Can Zack Morris Revive Punky Brewster?

Fresh off binging last year’s Peacock reboot of “Saved by the Bell,” we decided to jump into TheArchive and see what old gems with the original cast we could find.

And we did one better. We found Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell trying to revive Punky Brewster in a coma! This is not a Peacock marketing stunt gone wrong, but we’ll get back to that in a moment.

If you thought the only time Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Soleil Moon Frye (honestly, typing those names is a nightmare) appeared in the same rarified air was in the revered episode of Saved by the Bell, “Screech’s Spaghetti Sauce” circa 1992, guess again. Don’t mind if we do. Mark-Paul appeared before that in Punky Brewster as Punky’s tutor for whom she had a mad crush!

Well the “chemistry,” was undeniable so they came together once more and we’ve got that only reunion on celluloid, 1994’s The St. Tammany Miracle.

Directed by Joy Newton Houck Jr., best known for directing Creature from the Black Lake and being the son of Joy Newton Houck Sr. - founder of production and distribution company Howco. Non sequitur, but Howco released Roger Corman and Ed Wood films. They also released Legend of Boggy Creek. We happen to own the sequel, Legend of Boggy Creek 2!

Back to Zack and Punky and The St. Tammany Miracle. It’s about an all-girls Episcopalian high school basketball team fighting to make a name for themselves through the help of their new female coach. 

All kinds of romance and drama ensues (apparently on AND off set) but so too does a coma. Punky finds herself in one but can Zack bring her back? Almost sounds like a wacky episode of SBTB. Zack could do anything after all!

We found more titles in TheArchive starring Mark-Paul and Soleil. And other members of the SBTB cast!

A Mark-Paul and Soleil twofer

In The Killing Secret, Soleil plays a high school cheerleader with a potentially sociopathic boyfriend.  And in Freshman Fall, Mark-Paul plays a potentially sociopathic college freshman opposite another 90’s icon, Candace Cameron. It could literally be a sequel to The Killing Secret.

 

Then there’s Mario Lopez in The Last Fling (opposite a veritable smorgasbord of 80s and 90s luminaries John Ritter, Connie Sellecca, Scott Bakula, Shannon Tweed). But we’ve also got Slater in The Stream. Opposite Rainn Wilson no less. We’ve got Slater and Schrute. Sounds like a slip and fall law firm.

Would it be too much to say we’ve got Showgirls as well? It would because we only have one. And not the movie but its star Elizabeth Berkley without whom Saved by the Bell would not have had its belle. Apparently, a bell or two was rung in TheArchive’s Africa, starring Berkley about a troubled fashion model who must struggle to survive after a car accident leaves her stranded in the African bush.
 
While we don’t have nor can we bring back Dustin Diamond, who is a damn national treasure by the way so RIP, we’ve had fun resurrecting a flick or three with Zack and Punky. But you’ll have to watch the one they star in together to see if he is able to bring her back to life….
 
If not, at least Peacock is about to!

           

     

TheArchive channel is dedicated to aficionados and lovers of story, craft, and silver screen fun – streaming rare, retro, and 4K restored films and classic TV. From indies and series, to Oscar winning documentaries, unearthed MOWs, and a killer horror library, TheArchive delivers forgotten, never-before-seen gems for free. Marilyn, Karloff, and Orson Welles stream alongside Reese, Keanu, and Samuel L. Jackson. Find true stories of Queen, Hendrix, and Sinatra, an LGBTQ library, MLK bios, and world history docs. TheArchive has the movies and shows you either saw, should’ve seen, or should be watching now!