WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Season 1 of Saved by the Bell, now available to stream on Peacock.
Throughout the original incarnation of Saved by the Bell, Zack Morris was always scheming. And it turns out in Peacock’s revival of the series, Zack is still scheming 30 years later. This time though, one of his ploys results in him being elected governor of California.
The Saved by the Bell reboot kicks off by detailing Governor Zack’s actions to cut $10 billion in education funding from the state budget, which forces the closure of poorly funded schools. Even worse, it seems like the fossil fuel industry benefited the most from the cuts. Zack’s excuse is he was just trying to balance the budget by repeating the budgetary cuts that were made the prior year -- information he looked up with Google. In other words, Zack seems woefully unqualified to be governor, and the reason for that is simple: Zack ran for governor as a way to get out of a $75 parking ticket.
Up until winning the race for governor, Zack was a trial attorney -- and according to him, a pretty successful one. But now that he’s governor, he seems less interested in governing -- the biggest accomplishment he mentions is getting British actor Jason Statham on the California Supreme Court -- than in all the pomp and circumstance of the office.
When challenged to do the right thing for the students from the schools that closed, he expresses concern about losing reelection if he’s too explicit in his support of school reform. But when pressed, it turns out the thing he’d be most upset about isn’t remaining the governor, but being a loser who no longer flies in helicopters, has parades thrown in his honor or has secret service agents who call him "the Blonde Falcon."
When it comes down to it though, it seems Zack still wants to do the right thing as governor, even if he’s not exactly cut out for the less glamorous parts of the job. After the press drags him through the mud for the school closures he caused, he arranges for the kids from under-funded districts to get an education at schools with more resources, like Bayside High. Of course, this wasn’t Zack’s idea, it was proposed by a member of the press. But when Zack saw others supported the proposal, he went with it.
Later in the show, Zack is again called on to help when wealthy Bayside parents plan to re-open the under-funded Douglas High School as a way to keep the new transplants away from their kids. Both the new and old Bayside students don’t want to be separated though, especially since the new students now realize they won’t have nearly the same opportunities at Douglas as they do at Bayside. So when Zack’s son, Bayside student Mac asks for his father’s help, Zack shows up… and presents a feel-good mural that declares the kids from Douglas and Bayside are "friends forever."
After being called out on the empty gesture, Zack realizes he needs to do something more substantive, even if he risks losing reelection. He announces a three-year freeze on school openings and closures while a committee works on public-school reform, delivering the victory Bayside needs, and also potentially doing something that might genuinely help kids throughout California. So even though Zack’s political career started as a scheme to get out of a parking ticket, at least he occasionally tries to use his office for positive change.
Peacock's Saved by the Bell stars Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen and John Michael Higgins, as well as newcomers Belmont Cameli, Dexter Darden, Mitchell Hoog, Alycia Pascual-Peña, Josie Totah and Haskiri Velazquez. The series is now available on Peacock.