Now it’s really a reunion. Lark Voorhies, 46, will reprise her role as fashion icon Lisa Turtle for the Saved By The Bell reboot, which NBC’s streaming service announced on Oct. 29! “When the show picks up with Lisa, she is thriving with a successful career in fashion,” the streaming service also announced, per a report from Entertainment Weekly. The announcement didn’t specify how many appearances Lark will make in the new show.
It was a given that Lisa would be killing it in the fashion industry, after fans saw Lark’s character rock one fashionable ensemble after another throughout all four seasons of Saved By The Bell that aired between 1989-1993 (she also starred on the sitcom’s predecessor, Good Morning, Miss Bliss). Lark will join the other main cast members — Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris), Tiffani Thiessen (Kelly Kapowski), Mario Lopez (A.C. Slater) and Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie Spano) — for the revival that’s premiering on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, on Nov. 25.
Earlier this year, Lark was “hurt” when she wasn’t initially asked to return for the reboot. “I have to admit I did feel a bit slighted and hurt when I was not invited to be part of the Saved by the Bell reunion, as well as other cast members’ events,” Lark said in a Feb. 2020 interview on the Dr. Oz Show. However, it had not yet been announced that Mark-Paul and Tiffani would return, either.
Lark also revealed her Schizoaffective disorder diagnosis on the Dr. Oz show, and said, “Yet of course, I also realized that having this puzzling disorder may have played a major part in that factual decision. With that in mind, I am truly thankful for having had the chance to work on a show that has been so successful.”
While the original cast members are reuniting, the revival will feature an all-new cast of Bayside High School students. One of them is played by Dexter Darden, who EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife that the new show is “very different” than the ’90s sitcom we’re familiar with.
“We have a lot of the originals back. Mario’s back, Elizabeth’s back, and there are a couple other guest stars everybody will be really, really happy to see on the show,” Dexter, who is playing Devante in the reboot, told HollywoodLife in October. “But based on right now with the current nature of our world, it can’t be the same school as it was in the early 90s, late 80s. The world was very different in terms of how things were operating in terms of fashion, so Bayside is offering that aspect of life with fashion, but with a newer twist. With everything being the way that it is right now in the culture and the current climate of our country, it’s important that we touch on certain issues that tend to be avoided by most.
The only main cast member who’s not returning for the revival now is Dustin Diamond, who played the class clown Screech on all seasons and specials of Saved By The Bell. Dustin ruffled feathers with his 2009 book Behind The Bell, which that contained wild allegations about his co-stars (he claimed afterwards that the book was ghostwritten).