I apologize if this has been asked before. I think that everybody knows that before what we know as Saved by the Bell premiered on NBC in 1989, there was an incarnation of SBTB (during Zack, Screech, and Lisa's time in junior high school) that aired on the Disney Channel called Good Morning, Miss Bliss. Hayley Mills played the eponymous Miss Bliss and Mr. Belding was also there.

According to Peter Engel, Disney simply opted not to continue the show after thirteen episodes, and that it was a devastating blow to the cast and crew when they were told. One theory (https://web.archive.org/web/20180306083916/www.savedbythebellreviewed.com/category/all-good-morning-miss-bliss-episodes/good-morning-miss-bliss-recap/) that I've read is that it simply didn't make much financial sense to continue. Let me explain, when Good Morning, Miss Bliss was in production, Disney Channel was a premium service. What that means is that it was a channel that didn't come in your basic cable line-up but something that you had pay an extra subscription fee for it. At the time, Disney Channel was primarily relying on old and repackaged programming and GMMB was in comparison, a very expensive project.

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Thanks for including these videos; I hadn't seen the GMMB promo or the interview with writer Sam Bobrick before.

I don't think there's any big mystery on why GMMB was cancelled: Disney clearly felt the show was too expensive for what their pay channel was bringing in, in revenue. Wikipedia says the channel had just 1.75 million paid subscribers in 1985 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Channel). By 1990, cable systems began changing their packages, dropping Disney from premium to basic cable, so it's clear Disney's premium channel service wasn't ever very profitable.

Mentioning money has to be multi-careful in all times.

I recently saw the girl who played Nikki on the Entertainment Tonight show. After her episodes of this show were done, she went on to be in a film named Troop Beverly Hills along side Tori Spelling who of course was Violet on SBTB. Their film is now 30 years old.

God bless you and them always!!!

Holly

I recently saw the girl who played Nikki on the Entertainment Tonight show. After her episodes of this show were done, she went on to be in a film named Troop Beverly Hills along side Tori Spelling who of course was Violet on SBTB. Their film is now 30 years old.

God bless you and them always!!!

HollyI have been wanting to see Troop Beverly Hills, it sometimes shows up on my guide but is on against something else or I don't find out soon enough. Troop Beverly Hills stars Craig T. Nelson from Coach and Shelley Long from Cheers.

You may be surprised how much of Good Morning, Miss Bliss was later sort of remade in the main series. For instance, there's Zack plotting to go skiing and the plot itself involves his dad that also happened in the main series (although there, they ended up going fishing). Zack's scheme to get a test postponed also happened in the episode when Screech temporary got psychic powers and tried to fake a flood.

I'm guessing another big factor for why it didn't make much financial sense to continue is that Disney didn't actually produce or own the show, NBC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Productions) did. I'm assuming that Good Morning, Miss Bliss came along in the era when Fin-Syn rules (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Interest_and_Syndication_Rules) were still intact. So it was perfectly common-place (https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=commlaw) for Disney to contract an outside company and what would otherwise be a rival in NBC to help produce their content.

Thanks for including these videos; I hadn't seen the GMMB promo or the interview with writer Sam Bobrick before.

I don't think there's any big mystery on why GMMB was cancelled: Disney clearly felt the show was too expensive for what their pay channel was bringing in, in revenue. Wikipedia says the channel had just 1.75 million paid subscribers in 1985 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Channel). By 1990, cable systems began changing their packages, dropping Disney from premium to basic cable, so it's clear Disney's premium channel service wasn't ever very profitable.

It sounds like the early Disney Channel (pre-1997) was kind of like what Disney+ is today. It was something that you had to pay extra money for (in this case, it wasn't on linear television, but a streaming service) and built its foundation on old and repackaged content. That's of course, not to say that Disney+ doesn't have its own "original" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney%2B_original_programming), first-run content like Disney Channel in its early years.

Maybe this is more complex than what I'm about to ask, but why didn't NBC just air Good Morning, Miss Bliss on Saturday mornings to begin with. I suppose, that they could've then cut out the "middle man"? Allegedly, NBC considered airing reruns of GMMB had there been a second season.

I wonder if outside of financial reasons, it was hard to narrow down who the show was for. It's airing on Disney Channel and takes place in a junior high school, so one would naturally assume that it's a show for kids and teenagers. But the show's primary focus is on Hayley Mills, so you would also be blameless if you thought that it was actually more for adults. I also figured that Disney Channel was aiming for Nostalgia points by having one if their biggest stars of the past (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayley_Mills#Disney), front-line this new show for them.