Is Saved by the Bell: The New Class Considered Canon in Peacock Revival?

[TMC]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...201215235.html

Ryan Schwartz
Thu, November 19, 2020, 12:12 PM PST



Time out! Who are these people?

No, they’re not the stars of Peacock’s Saved by the Bell revival (premiering Wednesday, Nov. 25). And no, they’re most certainly not part of the original series cast. The students seen above were part of a different class — or rather, Saved by the Bell: The New Class, a mostly forgotten spinoff featuring Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins) and Screech (Dustin Diamond) that ran for — get this — seven seasons, between 1993 and 2000.

To put it another way, that’s three more seasons than the original Saved by the Bell, and one more season than Good Morning, Miss Bliss, Saved by the Bell and Saved by the Bell: The College Years combined. (All 143 episodes are streaming on NBC.com.)

Seeing as how it ran for so long, and featured other characters from the original series — including Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Slater (Mario Lopez) and Lisa (Lark Voorhies), who appeared in the Season 2 episode “Goodbye Bayside” (see below) — we thought it was only fair to ask the new New Class’ creative team whether the previous New Class is still considered canon.

Revival showrunner Tracey Wigfield goes on to admit that she hasn’t even seen The New Class. “I promise I will watch it before Season 2 [of the revival], if there is a Season 2,” she says with a laugh. “I was pregnant, I had a kid, I couldn’t watch The New Class, too. But I went back and rewatched all of the original [Saved by the Bell]. I did Good Morning, Miss Bliss through The College Years, as well as Wedding in Las Vegas, Hawaiian Style and [the Malibu Sands episodes].”

[irehtman]

There's only one concerning problem:

"Sam Bobrick = Samuel "Screech" Powers"

TBH, IMO.

[TMC]

They've already discarded several elements of The New Class:

- In The New Class, Bayside was remodeled changing the whole "main hall" area. In the reboot, the "main hall" appears as it did in the original series.

- In The New Class, part of the remodel includes updating Belding's office. In the reboot, we see Principal Toddman still utilizing Belding's office from the original series.

- In The New Class, The Max burns down and is re-built with a totally different look. In the reboot, The Max retains its classic design from the original series.

[irehtman]

Originally Posted by TMC

They've already discarded several elements of The New Class:

- In The New Class, Bayside was remodeled changing the whole "main hall" area. In the reboot, the "main hall" appears as it did in the original series.

- In The New Class, part of the remodel includes updating Belding's office. In the reboot, we see Principal Toddman still utilizing Belding's office from the original series.

- In The New Class, The Max burns down and is re-built with a totally different look. In the reboot, The Max retains its classic design from the original series.

As a matter of fact, TBH, those discarded New Class' several elements should be recycled and put in a separate revived rebooted New Class sitcom in a different public high school setting, which is neither a Bayside nor a Valley nor their similar public high school type. Plus those new class clones of the original class ones should be rebooted, especially get a new Belding clone type principal, who's not a Toddman type, in that separate revived rebooted New Class sitcom type, IMO.

[TMC]

I can easily understand if the new showrunner never watched The New Class. Despite lasting seven seasons (at least three more than the original SBTB), The New Class wasn't syndicated that long. I know that the USA Network carried it, but it hasn't been on TV in over 20 years. Also, The New Class was always looked at as the "black sheep" of the Saved by the Bell franchise (even more so than Good Morning, Miss Bliss, since it at the very least, had Zack, Screech, Lisa, and Mr. Belding), so there isn't really any "nostalgia fodder".

[irehtman]

Originally Posted by TMC

The New Class

about this link, there’s only one important missing info that should have been seriously mentioned, even if it should have been also mentioned in Dustin’s book, in order not to be completely fake yet, has to do with Former deceased Saved By The Bell Creator Sam Bobrick’s teenage abused life, especially he being related Screech Powers at the same time, TBH, IMO.

[simmytbone]

Well I guess you can say that Warren Littlefield President of NBC Entertainment back then was the mastermind behind coming up with The New Class in a way to keep Dennis Haskins and later Dustin Diamond employed

[irehtman]

Originally Posted by simmytbone

Well I guess you can say that Warren Littlefield President of NBC Entertainment back then was the mastermind behind coming up with The New Class in a way to keep Dennis Haskins and later Dustin Diamond employed

Yeah, after Warren made an agreement with Bobrick, back then.

[RockyMountain]

Honestly in a universe where the main cast of junior high kids (plus the principal) moved from Indiana to California should people even be concerned about any type of canon?

[irehtman]

Originally Posted by RockyMountain

Honestly in a universe where the main cast of junior high kids (plus the principal) moved from Indiana to California should people even be concerned about any type of canon?

Most of them are considered "canon", except for Screech. The Screech canon is most likely related to creator Bobrick only, nobody else.

[TMC]

Why ‘Saved by the Bell: The New Class’ is Forgotten

TNC lasted 7 seasons which is a longer run than the beloved original run. But why is this run of the show not talked about much? Story writing. As the original run of the show became very formulaic show which worked for the time, a new generation of preteens and teens would grow up with this show and instead of trying to cater the show with stories that appeal to a brand-new audience, they went with rehashing the run of the originals. Parts of season two take place with the new gang working jobs at a resort. Anyone remember the Malibu Sands run of episodes? But that is not all. One of the reasons the reboot works is because the characters are not watered-down versions of their predecessors. In each season of the New Class, the main character would be replaced as the show tried to capture the Zack Morris magic. And while the characters may have different names, the show still played to the same tropes of the original.

Next, you could not get attached to any of the cast of the New Class because each new season meant new members of the gang. This one puzzled me a lot. Tori Scott had a story line wrote out in her episode as to why she was at Bayside and ends up as part of the gang. But any new member of the gang on the new class, we are supposed to accept the idea and notion that they have always been part of the show. To prove this, I am going to share the cast for all 7 seasons with just the students. And with the rotating door of students, that left one character that remained through the entire run. Mr. Belding. The show starts featuring more storylines based around the Belding character to help with fans that loved the original and were not sold on the TNC. But that led to the biggest problem of all.

One of the biggest glaring issues with TNC is relying on the past to carry the new. While Belding would become the solid foundation for TNC, the writers decided to give him an assistant who just happened to be portrayed by the late Dustin Diamond, Screech. And that is when the wheels really started coming off the Saved by the Bell car. At this point, The College Years would meet its end, and Dustin would be brought back to Bayside. And this happens again when a rich businessman buys an entire school to turn into a parking lot. Not sure how an entire school just goes up for sale without anyone knowing, but sure. And who saves the day, it is members of the original cast. While we think of Nostalgia being more of a thing in our entertainment today, it was also a thing in Peter Engel’s universe in 1993.

[irehtman]

Originally Posted by TMC

Why ‘Saved by the Bell: The New Class’ is Forgotten

Both the Screech Powers and all of the New Class characters together (except for that Belding character) was based on antisemitic-abused real-life of former deceased original SBTB creator Sam Bobrick's, according to his obituary link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/a...rick-dead.html

Next of all, the New Class setting should never have been in both Bayside or Valley high school, or similar, settings at all and there should have been a Belding clone character also in its first season rather than the original Belding character, TBH, IMO.