Saved by the Bell: The College Years

I remember watching (and recording) the last episode of the original "Saved by the Bell" as a nine year old and seeing the special announcement during a commercial break that there would be a college version of the show starting in the fall. I practically counted the days until the series premiere, and I truly enjoyed the few episodes that aired. It was canceled not because it was a bad show, I think, but because the truth is that lighthearted shows like "Saved by the Bell" just do not belong in a competitive prime time environment. This show was ridiculed just because, what, it was getting beat in the ratings by "Full House"? Come on! Expectations were way too high. It would have been safe on Saturday mornings like the original, never mind that it was about college students. We fans would have watched regardless.

It's unfortunate that this show never found an audience. It was far and away the best Saved by the Bell incarnation to have existed. Much better than the original and The New Class. Provided, I was a little kid when the original SBTB was on the air. And I watched it. And I still occasionally do when it's on. But that's mostly nostalgia. It was truly a BAD show, and I never would have gotten in to it had it been after my time.

The College Years was a much better show in terms of both writing and acting. There's a lot of reasons for this. The returning actors had four years to grow in to their characters on the original show. So not only had they become better actors, they knew their roles well by this point. This show was meant to appeal to fans of the original, who grew up with the show. So these fans themselves were a little older. The comedy is a bit "older". Not in the sense of more adult or risqué. But that it was meant for mid-late teenagers, as opposed to the early-mid teenagers and younger that they were during the original. I'll delve in to that in the next paragraph.

Another factor was the different writing staff. I'm hard pressed to believe that this show employed the same writers. But even if it had, they definitely changed the writing style. With an older audience and a prime time slot, this show had to vary from the Saturday morning children's show writing style of the original. This show was MUCH funnier than the original. Much more believable, and with much less cringe-worthy moments. You know, those moments when you feel EMBARRASSED for the actors due to their dialog or the plot. It's just that bad, and you know it.

All in all, I thought this was a solid, funny, pretty well done family show. Was it hilarious? Was it one of the best family shows out there? Not really. But I thought it had it's moments. Many more moments than the original, that's for sure. Had it actually stuck around, I think it would have developed in to a much more likable show. I would give it a 7, which is maybe a little too generous. It was definitely better than the other two incarnations. It's just a shame that unlike them, it never found an audience.

I'm only born in 1994, so Saved By The Bell was a bit before my time, however I used to watch it on Nickelodeon as a kid and vaguely remember the college years from ages ago. Now I'm in uni I figured it would be interesting to revisit the whole Saved the Bell thing, so I've recently watched more or less every episode from start to finish, and I can see why you might say this is a bit stupid. For people that watched Saved By The Bell, its a nice continuation so you see how the characters grow up, and gives you a bit more of the same. And true, the issues raised are similar, and at times I'm like "why would he go through the same thing again!!!" but it didn't bother me too much. Overall I'd say its nice for people who watched the original series, but I doubt it would hold its own as a stand alone programme.

This is the third show in the SBTB series and while it is way better then "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" it isn't better than "Saved by the Bell." SBTB is a cult hit (almost a classic) and it is hard to make a great follow-up and by the looks of it they didn't try very hard and that's why this show falls short. There were some good episodes but the majority fell short. If you're a SBTB fan then you should check it out but it really isn't that good.

Finally a clever show that follows a plot and it's soon canceled. I mean, we have the most popular cast members of the original series in the most difficult student era of their lives: College.

The idea was very interesting but producers didn't feel it had potential. Some jokes were funny and clever and so were the situations that had a feeling of maturity towards our characters.

Also, the new cast members, including teachers were solid additions to the show. Mike Rogers was a fun character and added some spice to the show. The rest of the cast was clichéd but it's okay, I mean, it displays true life in college.

The show had potential believe me, but you can't go against producers. A cult show in the future, that's for sure..