Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.13 “The Mentor”

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.12 “Clubs and Cliques”

Posted on October 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Miss Bliss takes over the school.

Episode 1.12 “Clubs and Cliques”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on March 11th, 1989)

Mr. Belding is teaching Miss Bliss’s class!

Why?

Well, the answer doesn’t make much sense but here it is. The School Board has ordered Belding to name one of the teachers as an “assistant principal” who can be in charge whenever he’s out of the building. Most schools just hire an assistant principal but whatever. Maybe this is an Indiana thing. Since there are only three teachers to choose from and one of them is the mad scientist who wanted to force Nikki to dissect a frog, Mr. Belding goes with Miss Bliss. But, before Miss Bliss can officially have the job, she has to serve as a principal for a week. Belding covers her class.

At first, Mr. Belding is nervous. But, by the end of the class period, he’s thrilled. He tells Miss Bliss that he thinks he did a wonderful job and that the kids really got something out of it.

“Mr. Belding,” Miss Bliss replies, “it’s only homeroom.”

Okay, I’m just going to say it …. WHAT A BITCH! Seriously, how condescending can one person be? This is who you want to make principal? Is this how you motivate people? Again, this is why I cannot stand Miss Bliss. Seriously, if anyone ever said that to her — “It’s only homeroom,” — she would have rightly been offended.

(Then again, I have to wonder whether or not Mr. Belding’s ever taught a class before. This episode seems to imply that he hasn’t. Was that a common thing with principals back in the 80s?)

Miss Bliss has a lot to deal with because it’s pledge week. Apparently, the coolest club at JFK Middle School is the Rigma club and Zach has been told by Rick (J. Trevor Edmond) and Trevor (Christopher Carter) that he can wear a Rigma jacket if he’s mean to all of his friends. Zach calls Lisa’s parents and let them know that she wears makeup in school. He throws ice cream at Nikki’s sweater. He reveals that Mikey has a crush. He calls Screech a “nothing.” He loses all of his friends and then he finds out that he wasn’t even being considered for Rigma membership. Instead, it was all a big joke on the part of Rick and Trevor.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, Mark-Paul Gosselaar did a pretty good job playing up Zach’s regret after he realized he had lost all of his friends for nothing. The episode is interesting because it shows a side of Zach that would totally disappear over the course of Saved By The Bell. In this episode, Zach is insecure and desperate to belong. By the time Saved By The Bell really got going, it had been established that Zach had no insecurities and was automatically loved by everyone he met. Insecure Zach is infinitely more compelling but a bit less fun than confident Zach. Watching this episode, it’s hard to believe we’re watching the same Zach Morris who will eventually lie about a being a descendant of Chief Joseph.

Things work out in the end. His friends forgive Zach. Even more importantly, Miss Bliss gets in trouble for not calling and asking for permission from the Board of Education before giving everyone everything they wanted. “She’s not perfect,” Belding chuckles. You got that right, Mr. Belding!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.11 “Stevie”

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is perhaps the dumbest episode of this show yet.

Episode 1.11 “Stevie”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired March 4th, 1989)

The world’s most popular pop singer (Suzanna Tara) is performing at her old middle school, JFK Junior High! The world knows her as Stevie but Miss Bliss still calls her “Colleen Morton.” Since Colleen/Stevie’s parents are no longer living in Indiana, Miss Bliss suggests that Stevie should stay with her. Stevie agrees because, when you’re a millionaire who can literally stay anywhere, why wouldn’t you want to stay with a condescending middle school teacher?

During her concert, Stevie will be singing to one student who will join her on stage. Zach wants to be that student, especially since he’s made a bet that he’ll kiss Stevie before the week ends. Zach sends Stevie a letter, claiming to be terminally ill. Stevie is touched. Mr. Belding is touched. Miss Bliss sees right through Zach and exposes him for being a liar.

When Zach goes to Miss Bliss’s house to apologize, he meets Colleen. Like Zach, Colleen is also a damn liar and claims to be Miss Bliss’s niece. Zach and Colleen talk about how Stevie is retiring to go to college. Zach thinks that is crazy and I agree. Colleen kisses Zach on the cheek.

Later, watching Stevie sing to Screech, Zach realizes who she is. “I kissed Stevie!” he shouts. Nikki tells him to get bent.

This was an annoying episode. I could buy the idea of Stevie wanting to perform at her old high school but seriously, who would ever want to return to middle school? Who remembers their middle school teachers? Who would want to stay with Miss Bliss? Add to that, this was yet another episode of Good Morning Miss Bliss that was so poorly lit that I almost went blind from the glare of Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s hair.

This whole thing was just dumb.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.10 “Practical Jokes”

Posted on September 20, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Screech goes on trial!

Episode 1.10 “Practical Jokes”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 25th, 1989)

“It’s Hoosier Harvest Festival!” Miss Bliss tells us. Apparently, this is some sort of Indiana thing where everyone rolls around in hay and plays practical jokes on each other. In her 11 years of working at JFK Junior High, Miss Bliss is proud to have never been pranked. Mr. Belding gets pranked all the time. In fact, Belding spends this entire episode getting humiliated over and over again. After eating some tainted food, he runs from the cafeteria. Miss Bliss has a good laugh over the suffering of a man who, just a few weeks ago, moved Heaven and Earth so she could win the Teacher of the Year award.

In other words, Miss Bliss is a bitch.

When Miss Bliss sits down in class, it turns out that someone has painted her chair. Her new sweater is ruined! Miss Bliss gets angry and demands that the responsible party step forward or the entire class will be punished. The class immediately pressures Screech to confess. Screech does so and is told that he will have to pay for Miss Bliss’s sweater. Screech takes back his confession.

Miss Bliss says the only way to settle this is by holding a mock trial. Hey, that’s convenient! Would you believe that Miss Bliss just happens to be teaching a unit on the Constitution? Screech is put on trial. Zach is his lawyer. Nikki is the prosecutors. Mikey is the bailiff. Lisa is a witness. The rest of the cast — you know, the dorky kids who don’t get names or storylines — are the jury.

The evidence is stacked against Screech but Zach gets most of it thrown out. (Nikki may have found a paint brush in Screech’s locker but she had no right to search it.) The only evidence against Screech is that he said he was going to get Miss Bliss and …. well, he did confess. Somehow, his confession never comes up at the trial. That’s a pretty big piece of evidence, even if everyone knows he was pressured into making it. Screech surprises everyone by taking the fifth when asked why he went to his locker after saying he was going to get Miss Bliss.

Screech is acquitted for lack of evidence. (Uhmm …. confession? Hello, he confessed?) Miss Bliss reveals that she pranked herself to trick the kids into learning about the Constitution. Because she pranked herself, this mean that she has still never been officially pranked. After class, she helps Screech open his locker and gets hit by the silly string that Screech previously set to go off. So, Screech did prank Miss Bliss!

(Wouldn’t Nikki have gotten hit by the silly string when she illegally searched Screech’s locker?)

This episode was dumb. Screech should have been wrongfully convicted because Zach wasn’t that good of a lawyer. Unfortunately, Nikki wasn’t that good of a prosecutor either. That’s the system for you, dagnabit!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning, Miss Bliss 1.9 “Let’s Get Together”

Posted on September 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the kids learn yet another lesson about conflict resolution.

Episode 1.9 “Let’s Get Together”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on February 18th, 1989)

After Ms. Palladino (Joan Ryan) is kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend, she temporarily moves in with Miss Bliss. It doesn’t go well. Ms. Palladino is messy and quirky and accident-prone. Miss Bliss is British. Can these two friends figure out how to live together?

Meanwhile, Nikki and Zach have been assigned to work on a class project but they’re suddenly not getting along. They have to convince Miss Bliss that the telephone is a worthwhile invention. (Miss Bliss plays the role of a skeptical pilgrim.) Nikki wants to use a bunch of charts to make her point. Zach pretends to call Nikki on the phone and apologizes to her for not being a good friend. It’s extremely awkward to watch, despite the fact that Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Heather Hopper both pour their hearts into the scene. Actually, maybe that’s why it’s so awkward to watch. Imagine being a student, trapped in that classroom and forced to listen to Zach and Nikki work out their differences. Miss Bliss give them an A and decides to stop being such a bitch to Ms. Palladino. Good for her!

This episode probably would have been more effective if we hadn’t already been subjected to an episode where Mickey and Zach get into a disagreement and then talk about their friendship while the entire school watches. This episode felt like a do-over. I also found it curious that all the students apparently knew that Miss Bliss and Ms. Palladino were living together and not getting along. First off, why would the students know this and secondly, why would the students cares?

I’m starting to think that Good Morning Miss Bliss was not a realistic portrayal of the Indiana middle school experience.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.8 “The Boy Who Cried Rat”

Posted on September 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Zach takes up terrorism.

Episode 1.8 “The Boy Who Cried Rat”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 11th, 1989)

Miss Bliss has been nominated for Indiana Teacher Of The Year because of course she has. Mr. Belding is super-excited. He is convinced that Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars will put her over the top! What is the Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars? Miss Bliss wears silly costumes and asks historical questions. Miss Bliss can’t wait to be named Teacher of the Year.

Uh-oh, Zach Morris needs an extra week to study for his midterm so he can get the B that his father is requiring before he’ll take Zach on a ski vacation. Zach convinces Screech to set his two pet rats free in the school. As a result, the school is shut down for a week and the Best Teacher judge will not get to see Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars. But when Zach hears that Miss Bliss is going to miss her chance to be Teacher of the Year, he feels guilty and confesses. Somehow, this leads to the school not being closed for a week. I mean, Screech was able to find one of his rats but the other one is still loose in the school. Zach confessing doesn’t change the fact that there’s still a rat infestation. Mr. Belding offers Zach and Screech a deal. If they act really enthusiastic during Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars and they help Miss Bliss win the title of Teacher of the Year, Belding won’t give them detention. Zach agrees.

(Personally, I think it can be argued that Zach should have been expelled and that his behavior is evidence of a sociopathic personality but whatever. Miss Bliss is what matters here!)

Unfortunately, Zach and the class get too enthusiastic about the Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars. They’re so busy praising Miss Bliss that Miss Bliss fears that they’ve become distracted from studying for their midterms. Miss Bliss tells the judge that her number one concern has to be getting the kids ready for their test, not competing for a title.

So, of course, Miss Bliss wins the title.

More than any previous episode of Good Morning Miss Bliss, this episode felt like a typical installment of Saved By The Bell. Zach came up with a wacky scheme. Screech somehow got roped into it. And, in the end, no one faced any real consequences for their behavior. That said, this is also a typical Good Morning Miss Bliss episode in that Miss Bliss is again portrayed as being too good to be true and the entire school was portrayed as revolving around keeping her happy.

Personally, I don’t think Miss Bliss’s Battle of the Eighth Grade Stars was all that impressive. Teacher of the Year? STOP THE COUNT!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning, Miss Bliss 1.7 “Save The Last Dance For Me”

Posted on August 30, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the Eighth Grade Dance nearly turns violent!

Episode 1.7 “Save The Last Dance For Me”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on January 25th, 1989)

Mikey (Max Battimo) wants to go to the Eighth Grade Dance with Shana (Alexondra Lee) but Shana wants to go with Mikey’s evil best friend, Zach Morris. Zach agrees to go to the dance with Shana before he finds out that she’s the girl that Mikey was planning on asking. But, once Zach does find out, he refuses to cancel his date with her. Mikey gets upset. Mikey, I should add, is totally in the wrong here. Shana wants to go with Zach. Deal with it, Mikey.

Mr. Belding is worried about a fight breaking out at the dance. Fortunately, when Mikey tells Zach to meet him outside so they can fight, Zach apologizes and refuses to fight his friend. All the students go, “Awwww!” (That would not have been the reaction of the students at any school that I ever went to.) Mr. Belding is relieved that the fight is cancelled. Miss Bliss and her date Sherman (Lonnie Burr) bust out some disco moves.

This was a thoroughly predictable episode. I will say that Max Battimo, who retired from acting after Good Morning Miss Bliss, gave a pretty good performance as Mikey. Mikey may have been in the wrong as far as Shana was concerned but he was absolutely right to wonder why Zach always gets everything that he wants. Mark-Paul Gosselaar almost sold the scene where he apologized to Mikey. That’s not something that would ever happen in a real middle school but whatever. It is something that used to happen pretty frequently on shows like Good Morning Miss Bliss.

The main problem with this episode was that it was overlit. Zach’s hair was glowing so brightly that it actually hurt my eyes. This was actually a frequent problem on Saved By The Bell. The lighting was always way too harsh. The whole school looked like it was about to burst into flames.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.6 “Showdown”

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a bully can’t read. Can Miss Bliss reach him? Or will he just beat up Screech? Why not both?

Episode 1.6 “Showdown”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on January 4th, 1989)

“I can’t read!” Deke (Andras Jones) snaps at Screech towards the end of this episode. Deke is the new student at JFK Junior High, a troublemaker who has continually been transferred to school after school. Deke was going to beat up Screech but, when Screech didn’t laugh at Deke’s illiteracy, it changed Deke’s life. That little act of kindness was all Deke needed to approach Miss Bliss and ask for help.

Way to go, Screech!

This is actually one of the better episodes of Good Morning Miss Bliss, as the emphasis is put more on the students and less on Miss Bliss being a sanctimonious nag. Andras Jones was 21 years old when this episode aired and he really did look too old and too tall to be playing a 9th grader. (He towers over Hayley Mills.) But, when you think about, it makes sense. Deke is probably someone who has gotten held back a few times. If he looks older, it’s because he is older. While everyone he knows who is his own age has moved on to high school, he’s still stuck in middle school. No wonder the kid is pissed off at the world!

To give credit where credit is due, young Dustin Diamond gave a pretty good performance in this episode. Considering how Saved By The Bell would later transform Screech (and Diamond himself) into the epitome of an annoying sidekick, it’s actually interesting to see how good he actually was on Good Morning, Miss Bliss. On Miss Bliss, Diamond was allowed to play Screech as just being a nerd as opposed to full-on weirdo. Seen today, this is actually a very sad episode. Diamond has no idea what’s waiting for him in the future.

Oh well. At least Deke might finally make it to the tenth grade….

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning, Miss Bliss 1.5 “Parents and Teachers”

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Miss Bliss almost becomes Zach’s stepmother.

Episode 1.5 “Parents and Teachers”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on December 28th, 1988)

It’s parent-teacher week! Lisa worries that her parents are going to find out that she wears makeup to school. Miss Bliss promises not to tell them. Mr. Belding worries that the parents are going to start telling principal jokes so, when he hears a few, he apparently tells a ribald joke about Gumby. (We don’t get the full details. Milo says that it involved a side of Pokey that he’d rather not think about …. GOOD GOD, WHAT THE HELL DID BELDING SAY!?)

Miss Bliss is shocked when one of the parents turns out to be Peter (Robert Pine, the sergeant from CHiPs and Chris’s father), a charming man that she met during a singles retreat. It turns out that Peter is Zach’s father….

Wait, what? Anyone who has ever watched Saved By The Bell knows that Zach’s parents are not divorced and that his father is Derek Morris, a bearded computer salesman who played baseball in college and who grounded Zach for drinking too much at a senior party. Who the Hell is this Peter Morris character? I guess, when Zach moved to California, he got a new father as well. Maybe Derek Morris was actually his stepfather and the whole reason he moved to California was because his mother remarried. But why would he bring Lisa. Screech, and Belding with him?

I don’t know. It’s questions like this that haunt me about the Miss Bliss episodes of Saved By The Bell. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Afterall, the only reason why the Good Morning Miss Bliss episodes are considered canon is because they were later added to the Saved By The Bell syndication package with newly shot scenes of Zach saying, “I remember when I was in junior high….” Really, the simplest answer to all of my questions is that the producers of Saved By The Bell just didn’t care. They didn’t care about continuity or anything else. In those pre-Internet days, they thought they could get away with forcing the Miss Bliss episodes into the SBTB universe. That’s the solution that makes the most sense but I’m a continuity person. This is going to bother me for the rest of my life, I can tell already.

Anyway, Zach is not happy that Miss Bliss is dating his father. Quite frankly, I’m not happy about it either. As a condescending know-it-all, Miss Bliss is already annoying enough without having an active social life. Fortunately, the relationship doesn’t last. Zach skips school and, when Miss Bliss catches him, she realizes that it’s simply unethical to date the father of one of her students.

“What if I send Zach to Switzerland?” Peter asks.

Gee, Peter, what if we call Child Protective Services on your ass? How would you like that? Seriously, the main message of this episode seems to be that Zach has a terrible father and Miss Bliss has terrible judgment.

Zach is really lucky he got out of Indiana.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.4 “Leaping to Conclusions”

Posted on August 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Miss Bliss knows everything.

Episode 1.4 “Leaping To Conclusions”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on December 21st, 1988)

It’s time to dissect a frog for Biology class! Nikki (Heather Hopper) doesn’t believe in animal dissection and is especially upset that the frogs are currently still alive and living in a box with “LIVE ANIMALS” written on it.

Mr. Morton (Deryl Carroll), the crazed science teacher, doesn’t care about Nikki’s objections. However, Miss Bliss, the school busybody, definitely does. Miss Bliss tells Nikki to follow her conscience. Nikki steals the “LIVE ANIMALS” box and sets all of the frogs free in a nearby creek and probably ruins Indiana’s ecosystem.

Morton’s angry but Mr. Belding lets Nikki go with a warning because Mr. Belding is convinced that a private academy is trying to recruit Miss Bliss. Belding spends the entire episode giving Miss Bliss anything she asks for — a new globe, money for a field trip, a new projector — while the rest of the teachers receive nothing. When Miss Bliss discovers that Belding went through her mail and saw she had received a letter from a private academy, Miss Bliss does her usual, “Mr. Belding, you stupid little American,” routine. Belding laughs and then redistributes all of the gifts that he previously gave Miss Bliss. Miss Bliss is not amused because, seriously, why should any other teacher have a new projector? Everyone knows the world revolves around Miss Bliss.

As for Nikki, she steals the replacement frogs but then returns them, saying that it’s not fair for her to take away everyone else’s right to dissect a frog. So, Nikki really didn’t have any problem with the frogs being killed. She just didn’t want to be the one to do it. Mr. Morton says he will have to fail Nikki. Miss Bliss says that Nikki can just use a computer program to simulate dissecting a frog and you have to wonder why Miss Bliss is the one making that decision because it’s not even her class!

Seriously, Miss Bliss is the worst. That said, I wouldn’t want to dissect a frog either. That’s one reason why I lost respect for Nikki when she brought the frogs back. When you believe that strongly in something, you don’t turn back.