Sauvés par le gong: au lycée

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 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.

I liked this show. "Saved By The Bell" had a hard time with the transition from daytime to prime time, but this show was a lot better than the original series. It was so far out there, but that's what made it great. I wish it lasted longer than it did.

A spin off full of laughs. I never laughed so hard in my life as I did the one lonely season this gem graced the NBC airwaves. I still have stacks of VHS tapes labelled "SBTB:TCY," which stands for "Saved By the Bell: The College Years." The gang is back: Mark Paul Gosselar, Mario Lopez, Dustin Diamond and Tiffani Amber Theissen are the original members in the show. Too bad they brought in Bob Golic, who is unfunny. Still the show is pretty good and it's a really too bad that it only lasted for a year, 1993-94. I'm giving this one a final rating of 7 out of 10 because while it wasn't perfect, it was entertaining and pretty solid.

If you liked the original "Saved By The Bell" series, then you probably watched this follow-up series, and found it to be more of the same. This short-lived program was marginally more intelligent than the original, and it followed many of the same characters who made SBTB a Saturday morning hit. I can't really explain why I watched the original series, and I can't offer any better explanation as to why I watched this one. If you grew up with these characters, I would think that "The College Years" seemed like more of the same likable stupidity. If you didn't watch the first show, then this second "Saved By The Bell" will probably just seem like stupidity.