‘Saved By the Bell’ Was a Total ‘Ferris Bueller’ Ripoff

Few people have accused Saved By the Bell of being simply too stunningly original. Right from the jump, the series was actually a sequel to a different show called Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which chronicled Zack Morris’, Lisa Turtle’s and Screech’s junior high years. (Well, one of them, anyway — Good Morning, Miss Bliss was swiftly canceled.) Even back then, its characters were transparent cliches. Screech was a stereotypical nerd, and Lisa’s materialism was consistent with bigotry against her, um, initial ethnicity before Lark Voorhies was cast.

Even Zack Morris, a scheming sociopath soaked in bleach who has actual superpowers, was a complete ripoff. According to actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar, his character was based on an entirely different ‘80s teenage icon: Ferris Bueller. “Remember when Zack Morris talked to the camera?” Gosselaar asked Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in 2015. “People think, ‘Oh, that was such a novel idea that you came up with.’ Like, no, that was done by Ferris Bueller. We were just copying him,” a fact confirmed by Saved By the Bell executive producer Peter Engel.

In fact, Gosselaar continued, “that was, like, the muse for my character was Ferris Bueller. I was such a fan of Ferris Bueller. So that’s what Zack was… I did whatever Ferris Bueller did or whatever, you know, was cool around that era.” 

Except, you know, abide by the uninterrupted progression of time. Boy, that whole “time out” thing would have been helpful to Ferris.

Of course, in true puddle-deep teen sitcom fashion, giving Zack time-stopping powers betrays a complete misunderstanding of the story they yoinked. The stakes of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off rest entirely on whether he can physically outrun his parents, his sister, the dean, encroaching adulthood and his own immaturity. If he could just freeze Rooney as they raced to beat his parents home, it would take all the tension out of the scene. The movie isn’t about how cool Ferris is; it’s about whether he can keep getting away with his antics. 

That’s never a concern for Zack, who failed all the way up to the governorship of California — at least for two seasons. The one thing he couldn’t call a timeout on was viewer disinterest.