Saved by the Bell: The College Years is an American sitcom sequel to the Saved by the Bell series which ran from May 22, 1993 to February 8, 1994, lasting for only one season. It is the third incarnation of the franchise. It is also the only series of the franchise to air on primetime television instead of Saturday mornings. It aired on NBC on Tuesday evenings.
Video Saved by the Bell: The College Years
Premise
Saved by the Bell: The College Years is very similar to the original Saved by the Bell series; the plotline has to do with the six characters getting into trouble each week at the fictitious California University (Cal U), under the watchful eye of Mike Rogers (Bob Golic), their dorm adviser. The series includes Zack Morris, Samuel "Screech" Powers, and A.C. Slater (from the original Saved by the Bell series) as the main characters, along with newcomers Leslie Burke (Anne Tremko), Alex Tabor (Kiersten Warren) and Danielle Marks (Essence Atkins). After the pilot, however, Atkins's role was eliminated, and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen returned to the show in her role of Kelly Kapowski. Danielle was written out of the series as having transferred to another college.
During the first and second episodes, the series centers around Zack's schemes to try to get Leslie, who despises Zack due to his sneaky schemes, to fall for him. Later, when Kelly decides to transfer to Cal U, Zack has to make a decision about who he really loves, as he still has feelings for Kelly. When Kelly and Leslie find out about Zack secretly liking both of them, they decide to both dump him. Starting with the third episode, the plotline becomes more centered around the whole gang, instead of just Leslie and Zack, and their various college issues.
In the beginning of the series, dorm adviser Mike Rogers is portrayed as tough-as-nails, although later in the series, he becomes softer and takes a liking to the kids. Mike played for the San Francisco 49ers at one point, but later decided to quit to become the Cal U dorm adviser. In one episode, he tries to train so he could play football again, but decides it was too much work and stays with his current job. Beginning with episode 15 ("The Rave"), Holland Taylor became involved with the series, portraying a Mr. Belding-type character named Dean McMann. She takes the role of the tough-as-nails authority figure that Mike originally was to be at the beginning of the series. Like Mr. Belding, she takes a disliking to Zack's schemes and often punishes him in various ways because of his antics.
An overarching theme of the series is Zack's efforts to win back the affection of Kelly, who is in love with their anthropology professor Jeremiah Lasky (Patrick Fabian). Eventually, Zack wins Kelly over again, and they become engaged.
The series was cancelled after only one season, due to low ratings, averaging only a 7.8/12 rating/share, and ranking 88th out of 118 shows in the yearly ratings. It had to deal with huge competition from both Full House and the first half of Rescue 911, both of which ranked in the Nielsen Top 30 that season. Only 19 episodes were produced. Episode 19 ("Wedding Plans") left the series with a cliffhanger ending, where Zack and Kelly had not yet gotten married. To give closure to the series, a 20th episode (a 90-minute TV movie, Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas) was produced to wrap up the series. All the main actors agreed to come back for the movie, except Anne Tremko, who declined a role in the movie. This series was the last to feature main characters Zack Morris, A.C. Slater and Kelly Kapowski, except for occasional appearances from Zack and Slater in Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Zack, Slater and Lisa (who only appeared in episodes 19 and 20) all appeared again in "Goodbye Bayside: Part 2," which marked the last appearance to date of Zack and Lisa. Slater appeared one more time in "Fire at the Max: Part 2" of The New Class. Kelly never again appeared after "Wedding in Las Vegas." Screech, however, would return in The New Class seasons 2-7 as Mr. Belding's administrative assistant on a work-study program from Cal U.
Maps Saved by the Bell: The College Years
Cast
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris
- Mario López as A.C. Slater
- Dustin Diamond as Samuel "Screech" Powers
- Tiffani-Amber Thiessen as Kelly Kapowski
- Anne Tremko as Leslie Burke
- Kiersten Warren as Alex Tabor
- Bob Golic as Mike Rogers
- Essence Atkins as Danielle Marks (pilot only)
- Patrick Fabian as Professor Jeremiah Lasky
- Holland Taylor as Dean Susan McMann
Series overview
Episodes
Movie
Home video releases
Saved by the Bell: The College Years was released on DVD in Region 1 by Image Entertainment on August 17, 2004. As of 2010, this release has been discontinued and is out of print. Currently, no plans have been made to re-release the series on DVD, although the series is now available on Amazon Video, Hulu, and Vudu.
Saved By the Bell: The College Years novels
Four novelizations based on the show were released in late 1994 by the publisher Aladdin Paperbacks, all written by Beth Cruise. The books all feature the main cast and have similar storylines that relate to the main plots in the TV sequel.
References
External links
- Saved by the Bell: The College Years on IMDb
- Saved by the Bell: The College Years at TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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