It’s already been announced that former Saved By The Bell cast members Mario Lopez (Slater) and Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie) will be a part of the new reboot for Peacock, NBCUniversal’s up-and-coming streaming service. That news was soon followed by the announcement that Mark-Paul Gosselaar will also be on board as Zack Morris, now governor of California, who sends low-income students to his old alma mater Bayside High. Rumors swirled that the production was also attempting to add Tiffani Thiessen’s Kelly Kapowski to the cast as well.
You’ll notice a few former cast members missing from that lineup: Namely, Dustin Diamond’s Screech and Lark Voorhies’ fashionable Lisa Turtle. According to E! News, this week on The Dr. Oz Show, Voorhies reveals that she felt some pangs over her exclusion from the new series: “I have to admit I did feel a bit slighted and hurt when I was not invited to be part of the Saved By the Bell reunion as well as other cast members’ events, yet of course… I also realized that having this puzzling disorder may have played a major part in that factual decision. With that in mind, I am truly thankful for having had the chance to work on a show that has been so successful.”
E! says that Voorhies will open up about her reported mental health challenges in the interview, while also commenting on other (unofficial) SBTB reunions, like the above four cast members appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, or having dinner with their spouses and posting on social media. She says, “They have the right to do that and they’re happy in their element and they can have it, certainly… Family isn’t kept complete without its lead.”
Diamond, on the other hand, has likely burned the SBTB bridge irreparably with his 2009 tell-all book Behind The Bell, which inspired a TV movie, The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story. Diamond later apologized to his fellow castmates, also, coincidentally, on The Dr. Oz Show.