Happy Friday, everybody! Remember when, at one point, kids used to look forward to watching television tomorrow morning. The practice of Saturday morning TV for kids actually lasted pretty far into the new millennium, despite it feeling like an antiquated era. It effectively ended in 2014, but it almost feels like the 90s had the last notable stable of shows exclusive to that scheduled programming. Fox Kids had shows like the X-Men animated series and the Spider-Man animated series, and of course, Power Rangers. ABC had Disney’s One Saturday Morning. CBS had their slate of educational shows. Then, NBC attempted to appeal to a slightly older crowd in the 90s with their TNBC block on Saturday mornings.
TNBC stood for “Teen NBC” and their shows would feature more high school-themed sitcoms, which capitalized on the popularity of Saved by the Bell. And if you ever watched this block of shows, you’d see that Saved by the Bell‘s executive producer, Peter Engel, had a hand in producing these other shows, which is why they all felt similar. Today, we go in the Way Back Machine and take a look at some of the shows from the TNBC era.
As mentioned in our video of Saved by the Bell: The New Class, the title may be known to people, but the next generation of the series never quite became a pop culture talking point as much as the original run with Zack, Kelly, Slater, Lisa, Jessie and Screech. Most of the OG cast would attempt to break into primetime with The College Years and Bayside would see new students repeat a lot of same adventures. The New Class ran longer with seven seasons, but was able to establish a connection to the original with Screech returning as Belding’s assistant. The cast was a revolving door of actors as every year featured someone or someones getting replaced with new characters.
California Dreams is probably the show that has followed Saved by the Bell‘s success the closest. It is basically the same show, except the main characters are in a garage band. While SBTB took place in the Palisades, California Dreams would be set in Malibu, but it’s not until the last season of the show that a one-off character from SBTB crossed over into California Dreams, which sealed it as taking place in the same universe. California Dreams repeated a lot of the same stories, but it seemed to handle the stories in a less cartoony tone. Although it got cartoony itself quite a bit. Dreams got to weave in more music-related plots into the episodes, as their band attempts to gain recognition. The series even tackled harder subjects like steroids, racism and LA gang violence. However, the definitive element where California Dreams really overshadows SBTB is the soundtrack. The songs, while they can be cheesy, are far better produced than the Zack Attack’s music and are incredibly catchy. Plus, most of the cast did their own playing and singing. Nearly everyone in the cast still performs in some reunion shows to this day.
While California Dreams was a high school show with the characters in a rock band, Hang Time was a high school show that centered around the basketball team. The show took place in a less glamorous location of the fictional Deering, Indiana. The plot dealt with a new female student who makes her school’s basketball team, much to the behest of her male teammates. The show would feature former NBA player Reggie Theus as the coach and was basically the Mr. Belding of the series until he was replaced with NFL coach Dick Butkus. Hang Time is also the show that gave a young Anthony Anderson some good exposure for a couple of seasons. Much like SBTB: The New Class, the cast would see a lot of changes throughout the run of the series. I was not as big a watcher of this one compared to the others, but visiting some episodes fairly recently on the now-defunct TNBC live streaming channel, it’s surprising that this show ran with some bits of crass humor that would definitely not be allowed today. But, hey. It was the 90s!
City Guys also comes from producer Peter Engel and this series (which is probably ranked close to California Dreams for me) shows what it’s like to hang with high schoolers on the other coast as the show takes place at a Manhattan high school. The show’s tone is more Fresh Prince-like with a rap influence and it hinges on the friendship between inner-city teen Jamal and Chris, who is an upper-class rich kid. The show felt the most mature out of the bunch, with some episodes dealing with issues like racism, classism, gang violence, abandonment and tolerance. If it wasn’t on Saturday morning, it could have easily been on TGIF or some other primetime spot. One of the side characters, L-Train is a reformed gang member and the actor who plays him, Steven Daniel, is a standout with his comedic performance.
Ok, this one is incredibly obscure. It’s a late 90s teen Saturday morning series that didn’t last long and probably partly because NBC canceled the TNBC format soon after. One World once again comes from mega teen show producer Peter Engel. However, this one is not as much a high school show as it is a family show. The plot centers around a family that contains nothing but foster children and every kid comes from a different background. The series starts with their latest addition to the family, who is a troublemaker teen, and she resists becoming part of them. The show would feature Alisa Reyes, who would recently be seen on Nickelodeon’s All That, and Brandon Baker, who went on to star in the Disney Johnny Tsunami movies. The series had the potential to explore the point-of-view from every kid and if the Saturday morning block continued, it may have gone on a bit longer.