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‘Saved by the Bell’ Reboot to Star Trans Teen as Main Character

Keely Compson

The beloved Saved by the Bell show, which featured Mario Lopez, is getting a reboot on NBC! I was excited about this, until I found out that the main role is being tossed to Josie Totah, a transgender teen who got a start on Disney Channel’s “Jessie.”

Totah is set to play Lexi, whose character is described as “a beautiful, sharp-tongued cheerleader and the most popular girl at Bayside High” who is “admired and feared” by her fellow classmates.
So why not get a female to play a female character? This isn’t like Madea, where Tyler Perry played a tough, black woman. The show was a comedy, and although he played a woman, Perry isn’t actually mentally ill, believing that he is actually a female.

This kid need some psychiatric help, not a television show!

Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley, who starred in the original incarnation of “Saved by the Bell” from 1989 to 1993, will reprise their roles as A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano respectively in the revival. The new series will explore what happens when California Gov. Zack Morris (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar in the original) closes many of the state’s low-income high schools and reassigns affected students to higher-performing schools, including Bayside High.

News of Totah’s casting comes nearly two afters after the 18-year-old, whose credits include NBC’s “Champions” and the Disney Channel’s “Jessie,” came out as transgender.

Totah, most recently seen on Netflix’s “No Good Nick,” opened up about her gender identity for the first time publicly in a 2018 Time magazine essay.

I think they mean HIS identity.

“In the past, I’ve halfway corrected people by telling them I identify as LGBTQ,” Totah said. “I wasn’t ready to be more specific ... I have come to believe that God made me transgender. I don’t feel like I was put in the wrong body. I don’t feel like there was a mistake made.”

“I believe that I am transgender to help people understand differences,” he added. “It allows me to gain perspective, to be more accepting of others, because I know what it feels like to know you’re not like everyone else.”