The California Dreams Web:

The History of California Dreams:

Last updated: October 11, 1997.

Those familiar with the original Saved by the Bell (SbtB-tOS) will note that SbtB toyed with the idea of Zack and the gang having a band. The girls had a singing group called the Hot Sundaes in one Grade 10 episode of Saved by the Bell, while a band, the Zack Attack, was featured in one Grade 11 and one Grade 12 episode, and in one "Tori" episode the gang had a do-wap singing group called the Five Aces.

It appears that two SbtB-tOS writers, Ron Solomon and Brett Dewey, wanted to pursue this idea in a separate series. The result was California Dreams (CD for short in this FAQ). The show is about 5-7 teenagers who have a band, named the California Dreams. The band's musical style is pop and "surfer" music. California Dreams premiered on September 12, 1992 (with the epiosde "The First Gig") as the second Peter Engel show on NBC, and the second show of NBC's new T-NBC Saturday morning line-up. California Dreams is now syndicated, and can now be seen on local stations and on the cable channels WGN and TBS at various times.

There 13 episodes in the first season of California Dreams, 18 episodes in its second season, 17 episodes in its third season, 15 in its fourth season, and 15 episode in its fifth (and last) season. That means that there are a total of 78 episodes of California Dreams.

The basis for California Dreams is similar to Saved by the Bell. While SbtB is set at Bayside High in Pacific Palisades, CA; California Dreams is set in Redondo Beach, CA at Pacific Coast High School. In the first season, the band was started by Matt Garrison (Brent Gore) and his sister Jenny Garrison (Heidi Noelle Lenhart), and their friends, Tiffani Smith (Kelly Packard) and Tony Wicks (William James Jones), along with their scheming neighbor and manager Sly Winkle (Michael Cade). The Garrison family (beside Matt and Jenny) was a prominent part of the first season.

In the second season, the Garrison family was dropped (though the parents appeared in a couple of episodes), and a new guitarist named Jake Sommers (Jay Anthony Franke) was added. Jenny Garrison (Heidi Noelle Lenhart) left the show after the first three episodes of CD's second season, and was replaced by Hong Kong exchange student Samantha Woo (Jennie Kwan). The show also went for a much higher madcap comedy quotient in its second season, which made it a much more successful comedy.

In the third season, all the cast members from season 2 stayed on, except Brent Gore (who played Matt Garrison). The departure of Gore thus severed virtually all ties between the "old" CD of the first season, and the "newer" CD of the third season and beyond. Two new cast members were added in place of Gore. One was Mark Winkle (Aaron Jackson), the "good-natured" cousin of Sly, who took over from Gore as one of the lead singers and as the keyboardist for the band. The other was Lorena Costa (Diana Uribe), whose family takes Sam in as a boarder and who offers the band her family's loft to practice in. With Gore's departure, many other members of the band stood in as lead singers, including Mark (of course), Tiffani, Tony and especially Jake, in addition to Matt's co-lead singer, Sam.

The 17 episode third season of CD was actually among a much larger batch of at least 33 (and maybe as many as 35) episodes filmed in the spring and summer of 1994. Of the remaining episodes of this batch, 15 were shown in California Dreams' fourth season starting in the fall of 1995, and two were shown in the fifth (and last) season of California Dreams. To finish the show, an addition 15 episodes were ordered in 1996 for a fifth (and last) season of Californian Dreams.

There were no major changes, in either cast or format, among seasons 3, 4 and 5. The primary storylines in seasons 3 were Jake and Lorena's romance, the romance between Tony and Sam, and the schemes and antics of Sly Winkle. The storylines of seasons 4 and 5 were the (early) breakup of Jake and Lorena, which was followed by the reunion of Jake and Tiffani as an item for the remainder of the show's run (until the last epiosde), and the continuing romance of Tony and Sam. In season 5, a new romance storyline between Sly and Lorena was pursued.

The final (first-run) episode of California Dreams, "The Last Gig", aired on December 14, 1996 on NBC.

In the fall of 1995, California Dreams went into syndication five days a week, and can now be seen on both WGN and TBS, as well as the international cable channel Trouble.

California Dreams can also be seen in the following foreign nations; only nations and airing times known by the author are listed (if you know others, E-mail me):

   COUNTRY              NETWORK          TIMES (and Other Info)
   -------              -------          ----------------------
   Great Britain        Channel 4        holiday weekdays, 10:30 am
   Great Britain 
     & Western Europe   Trouble          weekdays?, ? (time unknown)
   Ireland              RTE Network 2    Thursdays, 6:00 pm
   Japan                NKH-Edu          Saturdays, 6:50 pm
   Sweden               TV 3             [unknown]

Apparently some first-run episodes were shown on Europe's The Children's Channel (now spun-off as Trouble) before they were shown in the U.S. by NBC! And some episodes were definitely aired on the local (WBN-affiliate) Los Angeles station, KTLA, in 1994, long before they aired on NBC.