I can enjoy all of them. But I have mixed emotions on The New Class. But for the life of me, I can't figure out why they were on for seven seasons. I've started watching it again on DVD. The first season actually had a chance. The acting isn't that much worse than the original. Also, the writing in the original was just as cheesy as this stuff. The lack of a main character along with frequent cast changes was my biggest problem.
Scott - The new Zack-like character. The thing with Zack was that he already had friends there. So his actions were overlooked. Scott, while he does a decent job is a Valley transfer. Yet he is fast making friends with the people who he is pulling scams on. They should have made him Weasel's cousin or something which would explain their friendship other than making them the new Zack & Screech. After he left, so did the idea of a central character. This is where they made the biggest mistake.
Weasel - I actually like this character. He was meant to be the new Screech. But he was different enough to make him his own character. Its a shame he left the show. The actor who played Weasel actually graduated from Harvard when he was 19 years old in real life. Impressive. It may also explain why he didn't stay with the show.
Tommy D - Slater Part II. Only he was really nothing like Slater. He didn't play sports. He was a car guy (as was Slater) and a bad ass. Other than those last two things, besides small similarities, he was a different character. I've heard a lot of complaints about his acting. But I thought he did a good job for what his character was.
Lindsay - She was nothing like Kelly. But she did take Kelly's place as the hottest girl in school. Not only was she the object of Scott's desire, but she was also Tommy D's main squeeze, making for a classic Zack/Slater style rivalry.
Megan - She was the black girl. So it was only obvious that she would be the object of Weasel's desire. After that, that is where the similarities to Lisa stop. Megan was Bayside's numero uno studento, a la Jessie Spano. So in a way, she was sort of a combo of the two. This would leave the last character open to be an entirely new character altogether.
Vicki - She wasn't like any of the former female characters. In fact, she was more like a female version of Screech. In fact, in some ways, she was more like Screech than Weasel. Where the other two girls were considered to be wanted by guys, Vicki was the girl nobody wanted to date. However she was obsessed with the guys. But she still wouldn't give Weasel the time of day. If I were in charge, I would have given her and Weasel a love/hate relationship. Make them rivals, always at odds, but in the end, perfect for each other. Sort of like Slater and Jessie.
Belding - The same old Belding. He does make a Beavis and Butt-head reference which was kind of funny.
Crunch - Fucking Ryan Hurst, aka Gerry Bertier from Remember the Titans. He was just a recurring bit part. You know the dumbass football jock. A slightly more civilized version of Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds. Slightly smarter than Ox from the original series. He really isn't important, but since he is Gerry Bertier, it was noteworthy. He isn't immediately recognizable because he is a bit more chubby back then.
All in all, I think some slight changes and this could have been a little more successful. But three of the six left the show after the first 13 episode season. This would be only the first of many cast changes throughout the series. Personally, I would have loved to seen some more connections to the original cast. What happened to Kelly's younger sister? The one who had the hots for Zack. I believe Kelly and Slater were the only ones with siblings. But they could have brought in Slater's sister. They never identified all of Kelly's family except for the fact that there was a lot of them. She could have had two younger brothers who were Zack-like to take over the lead role(s). Regardless, it would never match the popularity of the original. But they could have done a much better job. Especially if they were going to force it on us for seven seasons.
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