Customer Reviews

Saved by the Bell - New Class, Season 4

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Saved by the Bell: "The New Class" is a wonderful spin-off series but the magic is truly back in Season 4. In the past three seasons it seemed as if the creators of the show hadn't managed to get together the perfect ensemble cast to match with the original but in Season 4 the cast is great! Rachel, Ryan, and Maria are joined by fellow students Katie and Eric plus a new addition to Bayside High School and Ryan's new stepbrother Nikki. Screech and Mr. Belding lead this cast into another exciting year at Bayside High school where the gang goes to Space Camp, saves the school's radio station, and competes in a dance contest for backstage passes to the MTV Video Music Awards. AC Slater even makes a special appearance in the finale as the gang remembers how great "The Max" was after it's accidentally burned down. If you loved the original series don't miss out on the fun that "the new class" has to offer!

When you stop to consider the Saved By The Bell franchise spans 15-seasons across multiple spin-offs (Good Morning Miss Bliss, The College Years, The New Class and so on), it can be a bit confusing to put a sense of order into the many releases.

That said, The New Class Season 4 is, as the name suggests, the fourth season of The New Class and the tenth season of Saved By The Bell if you're using 1988's Good Morning Miss Bliss as a starting point.

TNC Season 4 originally aired between 1996-1997 Saturday mornings on NBC and is typically regarded as a slight improvement to the slump that the third season found itself in. When the original gang moved on, NBC had contracted just two seasons of The New Class as well as two seasons of The College Years for prime time. By the time Season 4 of the New Class had come about, The College Years had already been history and as had been the annual trend with the show, half of the primary cast had been dropped.

Season 4 carried on the tradition of replacing half the cast and keeping Screech and Belding in the foreground as a bumbling slapstick duo. This time however it's Tommy D (Jonathan Angel), RJ "Hollywood" Collins (Salim Grant) and Lindsay Warner (Natalia Cigliuti) who get the boot and in their place Ryan's step-brother Nicky Farina (Ben Gould), football-playing Eric Little (Anthony Harrell) and Katie Peterson (Lindsey McKeon) step in to fill in the void.

Well, where does all of this leave us? Well the Ryan/ Nicky stepbrother angle works pretty well, with a rivalry early on that (not unlike Zack and Slater in the original show) manifests into a friendship over time. The show's writers seemed to have realized that, and taking a cue from then-popular primetime show Friends, dating triangles could work well with your 6-lead characters. As such Nicky bounces from dating Katie to Maria, other crushes abound and the formula continues to work pretty well.

Newcomer character Eric Little moves farther away from the "geek of the bunch" archetype that Screech made famous in the original series but lacks the dry wit of the RJ Collins character he replaces. Initially he struggles to find his rhythm but steadily improves as the writers find their groove. By the time the gang ends up pulling a stint at Space Camp, the formula seems to have fallen into pretty passable place.

Similarly Katie Peterson is another character that comes off as a bit bland initially but steadily improves (especially by the next season) into a genuine-feeling part of the gang.

By this point in the Saved by the Bell legacy, the entire creative crew had apparently finally stopped even emulating the formula of the original cast and simply began telling fairly original stories with the cast it had. For the most part the system works, albeit without some of the marquee moments that made the original so memorable. For whatever reason the sets seem particularly claustrophobic throughout all of the New Class and especially so this time around.

Believe it or not, this season starts out strong and finishes equally sturdy but does bog down a bit in the middle. Once again the show seems to want to avoid the classroom in favor or part time jobs at the mall (again), gigs at the local hospital and the aforementioned Space Camp interludes. Sadly the few school episodes found here involve musical numbers, renaissance fairs and so on.

The season that would follow it would actually end being a step in the right direction and perhaps that fact can be attributed to the feeling one gets that the writers had a lot of hope in this particular group's potential. In all, season 4 comes off as a pretty solid entry to The New Class mythos and certainly a step in the right direction when compared to those that preceded it.

I lcve the New Class and now I have season 4 which is one of my favorite seasons along with 2,3,5 (0wn),6 and not in that order but I can't wait to get the the remaining seasons and i hope soon.

Kick off another season of TNBC fun with the Bayside gang on Saved By The Bell: The New Class - Season 4. With R.J. gone (just gone, with no explanation), Tommy D "away at Florida" and Lindsay "at Woodward Academy", remaining students Rachel, Ryan, and Maria are joined this season by Valley high transfers Eric Little (Anthony Harrell) and Katie Peterson (Lindsey McKeon) and from New York, Ryan's step-bro Nicky Farina (Ben Gould). All are welcome additions to the cast. Arguably, the best new class lineup. And also the last to feature Sarah Lancaster as Rachel. Highlights this season include "Fall Formal", "Trash TV", "Fire at the Max" and "The Kiss" featuring (in a rare TNBC crossover) Megan Parlen & Amy Wright as Mary Beth Pepperton & Paige Peterson from other popular TNBC show, Hang Time.

Guest stars include: Amy Jo Johnson (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Felicity) as Linda in "Backstage Pass"; Gabrielle Union (Bring It On, Bad Boys II) as Jennifer in "The Tall and Short of It"; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh as Screech's cousin, Persia White (Girlfriends) as Heather, and Patrick T. O'Brien (original series teacher Mr. Dewey) in "Little Hero"; Grady Harrell III (real-life brother of Anthony Harrell) as Eric's Brother #1 in "Fall Formal"; Shaun Weiss (The Mighty Ducks) as Hiram in "The Last to Know"; Jack Carter (The Ed Sullivan Show) as Larry Madison, and Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) as Greg in "The Final Curtain"; Blind Date host Roger Lodge and Miss America 1993 Leanza Cornett as Rick and Carol respectively in "Trash TV"'; and Gary Collins as Skip Connors in "The Wrong Stuff". Look for cameos from series composer Rich Eames and writer/producer Jeffrey J. Sachs in "Fire at the Max Part 1", and original series star Mario Lopez as A.C. Slater in "Fire at the Max Part 2".

Saved By The Bell: The New Class - Season 4 is a 3-disc (single-sided) set featuring all 26 episodes from the 1996-1997 season in Full-Frame (1.33:1) video and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio. The audio is fine and consistent with the previous sets while the video quality (seemingly improved, though still could be better) is apparently the best that Image Entertainment can muster. The discs are housed in a 3-disc black amaray case which perfectly holds the discs in place without scratching and without strain to remove. Here are the episodes (as listed in the DVD menus) and how the discs will be configured.


Disc 1:
Oh, Brother (episode 66)
Unequal Opportunity (episode 67)
Backstage Pass (episode 68)
Baby Care (episode 69)
The Tall and Short of It (episode 70)
Little Hero (episode 71)
Student Court (episode 72)
Fall Formal (episode 73)
Wrestling with Failure (episode 74)


Disc 2:
To Tell the Truth (episode 75)
Renaissance Faire (episode 76)
The Last To Know (episode 77)
The Final Curtain (episode 78)
Hospital Blues (episode 79)
Trash TV (episode 80)
Karate Kids (eisode 81)
Vote Screech (episode 82)
Campaign Fever (episode 83)


Disc 3:
The Wrong Stuff (episode 84)
Science Fair (episode 85)
The Fifth Wheel (episode 86)
The Kiss (episode 87)
Balancing Act (episode 88)
Stealing Screech (episode 89)
Fire at the Max Part 1 (episode 90)
Fire at the Max Part 2 (episode 91)