History Series / SavedByTheBell

* TalkShowAppearance: "Screech's Spaghetti Sauce", the gang hosts a ''Today Show'' type morning program as a school project. While anchorpersons Zack and Lisa do a decent job, weathergirl Kelly gets doused with a bucket of water on the air, chef Screech (with Slater assisting him chopping the onions) makes a delicious sauce [[spoiler:that ends up infringing on a brand name sauce]] and investigative reporter Jessie ambushes Mr. Belding over some missing petty cash, even accusing him of using the funds to buy a new car.

* FatIdiot: Mr. Tuttle. Although he's a knowledgeable, enthusiastic [[RenaissanceMan science/driver's ed/glee club teacher]], he's shown to be very gullible and easily manipulated by Zack.

* ConfirmBeforeReveal: Late in the episode "House Party", Screech manages to get enough money by hosting a party at his house while his parents are away so that Slater can use the money to buy a replica of Screech's mother's Elvis statue that was accidentally broken earlier in the episode. Things take a bad turn when his parents come back earlier than initially planned, as Kelly and Lisa, who are watching through the front window, inform everyone else.[[note]] Sure enough, Screech's mother comes inside within a minute before the party attendents can leave, though Zack manages to convince her the party is held in honor of Elvis.[[/note]]

* ConfirmBeforeReveal: Late in the episode "House Party", Screech manages to get enough money by hosting a party at his house while his parents are away so that Slater can use the money to buy a replica of Screech's mother's Elvis statue that was accidentally broken earlier in the episode. Things take a bad turn when his parents come back earlier than initially planned, as Kelly and Lisa, who are watching through the front window inform everyone else.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessup: The show takes place right at the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, when the Soviet empire was falling apart.[[note]]There are early references in the show to UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev, and at one point Zack describes his skin-clearing cream as "Acne Glasnost".[[/note]] It actually becomes a plot point in the 1990 episode "The Prom", where Kelly's dad loses his job at the local defense plant due to Cold War tensions coming to an end and the RealLife federal budget cuts in defense. In Mr. Kapowski's words, "World peace broke out." Serves as an example where RealLifeWritesThePlot.

* RealityEnsues:
** In "Driver's Ed", Zack presumes that Mr. Belding will not punish anyone for wrecking the driver's ed car since no one confessed to doing it. Instead, Belding decides to punish everyone by cancelling the course and making them take it again the following year.
** "Fake [=IDs=]" has Zack, Screech and Slater catching Kelly's new boyfriend, Jeff, cheating on her. The gang then orders the former to tell her about it...who then angrily accuses him of being jealous liar.
** "Zack's War" has Mr. Belding dressed as an [[ItMakesSenseInContext American gladiator to joust in a battle with Kelly and Zack.]] Although he was determined to beat both of them, this is ignoring the fact that a) they are fit teenagers and b) he is a middle-aged and none-too-athletic man and they easily win their respective battles.
** In "Operation: Zack", Zack, terrified about an upcoming knee surgery, tries to sneak out of the hospital by wearing doctor's scrubs to disguise himself. However, his surgeon, Lisa's mother, wasn't fooled one minute and ordered him back to his room.
** As smitten as Screech is with Lisa, there are times when even her behavior turns him off, such as in "The Prom" when her talkativeness ruins his film-watching experience and he ended up refusing to go to the prom with her.
** In "Earthquake!", Screech at one point uses [[ItMakesSenseInContext a baby key ring and a soap-on-a-rope]] to try and break himself and Mr. Belding out of his office due to the door getting jammed in the aftermath of an earthquake, citing a trick he viewed on an episode of ''[=MacGyver=]''. Since in all likelihood the key ring is made of plastic, it doesn't have the strength to turn inside of a metal lock and it predictably breaks.

** The Substitute" has Screech attempting to woo Lisa with some Shakespeare-esque poetry, which ends with "So you may dip your French fries in my face". [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor She does just that.]]

** "Snow White and the Seven Dorks" has an angry Wicked Queen Kelly, who caught Jessie kissing Zack though it [[NotWhatItLooksLike wasn't what it looks like,]] shove an apple into the mouth of Snow White Jessie during the school play and growls at her, "I hope you choke on it, beanpole."

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: In "The Zack Tapes", after learning about subliminal messages, Zack begins using them for his own benefit. It initially works until Kelly, Lisa, and Jessie realizes what happened. They get their revenge.

* MrFanservice: Slater likes wearing gym short-shorts, and incredibly loose muscle shirts.

* OneBornEveryMinute: And Zack is certainly quick to take advantage. He can't handle even a brief taste of power. Even showrunner Peter Engel compared giving Zack any responsibility at all to "putting Hitler in charge of the Jews."

* GiveGeeksAChance: Screech had several one-episode love interests, often played by extremely beautiful actresses (Hillary Danner, Emma Caulfield, Christina Moore, and Marnette Patterson). In the "country club" story arc, he had a recurring girlfriend named Alison, played by the lovely Clare Salstrom. Even his "nerdy" girlfriend, Violet, was played by Tori Spelling, although she wore thick glasses and a dorky hairstyle and clothes for the role.

* TheUnfairSex: A criticism of Zack and Kelly's relationship, as there were two [[RecycledScript occasionally-reused plots]] throughout the high school and college years: (a) "Zack pays a little too much attention to another girl and Kelly gets mad," and (b) "Kelly sees another guy and drops Zack like a hot potato." In cases of A, Zack having to figure out how to make it up to Kelly (or realizing he needed to) would be the focus of the plot. However, in cases of B, Zack would still be made the villain, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy for standing in the way of Kelly's happiness for his own selfish needs]]. Apparently, NegativeContinuity is in play and you're not supposed to notice this pattern, but it's hard not to. The GrandFinale of the original students' saga is Zack and Kelly's wedding. What led Zack to pop the question? He was afraid that Kelly would meet another guy on an upcoming trip that Zack wasn't going on.

* TheUnfairSex: A criticism of Zack and Kelly's relationship, as Zack is typically shown to be in the wrong when he tries dating other people, while also getting criticized for being "clingy" if he expresses displeasure when Kelly does it.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Part of one of the {{Very Special Episode}}s about drugs, Zack realized Jessie's antics were a red flag before discovering she was addicted to caffeine pills.

Without fail, Screech (Dustin Diamond) would [[TheMillstone spoil the plan while attempting to help]].

In September 2019, it was announced that a ''Saved by the Bell'' {{revival}} would be produced for NBC's upcoming streaming platform Creator/{{Peacock}}. [[Series/SavedByTheBell2020 The revival]] will return to the halls of Bayside High, facing an influx of new students from lower-income schools after Zack, now the governor of California, scandalously closes too many schools, forcing them to merge into Bayside. Lopez and Berkeley will reprise their roles as Slater and Jessie, while Gosselaar will return as Zack in a recurring capacity and Thiessen is also expected to re-appear as Kelly. As for new characters, Josie Totah has been cast as mean girl cheerleader Lexi, Haskiri Velazquez as the intelligent Daisy, Alycia Pascual-Pena as tomboy Aisha, Belmont Cameli as Jessie and Slater's athletic son Jamie, and Mitchell Hoog as Zack's privileged son Mac, while John Michael Higgins will play Mr. Belding replacement as principal. Tracey Wigfield (''Series/ThirtyRock'', ''Series/GreatNews'') will serve as showrunner and executive producer, alongside Lopez, Berkeley, Gosselaar, returning producer Franco Bario, and original series executive producer Peter Engel.

** ''The College Years'' has a very poorly done episode where Slater discovers his father is Mexican but changed his name to get into the Army. Zack apparently has to learn AnAesop about respecting Slater's heritage after Slater spends the episode being overly sensitive and accusing Zack of being racist.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** A ''rare'' example happened on the show and most fans overlooked it when it happened (and still do). During the episode "Date Auction", when Mr. Belding asked if there were any other motions to make during the student council meeting, Zack replies, "Yeah, let's see the cheerleaders in motion" while ''[[ADateWithRosiePalms making a diagonal fist and motioning it up and down above his waist.]]''
** In "Screech's Woman", [[ItMakesSenseInContext when Zack is dressed up as Screech's date Bambi,]] Slater (who quickly catches on that it's him), jokes that "your secret's safe with me, sweetheart" while patting "Bambi's" breast.
** "Save the Max" has Screech briefly impersonate [[Series/MarriedWithChildren Al Bundy]]...complete with him shoving one of his hands down his pants.
** "Slater's Sister" has Slater bragging to someone about Zack that "they don't call him 'Steam-up-the-windows Morris' for nothing!" Steam up the windows [[AutoErotica doing what?]]
** One episode has Slater winning a trophy for his weight-lifting and wrestling contest and Kelly asks him if he will "teach her how to wrestle".