Good Morning, Miss Bliss

Good Morning, Miss Bliss
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
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13 (+ original pilot) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Peter Engel
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 22–24 minutes
Production company(s) Peter Engel Productions
NBC Productions
Distributor NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network Disney Channel[1]
Picture format NTSC (480i)
Audio format Monaural
Original release November 30, 1988 (1988-11-30) – March 18, 1989 (1989-03-18)
Chronology
Followed by Saved by the Bell

Good Morning, Miss Bliss (also known as Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years) 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.[2]

The show was the first program produced by a major television network for cable TV, in this case NBC having produced it for the Disney Channel.[1]

Plot

The series focuses 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 a good student and always looking for the easy way out. However, in the episode "Parents and Teachers", Miss Bliss said that Zack had the most potential of all her students.

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, but an excellent student and very honest.

Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo), Zack's best friend, who, although not generally as awkward as Screech, became quite shy around girls; a good student, especially in math and history but sometimes gets into conflict with Zack.

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 school principal, Mr. Richard Belding.

The show was cancelled after 13 episodes, and NBC reclaimed the rights to the show, reformatting Good Morning, Miss Bliss into Saved by the Bell; the characters of Zack, Lisa, Screech and Mr. Belding made the transition to Saved by the Bell, which saw the four moving to the fictional California suburb of Bayside. 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.

Cast

Series overview

Pilot
No. Title Original air date
0"Pilot"July 11, 1987

On the first day of school, Miss Bliss (Hayley Mills) tries to help a student who she learns is having problems dealing with a situation involving his older brother dying.

Note: Though the later episodes aired on the Disney Channel, the original Good Morning, Miss Bliss pilot aired on NBC in the regular primetime timeslot of The Facts of Life.

Note: This episode was aired only once, is not included in syndication, and is the only episode in the franchise (outside of the Saved by the Bell: The New Class) to not feature characters Zack Morris or Screech Powers.

Episodes
No. Title Original air date
1"Summer Love"November 30, 1988
Zack finds out the older, 9th grade girl he had told everyone he was with at summer camp, Karen (Carla Gugino), has transferred to Bayside, and he tries to keep up the charade that he too is in the 9th grade.
2"Love Letters"December 7, 1988
Screech asks Zack to write a love letter from him to Lisa.
3"Wall Street"December 14, 1988
While doing a class project on stocks, Zack invests the class's money on risky stocks.
4"Leaping to Conclusions"December 21, 1988
Nikki refuses to do the science class's frog dissection.
5"Parents and Teachers"December 28, 1988
Zack's dad Peter (Robert Pine) meets Miss Bliss at a parent/teacher conference and they find they are attracted to one another.
6"Showdown"January 4, 1989
Screech's friends encourage him to stand up to bully Deke Simmons (Andras Jones).
7"Save the Last Dance for Me"February 4, 1989
Zack and Mikey fight over Shana (Alexondra Lee) whom Mikey likes, but who asks Zack to a dance instead.
8"The Boy Who Cried Rat"February 11, 1989
Miss Bliss is a candidate for Teacher of the Year; Zack lets Screech's pet rat out into the school to avoid a midterm.
9"Let's Get Together"February 18, 1989
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"Practical Jokes"February 25, 1989
A mock trial is held after a series of practical jokes ends in one that breaks Miss Bliss's "unfooled" streak. Miss Bliss then reveals the joke she pulled on the students in order to get them to study the Constitution for their class better. However, she really ends up falling victim to Screech's prank.
11"Stevie"March 4, 1989
Zack bets Nikki he can kiss pop singer Stevie (Suzanne Tara).
12"Clubs and Cliques"March 11, 1989
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"The Mentor"March 18, 1989
Miss Bliss's former teacher Mr. James Lyman (Robert Donner) returns and causes controversy with his teaching methods.

Original pilot

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 Steve Urkel, 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.

Syndication

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 reran 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. As of February 2015, Netflix syndication of Saved by the Bell also reflects this change.

Although the Saved By the Bell intro was modified to accommodate the Miss Bliss cast, it was not completely customized for those episodes. The reflection in the animated sunglasses shows images of Bayside High and The Max, locations that were never present in the Indiana-set Good Morning, Miss Bliss.

International

The series was broadcast in United Kingdom on ITV from July 15, until July 31, 1991.[3] In 1995 the series was broadcast again on UK Disney channel August 31, 1996 until March 29, 1997. In France the series was renamed "Bonjour, Miss Bliss", while the series was also shown in Italy, Sweden and Germany.

Home media releases

Currently, there has been no official home video release for Good Morning, Miss Bliss, making it the only series in the Saved by the Bell franchise not to be released on DVD. However, it is available for purchase on Vudu and Netflix (except for the pilot episode).

References

  1. 1 2 Sharbutt, Jay (May 2, 1988). "Affiliates OK NBC Cable Deal With Disney". Los Angeles Times.
  2. ↑ Goodman, Walter (July 11, 1987). "TV: HAYLEY MILLS AS TEACHER". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
  3. ↑ The Times (1991).

External links

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