20th Century Pop! is a podcast where hosts Bob and Tim take a sociological look at the pop culture of the '80s and '90s.
In the fantasy world of TV reruns, Fall still means back to school. And for two thirds of Bayside’s graduating class that means year one of both college AND your college based sitcom. SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS was the prime time extension of a childhood mainstay that neither Bob or Tim ever found attachment to. Well, until binging four episodes of this single season failure. That’s when one of the hosts found something surprisingly relevant about Zach, Kelly, Slater and Screech. While the other host … let’s just type “less so” and let the episode speak for itself. It’s all right because this college has bells!
00:00:00 IN MEMORIAM - a true hero
00:01:37 UNLICENSED AUDIO - The Boys From The Bell
00:02:23 BYE BYE BAYSIDE - and taking attendance: the college years
00:10:25 DUSTIN CHECKS IN - and When Kelly Met Laskey
00:15:38 PROBLEMATIC ROMANTIC - not ex-ZACH-ly for Bob’s kid
00:23:34 A FAMILIAR RING - hey, it’s Robert Guillaume
00:27:28 (ALMOST) ONE TO (SORT OF) GROW ON - and is that what a rave is?
00:36:08 ZACK TO BASICS - hey, it’s Holland Taylor … and .. Bob … Gollic… might be his name?)
00:39:14 FOLLOW UP OR FOUL UP - and just another way to talk about TV’s FRIENDS.
00:48:12 CLOSING - contacts, plugs and no catch phrase
00:51:07 SPECIAL BONUS AUDIO - Not a hit wonders
POP NOTES
SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS previewed its pilot episode following the primetime airing of th SAVED BY THE BELL’ “Graduation” finale on Saturday May 22nd, 1993. The series then had its proper debut with back to back episodes on Tuesday September 14th, 1993.
The pilot originally found the three male leads of Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) Slater (Mario Lopez) and Screech (Dustin Diamond) attending college together. Their dorm room shared a common space with three coeds, Alex (Kiersten Warren), Danielle (Essence Atkins) and Leslie (Anne Tremko), who was intended as a love interest for Zach.
Following the pilot, Tiffani Amber Thiessen expressed interest in reprising her character of Kelly. To make space in the cast, the producers fired Essence Atkins under the explanation that her character had transferred to another school.
Resident advisor Mike Rogers was initially intended to be the opposing authority figure to Zach and his schemes. He was portrayed by Bob Golic, a professional athlete who had previously played football for the New England Patriots, the Cleveland Browns and the Los Angeles Raiders.
Actor Patrick Fabian (Professor Lasky) actually did appear as the intended love interest to Traylor Howard’s JOY on NBC’S BOSTON COMMON. But following the pilot, he was recast with Vincent Ventresca, previously known as Fun Bobby on NBC’s FRIENDS.
The theme song “STANDING ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW” was written and arranged by Jonathan Wolf, a composer whose credits include the main title themes for SEINFELD, WILL & GRACE and ACCORDING TO JIM.
The show was cancelled before completing its debut season. Its final two episodes (“Marry Me” and “Wedding Plans”) aired back to back on Tuesday February 8th, 1994. These episodes saw the return of SAVED BY THE BELL cast-mate Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies) as well as a cliff-hanger wedding engagement between Zach and Kelly.
The main cast of both SAVED BY THE BELL and SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS (minus Anne Tremko) reunited for SAVED BY THE BELL: WEDDING IN LAS VEGAS, a TV movie that aired in primetime on October 7th, 1994. The film includes a a diamond heist, a Gilbert Gottfried cameo and the ceremonial union of Zach and Kelly.
Following the series cancellation, four further adventures on campus were published in a series of young adult novels with titles such as FRESHMAN FRENZY, ZACK ZEROES IN and EXIT, STAGE RIGHT. Author Beth Cruise had previously published a series of novels set during the cast’s high school years at Bayside.
MANIC MEDIA
Get your first glimpse of a Screech-filled dorm with this ORIGINAL NBC PROMO FOR SAVED BY THE BELL GRADUATION AND THE COLLEGE YEARS.
Track Zach’s class through the years starting with the ORIGINAL OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE TO GOOD MORNING MISS BLISS.
Followed by Michel Damien’s era-appropriate rocker THEME FROM SAVED BY THE BELL.
And then listen to what an NBC exec probably thought grunge sounded like with the STANDING ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW THEME FROM SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS.
Make some “didn’t quite make the grade” jokes while reading KEN TUCKER’S ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY REVIEW FOR SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS.
Diagnose some narcissistic tendencies with Dashiell Driscoll’s SAVED BY THE BELL recap series ZACH MORRIS IS TRASH from FUNNY OR DIE.
Then listen to Dashiel Driscoll and Zach Morris himself, Mark-Paul Gosselar revisit Bayside an episode at a time with their ZACH TO THE FUTURE podcast available on APPLE, STITCHER and most podcast apps.
Finally, enroll in the four episodes Bob and Tim attended with TEACHER’S PET, KELLY AND THE PROFESSOR, A QUESTION OF ETHICS and THE RAVE all streaming now on HULU.com
HULU is a streaming entity unaffiliated with 20th CENTURY POP and the NOT A HOLOGRAMS website. Subscription rates do apply.
The use of audio and video clips linked from YOUTUBE are for educational purposes and without the expressed permission of their legal holding companies. All rights remain with with their original distributor.
CLOSING CREDITS
This episode of 20TH CENTURY POP! was recorded by CAST, an online audio platform that lets you create and record a multi-guest podcast straight from your web-browser.
It was then mastered by AUPHONIC, a web-based post-production service that makes it sound like Bob and Tim are worth listening to. Check out both sights for trial and subscription information.
MUSIC FEATURED IN TODAY’S EPISODE:
“Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow (theme from Saved By The Bell: The College Years) as composed by Johnathan Wolf
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20TH CENTURY POP! will return next week to see if you have ever noticed how the glorified rerun episode of Seinfeld is just a reposting an episode that already aired in 2018.
