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 July 11, 1987 (1987-07-11) (pilot)
November 30, 1988 (1988-11-30) – March 18, 1989 (1989-03-18) (series)
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 then integrated into the Saved by the Bell syndicated rerun package, with Miss Bliss episodes being introduced with a cold open by Mark-Paul Gosselaar explaining that they were from an earlier time frame than the rest of the series, followed by a retrofitted version of the regular Saved by the Bell opening sequence.

Cast

Series overview

Pilot

No.TitleDirected byOriginal air date
0"Pilot"
"What Now, Mrs. Davis"[lower-alpha 1]		Peter Bonerz[3][4]July 11, 1987 (1987-07-11)

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 any of the original characters from Saved by the Bell.

Episodes

No.TitleOriginal air date
1"Summer Love"November 30, 1988 (1988-11-30)
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"Love Letters"December 7, 1988 (1988-12-07)
Screech asks Zack to write a love letter from him to Lisa.
3"Wall Street"December 14, 1988 (1988-12-14)
While doing a class project on stocks, Zack invests the class's money on risky stocks.
4"Leaping to Conclusions"December 21, 1988 (1988-12-21)
Nikki refuses to do the science class's frog dissection.
5"Parents and Teachers"December 28, 1988 (1988-12-28)
Zack's father 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 (1989-01-04)
Screech's friends encourage him to stand up to bully Deke Simmons (Andras Jones).
7"Save the Last Dance for Me"February 4, 1989 (1989-02-04)
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 (1989-02-11)
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 (1989-02-18)
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 (1989-02-25)
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 (1989-03-04)
Zack bets Nikki he can kiss pop singer Stevie (Suzanne Tara).
12"Clubs and Cliques"March 11, 1989 (1989-03-11)
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 (1989-03-18)
Miss Bliss's former teacher Mr. James Lyman (Robert Donner) returns and causes controversy with his teaching methods.

Broadcast

Original pilot

The original pilot for Good Morning, Miss Bliss aired on July 11, 1987, on NBC (in The Facts of Life's timeslot). Hayley Mills would be the only actress to carry over from the pilot to the series. 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 were among some of the actors to appear in the pilot. 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. 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.[5] 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

The complete series of Good Morning, Miss Bliss will be released by Shout Factory with the Saved By The Bell: The Complete Collection DVD set on October 2, 2018.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Note: This was the original title for Good Morning, Miss Bliss, before the show's title was changed.[3]

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. 1 2 "Peter Bonerz Biography (1938–)]". Film Reference. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  4. ↑ From the United States Copyright Office catalog: "Public Catalog - Copyright Catalog (1978 to present) – Basic Search [search: "Good Morning Miss Bliss"]". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  5. ↑ The Times (1991).
  6. ↑ https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/saved-by-the-bell-the-complete-collection?product_id=6912
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