‘Saved By The Bell’, ‘Punky Brewster’ Reboots Set For NBCU’s Peacock Service – Deadline
NBCUniversal’s newly named
Peacock streaming service will feature several original series, the company said Tuesday, including a pair of reboots from the vaults: a newly unveiled
Saved By the Bell with original castmembers including Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez, and
Punky Brewster, which returns original star Soleil Moon Frye as a grown-up version of her former character.
The titles were unveiled along with several other original offerings set for the April 2020-launching service this morning including a rebooted
Battlestar Galactica that will be executive produced by
Mr. Robot‘s and
Homecoming‘s EP Sam Esmail.
All the reboots originated from NBCU-created series and will be part of the 15,000 hours of content expected at launch spanning original and library titles along with movies from the NBCU family.
Saved By the Bell, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month, was a high school-set comedy that ran on NBC for four seasons from 1989-1992. It starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris, the fulcrom of a group that included A.C. Slater (Lopez), Jessie Spano (Berkley), Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Thiessen), “Screech” Powers (Dustin Diamond), Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies) and Dennis Haskins as Principal Belding. A spinoff,
Saved By the Bell: The College Years, ran one season in 1993-94.
NBCU said Emmy-winning
30 Rock writer-producer Tracey Wigfield is executive producing the reboot. The original series hailed from NBC Productions.
Punky Brewster, meanwhile — earmarked as a sequel to the Emmy-nominated sitcom —
has been in development with Universal Cable Productions. Frye is set to reprise her role as the titular character, an orphan who is being raised by a foster father (George Gaynes). The original series created by David W. Duclon ran for four seasons from 1984-1988, two on NBC and two in syndication.
In the multi-camera/hybrid reboot, Punky (Frye) is now a single mother of three trying to get her life back on track when she meets a young girl who reminds her a lot of her younger self.
The follow-up series is written and executive produced by Steve and Jim Armogida, and Frye will also serve as executive producer along with Duclon and Jimmy Fox of Main Event Media, an All3Media America company.