Fans of Bayside High School should be so excited for Labor Day.
Lifetime has set that Monday as its premiere date for “The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story.” The TV movie promises to go behind the scenes of the popular Saturday morning teen soap that made household names out of Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and others.
Fittingly, original series casting director Robin Lippin was tapped to find modern-day equivalents in Dylan Everett (who will play Gosselaar and his on-screen persona, Zack Morris), Sam Kindseth (Dustin Diamond/Screech), Julian Works (Lopez/A.C. Slater), Alyssa Lynch (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen/Kelly Kapowski), Tiera Skovbye (Berkley/Jessie Sapano) and Taylor Russell McKenzie (Lark Voorhies/Lisa Turtle).
“The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story” is produced by Front Street Pictures and Ringaling Productions Ltd. for broadcast on Lifetime. Exec producers are Harvey Kahn (“Flowers in the Attic”) and Stephen Bulka (“Dear Mom, Love Cher”). The film is directed by Jason Lapeyre (“Restless Virgins”) and the teleplay is written by Ron McGee (“The Nine Lives of Chole King”).
“Saved by the Bell” ran from 1989 to 1993 on NBC and grew out of the Hayley Mills-starring “Good Morning, Miss Bliss.” Spinoffs included “Saved by the Bell: The College Years” and “Saved by the Bell: The New Class.”
This isn’t the first time the cast of has been brought into the spotlight. An (authorized) cast reunion was a major mission of Jimmy Fallon’s during his early “Late Night” years and People magazine also orchestrated a reunion in 2009.
“The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story” will air at 9 p.m. September 1.
