| Good Morning, Miss Bliss | |
|---|---|
Good Morning, Miss Bliss title card |
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| Also known as | Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years |
| Genre | Teen sitcom |
| Created by | Sam Bobrick |
| Starring | Hayley Mills Dennis Haskins Joan Ryan Max Battimo Dustin Diamond Mark-Paul Gosselaar Heather Hopper Lark Voorhies T.K. Carter |
| Theme music composer | Charles Fox |
| Opening theme | "These are the Best of Times" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Peter Engel |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 22-24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Peter Engel Productions |
| Distributor | NBC Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | The Disney Channel |
| Picture format | NTSC (480i) |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original run | November 30, 1988 – March 18, 1989 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Saved by the Bell |
Good Morning, Miss Bliss is an American teen sitcom that aired on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 (and later in syndication as part of the Saved by the Bell rerun package), starring Hayley Mills as a teacher at John F. Kennedy Junior High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The show was originally a pilot for NBC, which was inspired by NBC president Brandon Tartikoff's idea for a show about an "inspiring" teacher. NBC decided not to pick up the pilot, but Disney Channel did, premiering the show on November 30, 1988, and airing it for one season. The show was later retooled as Saved by the Bell, with much of the same cast but without Mills, and with a different setting. The latter show focused on the students rather than the teacher, and had a much more successful run.
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The series focused on the life of junior high school teacher Miss Carrie Bliss (Hayley Mills) at John F. Kennedy Junior High in Indianapolis. She was often put into morally difficult situations by her work and often served as the only person her students could turn to. Her eighth grade students included:
Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a charming, manipulative scamp; lazy and not necessarily a good student and always looking for the easy way out.
Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), a rich shopaholic; and best friend of Nikki. Lisa is the crush of many guys in the school and in Miss Bliss' class, especially Screech.
Samuel "Screech" Powers (Dustin Diamond), an awkward nerd with a crush on Lisa, very weird around others.
Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo), Zack's best friend, who, while not as awkward as Screech, would become quite shy around girls; a good student, especially in math and history but sometimes gets into conflict with Zack.
and Nikki Coleman (Heather Hopper), who was outspoken and often advocated the moral course of action when the others decided to do something mischievous.
The show also featured Mylo Williams (T.K. Carter), a maintenance supervisor, and Miss Tina Paladrino (Joan Ryan), a quirky teacher and friend of Miss Bliss, with whom she would often discuss her personal life, with Miss Paladrino acting as sounding board. Dennis Haskins played the principal of John F. Kennedy Junior High, Mr. Richard Belding.
The show was cancelled after 13 episodes, and the rights were acquired by NBC, who reformatted Good Morning, Miss Bliss into Saved by the Bell. The series was integrated into the Saved by the Bell syndicated rerun package; episodes from this series were later introduced with a cold open by Mark-Paul Gosselaar explaining that these were from an earlier time frame than the rest of the series (despite the fact that the previous series was, for all intents and purposes, a different continuity), along with a retrofitted version of the regular Saved by the Bell opening theme.
| # | Airdate | Title | Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | July 11, 1987 | Pilot | On the first day of school, Miss Bliss tries to help a student who she learns is having problems dealing with a situation involving his older brother dying. This episode was aired only once. |
| 1 | November 30, 1988 | "Summer Love" | Zack finds out the older, 9th grade girl he had told everyone he was with at summer camp, Karen (Carla Gugino), has transferred to JFK, and he tries to keep up the charade that he too is in the 9th grade. |
| 2 | December 7, 1988 | "Love Letters" | Screech asks Zack to write a love letter from him to Lisa. |
| 3 | December 14, 1988 | "Wall Street" | While doing a class project on stocks, Zack invests the class's money on risky stocks. |
| 4 | December 21, 1988 | "Leaping to Conclusions" | Nikki refuses to do the science class's frog dissection. |
| 5 | December 28, 1988 | "Parents and Teachers" | Zack's dad Peter (Robert Pine) meets Miss Bliss at a parent/teacher conference and they find they are attracted to one another. |
| 6 | January 4, 1989 | "Showdown" | Screech's friends encourage him to stand up to bully Deke Simmons (Andras Jones). |
| 7 | January 25, 1989 | "Save the Last Dance for Me" | Zack and Mikey fight over Shana (Alexondra Lee) whom Mikey likes, but who asks Zack to a dance instead. |
| 8 | February 11, 1989 | "The Boy Who Cried Rat" | Miss Bliss is a candidate for Teacher of the Year; Zack let's Screech's pet rat out into the school to avoid a midterm. |
| 9 | February 18, 1989 | "Let's Get Together" | Zack and Nikki are arguing and then are partnered for a class project; Tina moves in with Miss Bliss after her boyfriend dumps her and subsequently drives her crazy. |
| 10 | February 25, 1989 | "Practical Jokes" | A mock trial is held after a series of practical jokes ends in one that breaks Miss Bliss's "unfooled" streak. |
| 11 | March 4, 1989 | "Stevie" | Zack bets Nikki he can kiss pop singer Stevie (Suzanne Tara). |
| 12 | March 11, 1989 | "Clubs and Cliques" | Zack is embarrassed by some older students who invite him into a "cool" club. Miss Bliss and Mr. Belding trade places for a week. |
| 13 | March 18, 1989 | "The Mentor" | Miss Bliss's former teacher Mr. James Lyman (Robert Donner) returns and causes controversy with his teaching methods. |
The original pilot for Good Morning, Miss Bliss aired on July 11, 1987, on NBC (in The Facts of Life's timeslot). It featured up-and-comers Brian Austin Green (who later got his big break on Beverly Hills, 90210) as Adam Montcrief, Jaleel White (who later got his big break on Family Matters) as Bobby Wilson, and Jonathan Brandis (who later got his big break on seaQuest DSV) as Michael Thompson. Brian Austin Green was, in essence, the "lead" student in the pilot, a particularly serious student, who wore business suits.
Several other characters from the series existed in the pilot but were played by different actors; Mr. Gerald Belding was played by Oliver Clark, and Miss Tina Paladrino was played by Maria O'Brien. Other characters include Gabriel Damon as Bradley; Samantha Mills as Wendy; Julie Ronnie as Lonnie Maple; Matt Shakman as Georgie Winslow; Charles Siebert as Charlie Davis; Britton Elliott as Janet Hillhurst; Josh Goddard as Steven; and Andrea Messersmith as Laurie.
After the huge success of Saved by the Bell, episodes of this series were added to the syndication package. As previously mentioned, intros by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, in character as Zack Morris, were added to the beginning of each episode, and the title sequence was remade in the style of Saved by the Bell (giving Good Morning, Miss Bliss the title Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years). The series currently reruns on TBS, along with its spin-off. Good Morning Miss Bliss and Saved by the Bell were previously aired on The N from late 2008 to July 2009.
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