series actually began airing in August 1989, and if you want to go even further, it technically started life earlier than that as "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," a teen sitcom that originally aired on Disney Channel from November 30, 1988, until March 18, 1989.

Yes, the kids of Bayside High School first appeared in an entirely different show that was later retconned as "Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years." Unlike the series we all remember, however, "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" only lasted for one season before NBC execs stepped in.

"Good Morning, Miss Bliss" starred Hayley Mills as Carrie Bliss, a teacher at John F. Kennedy Junior High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Creator Peter Engel based Miss Bliss on a teacher who'd taught a young Bradon Tartikoff, the then-president of NBC. As Engel recalled Tartikoff saying in his memoir "I Was Saved by the Bell," "As a kid, I had a very special teacher. She made a big impact on me. Second only to my parents and grandpa." Evidently, Tartikoff had "always wanted to make a show about a sixth grade teacher like her," and Engel was the man to bring it to fruition.

"Good Morning, Miss Bliss" was the result. In the show, which ran for 13 episodes and a pilot, Mills served as a mentor and guide to her students navigating the tough junior high years. Those students included Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), and Samuel "Screech" Powers (Dustin Diamond), all of whom will be familiar to "Saved by the Bell" fans and were the only student characters to make the switch to the reformatted sitcom after NBC retooled the series. Two other kids — Zack's best friend Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo) and Lisa's best friend Nikki Coleman (Heather Hopper) — never made the jump to "Saved by the Bell," but Dennis Haskins' school principal, Mr. Richard Belding, did.

"Good Morning, Miss Bliss" had nothing like the level of sheer '90s cool that characterized "Saved by the Bell." Mills' genial teacher was not the kind of character kids were immediately going to idolize, even if they did find her kindly demeanor sort of charming. Still, it did introduce audiences to the core cast that would help make "Saved by the Bell" such a hit. 

After a pilot featuring an entirely different cast of students was made, NBC produced 13 episodes of "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" with the future "Saved by the Bell" kids. The company then sold the episodes to Disney Channel, which had nothing like the viewership of NBC itself, essentially dooming the show from the outset. Once the final episode aired on March 18, 1989, however, Bradon Tartikoff ensured it wasn't game over.

Reflecting on how the original show became "Saved by the Bell," Dustin Diamond, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 44, once recalled how it was all down to the NBC president. "This guy had the power to snap his fingers and turn it into a parking lot if he wanted," said the Screech actor (via Play Savvy). "He had that much power and he loved ['Good Morning, Miss Bliss']. He loved the Screech character and said, 'I want to redo this and call it 'Saved by the Bell” and tasked Peter Engel with the project."

"Saved by the Bell" arrived five months after "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" went off the air — this time on NBC. The show had been moved to California's fictional Bayside High and three new characters were added: Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley), A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez), and Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen). "Saved by the Bell" ran for four seasons and was much more successful than its predecessor. Once the new series proved popular, "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" was repackaged as "Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years" for syndication, complete with cold opens featuring Zack Morris introducing viewers to the middle school years. A swiftly-canceled "Saved by the Bell" reboot released decades later, however, was not quite as successful.