For many who grew up in the ’90s, *Saved By the Bell* is a truly unforgettable show. The teen comedy premiered on NBC in 1989 and quickly became a popular hit, especially as part of the network’s Saturday morning programming. Over four seasons, the series followed a group of high school friends at the fictional Bayside High in Los Angeles, offering a blend of funny moments and relatable teen issues. Viewers became deeply connected to characters like Zach, Kelly, Jessie, Lisa, Slater, and Screech, and as the show neared its finale during their senior year, fans were eager to see what happened next. While *Saved By the Bell* delivered on that anticipation in an episode that aired 33 years ago, it also unintentionally created a noticeable plot inconsistency.
The *Saved By the Bell* episode “Wrestling with the Future,” which first aired on October 10, 1992, focuses on the group’s anxieties about college. Slater (Mario Lopez) is torn between a wrestling scholarship to the University of Iowa and his father’s desire for him to attend West Point. Typical for the show, Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) tries to help by pretending to be Slater during a visit from a congressman. Meanwhile, Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley) worries she hasn’t been accepted to any colleges. The episode also featured a guest appearance by Michael Jai White, who later became known for his roles as Spawn and Bronze Tiger in *Arrow*.
By the episode’s end, everyone’s future seemed pretty clear. Slater was heading to Iowa, Jessie got into Columbia (even though she didn’t get into her top choice, Stansbury), Lisa was accepted to fashion school, Kelly planned to go to community college, and Screech, amazingly, was off to UC Berkeley. Zack, despite poor grades, got into Yale thanks to a great SAT score. However, NBC later changed all of this in a later storyline.
Saved By the Bell Inexplicably Changed Everyone’s Academic Futures For the Sequel
Although the 2020 *Saved By the Bell* reboot showed Jessie going to Columbia and Lisa attending FIT, NBC altered the plans for the rest of the group. After the original *Saved By the Bell* series ended, a sequel called *Saved By the Bell: The College Years* premiered in 1993. Instead of going to their previously chosen universities, all the friends mysteriously ended up at the made-up California University. Predictably, the same kind of fun and mischief that defined *Saved By the Bell* continued in *The College Years*, now that everyone was together at the same school.
So, how did the show continue? *The College Years* basically explains it by having the characters simply decide to all go to the same college – Kelly even transfers to Cal U after getting accepted off the waitlist following the first episode. This was a convenient way to keep most of the original cast together for the sequel series, and it’s probably the main reason for the shift in setting. Given how popular *Saved By the Bell* was for NBC, a continuation of the show was inevitable, and naturally, they’d want to include as many original cast members as possible. The original series also had a spinoff, *Saved By the Bell: The New Class*, which followed a new group of students at Bayside High, along with two TV movies: *Saved By the Bell: Hawaiian Style* (1992) and *Saved By the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas* (1994).
Keeping (Most) of the Group Together Just Makes Sense (But Couldn’t Save The College Years)
While altering the characters’ post-Bayside paths created a plot inconsistency between *Saved By the Bell* and *The College Years*, it was a logical choice. Zack attending Yale didn’t align with his established personality, and it felt unrealistic that he’d be admitted over someone like Jessie. Though this change made sense for the story’s continuation, it ultimately didn’t translate to a successful follow-up series.
Although the original *Saved By the Bell* was a hit, its sequel, *Saved By the Bell: The College Years*, wasn’t as successful. Unlike the original, which aired on Saturday mornings, *The College Years* was a primetime show, and viewers didn’t connect with it as much. With only a few of the original characters returning, the show was cancelled after just one season. A TV movie, *Wedding in Las Vegas*, was created to give the series a proper ending, featuring a wedding for Zack and Kelly. Thankfully, the show didn’t change the characters’ college paths after *The College Years*. The 2020 reboot confirms that the characters did complete their education at Cal U.
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2025-10-11 23:17