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NBCUniversal announced this morning that its new streaming service, set to launch next year, will be called Peacock — a nod to the company's brightly colored corporate logo. And it will be bringing Parks and Recreation, one of the network's landmark comedies, home when the service launches. The Greg Daniels and Michael Schur comedy will leave Netflix when its contract expires in October 2020 and move to join staples like 30 Rock, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cheers, Frasier, Friday Night Lights, Everybody Loves Raymond, Saturday Night Live, and Will & Grace, all of which will be available when Peacock launches in April 2020.
Bringing back a beloved comedy just in time for the launch of a potentially landscape-altering streaming service is, broadly speaking, a good thing for NBCUniversal. More perplexing is the news that vintage teen sitcom Saved By The Bell will be rebooted for Peacock with original cast members Mario Lopez as and Elizabeth Berkley as Jessie Spano. It will also see the return of Zack Morris, who is now, apparently, the Governor of California. "When California governor Zack Morris gets into hot water for closing too many low-income high schools, he proposes they send the affected students to the highest performing schools in the state — including Bayside High," reads a logline for the show. "The influx of new students gives the over privileged Bayside kids a much needed and hilarious dose of reality.”
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