Saved by the Bell: The College Years is an American television sitcom, and sequel to Saved by the Bell. It is the third incarnation of the franchise, and ran on NBC for one season, premiering on May 22, 1993, and airing its final episode on February 8, 1994. It is the only series of the franchise to air on primetime television instead of Saturday mornings – most episodes aired on Tuesday evenings.[1] The series follows Zack, Screech and A.C. Slater, and their three female suitemates, including Kelly Kapowski, in the dorms at college. It was followed by a television film, Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas, which aired in October 1994.
Premise
In the series pilot, six characters live in the dorms at the fictitious California University, or Cal U, under the watchful eye of Mike Rogers, their resident adviser. The first-year dorm residents include Zack Morris, Screech Powers, and A.C. Slater from the original Saved by the Bell, along with newcomers Leslie Burke, Alex Tabor, and Danielle Marks. After The College Years pilot, Danielle Marks, played by Essence Atkins was written out, and was replaced on the show with Zack's former Saved by the Bell girlfriend, Kelly Kapowski. The series revolves around the troubles each of the six characters gets into every week, as well as Zack's various schemes to try to get his suitemates, first Leslie, and then Kelly, to fall for him. Later in the series, Dean McMann, played by Holland Taylor, becomes involved with trying to rein in the first-years' antics.
Zack receives an interesting anthropology assignment from the class' new professor, Lasky. He has to conduct a field study of what women want. Meanwhile, Slater tries to gain weight to be a heavyweight wrestler, and Rogers offers to help Screech as his personal weightlifting trainer.
Zack is invited to a homecoming banquet by the guest of honor, a football hero who could help him score in some business, while Kelly is threatened with come-ons by the alum. Meanwhile, Slater feels embarrassed being with Alex who shows off her mascot uniform at the banquet and Leslie asks Screech to go with her to shock her visiting snobbish parents.
Zack, Slater, and Screech try to set Rogers up on a date with a lit female professor to get him out of the dorm so they can have a poker game. Meanwhile, Kelly, Leslie, and Alex develop a crush on their new karate instructor, John Hammer, and vie with each other to try to win his affections.
While the girls put together a male pinup calendar in order to buy a big screen TV, Zack poses as Lasky in order to date an admirer of the professor's.
Kelly's well-paying job as a waitress has her reconsidering her thoughts of becoming a doctor. Mike trains to try out for the 49ers with Zack, Slater, and Screech.
A jealous Zack strikes back at Kelly and Professor Lasky with a vengeance by spreading the word about their affair, which climaxes at a costume ball. Meanwhile, Rogers gives the rest of the gang papers to fill out on a perfect mate profile for a psychology project, and Screech ends up getting the same mark as Alex.
Kelly is planning to go on a three-month cruise abroad for the summer. When Zack finds out, he desperately tries to cling onto her. He tries to make Screech drop out of travelling on the trip so he can take his place. Eventually, Zack make a big choice to hold on to Kelly: he asks her to marry him. Meanwhile, Slater feels guilty when he sees another girl behind Alex's back since she shares the same interest as he, while Leslie finds out and tries to make him come clean with Alex about his dissatisfaction with their romance.
Zack and Kelly talk about their futures, as they confront the possibilities of marriage. Slater is against the plans, while Screech wants to be Zack's best man, and decides to throw a bachelor party that goes incredibly wrong. Lisa Turtle arrives and wants to be Maid of Honor at Kelly and Zack's wedding. But she's got a battle on her hands, with Leslie and Alex also wanting to assume the position of Maid of Honor.
Home media
Saved by the Bell: The College Years was released on DVD in Region 1 by Image Entertainment on August 17, 2004.
A 90-minute TV movie, Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas, was produced to wrap up the series. The events of the final episode of the series lead directly into the film, which shows the characters on a road trip to Las Vegas for Zack and Kelly's impending wedding, and the comic misadventures they have along the way. Tom Jicha of the Sun-Sentinel said, "This movie would have been more appropriate for the time period in which all these stories began - Saturday morning."[19] The movie was later split into three individual episodes when the series entered syndication.
Saved By the Bell: The College Years novels
Four novelizations based on the show were released in late 1994 by the publisher Aladdin Paperbacks, all written by Beth Cruise. The books all feature the main cast, and have similar storylines that relate to the main plots in the TV sequel.
Zack and Slater, and Lisa, who only appears in the follow up Wedding in Las Vegas film, all appear again on the Saved by the Bell: The New Class, in its second season finale episode, "Goodbye Bayside: Part 2". Slater appears one additional time on The New Class, in the fourth season finale episode, "Fire at the Max: Part 2". Screech would return in Saved by the Bell: The New Class, coming on as Mr. Belding's administrative assistant on a work-study program from Cal U, starting with the series' second season, and continuing as a main character in The New Class for the rest of its run.
A.C. Slater, and Jessie Spano from the original series, became main characters in the 2020 Saved by the Bell sequel series, while Zack, Kelly, and Lisa all would make guest appearances on the show.[20][21][22][23] The 2020 sequel series also revisited The College Years by creating a flashback scene with Jessie visiting Slater at his dorm.[24][25]
