Saved by the Bell Reboot’s New Generation Reveals Advice Given by Original Stars

Saved by the Bell is back and it’s easily one of our favorite reboots to date! In honor of the Peacock series debuting last month, ComicBook.com had had the chance to chat with some of Bayside High’s newest students. We talked to Haskiri Velazquez (Daisy Jiménez) about the importance of Latinx representation, Dexter Darden (Devante Young) about his comic book movie goals, Mitchell Hoog (Mac Morris) about the show’s coronavirus cliffhanger, and Belmont Cameli (Jamie Spano) about his character’s love triangle. We also asked each young star about working with the original Saved by the Bell cast and if they received any words of wisdom from the veteran actors.

“Mario [Lopez] and Elizabeth [Berkley] could not have been more welcoming, more kind, more genuine,” Darden shared. “And you know, they’ve been through it before. They’ve been through the ups and downs. They’ve been through the ringer, they understand what it’s like to be in the show with such history. So they were just trying to guide us in the best way possible and contributing advice here or there. And just letting us know, like, ‘Listen, I know this is going to be a rough ride. Something that you guys might not necessarily be used to, but we’re here for you and we support you.’ And they really poured into each and every one of us individually.”

“I had a few scenes with Mario and a few scenes with Elizabeth and the scenes that I did have were pretty short and quick,” Velazquez explained. “But the moment I walked on from set and I saw them there, they were so welcoming. They told me, ‘If there’s ever anything you need help with, any advice, we’re always here to help.’ And I think that was just so lovely for them to do because this was their show, their baby, they created this whole entire Saved By the Bell world. So to allow us to come in and make it our own was just… They created a space where I felt safe and welcomed, and I truly appreciated that.”

“I actually didn’t meet Mark [-Paul Gosselaar] until… because he’s a series regular on another show, and so I didn’t actually meet him until I think it was the sixth table read,” Hoog revealed of his onscreen dad. “I met him actually fairly late in the process. So I was kind of on my own, I guess, in some standpoint. I guess I shouldn’t say on my own, because I had this amazing team of writers and producers to kind of help me out with it. I think in my mind I knew who I was in my place within the whole arc of everything in the whole story, but there were definitely little things that, we’d be on set and Tracy Wakefield, our showrunner, or one of the other writers or producers would come up and be like, ‘Hey, let’s try this, because it’s kind of like an ode to the original.’ I’d be like, ‘Okay, awesome.’ Then I’d go look it up and kind of study it a little.”

“I got to meet Elizabeth in the audition process,” Cameli said of his onscreen mom. “It was super cool. She was in the room for both of my in-person auditions at Universal. And just before the audition, she made it feel incredibly welcoming and she was so gracious. And then once I booked the role, we had some time to spend together and talk about what life would have been like for the Spanos growing up and Jamie’s childhood and their relationship, their dynamic as mother and son. I got to spend some time with her husband and her son in real life, which was cool. And I got to see how she was as a mom and reality. Yeah, she had some advice for me. But ultimately, Jamie is a product of Jessie Spano as a mom. So he has a lot of those wonderful Jessie Spano qualities that everybody loved in the original, but he also is his own individual. So it was very cool working with her.”

Saved by the Bell is now streaming on Peacock.