Saved by the Bell: The New Class:

The History of the New Class:

Last updated: November 26, 1998.

When the filming of the "Kelly & Jessie" Grade 12 season of the original Saved by the Bell was over, SbtB's producer Peter Engel was faced with a problem: how could he continue the popular Saved by the Bell series (SbtB for short) now that Zack and the gang were through high school? Engel seems to have come up with two solutions. 1) Make a sequel to SbtB, the original series (SbtB, tOS for short), take most of the old cast, send them off to college, call it SbtB-The College Years and take it into prime-time on NBC. And, 2) make a spin-off of SbtB, get an entirely new cast while keeping the character of Mr. Belding, keep the show in Bayside High, call it SbtB-the New Class and keep it on Saturday mornings on NBC as part of its T-NBC line-up (along with some new shows).

So on September 11, 1993, Saved by the Bell-The New Class (SbtB-tNC for short) was launched along with three other shows (California Dreams, Running the Halls and the non-comedic, adventure show, Name Your Adventure) for NBC's new T-NBC Saturday morning line-up. Peter Engel continued to be the show's Executive Producer, and Gary Considine (who was also the Executive in Charge of Production for California Dreams, Running the Halls and Name Your Adventure) continued on as the Executive in Charge of Production of SbtB after taking over that post from William F. Phillips in the Grade 11 season of SbtB, tOS. Several writers and staffers from SbtB, tOS seemed to have left before SbtB-tNC was made.

The format of the spin-off was the same as the old SbtB. The setting remained Bayside High, and Mr. Belding remained as the school's Principal. A new cast of 6 students was brought in as surrogates for the old. For the boys, Valley High transfer student Scott Erikson (Robert Sutherland Telfer) became the "new Zack", Barton "Weasel" Wyzell (Isaac Lidsky) became the new Screech, and Tommy "D" (Jonathan Angel) was roughly a Slater-type character. The girls, on the other hand, were not quite direct knock-offs of the old cast. While Lindsay (Natalia Cigliuti) was probably supposed to be a Kelly-like girl, Megan (Bianca Lawson) is not a tit-for-tat replacement for Lisa. The character of Megan is a more of a hybrid of Lisa's character (thus Weasel is in love with her and Megan often cuts down Weasel as Lisa did Screech) and Jessie's character (thus Megan is the best student among them and is worried about succeeding). Also, the character of Vicki (Bonnie Russavage) has almost no precedent in the old SbtB: while she is neurotic like Jessie, she is obviously not supposed to be Jessie's successor.

For various reasons, many SbtB purists (myself included) were unhappy (to say the least!) with the first season of SbtB-The New Class, and it did not seem to find the winning formula that SbtB and the T-NBC other shows (like CD and RtH) had. For one thing most of the plots of the first season of SbtB-tNC were direct duplicates of plots from SbtB, tOS. Also, many SbtB purists considered the acting (and the direction) in the first season of SbtB-tNC to be sub-par.

Apparently, this unhappiness was known to the producers and writers of SbtB-tNC, for they revamped the show for its second season (1994-95). Determining that Robert Sutherland Telfer (Scott) was a poor substitute for Mark-Paul Gosselaar's Zack Morris, Telfer was fired. Further, they determined that Isaac Lidsky's "Weasel" was not up to the standards of Dustin Diamond's Screech Powers, and Lidsky was let go too. In fact, the writers brought Diamond's Screech back for the season by having him take a work/study program as Mr. Belding's assistant. In addition, Bonnie Russavage's Vicky was also terminated. Three new characters were brought in: Brian Keller (Christian Oliver), Bobby Wilson (Spankee Rogers), and Rachel Meyers (Sarah Lancaster; Lancaster's Rachel was actually seen in one episode of the first season). Also for the second season, back-to-back episodes of SbtB-tNC were shown (coming at the expense of the slot of the canceled Running the Halls).

Some think that these were strange choices to make to improve SbtB-The New Class. After all, reaction to Weasel was usually somewhat positive (if lukewarm), and Vicki's character was the most interesting and original one in the first season. And while Tefler's Scott was no Zack, he wasn't terrible either. In fact, some (older-aged fans) argue (again, myself included) that Angel's Tommy "D", and especially Cigliuiti's Lindsay, were probably the worst actors/characters, yet they were the ones that were kept (though some others defend Angel and say he wasn't bad either; few defend Cigliuti beyond her attractive looks...). Still, the show's main viewing audience is young teenagers, and the producers must have known more about who's popular with the show's teenage audience than we do.

SbtB-The New Class's second season premiered on Saturday, September 10 at 9:30 am (PDT), and was followed with another episode at 10:00 am, returning to an earlier practice with SbtB, the original series of running two SbtB episodes per Saturday. The season spilled over into early 1995 before it went into reruns.

The reports of even more cast changes to The New Class for the third season (1995-96) turned out to be true. If the changes at the end of season #1 were surprising, I found the cast changes made at the end of season #2 to be bizarre. Spankee Rogers (Bobby), who arguably was the only really good part about season #2, was fired, or left the show. Christian Oliver (Brian), who may have been the only other good thing about The New Class' season #2, was also gone. In addition, original cast member Bianca Lawson (Megan) also left the show, though I have not heard whether she was fired or left on her own. And, once again, Jonathan Angel (Tommy D) and Natalia Cigliuti (Lindsay) were again kept on, for reasons I still don't understand (after all, it was still my opinion that Cigliuti (and to a lesser extent Angel) were the worst parts of the show in both season #1 and season #2! so why were they spared?!). In addition, Sarah Lancaster's Rachel was also kept on. Worst of all, Dustin Diamond was inexplicably back: in the real world "work/study" programs last no longer than a year, so there was no justification for the return of Screech to Bayside for season #3. Unfortunately, reality never stopped the makers of The New Class before. Again, three new characters (transfers from Valley High) were be brought in: Ryan Parker (Richard Jackson), another schemer who was a new love interest for Lindsay (ed: Oh brother!...), R.J. Collins (Salim Grant) as a fashion conscious character, and Maria Lopez (Samantha Becker) as a "lively" cheerleader.

It was at this point that I adandoned watching SbtB-tNC. It seemed like, rather than addressing some of the fundamental problems with SbtB-tNC (e.g. weak (and derivative) writing, weak directing, the lack of a justification for the continuation of the Screech character on The New Class, etc.), the Producers of SbtB-tNC were content to play musical chairs with the cast, in hopes that a miracle would happen and produce a watchable (if not necessarily entertaining or funny) show. In addition, government interference with T-NBC's genres of shows (including SbtB-tNC), in the form of the FCC's "3 Hours of 'Education Content'" mandate, meant that the comedy had to be downplayed so that a pat 'moral to the story' could be tacked on at the end of each episode. Combined with SbtB-tNC's generally weak writing, this meant that the comedy really took a back seat.

In any case, SbtB-the New Class's third season premiered on Saturday, September 9 at 9:00 am (PDT), and was followed with another episode at 10:00 am, after an episode of the new T-NBC show Hang Time.

The New Class continued without me into a fourth season (1996-97). This time, the characters of Lindsay and Tommy "D" were finally written out (a defintie improvement, in my opinion!)! The characters of Rachel Myers, Ryan Parker and Maria Lopez continued on into season #4. Again, three new characters were brought in: Nicky Farina (Ben Gould) who apparently is Ryan's step-brother, Katie Peterson (Lindsey McKeon) who is this season's "goody-goody", and Eric Little (Anthony Harrell) who seems to be a similar character to last season's R.J., except that he plays football and is not so 'fashion-conscious'. And, once again, Screech Powers will return to the show, which can only mean that he dropped out of college to endlessly continue his meager existence at Bayside (God knows why!). Worse, unlike the relatively adult character he portrayed in The College Years and season #2 of SbtB-tNC, Screech had now been reduced to a virtual cartoon character. In season #4 (1996-97), SbtB-The New Class was still shown twice on Saturdays, and premiered on Saturday, September 7, 1996.

A fifth season (1997-98) ensued, this time with only minor cast changes: after 3+ (almost 4, if you count her season #1 guest stint) seasons, Sarah Lancaster (Rachel) hit the road for greener pastures (and soon was seen in a number of guest-starring roles in other TV shows), and was replaced by the character of Liz Miller (Ashley Lyn Cafagna), who played a relatively sheltered swimming star who is initially pursued by both step-brothers, Ryan and Nicky. By this point, Screech had degenerated to the point where he (and Belding) badly detracted from the action. In season #5 (1997-98), SbtB-tNC again aired twice on Saturday, this time sandwiching NBC's new show, City Guys.

There was a sixth season (1998-99) of The New Class, but by many accounts, season #6 will be the last season of The New Class. Again, with season #6, there was only a minor cast change: after 3 seasons, Richard Lee Jackson (Ryan) left The New Class (purportedly, Ryan got a scholarship to a prestiguous boarding school) and immediately started getting other acting gigs! Ryan was replaced by the character of Tony Dillon (Tom Huntington), another Valley tranfer student, and quarterback, who soon became a love interest for former Valley High student, Maria.

However, it has been widely reported that season #6 is Dennis Haskins' last season, and Ashley Lyn Cafagna moved on to another show (CBS's "The Bold & The Beautiful") after the filming of season #6 wrapped. Further, by all accounts, in season #6, Maria, Eric and Katie should be seniors. In addition, NBC cut "The New Class" back to one episode per Saturday. All of these signs point strongly to the idea that season #6 is the last season of the never-ending "Saved by the Bell" franchise, after three (four, if you count GMMB) incarnations, and probably around 200 episodes.

So, it looks like the end, folks!