A short history and synopsis of USA High

[TMC]

https://web.archive.org/web/20050208...A/history.html

First, some background. In 1995, NBC and Peter Engel knew that California Dreams (CD, for short) was near the end of its run, and that NBC needed more shows to maintain and expand its T-NBC line-up. NBC already had Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and Peter Engel soon acquired control of Hang Time, which gave NBC and Engel 2 shows for T-NBC. But at least one more show was needed to complete the T-NBC lineup.

So it appears that Peter Engel was given the OK to create a couple of new shows. The results were the following: City Guys, a very urban show about a rich, white teen, and working class, black teen, who both go to the same public school in New York; and USA High, a show which he co-created with Leslie Eberhard (and Co-Executive Produced by Steve Slavkin, of Running the Halls fame), and which, conceptually, is a sort of cross between Running the Halls and Saved by the Bell: The College Years.

For reasons unknown to me, NBC went with City Guys, but not with USA High. Instead, Engel seems to have been able to sell "USA High" to the USA cable network.

As I said above, USA High is similar to the old T-NBC show Running the Halls, in that the setting is a private school/academy, but is similar to The College Years, in that the boys and the girls live in two rooms that are attached by a common room. In terms of plots and comedy style, however, I would compare USA High most closely to California Dreams or the original version of Saved by the Bell. This is not surprising, perhaps, when one realizes that the production crew behind USA High is made up of many of the same people behind The New Class, California Dreams and Hang Time.

In terms of the characters, Jackson Green (Josh Holland) and Lauren Fontaine (Elena Lyons) seem to be the primary focal points of the show, at least early on. Like similar storylines on other shows, the gist of this situation is that Jackson likes Lauren, and is constantly scheming ways to 1) make money, and 2) get Lauren to date him. Next in line is Winnie Barnes (Marquita Terry) and Christian Mueller (Thomas Magiar). The story here is that Christian always had an infatuation with the sassy Winnie, but, in the early episodes of USA High, Winnie would have none of it. The fifth and sixth suitemates are the clownish Bobby Lazzarini (James Madio), who has a crush on Miss Dupre (and an addiction to meat!), and the Headmaster's daughter Ashley Elliot (Kristen Miller), who has a peculiar view of the world that's... well, peculiar. Finally, we have the ravishingly pretty school teacher, Miss Gabrielle Dupre (former Miss Universe Angela Visser), and Headmater Patrick Elliot (Nicholas Guest), who has the twin problems of 1) trying to get Miss Dupre to notice him and go out with him, and 2) trying to keep the six suitemates from scheming their way either into jail or into burning down the school!

As I said, while she fights it early on, Winnie and Christian do end become a couple pretty early in the show's run (in "Making the Grade" (episode 1.10/#10)), and have remained a couple through the rest of the episodes, despite some bumps along the way. In contrast, Jackson's struggle for Lauren's heart is long and hard-fought, but they do eventually become a couple (in the episode "Once upon an Elevator" (episode 1.36/#33)). However, strangely, Jackson and Lauren break up not long after than (in the episode "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (episode 1.47/#50)). I don't know where the writers were/are going with this storyline, but I suspect Jackson and Lauren may get back together in the new 'season two' of "USA High's" run. But that's just a guess...

From what I have heard, there was a total of 70-80 episodes originally ordered by USA network for this 'season one' of USA High, and it appears that all of 74 'season one' episodes (75, if you include the episode "Goodbye Lazz") have now aired.

Some time after this, Josh Holland (Jackson) and Elena Lyons (Lauren) indicated in an online interview that there would be a 'season two' of USA High. It turns out that James Madio (Bobby Lazzarini) did not want to return for another season the show, so the character of Lazzarini was written out (in the episode "Goodbye Lazz" (episode 1.75/#75)) and a new character was added in his place. In the interview, Holland and Lyons indicated that the new 'season two' would begin filming(?) in July, 1998. Recent scuttlebutt on the internet indicates that there are about 20 episodes of this season #2. In the place of Bobby Lazzarini, a new character has been added; the new character's name is Dwane "Excess" Wilson (usually called "Excess"), and he is played by William James Jones (best known formerly as Tony Wicks on California Dreams). As of November 1998, 5 of these season #2 episodes have aired.