Television
show spin-offs are a tricky business. In a lot of cases, they don't
seem to do very well, but in other cases, they do extremely well.
But
did you know that there are a select few television series that have
had their spin-offs last longer than the original show?
One
example that I can come up with spur of the moment is “The Facts of
Life”. It ran for one season longer than the show it spun-off
from, “Diff'rent Strokes”.
And
today's television show is also a special case in which the spin-off
lasted longer than the original show.
And
it aired on Saturday mornings to boot!
Most
people in my generation probably have seen at least one episode of
“Saved By The Bell”, the NBC Saturday morning series that aired
between 1989 and 1993. The show itself was a reworking of the 1988
series “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”, which starred Hayley Mills.
As many of you know, the original series starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar,
Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Mario Lopez,
Elizabeth Berkley, and Dennis Haskins as Mr. Belding.
The
show became a huge success, and everything from comic books to dolls
were manufactured of popular characters Zack Morris, A.C. Slater, and
Kelly Kapowski. I certainly remember watching the show when I was
growing up. They made high school seem like the coolest place in the
world, and I actually looked forward to having a high school
experience just like they did. Of course, that was a fictionalized
depiction of high school life, and unfortunately mine was not nearly
as idyllic. There weren't nearly as many extracurricular activities,
we didn't have a Max, and our school principal simply wasn't the
Belding type.
Ah
well, I still liked the show.
The
show was quite unique in that it spawned not one, but two spin-offs,
both of which debuted in 1993, after the show wrapped up. One was
“Saved By The Bell: The College Years”, which aired its pilot in
May 1993 and showed four of the six main characters of the series
attending college. It ended up getting some decent reviews, but
unfortunately, it went head to head against the wildly popular “Full
House”, and it was canceled in early 1994.
The
second spin-off lasted a lot longer than that. In fact, it lasted a
grand total of seven seasons...three years longer than the original
series! Many people hated this second spin-off, and it was
critically panned for being too much like the original series (in all
fairness, this claim did seem true, as many later season episodes
recycled old SBTB plots). But the show was also a starting point for
many future stars, and I'll admit that the show did have some
fans...especially those who were too young to remember the original
series.
This
week, we're taking a look at the TNBC series, “Saved By The Bell:
The New Class”, which debuted on September 11, 1993. The series
ended on January 8, 2000. That's seven seasons!
The
first season was only thirteen episodes, and the sixth and seventh
seasons were actually filmed during the same year, but most of the
other seasons had an order of 26 episodes each...so all nineteen
actors credited in the main cast worked quite a bit.
That's
right. Unlike the cast of Saved By The Bell, which remained mostly
intact until the show's final season, the show changed its cast
members every year. During each season of the show, at least one,
but no more than three characters were replaced. Some chose to
leave, while others were let go from the series. And some actors
were not exactly all that convincing as high school students, so I
can understand why they were let go...but I won't turn this into an
actor bashing blog post, as it's not my style.
There
were some constants during the show's seven year run, though. Dennis
Haskins reprised his role as Mr. Belding, and he was the only cast
member to appear in all 140+ episodes of the series. Dustin Diamond
ended up joining the cast of the show in season two, right after the
College Years wrapped up, and also stayed the remainder of the
series. And Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Lark Voorhies, and Mario Lopez
ended up making guest appearances on the spin-off as well. Watch a
clip below.
Some
other things that stayed the same were the sets. The show still took
place at Bayside High School (it was slightly tweaked though), the
gang still hung out at the Max (though it burned down and had to be
rebuilt mid-way through the series), and the teachers at the school
were still as dumb as a box of rocks..
Unfortunately,
much of the show's early criticism was brought on by the fact that
the first season cast was almost a complete rip-off of the original
cast. The character of Scott Erickson (Robert Sutherland Telfer) was
almost like a Zack Morris clone, Jonathan Angel's Tommy DeLuca was a
dumbed-down version of Slater, and Bianca Lawson's Megan Jones was a
combination of Lisa Turtle and Jessie Spano. This could explain the
reason why there was a revolving door of cast members early on in the
series.
By
the end of the show, the cast of 1999 was completely different from
the cast of 1993. But, I am one of those people who preferred the
later casts than the earlier ones.
But
as I said before, a lot of actors ended up getting their early
beginnings on Saved By The Bell: The New Class. Some became bigger
stars, and in the case of one cast member, they ended up taking on a
whole new career path altogether.
So,
let's take a look at some of the cast members of this spin-off show,
what characters they played, and how they've done since leaving Saved
By The Bell.
NATALIA
CIGLIUTI
Lindsay
Warner (1993-1996)
There's
not that much to say about Lindsay Warner. On the show, she was
almost exactly like Kelly Kapowski, right down to the extreme
perkiness and desire to join every extracurricular activity possible.
You could tell that the job was Natalia's first, especially during
the show's first season, but over time, she got better (I think so
anyway). During her three years on the show, she romanced Tommy
DeLuca and Ryan Parker, and some of her storylines involved
overcoming an eating disorder and joining various clubs and
activities.
As
for Natalia Cigliuti, she ended up finding lots of television work.
She had recurring roles on “Beverly Hills 90210” and “The
Glades”, held a contract role on “All My Children”, and starred
in “Raising the Bar” with fellow SBTB alumni Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
BIANCA
LAWSON
Megan
Jones (1993-1995)
As I explained earlier, Megan
Jones was sort of a hybrid of Jessie and Lisa. She was like Jessie
in the fact that she was on the honour roll in school, and she was
like Lisa in that she had to fend off the unwanted advances of Weasel
Wyzell and Bobby Wilson. Most of her storylines involved having to
deal with keeping her grades up, though she did have her loyalties
questioned when she started dating a Valley High football player.
Bianca Lawson's star is one
that continues to rise. After leaving the show in the second season,
she starred in “Sister, Sister” and “Dawson's Creek”.
Recently, she can be seen in MTV's “Teen Wolf”, “Pretty Little
Liars”, and “The Vampire Diaries”. She's also made some film
appearances in movies such as “Primary Colors” and “Save The
Last Dance”.
ISAAC
LIDSKY
Barton
“Weasel” Wyzell (1993-1994)
Before
Screech returned to Bayside in the show's second season, we had
Weasel Wyzell, a literal Screech lookalike. He was the token geek of
the group who pursued Megan Jones, very much like Screech pursued
Lisa. He also hung around Scott Erickson much like Screech hung
around Zack.
In
real life, Isaac Lidsky's career path after Saved By The Bell ended
up taking an interesting turn. Shortly after leaving the series in
1994, he began to lose his vision. By the time he was eighteen, he
was completely blind, due to a degenerative eye disease. Lidsky
failed to let his blindness stop him from becoming a success. He
graduated from Harvard University in 1999, and made history in 2009
when he became the first blind clerk for the United States Supreme
Court. Not a bad gig, eh? Weasel Wyzell would be proud.
SARAH
LANCASTER
Rachel
Meyers (1993-1997)
The
character of Rachel Meyers actually started off in a guest appearance
on the first season of the series. I guess the producers liked her
so much, they brought her on as a regular for the second season after
Bonnie Russavage was let go. On the surface, Rachel seemed to be a
shopping addicted blonde who cared more about matching scarves than
mathematics...but she was also one of the better developed characters
in the whole series, often featuring in some of the more emotional
episodes, such as the one where she is attacked while on a date, or
when she helps a football player deal with a learning disability.
I'll admit that Rachel was probably my favourite female character on
the show, and I was sad to see her go after season four. On the
show, she dated Ryan Parker, and Brian Keller (the latter must have
been hard for Sarah Lancaster to pull off, since at the time, she was
fourteen and Christian Oliver who played Brian was twenty-two).
Sarah
Lancaster has done well for herself since leaving the show. She had
recurring roles on “Boston Public” and “Everwood”, had
starring roles on “What About Brian” and “Dr. Vegas”, and
recently wrapped up her biggest role yet as Ellie Bartowski on the
NBC series “Chuck”.
RICHARD
LEE JACKSON
Ryan
Parker (1995-1998)
Ryan
Parker is a Zack Morris wannabe. He's brought onto the show as a
Valley High transfer student in the third season along with Maria
Lopez and R.J. Collins, and immediately comes up with the same zany
schemes that Zack did to get out of tests or homework. Most times,
his plans were foiled. But Ryan's also got Zack Morris' mojo as
well. He's dated Lindsay Warner, Rachel Meyers, and Liz Miller. He
left the show at the end of season five, but not before gaining a new step-brother in Nicky Farina, and being indirectly responsible for burning down The Max.
If
Richard Lee Jackson looks a bit familiar, it's because he's the older
brother of “General Hospital” actor, Jonathan Jackson. After
leaving the show, he had a recurring role as the love interest of
Ally McBeal, and guest starred in several television shows. He is
also the drummer in the rock band, “Enation”.
LINDSEY
MCKEON
Katie
Peterson (1996-2000)
Bubbly and beautiful Katie
Peterson was given some of the more unique storylines of the series.
She was featured in storylines in which she had to stand up to a boss
who was sexually harassing her, had to deal with sexist hazing when
she enrolled in an all-male program, and was featured in a couple of
storylines that involved alcohol consumption. She ended up having
just one relationship in the whole series...the on-again, off-again
romance between herself and Nicky Farina.
Lindsey McKeon ended up guest
starring in an episode of “Cold Case”, and starred on the soap
opera “Guiding Light” for three years in the early 2000s. She
most recently appeared in several Miller Lite commercials, and
wrapped up a stint on “90210”.
ANTHONY
HARRELL
Cornelius
“Eric” Little (1996-2000)
Eric
Little was one of those characters that felt the need to sing on
every episode he was featured on. It was fine at the beginning
because he did have a decent voice...but after a while, the gimmick
ended up being a little bit worn out. It didn't matter though
because Eric had some decent storylines, including falling in love
with a girl while on a school trip to Paris, having to deal with an
agent trying to change his music style, and learning all about the
dangers of sleep deprivation.
Anthony
Harrell ended up putting his musical chops to good use, forming the
R&B group “Brutha” with his four brothers. The group
released their debut album in 2008, but Anthony left the group three
years later to pursue other opportunities.
ASHLEY
LYN CAFAGNA
Liz
Miller (1997-2000)
Liz
Miller was brought on in the show's fifth season to replace Rachel
Meyers, and she found it hard to fit in at first. The captain of the
girl's swim team, it took her some time to befriend Maria and Katie,
but by the end of the series, they were firm friends. She also ended
up dating Ryan Parker, and developed some interest in Eric Little
towards the end of the series.
Now
going by the name Ashley Tesoro, she got married, and now records
contemporary Christian music. Prior to that, she was featured on the
television soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful”.
And,
that's our look back on “Saved By The Bell: The New Class”.
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