Lifetime has released the first five minutes of its made-for-television movie "The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story," a tell-all expose of the teenage stars in Saved by the Bell.
The first five minutes cover a lot of ground including witnessing the great fandom of the show, the original pitch of the show (originally titled "Good Morning, Miss Bliss"), and establishing the movie's point of view through Dustin Diamond, the actor who played Screech.
The movie is based on Diamond's book, "Behind the Bell," an inside look that told all the behind-the-scenes dirt that took place that the public never knew about. Diamond would later say he regretted penning the book, and that the more scandalous moments in the book were fabricated by a ghostwriter. It is unclear which parts of are false and which are true, but Mark-Paul Gosselaar has publicly admitted that all of the stars, except Diamond, dated each other while the show was still on air.
"Saved by the Bell" followed the stories of Zach Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Thiessen), A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez), Jessie Spano (Elizabath Berkley), Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), and Samuel "Screech" Powers (Dustin Diamond) as they committed high school high pranks and grew up before audience's eyes.Teenagers around the country gravitated to the show because of its infectious humor and tact when handling serious social issues without being heavy handed such as death, divorce, and drug use. The series aired 86 episodes over four seasons, and has run on local television syndication around the world since 1990.
The first episode of "The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story" will air on Sept. 1 at 9 PM.
