Hang Time

"Hang Time's" first seasons were decent, most certainly better than "Saved By The Bell: The New Class" or that dreadful "City Guys" the first few seasons featured lots of NBA guest stars, a great actor, Reggie Theus, playing the coach, and the kids who played the High School basketball players were, in general, decent actors. Then came the fallout. They got rid of all the great members of the cast, including Theus as the coach and replaced him with Dick Butkus, who couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag. But until NBC abandons the idea of "TNBC" I believe Hang Time will remain the best show in the lineup, middle ground from the once great Saved By The Bell: Original class, and the horrible New Class.

This show is bland, trite and predictable... perfect for TNBC. If for some bizarre reason you're ever up early enough to watch this on a Saturday morning, go ahead and do so. It's not really intelligent or well-acted, but it's the kind of show that you don't get sick of because there's nothing there that you don't like, it's exactly like all those other teen/high school sitcoms except this one has sports stars so the girls have more spine and aren't as brain-dead and girly (except for rich kid Mary Beth). They even show a cheerleader who isn't just another dumb blond chick! Amber Baretto does a great job as the token fiery red-head on this show and her character brought on more realistic plots such as interacial dating. However, Julie, the first girl on the sports team, which apparently is a necessary device for any teen show is (barely) played by Daniella Deuschter who couldn't act her way out of a parking ticket. Julie could have been a great character, but Daniella's portrayal has caused the character to become completely one-dimensional since she is unable to portray any emotion beyond confusion. (However, she's pretty good on the court). If you're a fan of the original Saved by the Bell, you'll be disappointed. But if you're in the market for a cute non-thought-provoking way to spend a half-hour on Saturday mornings between SBTB: The New Class and One World, this is perfect for you.

Of all the american-high-school-coming-of-age-in-a-funny-way this is probably the best, or more correctly the least bad of them. The cast isn't picked by pure looks alone, but their talents (more basketball than acting though). Of course many of the jokes are identical to those of other Peter Angel productions, but still an enjoyable show.

A friend commented to me once that they were sad that there aren't any more cartoons on Saturday morning. This came as news to me since I don't usually crawl out of bed until at least noon on Saturdays. But after a Friday night term-paper session stretched out longer and longer until I noticed (as the paper was screeching it's way out of my old-fashioned printer) that it was Saturday morning, I decided to test the TV waters.

What I found was "Hang Time", which I pegged instantly as a clone of "Saved by the Bell". In this teen-oriented sit-com, we follow the daily hi-jinks of students at Deering High School involved in the basketball program. While it was good for a chuckle, I was initially unimpressed enough to change the channel when I noticed something...or someone to be exact.

Amber Barretto plays the cheerleader of the group, a stunning young lady with a mane of red curly hair the likes of which I've never seen before. Thankfully the writers of the show resisted the temptation to make her character a ditz just because of her cheerleader status. In fact, Miss Baretto (along with Megan Parlen) would make good candidates for a spin-off since they usually get the goofy subplots. They make a pretty good team.

And Daniella Deutscher (that's a hard name to spell) as Julie, the lone girl on the basketball team, is a nordic beauty who practically puts Natasha Hendstridge to shame with her lovely eyes.

No more sleeping in for me. This sure beats Ag Day.

This was better than the other TNBC shows as well as the highest rated. Although many of the plots were recycled by all of the TNBC shows, "Hang Time" was the best since the original "Saved By The Bell." Much of the credit belongs to Megan Parlen who played Mary Beth. Megan and Daniella Deutscher were the only people to appear in every episode. Megan, gifted with both comedic and dramatic talent managed to elevate the show to a higher standard. After Amber Barretto joined the cast, Megan had someone closer to her talent to work with. Megan and Amber made a good comedic team and provided the best laughs for the show. It would have been nice if the cast hadn't been changed so much, which is my only complaint. Just when you got to know a new character they would be replaced. It would be nice to see this show more often, it needs to go into syndication or be released on DVD.