Saved By The Bell: Screech Replaced Urkel After The Pilot

The true story behind ‘Saved By the Bell’ and the secret pilot episode.

The recent Saved by the Bell reunion has everyone going down memory lane. But, you may have not known that Saved By the Bell was originally called Good Morning, Miss Bliss.

The original show centered around a middle-school teacher and the show started in 1988. But, it was cancelled only after 13 episodes. However, NBC, kept the rights and rebooted the series into Saved By the Bell.

Zach, Screech, Lisa and Mr. Belding were the only characters who were featured on both versions of the show. You probably even remember these episodes. But, what you may not know is that Zack and the gang weren’t even in the original Good Morning, Miss Bliss. 

As Rolling Stone notes, the original pilot featured a very different cast than the ones we knew from Zack’s recollection of the “middle school days.”

The original pilot only aired once in July of 1987, but there was a different Mr. Belding. In addition, there’s also no Zack, Screech, or Lisa. Instead there were characters like Adam who was played by future Beverly Hills 90210 star Brian Austin.

Also, there was Bobby, played by Jaleel White, aka Urkel. Urkel was on the original pilot episode of the series but was eventually replaced.

Check out the original pilot of Saved By The Bell here:

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