Honestly, if you grew up in the 90s, you probably have a blurry memory of waking up on a Saturday morning, pouring a bowl of sugary cereal, and seeing Bayside High on your screen—but the faces weren't quite right. No Zack. No Kelly. No Slater. Instead, there was this other group of kids trying desperately to capture that same lightning in a bottle. This was Saved by the Bell: The New Class, a show that somehow managed to run longer than the original series despite being perpetually roasted by fans of the OG gang.
It’s a weird piece of TV history. While the original Saved by the Bell is the one everyone buys t-shirts for, The New Class is the one that actually paid the bills for NBC for seven straight seasons. Most people think it was a quick, failed spin-off. It wasn't. It aired 143 episodes between 1993 and 2000. That is a massive amount of television.
Why the Bayside Reboot Kept Changing Everything
The show started as a total clone. Like, literally. In the first season, the characters were basically "Zack 2.0," "Screech 2.0," and "Slater 2.0." Scott Erickson (Robert Sutherland Telfer) was the schemer, Weasel Wyzell was the nerd, and Tommy D was the jock. It felt off. Fans hated it because it felt like a cheap imitation rather than a new story.
Because the chemistry wasn't clicking, the producers panicked.
They started swapping cast members like they were trading cards. By the time season two rolled around, half the original "New Class" was gone. This became the show's signature move. If a character didn't test well with focus groups, they were vanished. No explanation. No "they moved to Alaska." Just gone. It created this bizarre revolving door at Bayside where you’d tune in and suddenly there was a guy named Brian from Switzerland or a new girl named Maria, and everyone just acted like they’d been best friends for years.
📖 Related: The A Wrinkle in Time Cast: Why This Massive Star Power Didn't Save the Movie
The only real anchors were Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins) and, eventually, Screech (Dustin Diamond). Screech actually didn't appear in season one because he was busy with The College Years, but he returned in season two as Mr. Belding’s assistant/administrative sidekick. It was a weird dynamic—a grown man hanging out in a high school—but it gave the show the "legacy" bridge it needed to survive the Saturday morning lineup.
The Mystery of the Seven-Season Run
How did a show that most people considered "the bad version" stay on the air until the year 2000?
Basically, NBC had perfected the Saturday morning "TNBC" (Teen NBC) block. They realized that as long as they had the Saved by the Bell branding and the familiar halls of Bayside, they could keep pulling in a fresh crop of middle schoolers every few years. The kids who watched season one in 1993 had graduated high school by the time season seven ended. The show didn't need to keep the same audience; it just needed to capture the next wave of twelve-year-olds.
It’s also important to realize that while the writing was often recycled—some scripts were literally the exact same plots from the original series—the show did eventually find its own rhythm. By the middle seasons, with actors like Sarah Lancaster (who later starred in Chuck) and Bianca Lawson, the show started to feel like its own entity. It wasn't "Good" with a capital G, but it was reliable. It was comfort food.
👉 See also: Cuba Gooding Jr OJ: Why the Performance Everyone Hated Was Actually Genius
What the Peacock Revival Got Wrong (and Right) about the New Class
When the 2020 Saved by the Bell revival hit Peacock, fans waited to see if anyone from The New Class would show up. They didn't. In fact, the revival producers essentially admitted that they didn't really consider The New Class part of the "official" Bayside canon. It was treated like a fever dream.
However, the irony is that the revival actually used a lot of the same DNA. The idea of "new kids at Bayside" being supervised by the "old kids" is exactly what The New Class was doing with Screech and Belding decades earlier.
Real Cast Members Who Actually Made It
Despite the "cursed" reputation of the show, a few actors used Bayside as a real springboard.
- Sarah Lancaster (Rachel Meyers): She stayed for several seasons and went on to a very successful career in shows like Everwood and as Ellie Bartowski on Chuck.
- Bianca Lawson (Megan Jones): She is the industry legend who famously played a teenager for about 20 years. After The New Class, she was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pretty Little Liars, and Queen Sugar.
- Lindsey McKeon (Katie Peterson): She became a staple in the soap opera world and had a recurring role on Supernatural.
Then there’s the tragedy of Dustin Diamond. For him, The New Class was a way to keep the Screech character alive long after the shelf life had expired. He played the role with a more exaggerated, slapstick energy that even Dennis Haskins reportedly found a bit much at times. It’s a bit sad looking back, knowing how much Diamond struggled to move past the character after the show finally took its last bow in 2000.
✨ Don't miss: Greatest Rock and Roll Singers of All Time: Why the Legends Still Own the Mic
The Legacy of the Bayside Replacement
Is it worth watching now? Sorta. If you’re a completionist, you’ve gotta see it. But be warned: the first season is rough. It feels like an AI tried to write an episode of the original show (long before AI was a thing).
But there’s something fascinating about the longevity of Saved by the Bell: The New Class. It survived the transition from the early 90s grunge era to the Y2K pop era. It outlasted nearly every other teen sitcom of its time. It proved that the "Bayside" brand was stronger than any individual actor.
If you want to revisit it, keep these things in mind:
- Skip Season 1 if you hate copycats. It’s just the original show with different actors. Start with Season 2 when Screech returns.
- Watch for the guest spots. Occasionally, the OG cast members like Lark Voorhies or Mario Lopez would stop by for a "Passing of the Torch" episode.
- Check the fashion. It is a goldmine of mid-to-late 90s aesthetic—butterfly clips, oversized sweaters, and enough denim to cover a stadium.
To truly understand the history of Saturday morning TV, you have to acknowledge this weird, seven-year experiment. It wasn't the original, and it wasn't the best, but for a whole generation of kids who were too young for Zack Morris, these were the students who owned Bayside.
If you are looking to binge the series, most episodes are floating around on various streaming platforms like NBC's own site or Amazon, though the DVD sets are notoriously expensive and hard to find these days. Start with the season two premiere, "The Return of Screech," to see the show finally find its footing—or at least its sense of humor.