How A Franklin & Bash Reference Ended Up On Saved By The Bell

The Saved by the Bell revival features a reference to Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s role on Frankin & Bash. The new Saved by the Bell landed on NBC’s streaming service Peacock today. It centers on a new class of students at Bayside High, but includes many callbacks to the original series. In fact, nearly all of Saved by the Bell‘s main cast members reprise their roles in the revival, aside from Dustin Diamond (Screech) and Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding). Some of the new students featured are kids of the original characters, including Mac, the son of Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski, and Jamie, son of Jessie Spano. In the new series, Gosselaar’s Zack is now the Governor of California.

Since his time on the original Saved by the Bell, Gosselaar has had an impressive and varied career. He’s had leading roles on a number of TV shows, including NYPD Blue and more recently Fox’s unfortunately short-lived series Pitch and The Passage. Currently, he stars in the Black-ish prequel spinoff Mixed-ish, where he plays Bow’s father, Paul Jackson. Along with his many other TV roles, Gosselaar starred as Peter Bash on the TNT series Franklin & Bash. The legal comedy-drama aired for four seasons, concluding in 2014.

Considering Gosselaar many other roles aside from Zack Morris, it makes sense the Saved by the Bell revival couldn’t help reference one of them. In the premiere episode, a political ad mentions Zack’s time as an attorney and then shows a picture of Gosselaar as his Franklin & Bash character. Speaking with TVLine, showrunner Tracey Wigfield discussed the reference and how it came to be:

I don’t remember whose idea [the Franklin & Bash reference] was, but I would love to take credit for it. We talked a lot [in the writers’ room] about how that would be funny because I don’t know which one [Gosselaar] was, whether he was Franklin or Bash.

Wigfield also talked about the revival’s overall approach to inside jokes about the cast’s past roles. She explained, “We have a lot of winky stuff. But you don’t have to have read Deadline [and know] what Mario Lopez has been doing.” This should come as a relief to more casual TV watchers who were fans of the original Saved by the Bell, but haven’t kept up with the cast’s careers since then. Wigfield’s comments also show the revival series will be careful about fan service, not letting it interfere with storytelling.

The Franklin & Bash reference specifically seems like the perfect kind of nod for viewers. Those familiar with Gosselaar’s work likely got a kick out of the reference. However, it wouldn’t have been distracting for the average viewer, who likely thought it was just a regular photo of the actor. If the Saved by the Bell revival maintains this level of callbacks, the show should offer something for everyone.

Source: TVLine

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Rebecca VanAcker
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Rebecca VanAcker is a trainer and news editor at Screen Rant. In the past, she’s written TV recaps for Screen Picks and reviews for Yahoo. She enjoys covering all things superhero, especially the MCU and Arrowverse.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Rebecca got her teaching certificate before falling in love with writing and the entertainment industry. She has a B.A. in English and can often be found ignoring everyone in favor of a good book. Her other hobbies include baking, anything Disney, and exploring with her dog, Beckett.

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