Sam Bobrick, 'Saved by the Bell' Creator, Dies at 87

[TMC]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...was-87-1247426

Sam Bobrick, the Emmy-nominated writer and playwright who created the NBC comedy Saved by the Bell and wrote four comedies that played on Broadway, has died. He was 87.

Bobrick died Friday at Northridge Hospital Medical Center after suffering a stroke, his friend, Adam Carl, an actor, writer and producer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Bobrick also was on the staff of The Andy Griffith Show, for which he wrote 19 episodes, and worked on other TV comedies including The Flintstones; Gomer Pyle: USMC; Get Smart; Hey, Landlord; Good Morning, World; and Bewitched.

The Chicago native received his Emmy nom in 1968 for his writing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, sharing the honor with Lorenzo Music, Mason Williams and others, and later developed and produced The Paul Lynde Show.

Bobrick wrote or co-wrote more than 40 plays during his career. Four of those, all created with one-time partner Ron Clark (also a Smothers Brothers writer), got to Broadway: Norman, Is That You?, directed by George Abbott and featuring Maureen Stapleton and Martin Huston (it became a Redd Foxx-starring movie); No Hard Feelings, directed by Abe Burrows and starring Eddie Albert and Stockard Channing (it opened and closed on the same night in 1973); Murder at the Howard Johnson's, featuring Tony Roberts; and Wally's Cafe, starring Rita Moreno and James Coco.

Bobrick, who also did an uncredited rewrite of The Wiz before its Broadway bow in 1975, quit writing for TV in the '90s to concentrate on the stage. "He always said, 'I'm more proud of my worst play than my best TV show,'" Carl noted.

In 2011 at age 79, he won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his play The Psychic, which made its world premiere at The Falcon Theater (now the Garry Marshall Theatre) in Burbank.

Bobrick created Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel for a season (1988-89) and starred Hayley Mills, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Dustin Diamond. After it was canceled, NBC picked it up, renamed it Saved by the Bell and moved the Indianapolis-set show to Bayside High School in California.

Saved by the Bell aired on NBC from 1989-93 and spawned spinoffs and TV movies, and a new series to star original castmembers Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley has been set for NBCUniversal's new streaming service, Peacock.

[irehtman]

Do you think Sam Bobrick might be both an ableist and adultist?

[Schmoopie]

Sorry to hear this.

[JO Sweet Heart]

I wonder if he was going to be involved in the new show with Jesse and Slater.

God bless you and them and Sam's family always!!!

Holly

[irehtman]

Originally Posted by JO Sweet Heart

I wonder if he was going to be involved in the new show with Jesse and Slater.

God bless you and them and Sam's family always!!!

Holly

Since Sam's already deceased, then that new show with Jessie and Slater, as part of revived spin-off, will never happen at all, unfortunately, TBH.

Sam only sided with:

* Only both actors Mark, Mario and Dennis and both actresses Tiffani, Elizabeth and Lark.
* Only the Zack, Slater, Kelly, Jessie, Lisa and Belding characters, nothing else.

While Peter Engel only sided with both actor Dustin and his Screech character, nothing else.

[TMC]

Sam Bobrick said in an interview with Archive of American Television that he really didn't have much to do in the day-to-day creative process of Saved by the Bell when compared to Good Morning Miss Bliss. Peter Engel did much of the heavy lifting so to speak. But because there was in his words, enough of the show that he had already written in, he was still given creative by-credit.

Here's another interview:

[irehtman]

So, it was already the other way around.... Sam sided with only both Dustin and Screech rather than the rest of the cast...