Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, we close out the Miss Bliss years.

Episode 1.13 “The Mentor”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on March 18th, 1989)

For some reason, Miss Bliss’s mentor — James Lyman (Robert Donner) — shows up at the school to visit his favorite student, Carrie Bliss.  (Apparently, the very British Miss Bliss grew up in Indiana.  I’m not saying it’s not possible, as her parents could have come over when Miss Bliss was still young.  That said, it just seems odd that no one — not even her students — ever mention anything about Miss Bliss being British.  It would seem like something Miss Bliss would have mentioned during all of those lessons about the Constitution and American history.)  Mr. Lyman is retired but he agrees to substitute for Miss Bliss while she spends a week doing paperwork.  (Most teachers would probably just have to suck it up and both teach and do paperwork during the week but not our Miss Bliss!)

This is one of those annoying episodes where Mr. Lyman is the unconventional teacher who gives the kids free hall passes and takes them on extended field trip without getting permission beforehand.  Mr. Lyman makes learning fun!  (Gag!)  Miss Bliss gets upset because Mr. Lyman isn’t following her lesson plan and Mr. Lyman basically accuses Miss Bliss of being a sellout.  For once, I’m on Miss Bliss’s side here.  Mr. Lyman is a substitute.  His job is to follow the lesson plan.  If Miss Bliss doesn’t want him to handing out hall passes, that’s her right.  It’s her class!  And this whole thing of trusting the students not to abuse the hall pass?  I would have totally abused a free hall pass.  Everyone would abuse a free hall pass!  I would laughed at any teacher dumb enough to give me a free hall pass.  It’s almost as if the people who wrote this episode had absolutely no knowledge of how teenagers think.  In the end, Mr. Lyman comes across as being an unlikable crank.  The episode ends up with dressing up like Abraham Lincoln and showing up, unannounced, in Miss Bliss’s classroom.  Seriously, someone call the cops on their weirdo.

Meanwhile, Nikki worries that boys don’t see her as being feminine.  Lisa teachers her how to wear makeup.  Next year, maybe Nikki and Zach….

Oh, wait a minute.  Sorry, Zach, Mr. Belding, Screech, and Lisa are all moving to California.  Nikki, Mickey, Miss Bliss, Ms. Palladino, Mylo are staying in Indiana.  The Mentor was the final episode of Good Morning, Miss Bliss.  The Disney Channel canceled the show but producer Peter Engel took some of the cast over to NBC and launched Saved By The Bell.  The Miss Bliss episodes would later be repackaged for syndication with Zach saying, “I remember this time in Junior High…..”  I remember changing the channel whenever I realized a Miss Bliss episode was starting.

We’ll start Saved By The Bell next week.  Finally, the tyranny of Miss Bliss is over.