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Good Morning, Miss Bliss

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Good Morning, Miss Bliss
Good Morning, Miss Bliss title card
GenreTeen sitcom
Created bySam Bobrick
StarringHayley Mills
Dennis Haskins
Joan Ryan
Max Battimo
Dustin Diamond
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Heather Hopper
Lark Voorhies
T.K. Carter
Opening theme"The Best of Times"
Country of origin United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producerPeter Engel
Original release
NetworkDisney Channel
ReleaseNovember 30, 1988 –
March 18, 1989

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.

Plot

The series focused on the life of junior high school teacher Miss Carrie Bliss (Hayley Mills) at John F. Kennedy Junior High in Indiana. 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; Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), a rich shopaholic; Samuel "Screech" Powers (Dustin Diamond), an awkward nerd with a crush on Lisa; Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo), Zack's best friend, who, while not as awkward as Screech, would become quite shy around girls; 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.

Cast

Episodes

# Airdate Title Overview
1 November 30, 1988 Summer Love Zack finds out the girl he had told he was in ninth grade at summer camp, Karen (Carla Gugino), has transferred to JFK, and he tries to keep up the charade.
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.
13 March 18, 1989 The Mentor Miss Bliss's former teacher Mr. James Lyman (Robert Donner) returns and causes controversy with his teaching methods.

*As of October 2007, all 13 episodes can be viewed by Netflix members through their "Watch Instantly" feature.

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 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, as Adam Montcrief, 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. Although Hayley Mills was the only actor to survive beyond the pilot, her character in the pilot was named Mrs. Davis. 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. 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 latter-series' title.)

References


Preceded by Disney Channel Original Series Succeeded by


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