It would have been so easy to get it wrong.

A Saved by the Bell reboot with a Zack Morris clone, an inept principal, a stuck-up princess character and fourth-wall breaking could have easily been a carbon copy of the original 1989-93 series; silly Saturday-morning stuff that you could afford to miss.

Instead, the new version, executive produced by Tracey Wigfield (30 Rock, The Mindy Project) avoids the clichés of the original. Yes, there’s a Zack Morris clone (he’s Zack’s son) at Bayside High, but he’s the second-billed character.

The lead character is Daisy Jiménez (Haskiri Velazquez,) one of several students bused in to Bayside from a poorer school closed due to the ineptitude of Governor Zack Morris. (The story of how he became governor is an amusing prelude to the pilot.)

It’s Daisy who gets the asides to the camera, not Mac Morris (Mitchell Hoog,) and she’s one of a very diverse cast of students whose adventures we will follow. Daisy’s best friend Aisha (Alycia Pascual-Pena) (she’s a football star!) and the mysterious Devante (Dexter Darden) are from the closed school. Lexi (Josie Totah) is the popular cheerleader, but she’s trans (and the star of her own E! reality show.)

Lexi isn’t “the trans” character on the show, though; that’s merely backstory. She’s rich and connected but out-of-touch with the issues faced by the poorer kids, and that’s the baseline for whatever journey her character makes. Totah herself is trans, an LGBTQ activist, and is credited as a producer on the show.

A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) and Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) are on staff at Bayside and appear throughout the first season. Jessie’s dim-witted son Jamie (Belmont Cameli) rounds out the in-group of students, but aside from a brief appearance in the open of the pilot, Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Kelly (Tiffani Thiessen) aren’t main characters – though they do appear in three of the show’s ten episodes.

Dustin Diamond’s Screech is not slated to appear, though Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies) appears in one episode. The put-upon principal is played by John Michael Higgins, not Dennis Haskins, but a couple of faces from the first iteration of the show are on hand: Patrick Thomas O’Brien as Mr. Dewey and Ed Alonzo as Max.

What distinguishes this version from the original (and from most remakes) is the writing. This show has smart, snappy dialogue with a pedigree that resembles its 30 Rock roots more than a generic 90s teen sitcom.

When Daisy and Aisha see Bayside for the first time, they are amazed at the wealth on display in their new school. Daisy says, “Like, I knew they would’t have graffiti, but I think that’s a Banksy.” And Devante, looking over the club signup board, notes that “there are more people signed up for the ‘Artisanal Bath Bomb Club’ than football.”

The situations are far from cliché as well. Sure, there’s plenty of teen angst and even a food fight, but the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny and the writing is self-aware enough to know when it is skirting the edge of feel-good stories where serious problems can be solved in 23 minutes.

When Daisy needs to print posters to run for student body president but doesn’t have the cash, she tees up an inspirational speech (complete with swelling music underneath) but is cut short by an impatient customer before she can finish. And when Coach Slater tries to recruit Devante to his football team, he turns a chair around to sit on it, only to have it called out as the trite move it is.

Not that it’s perfect: the busybody PTA mom who condescendingly tries to help the poorer students is named “Joyce Whitelady.” But the classy, matter-of-fact way the character of Lexi is presented showcases the best of the updated Saved by the Bell: everyone is unique, and what matters are their stories, not their labels.

The entire 10-episode first season is available for streaming on Peacock Premium. Just like the theme song, an updated version (by Lil Yachty) of the original, the new show adds a distinctly 2020 flavor to a classic original.