TMC
11-23-2020, 02:02 AM
https://www.vulture.com/article/saved-by-the-bell-new-series-peacock-review.html
https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/dbf/2ef/b4ef98bc5255f108ce74a471b1b9abcd97-saved-by-the-bell.rhorizontal.w700.jpg
Saved by the Bell — the late ’80s/early ’90s Saturday morning show about the kids at Bayside High and their struggles with dating, idiotic bets, and caffeine pills — has inspired its share of spin-offs. There was Saved by the Bell: The College Years, the short-lived prime-time series about the teens’, well, college years; a pair of TV movies; and Saved by the Bell: The New Class, another Saturday morning regular that placed fresh young faces in roles based on those previously held by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, and the rest. By the early 2000s, Saved by the Bell had been reduxed to death, which is why it may seem like overkill to see a new Saved by the Bell back again in 2020, this time on Peacock, where it debuts November 25. But overkill it is not.
This single-camera, ten-episode Saved by the Bell, which skewers the original in all the right, incisive ways, is a smart, often hilarious reimagining of a show that is beloved more on ironic terms than sincere ones, a fact that the Peacock sitcom understands down to its Bayside-mocking bones. Developed in this latest incarnation by Tracey Wigfield, who has written for 30 Rock and The Mindy Project and created the underappreciated Great News, the pilot may be the strongest first episode of a comedy I’ve seen all year. The two additional episodes provided to critics are not quite as consistently funny as the first, but still poke the high-school-sitcom bear with sly assurance.
https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/dbf/2ef/b4ef98bc5255f108ce74a471b1b9abcd97-saved-by-the-bell.rhorizontal.w700.jpg
Saved by the Bell — the late ’80s/early ’90s Saturday morning show about the kids at Bayside High and their struggles with dating, idiotic bets, and caffeine pills — has inspired its share of spin-offs. There was Saved by the Bell: The College Years, the short-lived prime-time series about the teens’, well, college years; a pair of TV movies; and Saved by the Bell: The New Class, another Saturday morning regular that placed fresh young faces in roles based on those previously held by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, and the rest. By the early 2000s, Saved by the Bell had been reduxed to death, which is why it may seem like overkill to see a new Saved by the Bell back again in 2020, this time on Peacock, where it debuts November 25. But overkill it is not.
This single-camera, ten-episode Saved by the Bell, which skewers the original in all the right, incisive ways, is a smart, often hilarious reimagining of a show that is beloved more on ironic terms than sincere ones, a fact that the Peacock sitcom understands down to its Bayside-mocking bones. Developed in this latest incarnation by Tracey Wigfield, who has written for 30 Rock and The Mindy Project and created the underappreciated Great News, the pilot may be the strongest first episode of a comedy I’ve seen all year. The two additional episodes provided to critics are not quite as consistently funny as the first, but still poke the high-school-sitcom bear with sly assurance.