La fille de l'équipe

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.

The main problem with this show is the amount of times the characters leave and are replaced by new ones, giving you not much time to develop favourites.

I liked Mary-Beth as Megan Parlen was a good actress and i always liked Danny Melon but dear god the actress who plays Julie needs to take acting lessons, she has to be the most wooden actor i've ever seen.

The basketball element was OK, at least they were ambitious but i actually hate basketball and i hate how they always win and they are always the main players (those poor other guys are always the subs!) I would leave the team if the coach never let me play.

This is a bit like Saved by the bell but the story lines at least are a little different and they did touch on some issues like young mums and drugs but it was still a bit safe.

Overall an amusing show for a rainy 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.

I've been watching Hang Time for a long time now. I've learned a lot through watching the show. Daniella Deutscher and Jay Hernandez are personal favorites of mine. The show really shows teens about life, and going through high school. It shows you the good and the bad. The show covers things like aids, teen pregnancy, dating, and things like that.

"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.