Saved By The Bell The College Years Reviews Thread

See how Zack and Screech end up
This "sequel" to Saved By the Bell featured the members of the original cast who hadn't moved on to other things. It follows the lives of our favorite teenagers, who aren't quite teenagers anymore, but are strangely having the same problems. It is an entertaining show for the audience who grew up with Zack, Kelly, Slater, and of course, Screech. But, along with the movies, it is probably best for SBTB fans. The series ends quickly, after two seasons, when the actors found better things to do. The final "episode" is a full length made for tv movie. I enjoyed the show, mainly because i had grown up with these characters, and wanted to see them leave. Well, they did.

Actually okay
This show was actually good and much more sophisticated than the previous series. They had some fairly interesting plots and did not have so many stereotypes the other shows had. It was good to see how some of the characters from the old series winded up after their show ended. The show only lasted one season and was followed by a two hour movie wrapping up the loose ends. That was good too.

Better than the 'High School Years'
The original series was moronic, but like every bored kid I watched when I was young. This show, though, I actually enjoyed (at the proper age, it's just a silly sitcom). It was much better than the original show, and even had a sense of humor about itself. Didn't spawn very many episodes, the competition (Full House) killed it after the first season - but they realized they were done for before the season was up and actually managed to forge a 'finale' where Zach and Kelley decide to get married (to everybody elses objection). Then they popped up that summer with a two-hour movie about the actual wedding, but that was just plain awful. But this show definitely deserved a longer run.

Not any better than the original
Where I live, this show airs once a week at four in the morning, so I don't exactly make a point of watching it, but since I was awake, I decided to.

Actually, I remember when the dumb thing first aired, since I believe I saw the premiere episode. For some reason I watched--and loved--the monstrosity "Saved By the Bell," but even THEN I didn't like "The College Years." I thought it was boring.

After my most recent viewing of it, I still found "The College Years" quite dull. Many of the characters from the original reprised their roles: Mark-Paul Gossellar as the annoying "blond" lead Zack Morris; Tiffani Amber Theissen as "desirable" Kelly Kapowski; Mario Lopez as "athletic" A.C. Slater; and Dustin Diamond as Screech Powers, about the most irritating character on television. For some reason their friends Jessie and Lisa have gone onto other pursuits, so replacing them are Alex, some lady who looks in her thirties and has a whiny voice, and is suposed to be Slater's girlfriend; Leslie, who is so charisma-free I didn't even remember her existence until I saw her name listed among the credits; and the also charisma-free man who is in charge of their dorm, who is supposed to be like a "cooler" version of the high school principal Mr. Belding. The situations were also similar to the high school series. Selfish Zack cooks up a scheme in order to benefit himself somehow and wacky hijinx occur as he goes about fulfilling it. In the particular episode I saw, he wanted to take Kelly to Mexico, along with Slater and annoying Alex, so he decided to hold a rave and charge twenty dollars a head for it. Who'd pay twenty dollars to go to some party, especially when the purpose of it is to fund somebody's vacation? (Interestingly, an "I Love Lucy," with a very similar plot was on the same night, meaning "Bell" can't even come up with its own creative storylines. Plus, "Lucy's" was a lot more funny.)

Anyway, the big conflict is, where can Zack hold his rave? After all, they're illegal. Hijinx galore, as he outwits some Dean of Students character played by "The Pratice's" Holland Taylor(who probably hates to admit she was in this show.) Plus some subplot about Kelly recovering from a break-up with a professor was dull, and the prof. was very childish and unappealing. So was the show. I am not surprised it was cancelled after a season, because this is the epitome of some series that should have stuck to daytime TV, not tried its hand at primetime, where it was killed by "FULL HOUSE." What probably beat them both, or should have at least, was a competing series on CBS (since I remember this was an NBC show) for anyone over the age of 13.

This show deserved another chance...
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.

Much better than the original
This show has to be much better than the original. They still don't have very much laughs but it is still good. The characters are more developed, the plots are better, the setting is better, and better characters. I seemed to like the new characters a little better this time around. Sadly, though, this show lasted only a short time and I really wished it lasted longer.

A great experiment
Saved by the Bell in primetime had a lot to offer since there weren't any other college shows at that time besides 90210. Some parts of the show such as the co-ed dorm and the unexpected return of Kelli were set up perfectly. The mistakes that were made could have been avoided. Someone told me that it would have been better served on Thursday nights on NBC. The best way to remember this gig is that it had the potential to be a clever half hour version of 90210 that was special. It is funny that this is ten years after the show had it's experiment in primetime. I feel bad for some of the newbie's that had their careers affected by this failure. Besides one person, I don't blame the others who distanced themselves from the whole series after the conclusion of College Years was unexpectedly converted to the wedding in Sin City.