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Changed line(s) 37 (click to see context) from:
* ArsonMurderandJaywalking: In "Fake ID-ology:
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* ArsonMurderandJaywalking: In "Fake ID-ology:ID-ology:"
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* ArsonMurderandJaywalking: In "Fake ID-ology:
-->'''Coach Fuller:''' "You're lucky you didn't get arrested. You're lucky you didn't get killed. And you're very lucky I didn't kick all of you off the team."
-->'''Coach Fuller:''' "You're lucky you didn't get arrested. You're lucky you didn't get killed. And you're very lucky I didn't kick all of you off the team."
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Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:
The squad is led by tough-with-a-purpose coaches: for the first three seasons, Coach Bill Fuller (played by NBA great Reggie Theus) helmed the squad; after Theus left the show at the end of season three (in a {{Retcon}}, as his character announced that he turned down a college coaching offer in the third season finale), the Derring Tornados' coach became Mike Katowinski (ironically played by legendary NFL player DickButkus) – both of whom experience some grief from their players' antics, but who genuinely care for them and help them when they need the guidance.
to:
The squad is led by tough-with-a-purpose coaches: for the first three seasons, Coach Bill Fuller (played by NBA great Reggie Theus) helmed the squad; after Theus left the show at the end of season three (in a {{Retcon}}, as his character announced that he turned down a college coaching offer in the third season finale), the Derring Tornados' coach became Mike Katowinski (ironically played by legendary NFL player DickButkus) Dick Butkus) – both of whom experience some grief from their players' antics, but who genuinely care for them and help them when they need the guidance.
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* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Julie uses this excuse to have Jason Redman take her home, so Vince, Michael and Danny don't catch her with him on a date in "Julie's Guy":
--->'''Julie:''' Jason, we have to leave. I, uh, left something on.
--->'''Jason:''' Really? What?
--->'''Julie:''' My stereo. My iron. My iron's on my stereo.
--->'''Julie:''' Jason, we have to leave. I, uh, left something on.
--->'''Jason:''' Really? What?
--->'''Julie:''' My stereo. My iron. My iron's on my stereo.
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Changed line(s) 214 (click to see context) from:
* Hair-TriggerTemper + AngryBlackMan: It's not until season two that Coach Fuller's temper becomes a character trait. His BerserkButton{{(s)}}: the kids doing something boneheaded and anyone scuffing or damaging the gym floor (Cedric Ceballos found that out the hard way in "Harvest Moon" and was forced to clean the marks his shoes made).
to:
* Hair-TriggerTemper HairTriggerTemper + AngryBlackMan: It's not until season two that Coach Fuller's temper becomes a character trait. His BerserkButton{{(s)}}: the kids doing something boneheaded and anyone scuffing or damaging the gym floor (Cedric Ceballos found that out the hard way in "Harvest Moon" and was forced to clean the marks his shoes made).
Changed line(s) 256 (click to see context) from:
* Line-of-SightName: When asking Teddy if he thinks she's feminine for a "project" for an "image identity" class, Julie comes up with the name of a fake teacher this way – Mr. Spalding (referring to the sporting goods manufacturer) – by looking at the basketball she's holding.
to:
* Line-of-SightName: LineOfSightName: When asking Teddy if he thinks she's feminine for a "project" for an "image identity" class, Julie comes up with the name of a fake teacher this way – Mr. Spalding (referring to the sporting goods manufacturer) – by looking at the basketball she's holding.
Changed line(s) 289 (click to see context) from:
* Non-ActorVehicle: Though the teens are the primary characters, the show is this for ex-athletes Reggie Theus and later, Dick Butkus.
to:
* Non-ActorVehicle: NonActorVehicle: Though the teens are the primary characters, the show is this for ex-athletes Reggie Theus and later, Dick Butkus.
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Changed line(s) 325,326 (click to see context) from:
** From "At the Movies," when Kristy tries to discuss Antonio's issues with her being his boss at a movie theater and Dustin Diamond parrots everything:
--->'''Antonio:''' "Hey, Mr. Hollywood. You wanna stop hugging my girl?"[[explanation]]Dustin Diamond arrived at The Stadium as part of a plan to help Kristy make Antonio jealous.[[/explanation]]
--->'''Antonio:''' "Hey, Mr. Hollywood. You wanna stop hugging my girl?"[[explanation]]Dustin Diamond arrived at The Stadium as part of a plan to help Kristy make Antonio jealous.[[/explanation]]
to:
** From "At the Movies," when Kristy tries to discuss Antonio's issues with her being his boss at a movie theater and [[Series/SavedByTheBell Dustin Diamond Diamond]] parrots everything:
--->'''Antonio:''' "Hey, Mr. Hollywood. You wanna stop hugging mygirl?"[[explanation]]Dustin girl?"[[note]]Dustin Diamond arrived at The Stadium as part of a plan to help Kristy make Antonio jealous.[[/explanation]][[/note]]
--->'''Antonio:''' "Hey, Mr. Hollywood. You wanna stop hugging my
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Changed line(s) 341 (click to see context) from:
:Later...
to:
Changed line(s) 352 (click to see context) from:
* SceneryCensor: In "Secrets and Lies," Eugene and Silk are duped by two girls from Deering's tournament competitor into giving them their basketball uniforms after intentionally spilling food on them under the guise of trapping them in the locker room to keep the two boys from playing in the game. When we see them undressed, they end up covering their naughty bits with a bench, and soon catch on that they were tricked. While crawling through an Air-VentPassageway, they inadvertently end up at the game wearing only cheerleader skirts, much to their embarrassment.
to:
* SceneryCensor: In "Secrets and Lies," Eugene and Silk are duped by two girls from Deering's tournament competitor into giving them their basketball uniforms after intentionally spilling food on them under the guise of trapping them in the locker room to keep the two boys from playing in the game. When we see them undressed, they end up covering their naughty bits with a bench, and soon catch on that they were tricked. While crawling through an Air-VentPassageway, AirVentPassageway, they inadvertently end up at the game wearing only cheerleader skirts, much to their embarrassment.
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Changed line(s) 345 (click to see context) from:
* RuleOfThree: Used in "The Breaks of the Game," for the reactions to seeing a painting of Kristy in the nude:
to:
* RuleOfThree: Used in "The Breaks of the Game," for the reactions to seeing a painting of Kristy in the nude:nude (see TakeOurWordForIt for backstory):
Changed line(s) 361 (click to see context) from:
** A reference to ''Film/Twister'' in a season three episode of the same name, when Vince compares the tornado that he and Mary Beth just experienced to what the flying cows in the "twister sisters" scene in the movie went through.
to:
** A reference to ''Film/Twister'' ''Film/{{Twister}}'' in a season three episode of the same name, when Vince compares the tornado that he and Mary Beth just experienced to what the flying cows in the "twister sisters" scene in the movie went through.
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Changed line(s) 365 (click to see context) from:
** In "Kristy Nightingale," Kristy (who's studying to be a nurse under a professional one at camp) treats Rico for a bumblebee sting, Silk suggests they should start nicknaming her "[[Series/Dr.QuinnMedicineWoman Dr. Kristy: Medicine Redhead]]''.
to:
** In "Kristy Nightingale," Kristy (who's studying to be a nurse under a professional one at camp) treats Rico for a bumblebee sting, Silk suggests they should start nicknaming her "[[Series/Dr.QuinnMedicineWoman "[[Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman Dr. Kristy: Medicine Redhead]]''.
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Changed line(s) 383,385 (click to see context) from:
--->'''Michael:''' We got crushed.
--->'''Antonio:'''
--->'''Michael:''' No, the backboard fell on us, man. We got crushed.
--->'''Antonio:'''
--->'''Michael:''' No, the backboard fell on us, man. We got crushed.
to:
--->'''Michael:''' We Last year, we got crushed.
--->'''Antonio:'''
--->'''Antonio:''' Everyone loses once in a while.
--->'''Michael:'''No, the No. The backboard fell on us, man. We got crushed.
--->'''Michael:'''
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Changed line(s) 382 (click to see context) from:
** "Big Brother Blues" features a subplot in which the Tornados believe they're jinxed whenever they play against the Arlington Mustangs, whom Deering has not won a game against in 11 years. Coach Katowinski hires a janitor to play to ward off the jinx. When the team finds out about the ruse during halftime and starts losing when they return to the court, during a timeout, Coach K gets them to realize that the team is being beaten by themselves, not the Mustangs. The Deering squad gets their act together, and rallies back to win and make the playoffs.
to:
** "Big Brother Blues" features a subplot in which the Tornados believe they're jinxed whenever they play against the Arlington Mustangs, whom Deering has not won a game against in 11 years. Coach Katowinski hires an employee at a janitor car wash to play to ward an expert at warding off jinxes from NBA players, and has the jinx.lockers and lights rigged (controlled by Mary Beth) to flicker and rattle to signify the jinx being removed from the locker room. When the team finds out about the ruse during halftime and starts losing when they return to the court, during a timeout, Coach K gets them to realize that the team is being beaten by themselves, not the Mustangs. The Deering squad gets their act together, and rallies back to win and make the playoffs. The episode features this exchange between Michael and Antonio about the bad luck the Tornados experienced during their last game against the Mustangs:
--->'''Michael:''' We got crushed.
--->'''Antonio:'''
--->'''Michael:''' No, the backboard fell on us, man. We got crushed.
--->'''Michael:''' We got crushed.
--->'''Antonio:'''
--->'''Michael:''' No, the backboard fell on us, man. We got crushed.
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Changed line(s) 382 (click to see context) from:
** "Big Brother Blues" features a subplot in which the Tornados believe they're jinxed whenever they play against the Arlington Mustangs, whom Deering has not won a game against in 11 years. Coach Katowinski hires a janitor to play to ward off the jinx. When the team finds out during the game and starts losing, Coach K explains to that they .
to:
** "Big Brother Blues" features a subplot in which the Tornados believe they're jinxed whenever they play against the Arlington Mustangs, whom Deering has not won a game against in 11 years. Coach Katowinski hires a janitor to play to ward off the jinx. When the team finds out about the ruse during the game halftime and starts losing, losing when they return to the court, during a timeout, Coach K explains gets them to realize that they .the team is being beaten by themselves, not the Mustangs. The Deering squad gets their act together, and rallies back to win and make the playoffs.
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** "Big Brother Blues" features a subplot in which the Tornados believe they're jinxed whenever they play against the Arlington Mustangs, whom Deering has not won a game against in 11 years. Coach Katowinski hires a janitor to play to ward off the jinx. When the team finds out during the game and starts losing, Coach K explains to that they .
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Changed line(s) 410 (click to see context) from:
: "Breaks of the Game," from two seasons later, has a subverted RecycledPlot in which Hammer fails a drug test when he tests positive for steroids, only for it to have been a false positive caused by his allergy medication.
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Changed line(s) 427 (click to see context) from:
* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: In "Kristy Connor," Vince names the cow his Uncle Toomsey delivered instead of a package of meat for a cookout at the basketball camp[[explanation]]Uncle Toomsey's English is not very good, and Vince admits his family never figured out which language Toomsey speaks[[/explanation]] after Mary Beth, whom he was ''dating'' at the time. Michael even points out what a bad idea that was.
to:
* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: In "Kristy Connor," Vince names the cow his Uncle Toomsey delivered instead of a package of meat for a cookout at the basketball camp[[explanation]]Uncle camp[[note]]Uncle Toomsey's English is not very good, and Vince admits his family never figured out which language Toomsey speaks[[/explanation]] speaks[[/note]] after Mary Beth, whom he was ''dating'' at the time. Michael even points out what a bad idea that was.
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Changed line(s) 440 (click to see context) from:
* [[YouKnowI'mBlackRight You Know I'm a Girl, Right?]]: The focus of the season two episode "Just One of the Guys". As much as Julie tried to prove she can be just as good a player as the guys can when she first joined the Tornados, Julie becomes self-conscious when Mary Beth and Amy break to her that she needs to act more feminine. Her attempts to impress Josh by acting more like a [[GirlinessUpgrade girly girl]] (as part of an UnnecessaryMakeover, complete with a BareYourMidriff top and a DangerouslyShortSkirt) fail. She then decides to quit the team, out of concern that Josh won't notice her until a talk with Olympic track-and-field legend Florence Griffith-Joyner (arranged by Coach Fuller) sets her straight that she can be an athlete and still be a woman.
to:
* [[YouKnowI'mBlackRight [[YouKnowImBlackRight You Know I'm a Girl, Right?]]: The focus of the season two episode "Just One of the Guys". As much as Julie tried to prove she can be just as good a player as the guys can when she first joined the Tornados, Julie becomes self-conscious when Mary Beth and Amy break to her that she needs to act more feminine. Her attempts to impress Josh by acting more like a [[GirlinessUpgrade girly girl]] (as part of an UnnecessaryMakeover, complete with a BareYourMidriff top and a DangerouslyShortSkirt) fail. She then decides to quit the team, out of concern that Josh won't notice her until a talk with Olympic track-and-field legend Florence Griffith-Joyner (arranged by Coach Fuller) sets her straight that she can be an athlete and still be a woman.
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* RuleOfThree: Used in "The Breaks of the Game," for the reactions to seeing a painting of Kristy in the nude:
--->'''Julie:''' Oh, my gosh!
--->'''Mary Beth:''' Oh, my gosh!
--->'''Kristy:''' Oh, my gosh!
--->'''Julie:''' Oh, my gosh!
--->'''Mary Beth:''' Oh, my gosh!
--->'''Kristy:''' Oh, my gosh!
Changed line(s) 418 (click to see context) from:
** In season five's "Big Brother Blues," Michael and Silk are paired with a young boy when they volunteer for a Big Brothers/Big Sisters-style program. While spending time at the mall with the kid, Michael meets the boy's mom as Silk goes away for a moment, and tells Michael that she's glad he's her son's Big Brother, noting that the son of a friend of her's was paired with a black man. Silk later finds out the truth from Michael, and gives the woman a
to:
** In season five's "Big Brother Blues," Michael and Silk are paired with a young boy when they volunteer for a Big Brothers/Big Sisters-style program. program, in which they are paired with a young boy named Daniel. While spending time at the mall with the kid, him, Michael meets the boy's Daniel's mom as just after Silk goes away for a moment, leaves, and tells Michael that she's glad he's her son's Big Brother, noting Brother is white, inferring that the she doesn't want her son of a friend of her's was paired with to be influenced by a black man. male. Silk later finds out the truth from Michael, and gives after Daniel's mom finds out that Silk is also Daniel's Big Brother, she decides not to let Daniel see him again. After he's caught having run off to game at Deering, where Michael and Silk had said Daniel the woman ahonorary ball boy, Silk and Coach Katowinski reprimand Daniel's mother for trying to influence her prejudice on him. Daniel, however, doesn't care that Silk is black, and sees him just as his friend. Te episode ends with Daniel running back into the locker room to give Silk a hug as the rest of the team looks on.
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Changed line(s) 409 (click to see context) from:
: A similar plot occurs in season four's "High Hoops," in which Rico starts smoking marijuana in order to get closer to a girl who smokes it. Rico ends up shirking his responsibility of fixing Hammer's motorcycle, causing him to be injured when his brakes malfunction. Rico then goes to Coach Katowinski for help quitting.
to:
** In season five's "Big Brother Blues," Michael and Silk are paired with a young boy when they volunteer for a Big Brothers/Big Sisters-style program. While spending time at the mall with the kid, Michael meets the boy's mom as Silk goes away for a moment, and tells Michael that she's glad he's her son's Big Brother, noting that the son of a friend of her's was paired with a black man. Silk later finds out the truth from Michael, and gives the woman a
Changed line(s) 419 (click to see context) from:
* The season six episode "Secrets and Lies" dealt with Mary Beth being forced upon by a guy she meets during the team's tournament. See AttemptedRape and DateRapeAverted.
to:
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Changed line(s) 89,92 (click to see context) from:
:Ahmad Rashad and Willow Bay, then the hosts of fellow NBC Saturday morning show ''NBA Inside Stuff'', made a cameo in season one's "Full Court Press".
:Track-and-field icon Florence Griffith-Joyner guest stars in the season two episode "Just One of the Guys".
:The Moffatts, an all-brother pop band popular in the late 1990s, appears in "Managing Michael".
:Singer Jennifer Holliday (of ''Dreamgirls'', the original Broadway play, fame) played Silk's aunt Charlotte in "The Gospel According to Silk".
:Track-and-field icon Florence Griffith-Joyner guest stars in the season two episode "Just One of the Guys".
:The Moffatts, an all-brother pop band popular in the late 1990s, appears in "Managing Michael".
:Singer Jennifer Holliday (of ''Dreamgirls'', the original Broadway play, fame) played Silk's aunt Charlotte in "The Gospel According to Silk".
to:
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Changed line(s) 82 (click to see context) from:
* TheCastShowoff: Practically every episode shows off the cast's basketball playing ability, which definitely took quite a bit of practice. Whenever they make a show, the studio audience definitely was impressed. Reggie Theus shows off his ability in a couple of episodes, though he had to intentionally miss free throws and a dunk for a storyline in which Coach Fuller gets into a shooting slump in "Not a D'Amata".
to:
* TheCastShowoff: Practically every episode shows off the cast's basketball playing ability, which definitely took quite a bit of practice. Whenever they make a show, shot, the studio audience definitely was impressed. Reggie Theus shows off his ability in a couple of episodes, though he had to intentionally miss free throws and a dunk for a storyline in which Coach Fuller gets into a shooting slump in "Not a D'Amata".
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Changed line(s) 48 (click to see context) from:
* BigEater: Earl (inferred) in season one, Teddy in seasons two and three is stated as one. This comes up as a plot device in the season three episode "Twister," as he is surprised that he has no appetite just as he's about to ''participate in a pizza eating contest!'' for tickets to a rock concert. The considerably smaller Kristy willingly steps in and finishes off all of the pizzas Teddy was supposed to eat, much to her friends' astonishment, to the point where she nearly gets sick.
to:
* BigEater: Earl (inferred) in season one, Teddy in seasons two and three is stated as one. one.
** This trope comes up as a plot device in the season three episode "Twister," as he is surprised that he has no appetite just as he's about to ''participate in a pizza eating contest!'' for tickets to a rock concert. The considerably smaller Kristy willingly steps in and finishes off all of the pizzas Teddy was supposed to eat, much to her friends' astonishment, to the point where she nearly gets sick.
** This trope comes up as a plot device in the season three episode "Twister," as he is surprised that he has no appetite just as he's about to ''participate in a pizza eating contest!'' for tickets to a rock concert. The considerably smaller Kristy willingly steps in and finishes off all of the pizzas Teddy was supposed to eat, much to her friends' astonishment, to the point where she nearly gets sick.
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Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
** Written-InAbsence: However, his absence in "Fighting Words" is [[ExplainedAbsence explained]] in that Fuller was sick with the mumps.
to:
** Written-InAbsence: WrittenInAbsence: However, his absence in "Fighting Words" is [[ExplainedAbsence explained]] in that Fuller was sick with the mumps.
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Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
Much like ''Saved by the Bell''{{'}}s ''The New Class'' spinoff (which aired at the same time), the show was infamous for its constant cast changes. Only two characters from the first season remained on ''Hang Time'' by the sixth and final season – {{Tomboy}} star player Julie Connor (Daniella Deutscher) and RichGirl head cheerleader-turned-team manager Mary Beth Pepperton (Megan Parlen), with season three introductions, ace player Michael Manning (Adam Frost) and redhead cheerleader Kristy Ford (Amber Baretto) being the longest-running of the characters added in later seasons to stay on to the final episode – those shuffling in between have been lost to time, and (with the exception of Nick Hammer (played by Mark Famiglietti in season four), who was given a proper send-off in the season five premiere "Hello and Goodbye") have been written out with just a brief explanation in each season's first episode.
to:
Much like ''Saved by the Bell''{{'}}s Bell'''s ''The New Class'' spinoff (which aired at the same time), the show was infamous for its constant cast changes. Only two characters from the first season remained on ''Hang Time'' by the sixth and final season – {{Tomboy}} star player Julie Connor (Daniella Deutscher) and RichGirl head cheerleader-turned-team manager Mary Beth Pepperton (Megan Parlen), with season three introductions, ace player Michael Manning (Adam Frost) and redhead cheerleader Kristy Ford (Amber Baretto) being the longest-running of the characters added in later seasons to stay on to the final episode – those shuffling in between have been lost to time, and (with the exception of Nick Hammer (played by Mark Famiglietti in season four), who was given a proper send-off in the season five premiere "Hello and Goodbye") have been written out with just a brief explanation in each season's first episode.
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Moving to trivia.
Deleted line(s) 23 (click to see context) :
* ActorSharedBackground: Bill Fuller was a former NBA player, as was his portrayer Reggie Theus. Averted with Mike Katowinski, whose background was in basketball, whereas Dick Butkus' was in football.
Deleted line(s) 131,133 (click to see context) :
* DawsonCasting:
** Varies among the cast members (some were played by teens, others were played by actors around at least college age); the least believeable of the actors playing teenagers was Kevin Bell (who played Josh in season two), who clearly looked like he was in his mid-20s.
** Tracy, Teddy's love interest in "The Sure Thing" and "Green-Eyed Julie," is supposed to be a Deering student but her portrayer, Susan Patterson, was clearly in her early 20s.
** Varies among the cast members (some were played by teens, others were played by actors around at least college age); the least believeable of the actors playing teenagers was Kevin Bell (who played Josh in season two), who clearly looked like he was in his mid-20s.
** Tracy, Teddy's love interest in "The Sure Thing" and "Green-Eyed Julie," is supposed to be a Deering student but her portrayer, Susan Patterson, was clearly in her early 20s.
Deleted line(s) 220,228 (click to see context) :
* HeyItsThatGuy!:
** Anthony Anderson played main character Teddy Brodis for two seasons.
** Hillary Tuck played Sam Morgan, two years before playing Amy Szalinski in ''HoneyIShrunkTheKidsTheTVShow''.
** Jay Hernandez, Antonio Lopez during the last three seasons, played KirstenDunst's love interest in ''Crazy/Beautiful''.
** A pre-''AmericanPie'' Shannon Elizabeth guest starred as Nicole, Josh's co-worker at The Stadium, in the season two episode "Green-Eyed Julie".
** In the above-mentioned episode, Nicole introduces Danny to her friend Kim, played by [[Series/Psych Juliet O'Hara]] herself, Maggie Lawson.
** Scott Whyte (Chris Anderson from fellow TNBC show ''CityGuys'') played a superficial boy that Kristy liked in the season three episode "Fighting Words".
** Mark Walberg (the host of ''AntiquesRoadshow'', not the [[MarkWahlberg actor]]) played sports commentator Chick Storm in "Fuller's Rival" and "That '60s Show".
** Bree Turner (later of ''[[Series/Grimm Grimm]]'') plays Rico's taller girlfriend Gail and [[Series/HouseOfCards Constance Zimmer]] plays Rico's cousin Lisa (whom he has pretend to be Gail) in "The Tall and the Short of It".
** Anthony Anderson played main character Teddy Brodis for two seasons.
** Hillary Tuck played Sam Morgan, two years before playing Amy Szalinski in ''HoneyIShrunkTheKidsTheTVShow''.
** Jay Hernandez, Antonio Lopez during the last three seasons, played KirstenDunst's love interest in ''Crazy/Beautiful''.
** A pre-''AmericanPie'' Shannon Elizabeth guest starred as Nicole, Josh's co-worker at The Stadium, in the season two episode "Green-Eyed Julie".
** In the above-mentioned episode, Nicole introduces Danny to her friend Kim, played by [[Series/Psych Juliet O'Hara]] herself, Maggie Lawson.
** Scott Whyte (Chris Anderson from fellow TNBC show ''CityGuys'') played a superficial boy that Kristy liked in the season three episode "Fighting Words".
** Mark Walberg (the host of ''AntiquesRoadshow'', not the [[MarkWahlberg actor]]) played sports commentator Chick Storm in "Fuller's Rival" and "That '60s Show".
** Bree Turner (later of ''[[Series/Grimm Grimm]]'') plays Rico's taller girlfriend Gail and [[Series/HouseOfCards Constance Zimmer]] plays Rico's cousin Lisa (whom he has pretend to be Gail) in "The Tall and the Short of It".
Deleted line(s) 310 (click to see context) :
* TheOtherDarrin: Mary Beth's parents are first played in "Son-in-Law" by John H. Brennan and Lucy Butler; the following season in "Mary Beth's Parents," they are played by Michael Bryan French and Cristina Raines.
Deleted line(s) 414 (click to see context) :
* TypeCasting: NBA player Reggie Theus playing former NBA player-turned-high school basketball coach Bill Fuller.
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Changed line(s) 175 (click to see context) from:
* DumbJock: Invoked in the "B" plot of "Style Before Substance," Josh manages to trick a group of football JerkJock{{s}} that the Deering basketball team is arguing over their booth with at The Stadium into believing that Troy Aikman is signing autographs at the mall... twice! Before that happens the first time, Danny tries to explain the meaning of "basement" as a euphemism for "the lowest point" or "losing" to one of the football players, who uses the wrong term:
to:
* DumbJock: Invoked in the "B" plot of "Style Before Substance," Josh manages to trick a group of football JerkJock{{s}} {{Jerk Jock}}s that the Deering basketball team is arguing over their booth with at The Stadium into believing that Troy Aikman is signing autographs at the mall... twice! Before that happens the first time, Danny tries to explain the meaning of "basement" as a euphemism for "the lowest point" or "losing" to one of the football players, who uses the wrong term:
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Changed line(s) 79 (click to see context) from:
* {{Casanova}}:
to:
* {{Casanova}}:TheCasanova:
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Significant expansion in the number of tropes applied to the show.
Changed line(s) 1,5 (click to see context) from:
SavedByTheBell [[RecycledINSPACE WITH BASKETBALL!]]
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on Creator/{{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of the Deering Tornadoes, a highschool basketball team. The series starts as Julie Connor moves from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering and joins the team. She must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
It is similar to Saved By the Bell in yet ''another'' way: the infamous cast changes. Two characters from the original series remained by the last season, and those shuffling in between have been lost to time.
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on Creator/{{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of the Deering Tornadoes, a highschool basketball team. The series starts as Julie Connor moves from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering and joins the team. She must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
It is similar to Saved By the Bell in yet ''another'' way: the infamous cast changes. Two characters from the original series remained by the last season, and those shuffling in between have been lost to time.
to:
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was
The squad is led by tough-with-a-purpose coaches: for the
It is similar to Saved By
Much like ''Saved by the Bell''{{'}}s ''The New Class'' spinoff (which aired at the same time), the show was infamous for its constant cast changes.
Now has a [[Characters/HangTime character sheet]].
* AbhorrentAdmirer: In "The Sweat Shack," Michael Maxwell gets Coach Fuller to make him a foreign exchange student guide after seeing that Earl was paired with an attractive Russian girl. To his chagrin, Michael ends up being paired with a heavy-set girl from the same country (who develops a crush on him), who as he states, "looks like she is Russia."
* AbsenteeActor: Reggie Theus, who plays Coach Bill Fuller, does not appear in the season three episodes "Fighting Words", "Blood Drive" and "Teen Mom".
** Written-InAbsence: However, his absence in "Fighting Words" is [[ExplainedAbsence explained]] in that Fuller was sick with the mumps.
* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Season three's "Teen Mom" and season four's "My Family" involve characters who became mothers before graduating high school. In the former, Danny falls for a girl named Sarah, who keeps ditching him and backing out on dates, only to find out that she has a son; Danny even briefly considers marrying Sarah. In the latter, Coach Katowinski's 17-year-old daughter tells Mary Beth, Julie and Kristy that she had given birth to a child recently and hadn't told her dad about it, she eventually comes clean to him. In both cases, the main characters end up with the unwitting task of being the babysitters, with blunderous results.
* AccidentalAthlete: Kristy in "Kristy Connor," part of a MistakenIdentity plot in which a boy mistakes her for Julie. In order to keep up appearances, the gang teaches her how to play. She gets startled when Teddy passes her the ball and deflects it with her wrist; resorts to tickling Danny as a way to "steal" the ball and then skips off with it saying "I got it! I got! I got the ball!"; loses the basketball when learning how to dribble and chucks the ball when trying to pass it. She manages to learn well enough to shoot a ball into the goal. She later confesses to the guy about who she really is, but it ends well for her (even though we don't see him again).
* TheAce: Julie Connor, and later, Michael Manning.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism:
** Happens to Julie after she receives attention for being the first girl on Deering's boy's basketball team in the season one episode "Full Court Press".
** Also happens to Teddy in "The Laugh Riot," when he starts to take over in an unintentional comedy duo with Danny.
* {{Acrofatic}}: An AnthonyAnderson specialty, Anderson (who plays Teddy Brodis in seasons two and three) was much heavier in the late 1990s than he is today. Still, playing an athlete (especially, a basketball player) requires some agility, and he shows quite a bit of it; in season two's "Just One of the Guys," he manages to do a split that doesn't seem to hurt at all while [[ItMakesSenseInContext cheerleading with Danny and Vince]]. In season three's "No Smoking," Teddy does backrolls to try and get some cigarettes he hid during a meditation session with Danny, Michael and Vince to get him to quit smoking.
* ActorSharedBackground: Bill Fuller was a former NBA player, as was his portrayer Reggie Theus. Averted with Mike Katowinski, whose background was in basketball, whereas Dick Butkus' was in football.
* {{Adorkable}}: Danny in season one, Vince in seasons two and three, Eugene in seasons five and six.
* AgelessBirthdayEpisode:
** Julie has a birthday in the season two episode "War of the Roses," however her age isn't confirmed. Although in "Earl Makes the Grade" from the previous season, Danny mentions that Julie has a car.
** Her birthday plays marginally in the plot on account of it being a VerySpecialEpisode, but Kristy has one in season four's "Assault and Pepper Spray". She mentions getting a new car in that episode, and given that Teddy taught her how to drive in "Julie's Guy" the previous season, it could be assumed that she turned 16. Then again, none of the characters' ages are explicitly mentioned in-series.
* AllMenArePerverts: Played surprisingly straight for a kid-friendly sitcom, yet subverted as well. Although most of the boys are hormone-addled, only two characters made advances on any of the female characters – both times, Mary Beth was the one they advanced on – in "Sexual Harrassment" and "Secrets and Lies".
* AllCheeringAllTheTime: Amy, the head cheerleader who replaces Mary Beth after she is promoted to team manager, comes pretty close. In the episode "When Loss is Gain," she has a bit to trouble adjusting with the thing she had to give up as part of a charity fundraiser for a soup kitchen: being peppy and cheerful. When she starts, she goes too far (after catching herself following a backflip) and inadvertently almost brings down everyone else's spirits.
-->'''Amy:''' "What's there to be cheerful about? We're all going to get old. Danny's going to go bald, Julie's going to get fat."
-->'''Julie:''' "Amy! ''You're'' supposed to stop being cheerful, not us."
-->'''Amy:''' "Aw, stuff it, tubby."
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Naturally. It gives Julie some competition. The only time Julie felt that a cheerleader was a threat for the affections of a guy she liked was in the season one finale "Game Day," when Chris accidentally made a WrongNameOutburst by calling Julie by ex-girlfriend Mary Beth's name while giving him a massage in the school courtyard and ends up getting a good luck kiss from Mary Beth before a big game, which Julie catches, although Chris and Julie end up making up in the end. Julie never competed against Amy for a guy when she was head cheerleader during season two, and after Kristy replaces Amy in that role in season three, competes with her for the affections of a guy only once – in season three's "Fuller's Rival" for a lifeguard... who later tells them and Mary Beth that if he chose Julie or Kristy, "my wife would never speak to me again."
* AlliterativeName: Michael Maxwell and Michael Manning.
* AnAesop
* AbsenteeActor: Reggie Theus, who plays Coach Bill Fuller, does not appear in the season three episodes "Fighting Words", "Blood Drive" and "Teen Mom".
** Written-InAbsence: However, his absence in "Fighting Words" is [[ExplainedAbsence explained]] in that Fuller was sick with the mumps.
* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Season three's "Teen Mom" and season four's "My Family" involve characters who became mothers before graduating high school. In the former, Danny falls for a girl named Sarah, who keeps ditching him and backing out on dates, only to find out that she has a son; Danny even briefly considers marrying Sarah. In the latter, Coach Katowinski's 17-year-old daughter tells Mary Beth, Julie and Kristy that she had given birth to a child recently and hadn't told her dad about it, she eventually comes clean to him. In both cases, the main characters end up with the unwitting task of being the babysitters, with blunderous results.
* AccidentalAthlete: Kristy in "Kristy Connor," part of a MistakenIdentity plot in which a boy mistakes her for Julie. In order to keep up appearances, the gang teaches her how to play. She gets startled when Teddy passes her the ball and deflects it with her wrist; resorts to tickling Danny as a way to "steal" the ball and then skips off with it saying "I got it! I got! I got the ball!"; loses the basketball when learning how to dribble and chucks the ball when trying to pass it. She manages to learn well enough to shoot a ball into the goal. She later confesses to the guy about who she really is, but it ends well for her (even though we don't see him again).
* TheAce: Julie Connor, and later, Michael Manning.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism:
** Happens to Julie after she receives attention for being the first girl on Deering's boy's basketball team in the season one episode "Full Court Press".
** Also happens to Teddy in "The Laugh Riot," when he starts to take over in an unintentional comedy duo with Danny.
* {{Acrofatic}}: An AnthonyAnderson specialty, Anderson (who plays Teddy Brodis in seasons two and three) was much heavier in the late 1990s than he is today. Still, playing an athlete (especially, a basketball player) requires some agility, and he shows quite a bit of it; in season two's "Just One of the Guys," he manages to do a split that doesn't seem to hurt at all while [[ItMakesSenseInContext cheerleading with Danny and Vince]]. In season three's "No Smoking," Teddy does backrolls to try and get some cigarettes he hid during a meditation session with Danny, Michael and Vince to get him to quit smoking.
* ActorSharedBackground: Bill Fuller was a former NBA player, as was his portrayer Reggie Theus. Averted with Mike Katowinski, whose background was in basketball, whereas Dick Butkus' was in football.
* {{Adorkable}}: Danny in season one, Vince in seasons two and three, Eugene in seasons five and six.
* AgelessBirthdayEpisode:
** Julie has a birthday in the season two episode "War of the Roses," however her age isn't confirmed. Although in "Earl Makes the Grade" from the previous season, Danny mentions that Julie has a car.
** Her birthday plays marginally in the plot on account of it being a VerySpecialEpisode, but Kristy has one in season four's "Assault and Pepper Spray". She mentions getting a new car in that episode, and given that Teddy taught her how to drive in "Julie's Guy" the previous season, it could be assumed that she turned 16. Then again, none of the characters' ages are explicitly mentioned in-series.
* AllMenArePerverts: Played surprisingly straight for a kid-friendly sitcom, yet subverted as well. Although most of the boys are hormone-addled, only two characters made advances on any of the female characters – both times, Mary Beth was the one they advanced on – in "Sexual Harrassment" and "Secrets and Lies".
* AllCheeringAllTheTime: Amy, the head cheerleader who replaces Mary Beth after she is promoted to team manager, comes pretty close. In the episode "When Loss is Gain," she has a bit to trouble adjusting with the thing she had to give up as part of a charity fundraiser for a soup kitchen: being peppy and cheerful. When she starts, she goes too far (after catching herself following a backflip) and inadvertently almost brings down everyone else's spirits.
-->'''Amy:''' "What's there to be cheerful about? We're all going to get old. Danny's going to go bald, Julie's going to get fat."
-->'''Julie:''' "Amy! ''You're'' supposed to stop being cheerful, not us."
-->'''Amy:''' "Aw, stuff it, tubby."
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Naturally. It gives Julie some competition. The only time Julie felt that a cheerleader was a threat for the affections of a guy she liked was in the season one finale "Game Day," when Chris accidentally made a WrongNameOutburst by calling Julie by ex-girlfriend Mary Beth's name while giving him a massage in the school courtyard and ends up getting a good luck kiss from Mary Beth before a big game, which Julie catches, although Chris and Julie end up making up in the end. Julie never competed against Amy for a guy when she was head cheerleader during season two, and after Kristy replaces Amy in that role in season three, competes with her for the affections of a guy only once – in season three's "Fuller's Rival" for a lifeguard... who later tells them and Mary Beth that if he chose Julie or Kristy, "my wife would never speak to me again."
* AlliterativeName: Michael Maxwell and Michael Manning.
* AnAesop
Changed line(s) 10,19 (click to see context) from:
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Naturally. It gives Julie some competition.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were not
* CatchPhrase: MICHAEL MAAAAAANNING!
** Haw geez.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After season one, all main characters but two were dropped without explanation. In later seasons they would make up excuses for them - scholarships elsewhere, joining the wrestling team instead, etc.
* GenkiGirl: Sam Morgan.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: [[SavedByTheBell Screech]] appeared in one episode.
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly Saved by the Bell with basketball, as almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For example, CaliforniaDreams is Saved By the Bell WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!)
* SixStudentClique
* SpecialGuest: Famous basketball stars, eventually Lisa Leslie.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were not
* CatchPhrase: MICHAEL MAAAAAANNING!
** Haw geez.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After season one, all main characters but two were dropped without explanation. In later seasons they would make up excuses for them - scholarships elsewhere, joining the wrestling team instead, etc.
* GenkiGirl: Sam Morgan.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: [[SavedByTheBell Screech]] appeared in one episode.
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly Saved by the Bell with basketball, as almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For example, CaliforniaDreams is Saved By the Bell WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!)
* SixStudentClique
* SpecialGuest: Famous basketball stars, eventually Lisa Leslie.
to:
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Naturally. It gives AnimalNemesis: Coach Fuller's obsession with catching an infamous fish in an ice fishing cabin in Aspen in "Love on the Rockies," which he lets go after finally catching him.
* AttemptedRape and DateRapeAverted: In season six's "Secrets and Lies," Mary Beth is nearly mauled by a guy named Brett while in a back room at a concert at a nightclub. She manages to get away on her own (threatening to bash him with a guitar), while Brett threatens to get Deering kicked out of the tournament as Mary Beth and her friends used fake IDs (that he sold them) to get into the club. Antonio and Michael confront Brett when Mary Beth, Kristy and Julie inform them about what happened, but Mary Beth and Coach Katowinski step in before things get out of hand and have Brett arrested.
* AscendedExtra: Antonio Lopez is first introduced in the season four episode "Texas Rose," and part-way through "Shoot Out" two episodes later, becomes Kristy's boyfriend (albeit fumbling at first by lying to her and when they get together, their relationship is a long-distance one). The following season in "Hello and Goodbye," he moves to Deering from San Antonio, and ends up renting a house owned by Coach Katowinski, and joins the basketball team for the remainder of the series.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Come on, you'd probably like to have Rico Bosco as your name.
* BadJobWorseUniform: The uniform at the hot dog cart that Kristy works at in "Assault and Pepper Spray". Mary Beth isn't pleased to wear it when Kristy asks for her to sub in.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: "Teen Mom" and "My Family" have gender
* BetaCouple:
** Danny and Sam become this in the season one episode "Will the Real Michael Maxwell Please Stand Up", first to Mary Beth and Chris and then to Julie and Chris.
** Once Antonio was added to the show as a recurring character in season five, Kristy and Antonio became this to OfficialCouple Michael and Julie.
* [[BewareTheNiceOnes Beware the Nice]]/[[BewaretheSillyOnes Silly Ones]]: Danny may be a good guy jokester, but when he learns martial arts in "Fighting Words"... well, his bully in that episode, Tony, gets ''really'' scared at the end of their bout. Imagine what would have happened if Danny didn't show restraint when it looked like he was going to hit Tony. The entire scene and the speech that follows is definitely a CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
-->'''Danny:''' "I could hit you. But what's the point: to prove that I got you this time? And, what about the next time and the time after that? No. This ends now. I got better things to do. Get out of here!"
* BettyAndVeronica: Mary Beth ends up as the Veronica and Kristy the Betty in the season four episode "Love Triangle," with Hammer as the Archie.
* BigEater: Earl (inferred) in season one, Teddy in seasons two and three is stated as one. This comes up as a plot device in the season three episode "Twister," as he is surprised that he has no appetite just as he's about to ''participate in a pizza eating contest!'' for tickets to a rock concert. The considerably smaller Kristy willingly steps in and finishes off all of the pizzas Teddy was supposed to eat, much to her friends' astonishment, to the point where she nearly gets sick.
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "I'm still trying to figure out where Kristy put all that pizza."
* BillingDisplacement: Gradually happened over the course of the series, as the new additions to the cast were added to the roster usually in the order they joined the show.[[note]]Except for Kevin Bell, who was billed before Megan Parlen in season two, despite the fact that he did not join the show until that season.[[/note]] By Season 6, this meant that Daniella Deutscher (who kept top billing throughout the series), Megan Parlen, Adam Frost and Amber Baretto – in that order – were billed prior to everyone else in the main cast (whereas Frost and Baretto were billed sixth and seventh – before Reggie Theus – when they first joined in season three, and Parlen was billed fourth in season one).
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: For the entire series, Julie is the blonde and Mary Beth is the brunette; Sam was the redhead in season one, however there was no redhead in season two (Amy, who joined the show that season was a blonde), Kristy became the redhead in the trio when she was introduced in season three. The trope is also easily applied with BeautyBrainsAndBrawn, with Mary Beth being the beauty, Kristy being the brains and Julie (natch) being the brawn.
* BlowingARaspberry: Not used much in the show, but is .
* BlueBlood: The Peppertons; as first noted in "Trouble in Paradise," Mary Beth's father is worth $40 million.
* BookDumb: Vince shows shades of this in season's two and three (see Comically Missing the Point for one example), as does Rico in season four.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick:
** In "Not a D'Amata," Vince, Michael, Teddy and Danny discuss taking Vince's little brother Nicky out camping to get him in touch with his "inner D'Amata" when he comes back more cultured. Michael talks about to doing guy stuff: "we'll build a fire! get dirty! eat bugs!" He loses the other guys with that last one, then suggests they'll bring pizzas instead.
** A variant in "Goodnight Vince," when Julie, Teddy, Danny and Michael talk about the prospect of traveling to the state championships in Bloomington:
-->'''Michael:''' "It'll be so cool. Living in the college dorms."
-->'''Julie, Teddy, Danny and Michael:''' "Yeah!"
-->'''Teddy:''' "Chilling with the college ladies."
-->'''Teddy, Danny and Michael:''' "Oh, yeah!"
-->'''Julie:''' "Checking out those cute college guys."
-->'''Teddy, Danny and Michael:''' "Yeah! (beat) No! No-no-no-no!"
* BreakoutCharacter: The early episodes balanced all of the characters fairly evenly. Mary Beth began evolving into the comic relief of the show as season two wore on. At somecompetition.
point during the third season, the producers obviously saw that Megan Parlen (Mary Beth) and Amber Baretto (Kristy) had enough on-screen chemistry to where their characters got more plots per episode (usually "B" plots involving some WackyScheme the two got onto, but also some "A" plots and a few serious ones).
* BuffySpeak:
** When Kristy manages to shoot a basketball into a goal in "Kristy Connor," she says that she made a "pointy-thingy".
** Done again by Kristy in "The Curfew" when she and Mary Beth are invited to be part of a team unity yell: "my first hands-in-the-middle-pile-up-and-yell thingy!"
* The Bully: Really, only a handful of the show's incidental characters are this, and only when the plot calls for one to be included.
* BurgerFool: Technically, Corn Dog on a Pole is a cart, not a restaurant... but it is complete with an ugly multi-colored uniform as Mary Beth notes (and later has to wear) in "Assault and Pepper Spray":
--->'''Mary Beth''' (using a Monopoly reference about Kristy's Corn Dog on a Pole uniform): "Do not pass go. Proceed directly to fashion jail."
* ButtMonkey:
** Atypical for TheCutie and to an extent, the NiceGirl, poor Kristy ends up one quite a bit by the fourth season.
** Coach Katowinski ends up one at times, at the hands of team members, Mary Beth and Kristy.
** In later seasons, Silk and Eugene have had moments of being butt monkeys. See Scenery Censor for one example.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season werenot
not consistent. Neither were the events of season four; during the middle of that season, episodes alternated between those set at Deering High, and those set at the tournament in San Antonio and later the basketball camp.
*CatchPhrase: MICHAEL MAAAAAANNING!
CannotSpitItOut: Danny liked Julie early in the first season. He had a hard time telling her until he told her they "should see other people" in "Will the Real Michael Maxwell Please Stand Up," when he discovered that Sam was interested in him.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: In "Fake ID-ology," the gang uses fake IDs to sneak into an over 18 club, where they end up getting drunk and the boys... and Julie... get into a bar fight. Coach Fuller benches all of the main characters, which results in them telling an averted RashomonStyle story about [[HowWeGotHere how they got into the mess]].
* {{Casanova}}:
**Haw geez.
Michael Maxwell manages to wrangle two dates (off-screen) in "Full Court Press," though Julie ruined it by mentioning this in a TV interview about her and her team.
** "When Loss is Gain" states that Vince is this. When he and Teddy call off their bet on who can go the longest without doing something (concurrent with a charity fundraiser that had the same purpose) – Vince with girls and Teddy with desserts – Vince asks out three girls in succession for dates on three consecutive nights, and goes off to ask out more.
* TheCastShowoff: Practically every episode shows off the cast's basketball playing ability, which definitely took quite a bit of practice. Whenever they make a show, the studio audience definitely was impressed. Reggie Theus shows off his ability in a couple of episodes, though he had to intentionally miss free throws and a dunk for a storyline in which Coach Fuller gets into a shooting slump in "Not a D'Amata".
* CatapultNightmare: Mary Beth has one in "At the Movies," where she is in love with Eugene. She later asks him out to make sure there's no spark between them... there isn't.
* CatchPhrase:
** There's Coach Katowinski's "aw, geez," also counts as OnceAnEpisode since Dick Butkus uttered it often during his run on the show. With the exception of the season five finale "My Family," when he (and his daughter) say it in unision after being complemented by Kristy, Coach K usually says it whenever he experiences misfortune, is asked to talk about another character's relationship or sees something he wishes he hadn't.
** Kristy's "ooh, I could just shake my finger at him/her," when a character does something bad or mean.
* CelebrityStar: Reggie Theus and Dick Butkus played the show's head coaches, so, duh! Not to mention...
** SpecialGuest: The series had quite a few sports stars, primarily those famous at basketball, appear from time to time; among them, Grant Hill, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Kobe Bryant.
:Ahmad Rashad and Willow Bay, then the hosts of fellow NBC Saturday morning show ''NBA Inside Stuff'', made a cameo in season one's "Full Court Press".
:Track-and-field icon Florence Griffith-Joyner guest stars in the season two episode "Just One of the Guys".
:The Moffatts, an all-brother pop band popular in the late 1990s, appears in "Managing Michael".
:Singer Jennifer Holliday (of ''Dreamgirls'', the original Broadway play, fame) played Silk's aunt Charlotte in "The Gospel According to Silk".
* ChainedHeat: Earl, using the crisis intervention techniques he learned during his experience as a security guard, handcuffs Mary Beth and Chris together after the two break up in season one's "Trouble in Paradise," following a misunderstanding resulting from a love letter Chris had ghostwritten for Danny to give to his crush Julie. It helps them resolve their issues, but increases their contempt for Danny.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** The first season shows Mary Beth as more of a LovableAlphaBitch. As time goes on, what few negative traits we see in her begin to die off and starting in season two, she evolves into more of the semi-competent goofball that she is for the rest of the series (although she still had a few serious plotlines); its easy to pinpoint exactly when she started to fully evolve into the latter, the season two finale "The Best Game of the Season".
** Kristy starts out as just the Nice Girl with traits of a Kelly Kapowki-esque all-American girl; by season three, she becomes a rare ButtMonkey for her type of character (although the fact that she is fairly popular and does catch the attention of Antonio in season four saves her enough from being TheWoobie).
** Coach Fuller starts out as just an upstanding former NBA player-turned-coach who taught his students valuable lessons in life and teamwork; by season two, he developed a periodic HairTriggerTemper when other characters did something comedically stupid or sometimes for the fun of it.
* TheCheerleader: Played with in regards to Mary Beth, as she exhibits some of the cheerleader stereotypes, including being spoiled, but is not dumb and not necessarily mean-spirited. Subverted with Amy and Kristy. Amy may be on peppiness overdrive, but she is not necessarily dumb, just pretty naive and not even close to mean ("The Sure Thing" even states that she doesn't like to hurt other people's feelings). Kristy is depicted as nice, smart and almost Kelly Kapowski-level squeaky clean, however very minor traits of the Mary Beth of that period do rub off on her later in the series.
* ChickMagnet: Silk claims to be one when he is introduced in the season four premiere "A Whole New Ballgame" during his explanation on how he got the nickname.
* ChristmasEpisode: A rare two in one season, during the New York storyline in season four, "Window of Opportunity" and "Christmas in New York".
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:After At the start of season one, all two, four of the show's main characters but two – Chris Atwater (played by David Hanson), Michael Maxwell (played by Christian Belnavis), Earl Hatfield (played by Robert Michael Ryan) and Sam Morgan (played by Hillary Tuck) were dropped without explanation. In dropped[[note]]however, Sam remained in a long-distance relationship with Danny after she was written out, but broke up with him in a letter three episodes later seasons they would make up excuses in "Harvest Moon"[[/note]] – leaving only Coach Fuller, Julie, Mary Beth and Danny Mellon (played by Chad Gabriel) as the only holdovers for season two. In the season premieres of every season afterward, the reasons for the departing characters' absences were explained briefly in conversation early in the episode (scholarships that took them - scholarships elsewhere, to college elsewhere after graduation, joining the wrestling team instead, etc.
etc.). Besides the four that are dropped after season one, there are a few other one-seasoner characters: Josh Sanders (played by Kevin Bell in season two), Amy Wright (played by Paige Peterson, also in season two) and Rico Bosco (played by James Villani in season four). Josh and Amy are the only ones who got BrotherChucked without an ExplainedAbsence.
** PutOnABus: The only character given a proper send-off was Nick Hammer (played by Mark Famiglietti) in season five's "Hello and Goodbye". Hammer, who was introduced the previous season, is accepted into the pre-admissions program at Duke University in that episode and has to be convinced to move to North Carolina since it's a major opportunity that could get him into the university. TheBusCameBack when Hammer returned for season six's "Life 101".
* ClarkKentOutfit: On a show about basketball, since players who haven't gotten time on the court often wear regular clothes over their uniforms, it's to be expected at times. Most notably, in "Earl Makes the Grade," Earl explains that he never took off his team uniform, even though he was suspended from the Tornados for cheating (by that point, it was revealed he was set up by two students from a rival school), because he didn't know if he'd be allowed to put it back on ever again.
* ClipShow: The season four episode "Waiting for Mary Beth" and the season six episode "High School Confidential," which only features clips from seasons three through six featuring characters were already on the show at that point.
* CloserToEarth: During season one, the only quirky main characters on the show were Danny and Earl, as such, Julie evolves into this in comparison to the other teen characters after the retool. Coaches Fuller and Katowinski count as well.
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: Much of the plot of "When Loss is Gain," in which the group has to sacrifice something important to them for a charity fundraiser: Coach Fuller gives up yelling, Teddy gives up desserts, Danny gives up caring about things, Vince gives up girls, Josh gives up kissing Julie (much to her disdain), Amy gives up being cheerful, Mary Beth has to give up shopping and Julie gives up (of all things) basketball. Vince and Teddy even try to psych the other out; as the guys end up on the verge of breaking, Teddy tries to lick a basketball he hallucinates is a cherry (with Coach Fuller as an ice cream cone)!
* ComicBookTime: Subverted in that the series has some characters graduate off-screen, with "Graduation on Three" centering on all of the characters graduating from Deering... but before then, it gets hazy. Even though it's established each season is set in a new school year, the characters' grade levels are never expicitly mentioned (although the ages of a couple of them are); against logic, Julie and Mary Beth stay at Deering for all six seasons (despite Mary Beth stating in "Mary Beth's Parents" that she is 17, and therefore should have graduated after season three at least). Even though, earlier episodes imply they're a couple of years short of college age. NBC didn't help matters any more by splitting season five into two separate seasons.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: In "Winning Isn't Everything," Amy tries to put a positive spin in an attempt to cheer up the team's starters, who are worrying about losing this season if they can't get Josh on the team. But she ends up missing the point that the basketball season hasn't started yet.
-->'''Amy:''' "You guys have to stop projecting negative vibes. How many games have you lost so far?"
-->'''Vince:''' "Hello! We haven't lost any games yet, because... (knocks table three times) hello, we haven't played any games yet!"
-->'''Amy:''' "Exactly, so you're undefeated."
-->'''Vince, Danny and Teddy:''' "Hello!"
* ComplimentBackfire: At the beginning of season three's "The Laugh Riot," the gang tries to convince Danny to audition at a comedy festival being held at the ski resort they're staying at, only for Kristy to make a complement about his sense of humor that comes off as an insult about him that she gives up on doing a VerbalBackspace after two tries.
-->'''Danny:''' "It's always been a dream of mine to do stand-up."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Hey, you'd be great. Just looking at you makes me laugh. I mean... I laugh at you all the time. Oh, forget it."
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In "Just One of the Guys," Mary Beth and Amy punish Teddy, Danny and Vince for dissing cheerleading by having every female in school give the boys the SilentTreatment... ultimately finding Teddy's AchillesHeel by getting lunch lady Myrtle involved, denying him seconds on the meat loaf. As an apology, the guys end up performing a cheerleading routine at the next game.
* CordonBleughChef: Earl's mom is apparently one, considering in "Trouble in Paradise," she makes him a liver loaf, head cheese and pickled pork tongue sandwich. WTF?
* CorruptPolitician: Robert Kent in "Style Before Substance"[[note]]who is credited as John Kent in the closing credits[[/note]]. He makes himself to be a champion for the environment, but runs for Deering mayor in order to turn a city park into an industrial center. Amy, who supported him because she thought he was cute, is crushed by this; she later shifts her support towards another candidate after informing herself about what he stands for.
* CosmeticCatastrophe: In the wraparound scenes from the ClipShow "Waiting for Mary Beth", the title describes what causes the other characters to end up reminiscing about past moments when Mary Beth is the last one to get ready for a New Year's party; she ends up having a really bad hair day after her hairdresser botches things, giving her a ''Hairspray''-esque poofed hairstyle.
* CreditsGag: Not really a gag per se, but the first season featured a sequence in the end credits featuring the Deering Tornadoes playing basketball. "Harvest Moon" had a scene where Cedric Ceballos was forced to clean the gym floor he scuffed as Coach Fuller watched.
* CompressedVice: Vince's steroid addiction in "Short Cuts," Teddy's cigarette addiction in "No Smoking" and Rico's marijuana addiction in "High Hoops".
* CreatorCameo: Executive producer Peter Engel guest stars as the NBA commissioner in Michael's dream sequence set at the NBA Draft in season three's "Playin' with Pain".
* CreditCardPlot: "Easy Credit" from season four. Silk overcharges his, causing him, Hammer and Rico to try and raffle off a TV set to recoup the money to pay off the bill. On the way to get the set repaired after a jock breaks it while chasing another student, the team van the guys took breaks down, later resulting in Coach Katowinski stepping in to pay the mechanic the $114.75 after the card is declined.
* CuteBruiser: Julie is very athletic and can defend the ball like it's nobody's business. This serves as a plot point in season six's "The Enforcer," in which she causes a player on a rival team to get injured while slapping the ball away from him in mid-air, and becomes filled with guilt over it that it causes problems with her defense. In "Fake ID-ology," she even punches out a guy who hit Josh during a Curb-StompBattle, and is the only one of her friends to get involved in the fight not to get their butt kicked – unlike the guys.
** GirlyBruiser: Mary Beth is very much feminine, but a mugger would be wise to stay away from her as she can kick serious butt, as shown in a scene in "Assault and Pepper Spray" illustrates. In it, she, Kristy and Julie attend a self-defense class after Kristy gets mugged; when Kristy fails to disarm the class' defense dummy, sumo suit-clad Silk, during a lesson on what to do when one gets attacked by a mugger, Mary Beth steps in and proceeds to wallop him ("get her off me, I'm too pretty to die!"). She also has some, as class instructor Officer Keller notes, "twisted but interesting" ideas for defending yourself in case a mugger attacks you.
-->'''Officer Keller:''' "What's the best way to deal with a mugger?"
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Kick him in the cocoa puffs!"
-->'''Officer Keller:''' "Well, that's one way."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Or-- or use-- use one of those shocker things! No, no, no, no, no, ''rip'' out his eyeballs and fill his sockets up with pepper spray! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, a swift blow to the head with a convenient mallet!"
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Vince makes a bad first impression on Mary Beth's father in "Son-in-Law," by accidentally running over his foot and destroying a model of a planned wing of the mall. To get her dad's attention, she pretends Vince is her boyfriend; Vince finds out he's being used and dresses like a punk at a fancy restaurant in front of her and her parents, and acts boorish to teach her a lesson. Mary Beth and her dad come to an understanding and try to build their relationship, then she apologizes to Vince, which also begins their relationship.. a real one.
* DawsonCasting:
** Varies among the cast members (some were played by teens, others were played by actors around at least college age); the least believeable of the actors playing teenagers was Kevin Bell (who played Josh in season two), who clearly looked like he was in his mid-20s.
** Tracy, Teddy's love interest in "The Sure Thing" and "Green-Eyed Julie," is supposed to be a Deering student but her portrayer, Susan Patterson, was clearly in her early 20s.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Given that the majority of the characters get more than one plotline per season and have plots evenly distributed between them, the only one that sticks out is "Style Before Substance," the only season two episode in which the otherwise SatelliteCharacter Amy gets a storyline – an "A" plot nonetheless.
* DeadpanSnarker: Danny has his moments.
* DenserAndWackier: ''Hang Time'' was more of a mundane teen sitcom in its first season, then the season two retool happened, and wackier plotlines and physical comedy were added OnceAnEpisode. Granted, there was as many more realistic down-to-earth plotlines during the remainder of the series as there were comic relief ones.
* DeathGlare: Both coaches give one at times towards the other players.
* DelayedReaction:
** In "Style Before Substance," before a roller hockey game with a booth spot at The Stadium as the prize[[note]]which gets off to a rocky start as everyone fell on the gym floor, and Coach Fuller then interrupts the game[[/note]], Danny tries to explain himself when the [[DumbJock Dumb]] JerkJock football players don't get his trash talking example:
-->'''Danny:''' "Well, you better be good at puzzles, because we're gonna tear you to pieces! (beat) You're gonna have to be good at puzzles because when we tear you to pieces, you're gonna have to put yourselves back together again. (beat) Kinda like ''Humpty Dumpty''?"
-->'''Players''' (finally understanding): "Ohhhh, yeah! Oooh!"
** In "Fuller's Camp," Vince invokes this when he discovers that 12-year-old camper Todd is the one who's been writing poems to Mary Beth (in the first one, Todd's letter spoke of taking her to his "castle of eternal love"):
-->'''Todd''' (while writing the letter): "I think of you all the time, Mary Beth. So, please be mine."
-->'''Vince:''' "Good one. (Todd leaves) (beat) Hey, that's the kid that lives in the castle!"
** Mary Beth invokes this in "Window of Opportunity," as she, Julie and Kristy are asked by Silk, Hammer and Michael if they had seen Rico – whom the guys hadn't seen since they and Coach Katowinski were released from jail (see PrisonEpisode) – and realize that Rico's still locked up:
-->'''Silk:''' "Hey, uh, have you guys seen Rico?"
-->'''Michael:''' "We've been looking for him for hours."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Where's the last time you saw him?"
-->'''Hammer:''' "In jail with us."
-->'''Julie:''' "You guys were in jail?"
-->'''Hammer:''' "Yeah, but we got out."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Oh, cool. (beat) What?!"
* DidISayThatOutLoud: In "A Whole New Ballgame," Mary Beth realizes she should move on from her breakup with Vince as a single girl, when Kristy inadvertently puts the microphone too close to her mouth during a timeout in the game:
-->'''Kristy:''' "Mary Beth, shout it out. You're dateless and havin' fun!"
-->'''Mary Beth''' (over the microphone): "I'm dateless and havin' fun! (everyone turns toward her and stares) (sheepishly claps): Go, Deering!"
* DinnerWithTheBoss: One-off character Leslie, Coach Fuller's ex-fiancee, becomes the school's vice principal in "First Game of the Season". Julie, Teddy, Vince and Danny don't find this out until they see the two at The Stadium.
* DisappearedDad:
** Teddy's father left his mother when he was little in order to pursue his dreams as a basketball star, the two are reunited in "Superman Brodis".
** In "Kristy's Other Mother," Kristy's biological father is explained to have died shortly after she was born, which – coupled with the fact she was barely an adult at the time – was the reason why her biological mom gave her up for adoption.
* Disguised in Drag / AttractiveBentGender: The latter is averted in "The Curfew," but the former is invoked in both that episode (both ways with Julie and the guys) and in "Finals Fury" (in reverse with Mary Beth and Kristy). In the first of the two episodes, Julie, Michael, Teddy, Danny and Vince dress up in drag (with Julie being dressed as a man) in an attempt to get out of a fraternity party on the night before the state tournament without Coach Fuller seeing them, since they're supposed to be at their hotel room before curfew. Vince is a little embarrassed, pointing out he looks like his mom dressed up as a woman, leading to this hilarious exchange:
-->'''Vince:''' "I look like my mother."
-->'''Michael:''' "I feel sorry for your father."
* DoppelgangerDating: Danny takes a girl named Veronica to a school dance, who Josh points out looks like his girlfriend Sam (down to the curly red hair, and as Danny points out "the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the height, the weight and she even manages a basketball team") in the season two episode "Harvest Moon". Danny attempts to save face by explaining one way Veronica is different from Sam:
-->'''Danny:''' "But, she has a ring. Sam never wore jewelry."
Danny later makes the mistake of calling Veronica, Sam, while asking her to take her hair down, causing her to get fed up and leave.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: The show's title, ''Hang Time'', is taken from a sports term (more commonly associated with football, but appliable to basketball as well) for the length of time that a ball spends in the air, however it can be interpreted as "the time one spends hanging out with friends".
* DoubleStandard: In "Team Captain," Vince gets Mary Beth to do his bidding to make up for the fact that she kissed another guy while at space camp over the summer. It turns out Vince had kissed another girl himself (which Mary Beth finds out about), leading to some SuspiciouslySpecificDenial when he sees her again at the movie theater:
--->'''Vince:''' "I'm not Vince! I've never seen you before in my whole life. Now, leave me alone Linda Sue Robinson!".
* DreamSequence: Several throughout the second, third and fourth seasons. One of these was an...
** AffectionateParody: Of fellow NBC series ''Series/Seinfeld'' in "The Laugh Riot," with Danny as Jerry, Vince as George, Mary Beth as Elaine, Coach Fuller as Kramer and Teddy as Newman. The dream even begins and ends with a bassline a la ''Seinfeld's'' theme and intersitial music.
* DressesTheSame: Julie, Kristy and Mary Beth wear the same dress to the school prom in "A Night to Remember".
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Novice driver Kristy in "Julie's Guy," who tells Teddy that she has gotten into accidents during her driving lessons. When he volunteers to teach her how to drive in the gym using a golf cart, Kristy accidentally backs into a cardboard cutout of a mom carrying a baby stroller. When Teddy decides to have Kristy practice on the road one night, Danny, Michael and Vince burst into the backseat and ask her to tail a car carrying Julie and Jason Redmond (a player on a rival team she's on a date with), causing a harried Kristy to speed and make very hard turns; after she slams the brakes when they reach a red light, Teddy – happy that he's still ''alive'' after the debacle – passes out.
* DrivingTest: Teddy volunteered to be Kristy's driving instructor in "Julie's Guy". He was lucky to be alive, see DrivesLikeCrazy for further explanation.
* DumbBlonde / GeniusDitz: Vince's date in "Harvest Moon," also a bit of a klutz considering she got her hair caught in the car door when they arrived at the dance. However, she does know what the area of a circle is, but confuses pi with pie.
* DumbJock: Invoked in the "B" plot of "Style Before Substance," Josh manages to trick a group of football JerkJock{{s}} that the Deering basketball team is arguing over their booth with at The Stadium into believing that Troy Aikman is signing autographs at the mall... twice! Before that happens the first time, Danny tries to explain the meaning of "basement" as a euphemism for "the lowest point" or "losing" to one of the football players, who uses the wrong term:
-->'''Willie:''' "You chumps will be lucky to get out of the attic."
-->'''Danny:''' "You meant the basement, right?"
-->'''Willie''': "What?"
-->'''Danny:''' "The basement? You meant "get out of the basement." (using hand gestures): You see, the basement is down here and the attic is way up here. Am I going too fast?"
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first season feels like a subtly different show, compared to the last five. That season, The Sport Shack was an occasionally seen hangout and the teen characters were also seen hanging out together in an outdoor cafeteria at the school in certain scenes, both of which were dropped in the retool. There wasn't the dynamic of the coach, Julie and one of the male players being more sane than the others as everyone was pretty down-to-earth... except maybe Mary Beth, who had character traits that put her somewhere between the LovableAlphaBitch and just the AlphaBitch. Coach Fuller didn't have a Hair-TriggerTemper. Danny was more of an {{Adorkable}} type than the snarker. The humor was also fully down-to-earth and more staid, compared to the wacky and very special episode plots that later seasons incorporated, making it mesh differently from the rest of the TNBC lineup.
* EdutainmentShow: Only in technicality, but it incorporates life lessons, so NBC figured that it counts, brandishing an E/I logo at the top of each episode during its run.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Chris ''Leslie'' Atwater. Really?
* EnsembleCast
* EnterStageWindow: Michael does this to talk to Julie about his father's argument over his grades in "Rocky Road to the Playoffs," and ends up being hit in the stomach by a basketball thrown by Julie, who mistook him for an intruder. Silk and Hammer do this as well a minute later, but they stop Julie and Michael before they could get hit.
* EstablishingShot: One for Deering High, one for the mall where The Sport Shack and The Stadium are located and several others for other settings that the episode dictates to be part of the storyline.
* EstrangedSoapFamily: Very few of the characters' parents appear on the show; the only ones that are seen are Michael's father in "Rocky Road to the Playoffs," Kristy's adopted parents in "Extreme Eugene" and her biological mother in "Kristy's Other Mother," and Teddy's long-lost father in "Superman Brodis". In the series finale "Graduation on Three," when the gang graduates, we never see them.
* {{Expy}}: Kristy is essentially that of [[SavedByTheBell Kelly Kapowski]], if slightly skewed to account for the fact that she (unlike Kelly) experiences general mishaps. The two also are really bad at a particular thing (for Kelly, it's singing, though that was later retconned; for Kristy, it's basketball).
* ExpositoryThemeSong: The tune very finely summarizes the meaning of the show, teamwork and dedication to work on your dreams and the friendships forged while being part of a team. The original theme song from season one is reminiscent of a Miller-Boyett sitcom theme song; the theme used for the last five seasons is a more catchy, rock-fueled tune.
* FailedASpotCheck:
** In "The Laugh Riot," the gang is at a ski resort in Aspen, where Vince failed to notice something that could have saved him time climbing up the hill:
-->'''Vince:''' "It's tiring. It takes me four hours just to climb up the hill."
-->'''Julie:''': "Why didn't you take the chair lift?"
-->'''Vince''': "The what?"
-->'''Danny:''': "Didn't you wonder where those people were going on the moving chairs?"
-->'''Vince''': "No."
** In "Assault and Pepper Spray," Silk surprises Coach Katowinski with a medal that he had bronzed, not realizing that it was a gold medal... that Coach K won for coaching the Olympic "Dream Team".
** Similarly in "Winning Isn't Everything," Mary Beth has Coach Fuller's "Dream Team" basketball cleaned while redecorating his office, not realizing it was autographed.
* FieryRedhead: Subverted with Sam. Usually averted with Kristy, although this side does come out at certain times and not really until later in the series, Mary Beth even points out how she's evolved into this in season five's "That '60s Show".
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Kristy is established partway through the third season as studying to eventually become a nurse. This serves as a plot point in the apropos titled "Kristy Nightingale," when her friends try to convince her not to quit her dream when she fails to perform proper procedure in treating Rico's bumblebee sting, not knowing that he's allergic to beestings; her friends pretend to have ailments in order to help change her mind, though she later finds out about the plan. When she treats Michael's arm after it is fractured when a tree branch falls during a storm, her worries about being a good enough nurse are alleviated.
* FoodFight: Danny, Vince, Julie and Teddy have one in the cooking class that Coach Fuller is substituting at in "The Perfect Girl", with Fuller getting caught in the crossfire while they are tossing around eggs.
* FromBadToWorse: In the second season finale "The Best Game of the Season," Mary Beth causes several screw-ups. The episode opens with her having gotten herself dunked in the goal while trying to clean it; she later decides to clean the scoreboard... ''with soap and water!''... causing it to short out. After Coach Fuller warns her that she is on thin ice as team manager, she gets Vince to by a buffer to buff the gym floor, but ends up kissing him after he speaks an Italian phrase, causing him to sand a hole in the gym floor and realize too late he got a power ''sander'' (luckily, her father agrees to pay for a new floor and Mary Beth manages to keep her job on the basis that she not touch anything).
* {{Gasshole}}: The cow that Vince's Uncle Toomsey delivers in "Kristy Connor". When the guys hide it in their cabin one night, Teddy got the brunt of it.
* GamerChick: Kristy in the B plot of the season three episode "Teen Mom". She becomes addicted to an arcade game at The Stadium called ''Klown Kombat''; so much so, that she misses a cover photoshoot for a sports magazine that Julie booked for her, Kristy and Mary Beth to appear, which Julie manages to have rescheduled.
* GameShowAppearance:
** Teddy, Danny, Michael and Vince appear on the dating game show ''Catch of the Day'' in "Kristy's Other Mother," to win "a jet ski and other fabulous prizes". Vince ends up matched with one of the contestants, which nearly ruins things with his relationship with Mary Beth when she meets his date. Though, she forgives him when she finds out why he went on the show, thinking he won the prizes for her!
** A DreamSequence version occurred in "Restless Mary Beth," in which Mary Beth and Kristy "appear" as contestants on ''Set Your Priorities," an in-dream game show relating to the plot of Mary Beth's issues trying to balance multiple extracurricular activities in order to improve her chances of getting into California University[[note]]As in the one from ''Saved by the Bell: The College Years''[[/note]].
* GenderEqualEnsemble: Averted. Only three girls (including the actors playing Mary Beth and Julie) are part of the main cast at any point during the series, the other five are always male.
* GeneHunting: In "Kristy's Other Mother", HappilyAdopted Kristy is given the phone number for her biological mom by her adopted mom. Julie and Mary Beth are surprised to find out that she is adopted, and try to help her through it. While in Los Angeles, she proceeds to track down her real mother, whom meets her at a restaurant, where they get along very well. Kristy turns down an offer, after much consideration, by her bio mom to move to L.A. in order for her to get to know the daughter she gave up at age 18.[[note]]It's later revealed in "Tolerance" two seasons later, that Kristy learned she was adopted when she was 10.[[/note]]
* GenkiGirl: SamMorgan.
Morgan. Amy Wright. Kristy Ford.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In "Earl Makes the Grade," Earl is in the gym with an attractive classmate[[note]]who is pretending to be interested in him, just so he gets too distracted to pass a test that could keep him on the team[[/note]], when she ends up kissing him. Earl then asks her, "did I just get to first base?"
* GirlOrGuyOfTheWeek: Almost every main character has had at least one of these, with Amy being the lone exception.
* GothGirl: One-time character Syd in "Tolerance". Kristy is partnered with her on a biology project, and while working on it at a goth club called The Morgue (where Kristy comes dressed in a cheerleader uniform after coming from practice), learns that Syd became a grote (the episode's reference to goths) because it was the only group of people who didn't reject her. Kristy becomes friends with Syd, derides Mary Beth and Julie for demeaning them, and even starts briefly dressing like a grote[[note]]although the next scene shows that the black hair is a wig and the piercings are fake[[/note]]. Kristy and Syd both get beaten up by a couple of JerkJocks. The episode ends with AnAesop drop with Mary Beth acknowledging that being intolerant of goths is no different than discriminating any other class of people, with her and Julie apologizing to Kristy.
* GoshDangItToHeck!: Averted, sorta. In the season one episode "Let's Get Ready to Rumble," Mary Beth scolds Chris for calling a judge's wife (who graduated from Derring the year before) "bitchin'" while attending a country club function. For a Saturday morning teen comedy, that is a bit jarring, considering other TNBC sitcoms played this trope pretty straight. Other than that, earlier seasons had featured minor utterings of "god," though from season three onward, these were replaced by "gosh".
* GrandFinale: "Graduation on Three", involving the show's main characters graduating from high school and their struggles (moreso Kristy, who takes the changes their experiencing the hardest) in dealing with moving onto college.
* Green-EyedMonster: In a season two episode aptly titled "Green-Eyed Julie," Julie feels threatened by Nicole, a new employee at The Stadium, who has a crush on her boyfriend Josh – the result of having been cheated on by her last boyfriend, Chris. Josh tries to set up Nicole with Danny, but she's not interested in him. When Josh tries to tell Nicole he doesn't like her that way, she kisses him and is caught by Julie, who breaks up with her at the school's '70s dance. She ends up regretting it when Danny informs her that Nicole kissed Josh, who pushed her off, and apologizes.
* GratuitousSpanish: "Texas Rose" has Antonio doing this during his first meeting with Kristy[[note]]Kristy assumes he only speaks Spanish when she sees Antonio talking to a guy friend in the language, he just doesn't tell her that he's a bilingual American, which backfires on Antonio later in the episode[[/note]]; although Kristy is far from fluent as evidenced by the fact she asks him if he's "ever sat on a cactus in Texas," tells him to "lick a cow" during a goodbye greeting, and resorts to using hand gestures and TranslationByVolume to ask him out to dinner because she doesn't know how to do it in Spanish. Needless to say, Julie and Mary Beth are embarrassed... for Kristy and themselves.
* Hair-TriggerTemper + AngryBlackMan: It's not until season two that Coach Fuller's temper becomes a character trait. His BerserkButton{{(s)}}: the kids doing something boneheaded and anyone scuffing or damaging the gym floor (Cedric Ceballos found that out the hard way in "Harvest Moon" and was forced to clean the marks his shoes made).
* HatesBeingTouched: Coach Katowinski often stops his players from hugging him or lets out an "aw, jeez" in disdain when they do.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mary Beth and Kristy.
* HeyItsThatGuy!:
** Anthony Anderson played main character Teddy Brodis for two seasons.
** Hillary Tuck played Sam Morgan, two years before playing Amy Szalinski in ''HoneyIShrunkTheKidsTheTVShow''.
** Jay Hernandez, Antonio Lopez during the last three seasons, played KirstenDunst's love interest in ''Crazy/Beautiful''.
** A pre-''AmericanPie'' Shannon Elizabeth guest starred as Nicole, Josh's co-worker at The Stadium, in the season two episode "Green-Eyed Julie".
** In the above-mentioned episode, Nicole introduces Danny to her friend Kim, played by [[Series/Psych Juliet O'Hara]] herself, Maggie Lawson.
** Scott Whyte (Chris Anderson from fellow TNBC show ''CityGuys'') played a superficial boy that Kristy liked in the season three episode "Fighting Words".
** Mark Walberg (the host of ''AntiquesRoadshow'', not the [[MarkWahlberg actor]]) played sports commentator Chick Storm in "Fuller's Rival" and "That '60s Show".
** Bree Turner (later of ''[[Series/Grimm Grimm]]'') plays Rico's taller girlfriend Gail and [[Series/HouseOfCards Constance Zimmer]] plays Rico's cousin Lisa (whom he has pretend to be Gail) in "The Tall and the Short of It".
* HighSchool
* HighSchoolDance: Several episodes have one, usually resulting in some bungle. The dance in the season four episode "Love Triangle" is actually punnily called the "Basket Ball".
* HighSchoolSweethearts: Julie and Michael, even though they are an on-again/off-again couple. Kristy and Antonio qualify too, although they spend the first few months of their relationship as a long-distance couple until the start of season five.
* HintDropping: Kristy does this to Michael, Julie and Mary Beth in "Assault and Pepper Spray," regarding her birthday presents.
* HollywoodDateless: Mostly averted, as the vast majority of the lead actors are decent looking to gorgeous, and their characters are fairly popular at the school. There are a couple of odd examples, though. Amy is never given a love interest (at least, one who likes her back and she can date legally)[[note]]She develops a crush on a crooked mayoral candidate in "Style Before Substance," with whom she works as a campaign manager.[[/note]] during her run in the second season. Kristy is not given a long-term love interest until Antonio is introduced halfway through season four, although she is seen dating a couple of times before then, even ending up on the losing end of a love triangle with Hammer and Mary Beth in the aptly titled "Love Triangle".
* HollywoodNerd: Kristy is a plain-clothes version of this, essentially falling into a Type 2.
* HormoneAddledTeenager: This is a high school sitcom. So, yeah.
* HurricaneOfPuns:
** Julie, Vince and Michael each make jokes to Kristy after Mary Beth blabs to them that she got her fingers stuck in a Dan Quayle-autographed bowling ball in "Fuller's Big Offer":
-->'''Julie:''' "So, Kristy, how was bowling?"
-->'''Michael:''' "I heard you had a real ball."
-->'''Vince:''' "I heard you're really stuck on the game."
** Mary Beth and Julie rattle off a series of bad butt puns in "Shoot Out," as they try to remove cactus needles from Kristy after she accidentally sat on one that Antonio planned to give her as forgiveness for lying to her about being from Mexico and not speaking any English based on an assumption.
-->'''Kristy:''' "If you don't mind, I don't want to hear another thing about Antonio."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Fine! You got it."
-->'''Julie:''' "Yep, we're butting out."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "But, we really think you should turn the other cheek."
-->'''Julie:''' "Yeah, you should just put it behind ya."
-->'''Kristy:''' "It's not funny! (Julie plucks a needle out of Kristy's butt) Ow! Okay, it is."
* HustlingTheMark: A twist in "The Hustlers" from season three, which has Julie and Teddy being roped into playing two-on-two pickup games for quick cash. When they lose their money and realize they were hustled, Julie and Danny decide to win their money back and enlist Michael to join them to beat the guys who hustled them out of their money to another game. After Michael sprains his wrist, Coach Fuller finds out what's going on and brings in Kobe Bryant to help school the hustlers at their own game.
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: Said by Danny after he gets the chance to say "objection" in "War of the Roses".
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: All InUniverse examples:
** NBA player Cedric Ceballos was introduced as this for Coach Fuller in "Harvest Moon," although that changed when he scuffed up the gym floor.
** Tom in "Sexual Harrassment," a former classmate of Vince's who helped the latter with basketball while Tom was a player... and abuses his power as manager at The Stadium by making moves on Vince's girlfriend Mary Beth.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: Dustin Diamond appeared as [[SavedByTheBell Screech]] in the season four episode "The Hustlers". Diamond appears again in "At the Movies" two seasons later, using the same high-pitched voice that he began using for his character when he joined ''Saved by the Bell: The New Class," claiming that his real voice is much higher[[note]]Anyone who watched ''Saved by the Bell'' or its ''College Years'' spinoff knows that Diamond originally used a voice closer in pitch to his own, just affecting it with some cracking[[/note]]. The latter appearance retcons "Goodnight, Vince" and "Phenom Blues," which indicate that ''Saved by the Bell'' exists as a TV show within the ''Hang Time'' universe.[[note]]In addition, his appearance in "At the Movies" is the InUniverse result of Kristy's idea to premiere ''Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas'' at the theater she and Antonio are working at, however that film debuted as a TV movie on NBC in 1994, six years before the episode aired.[[/note]]
* InSeriesNickname: Kenny Hayes (played by Danso Gordon in seasons four through six) prefers to be known by his nickname "Silk," because he's "smooth on the court, and even smoother off the court... with the ladies."
* InvisibleSubtleDifference: In "War of the Roses," the guys discover that the locker room has been painted pink. Danny thinks it's actually rose and Teddy thinks it may be salmon. Vince insists it's pink. However, Amy, during a student court case between Danny and Mary Beth, agrees with Teddy.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mary Beth can say and do some pretty dumb things at times, and is shown early on to be shallow and a little self-centered, but she does care about her friends, especially Kristy and Julie. Her negative aspects are toned down as the series goes on.
* JumpingOutOfACake: Teddy did this to surprise Coach Fuller with a pineapple-upside down cake baked as a group cooking class project with Danny, Julie, Michael and Vince in "The Perfect Girl". The coach is impressed by how good it tastes, even though most of it didn't get into his mouth as Teddy tripped and accidentally smashed it in his face.
* TheKlutz:
** Vince develops this trait as season two goes on, which helps advance the plot of "Son-in-Law" as his klutziness makes a bad impression on Mary Beth's dad. In "Green-Eyed Julie," Vince tries to practice dancing with Mary Beth in preparation for the school's disco dance, and nearly injures her on the spins.
** When Eugene is introduced in the season five premiere, he proceeds to fall twice on the court while trying to show Katowinski his agility as an athlete, while trying to convince the coach to put Eugene on the team. It just the first of several blunders with gravity or... everything else involving Eugene.
** The Tornados, as a whole, have had klutzy moments. Most notably, "Style Before Substance" (the starters of the basketball and football teams all fall on the gym floor, sticks in hand, as they start a roller hockey game for a booth at The Stadium), "Just One of the Guys" (Teddy falls on Danny and Vince during their apology cheer to Mary Beth and Amy, the result of the heaviest of the three forming the top of the pyramid) and the opening scene of "Team Captain" (which has them all collapse during a group chest bump).
* {{Landlord}}: Coach Katowinski became this when Kristy convinced him to allow Antonio to move into a house that Coach K owned in "Beer Pressure".
* LargeHam: Teddy and Silk have their moments.
* LastNameBasis / FirstNameBasis: Most of the characters call Nick by his last name, Hammer. The only main characters to have called him "Nick" on at least an alternating basis are Coach Katowinski and Mary Beth.
* LaughTrack: Used moreso in season one; episodes from season two onward used it periodically in scenes, often for pre-taped sequences not filmed in front of a live audience.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Also Like Godfather, Like Godson, Teddy is a basketball player just as his biological father Theodore Brodis, Sr. and his godfather Bill Fuller were.
* LimitedSocialCircle: The show's social circle originally consisted of Julie, Mary Beth, four other players (Chris, Michael, Earl and Danny) and team manager Sam. This was altered slightly beginning in the second season after the show introduced other players to the team and Mary Beth became the new team manager, with the new head cheerleader, Amy, joining them. Every other character added afterward (including Michael Manning, Kristy, Silk, etc.) joined this group with Julie and Mary Beth as the only constants.
* Line-of-SightName: When asking Teddy if he thinks she's feminine for a "project" for an "image identity" class, Julie comes up with the name of a fake teacher this way – Mr. Spalding (referring to the sporting goods manufacturer) – by looking at the basketball she's holding.
* LittleBoySeeksBigGirl: Todd, one of the kids at the basketball camp, towards Mary Beth in "Fuller's Camp" (weirdly, Vince actually sees Todd – a 12-year-old! – as a threat, even though he acknowledges the kid clearly doesn't have a legitimate shot with her). After Mary Beth lets him down gently, Todd moves on to Kristy when he sees her, much to Mary Beth's relief... but informs him to back off if Kristy tells him that she's not interested.
* LocalHangout: The two seen in the show are pretty appropriate for a show centered around sports. The Sport Shack, a sporting goods store (which Mary Beth's father buys in "The Sweat Shack"), serves as the hangout during season one. The Stadium, a sports-themed restaurant in the same mall, replaced it in the second season.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In six seasons, a total of twenty different main characters appeared in the show's opening credits (though not all at the same time obviously). Only Megan Parlen (Mary Beth) and Daniella Deutscher (Julie) appear in the opening titles for all six seasons.
* LockedInARoom: In the season one episode "Stranded," Coach Fuller, Chris, Michael, Julie, Mary Beth, Earl, Danny and Sam are stuck in the school gym during a major blizzard, which ends up knocking out the power.
* LovableAlphaBitch: Mary Beth. She's popular, but never particularly mean to any of the characters, other than ribbing Kristy about her clothes and at least once, her thick curly hair. Shades of this as well as those of the plucky comic relief Mary Beth of later seasons are visible early on, but whatever negative traits there were gradually eroded beginning as early as halfway through season one onward to the third season.
* LovableJock: The majority of the characters on the Deering team, among them FunnyGuy Danny, BookDumb Vince and Rico and BigGuy Teddy.
* LoveTriangle:
** Chris, Mary Beth and Julie in season one. Mary Beth realizes she wants to get back together with Chris in "Poetic Justice," only for Julie to decide to go public with her relationship with him. Mary Beth acts as if she's fine with it, but Earl convinces her to get out her frustrations on paper, in a scathing poem she performs in front of her friends at a coffee shop's poetry night. After the triangle is revisited in the first season finale "Game Day," it becomes an AbortedArc as Chris was written out in the {{Retool}} under the guise of having gone to college,[[note]]See Green-Eyed Monster for the real reason.[[/note]] with he and Julie having broken up over the summer.
** There actually was an apropos season four episode titled "Love Triangle," in which TheMatchmaker Mary Beth takes up said role for Kristy, but things get screwed up when Hammer becomes interested in Mary Beth instead, causing a brief rift between the girls.
* {{Malaproper}}: Vince has a tendency to do this at times. This leads Mary Beth to realize he was the one who wrote a letter to her in "War of the Roses" about the newly pink locker room, signing it as "unanimous" instead of "anonymous." In "Fake ID-ology," Danny purposely does this with "impulsively" (rewording it as "impuntively") when Vince doesn't get what Coach Fuller meant when he used the correct word.
* MeaningfulTitle: The season four premiere "A Whole New Ballgame," which features major changes to the team's starting lineup with the additions of Rico, Silk and Hammer (replacing Teddy, Danny and Vince), along with Mike Katowinski's introduction as the new coach.
* MistakenForCheating: Antonio in "Extreme Eugene". He has a run-in with Kristy's parents when they park their car in a parking space he wanted. Mary Beth then arranges for Eugene to pretend to be Antonio, whom Kristy was supposed to introduce to her parents. A couple of days later, Mr. and Mrs. Ford see Eugene at the mall with his GirlOfTheWeek and tell Julie after they run into her; Julie later informs Kristy about it at the insistence of Mr. and Mrs. Ford. Antonio clears things up during a game break; Mr. and Mrs. Ford then see Kristy kissing the real Antonio, whom she properly introduces. As smart as Kristy is, it's odd she didn't connect the dots that her parents saw Eugene and not the real Antonio.
* {{Montages}}: During most episodes, usually involving the basketball game being played in that episode.
** TrainingMontage: One occurs during the guys' martial arts lessons in "Fighting Words".
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: A variant in "Teen Mom," when Danny introduces his GirlOfTheWeek Sarah to Teddy, Michael and Vince when they come to the same movie theater:
--->'''Danny:''' "That's, uh, (pointing to Teddy) dumb (pointing to Michael), dumber (pointing to Vince) and Vince."
* NewJobEpisode: Three, two of which involve Mary Beth:
** Mary Beth gets a power trip when she becomes the manager of The Sports Shack in "The Sweat Shack". Also leads to SoundtrackDissonance, when the employees, led by Sam, go on strike when their strike chant is set to a conga tune.
** "Sexual Harrassment" counts as this, although it mainly centers around Mary Beth's boss' advances toward her.
** Season six's "At the Movies" has Kristy and Antonio both getting jobs at a movie theater, technically is part of a work study assignment, but it leads to problems when Kristy is promoted to assistant manager over Antonio.
* MoodWhiplash: Particularly noticeable in the more serious episodes in which a comic scene is injected between the serious scenes.
* NewTransferStudent:
** Julie transferred to Deering after moving from Chicago in the pilot episode, so she's not any newer to the audience than the rest of the characters. Mary Beth considered Julie to be a threat in a few first season episodes, to her popularity and for the affections of original boyfriend Chris Atwater, before evolving into her friend.
** Michael Manning was introduced as a transfer student in season three, which becomes a plot point in "The First Game of the Season," as Deering plays against Michael's former school, Lynwood High.
** Antonio Lopez becomes one in season five, which removes the [[LongDistanceRelationship long distance]] part of his relationship with Kristy.
* TheNineties: Cultural references of the decade aren't rampant but they pop up from time to time, although stylistically there are lots of '90s influences throughout the show's run, most apparent in the first three seasons.
* NoIndoorVoice: After Kristy is locked in the trunk of the autoshop teacher's car in "High Hoops," she shouts (obliviously) when speaking to Mr. Parker when they get back to the school on account of being temporarily deafened from the blaring stereo he turned on while she was inside.
-->'''Kristy:''' "Thanks for getting me out of the trunk, Mr. Parker!"
-->'''Mr. Parker:''' "Sorry about the loud stereo."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Oh, that's OK! Thank goodness you had a flat tire or else I'd still be locked in there!"
-->'''Mr. Parker:''' "You don't have to shout."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Who's shouting?!"
* Non-ActorVehicle: Though the teens are the primary characters, the show is this for ex-athletes Reggie Theus and later, Dick Butkus.
* OfficialCouple: Julie, being the lead, and her boyfriends during the series' run: Chris (in late season one), Josh (season two) and Michael (off-and-on from late season three through season six). Mary Beth was originally this with Chris during the first two-thirds of season one, before they broke up in "Let's Get Ready to Rumble".
* OhCrap: In "Phenom Blues," Rico, Silk, Michael and Hammer are stuck on an amusement ride similar to a skilift pod that starts to fall, after they decide to bail on a tournament game out of fear they will lose because to the other team, who was a ''very'' agressive player. The two end up getting rescued by helicopter and Michael manages to grab hold of the ladder to get them to safety.
* OneHeadTaller:
** Original character Earl Hatfield (and by association, Robert Michael Ryan) is the tallest of any of the teen charaters in the series, and is at least half a foot taller than the other season one cast members.
** On the other end, the reverse case is occasionally referenced with Rico during season four, in that every other player is taller than him. When he is introduced in the fourth season premiere "A Whole New Ballgame," he claims that he is 'just under 6'5"'. In "High Hoops" from that same season, Silk hilariously notes this when trying to explain the dangers of smoking marijuana to Rico:
-->'''Julie:''' "You'll get kicked out of school."
-->'''Silk:''' "Not to mention it'll stunt your growth... more."
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. The series had three characters named Michael, Michael Maxwell in season one, Michael Manning (played by Adam Frost) during seasons three through six and Mike Katowinski (played by Dick Butkus) in seasons four through six. As illustrated, the latter two characters' runs overlapped.
* TheOtherDarrin: Mary Beth's parents are first played in "Son-in-Law" by John H. Brennan and Lucy Butler; the following season in "Mary Beth's Parents," they are played by Michael Bryan French and Cristina Raines.
* PainPoweredLeap: In the season five episode "My Family," Antonio and Michael (along with several other people) are zapped by defective pagers sold to them by Silk and Eugene in a GetRichQuickScheme, causing both guys to do this.
* ParentalIssues: Mary Beth has some when her parents divorce in season three's "Mary Beth's Parents," while Michael butts heads with his father over grades in "Rocky Road to the Playoffs".
* PerformanceAnxiety: In "Son-in-Law," the Tornados get an extreme bundle of nerves in the days before a game against one of their biggest rivals, Remington High.
* PieInTheFace:
** During a championship dinner in "Fuller's Rival," Fuller's former basketball rival B.B. Bynes (who coached the team that Deering lost to in part because of Fuller's and Michael's actions during the game) asks him to push a pie in his face, knowing he doesn't have the guts to do it. Fuller decides against it out of good sportsmanship, but that doesn't stop Vince from giving it a good smash.
** In "The Perfect Girl," Coach Fuller accidentally gets a pineapple upside-down cake in the face.
** In "Finals Fury," Kristy gets two of these when she and Mary Beth, while in drag, infiltrate a fraternity orientation to spy on Antonio.
* PracticalJoke: Julie and Danny get into a prank war in "Earl Makes the Grade," after Danny put shaving cream in Julie's shoes just before the events of the episode. They call a truce towards the end of the episode, but Danny gets one last prank in by putting a "desprate for a date" sign on Julie's back.
** In "First Game of the Season," at Mary Beth's insistence that she come up with a revenge prank after some students from Lynwood High put ping-pong balls in the lockers at Deering, Kristy steals Lynwood's dog mascot Butch. She and Mary Beth search for Butch throughout the school when he gets loose (leading to a funny but brief sequence in which the dog ends up with a hat from each class he left from), before they spot him. They later learn that the dog is actually Buzz, the Lynwood principal's dog, and there's a $500 reward for its return.
* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Coach Fuller put down some ground rules for Julie, Teddy, Danny and Vince in taking care of his car while he's out of town in season three's "Coach Fuller's Car"; the foursome tries to find the episode's titular car after they decide to leave it at a fraternity when they drink punch unknowingly spiked with vodka and it gets stolen the next day.
* PrisonEpisode: "Window of Opportunity" has Katowinski, Rico, Michael, Silk and Hammer end up jailed when they're mistaken for a wanted group of robbers dressed as Santa and his elves (like they are)... turns out they weren't the only ones mistakenly arrested for the crime spree. However, Rico is processed when he falls asleep in the cell as his friends and the coach are let go once the real criminals are thrown in the slammer.
* ProductPlacement: "Trouble in Paradise" and "Not a D'Amata" has the team members (as well as Vince's younger brother in the latter episode) attend an Indiana Pacers game, with the team's logo appearing on the stadium set.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: The only main cast member to fall under this trope was Jay Hernandez, who originated his role as Antonio Lopez in season four as a recurring character, and is upgraded to a full-time character in season five; all other cast members who joined the cast of ''Hang Time'' were newcomers to the show.
* PutMeInCoach!: Happens whenever a character is benched for something they did (such as with Teddy in "The Curfew"), the team is losing, and they want to help turn the tide.
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearlySaved ''Saved by the Bell Bell'' with basketball, as basketball; in fact, almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For were Recycled IN SPACE! versions of ''SBTB'' (for example, CaliforniaDreams ''CaliforniaDreams'' is Saved ''Saved By the Bell Bell'' WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!)
*SixStudentClique
RecycledPlot:
** Two episodes have secondary plots in which a character experiences bad luck from walking under a ladder more than once, "Game Day" (involving Michael Maxwell) and "No Smoking" (involving Kristy Connor).
** Part of the plot (technically its plot device) of "Midnight Basketball" is lifted from the "Teenline" episode of ''Saved by the Bell''.
*SpecialGuest: Famous ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Coach Fuller, and to some extent, Coach Katowinski.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Julie and Chris at the end of season one, Julie and Josh and Mary Beth and Vince in season two, and Julie and Michael in season three.
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** Vince D'Amata first appeared in the season two premiere "Winning Isn't Everything," however the character is established in that episode as having been part of the Tornados during the events of season one, albeit as an alternate who spent most of his time on the bench.
** New head cheerleader Kristy Ford is introduced similarly in the season three premiere "Team Captain," although moreso that the characters got along with her as if she had been there the whole time. Her sudden appearance is not explained at the beginning of the episode.
* RepeatWhatYouJustSaid:
** In "Fighting Words," Danny, Michael, Teddy and Vince don't realize they're supposed to be the "nothing"s in the following line:
--->'''Sensei:''' "I am Sensei, you are nothing. Repeat after me. (pointing to himself) Sensei! (pointing to the class) Nothing!"
--->'''Danny, Michael, Teddy and Vince:''' "(pointing to themselves) Sensei! (pointing to the sensei) Nothing!"
** From "At the Movies," when Kristy tries to discuss Antonio's issues with her being his boss at a movie theater and Dustin Diamond parrots everything:
--->'''Antonio:''' "Hey, Mr. Hollywood. You wanna stop hugging my girl?"[[explanation]]Dustin Diamond arrived at The Stadium as part of a plan to help Kristy make Antonio jealous.[[/explanation]]
--->'''Kristy:''' "Oh, so now I'm your girl?"
--->'''Dustin:''' "Oh, so now she's your girl?"
--->'''Kristy:''' "But when I'm your boss, I'm not your girl?"
--->'''Dustin:''' "But when she's your boss, she's not your girl?"
--->'''Kristy:''' "Is that how it works?"
--->'''Dustin:''' "Is that how it works?!"
--->'''Antonio and Kristy:''' "Enough!"
--->'''Dustin:''' "Enough!"
* {{Retool}}: ''Hang Time'' got retooled for its second season: Vince, Teddy and Josh join the Deering High Tornados, ushering in the revolving door casting that continued for the rest of the series. The show's humor becomes more akin to that of its TNBC stablemates, with the incorporation of some wackier plots. Also, the show abandoned the original theme song and credits sequence, in favor of a more rock-fueled ExpositoryThemeTune and the bouncing basketballstars, eventually Lisa Leslie.opening. All of these changes came under the appointment of Peter Engel as its showrunner.
* RevolvingDoorCasting: By the time ''Hang Time'' ended, Julie and Mary Beth were the only characters to have been there from the pilot. Granted, high school is four years (though the timeline's a little screwed up on account that the two original characters appeared all in six seasons, the fifth being split up into two 14 and 12-episode seasons, and technically should have been in college by season five), but many of the characters that left were never stated explicitly to be seniors; even so, all but of the few that were written out were mentioned to have gone to college, the others were Put on a Bus with only a brief explanation.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: A twofer from Josh to Mary Beth in "When Loss is Gain" (see Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense below for further context):
--->'''Josh:''' "I think you're the one who's lazy and ungrateful."
--->'''Mary Beth:''' "What?"
--->'''Josh:''' "You heard me. Lazy because you couldn't give up shopping for a few days, and ungrateful because you take all your daddy's money for granted."
:Later...
--->'''Josh:''' "Look, I'm really sorry you got mugged, and I'm glad you're not hurt... but your attitude stinks! Y-- you're nothing more than a selfish, naive little princess. I don't even know why we're friends."
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Mary Beth lacks common sense or tact at times, and needs to be schooled by her friends. A key example is in "When Loss is Gain," when she breaks a vow not to shop as part of a charity fundraiser and Josh scolds her for not taking her family's wealth for granted. When she starts ragging on homeless people after being mugged for her money (technically, she gave it up to them before they actually did anything bad to her), she eats her words when she discovers that Josh is poor, living in a trailer with his grandparents.
* RomanticFalseLead: A gender-flipped version in the first season, as Danny had a crush on Julie during the first few episodes. He ended up dating Sam beginning with "Will the Real Michael Maxwell Please Stand Up" and ending off-screen a few episodes into season two, in "Harvest Moon," after Sam was already written out of the show.
* RunningGag:
** Characters being beaned in the head by basketballs.
** In "Style Before Substance" and "Sexual Harrassment," the characters perform a domino-effect bump to knock one of them out of their booth seat at The Stadium.
* SceneryCensor: In "Secrets and Lies," Eugene and Silk are duped by two girls from Deering's tournament competitor into giving them their basketball uniforms after intentionally spilling food on them under the guise of trapping them in the locker room to keep the two boys from playing in the game. When we see them undressed, they end up covering their naughty bits with a bench, and soon catch on that they were tricked. While crawling through an Air-VentPassageway, they inadvertently end up at the game wearing only cheerleader skirts, much to their embarrassment.
* SecretRelationship: Chris and Julie after the former's amicable breakup with Mary Beth in season one; the secret gets out in that season's penultimate episode "Poetic Justice".
* SexySantaDress: Mary Beth has Julie and Kristy wear some to serve as human mannequins in "Window of Opportunity".
* ShipTease: In season three's "Blood Drive," Danny becomes jealous when Kristy becomes friendly with a handsome doctor who is helping out at the school blood drive. This leads Danny to "volunteer to help" during a live television interview about the drive, breaking a blood pressure cuff that he overpumps. He makes it up to Kristy by arranging for Shareff Abdur-Rahim (then of the Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies) to appear at the drive. There was no mention of Danny having a romantic interest in Kristy before ''or'' beyond that episode.[[note]]Danny's only relationships after his long-distance relationship with Sam ended in early season two were with one-off characters until his departure, the same goes for Kristy until she meets Antonio in season four.[[/note]]
* ShortDistancePhoneCall: Vince has one with Mary Beth in order to get across that he wants quality time with her in "Blood Drive," as Mary Beth is super busy planning a dance.
* ShoutOut:
** "War of the Roses" is a shout-out to the Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner film of the same name, in title only. Although it does feature an EscalatingWar between a male and female character (in this case, Vince and Mary Beth).
** A reference to a popular band of the mid/late 1990s in "The Best Game of the Season," after making several impressive shots after Coach Fuller told the team not to get cocky about winning, Julie is asked to stay around the locker room after practice; thinking that she got in trouble, she blames listening to rock-and-roll (it turns out that she was being offered to join an women's pro basketball team in Italy). Seconds later, Teddy scolds Julie, "I told you listening to Hootie and the Blowfish would lead to no good!"
** "Fighting Words" has Julie and Kristy (in separate scenes) imitating the signature laugh of BeavisAndButthead.
** A reference to ''Film/Twister'' in a season three episode of the same name, when Vince compares the tornado that he and Mary Beth just experienced to what the flying cows in the "twister sisters" scene in the movie went through.
** In "Let Them Play," a student utters the famous "the truth? you can't handle the truth!" line from ''AFewGoodMen'' when Kristy asks him what he thought about a painting of hers that got a "C" in art class.
** "Lend a Helping Hammer" has a scene where Mary Beth and Kristy point out how cute Hammer and his date Taylor look together. Kristy compliments Taylor that she's "all that and a bag of chips," accidentally bumping Mary Beth's shoulder while snapping, eliciting this:
--->'''Mary Beth:''' "Enough with the snaps, [[Series/Moesha Moesha]]!"
** In "Kristy Nightingale," Kristy (who's studying to be a nurse under a professional one at camp) treats Rico for a bumblebee sting, Silk suggests they should start nicknaming her "[[Series/Dr.QuinnMedicineWoman Dr. Kristy: Medicine Redhead]]''.
** This quote from Silk regarding the then-recent breakup of a popular British girl group in "Hello and Goodbye," a hilariously weird comparison that easily applies to that season's and the show's other (constant) cast changes:
-->'''Silk''' (to Hammer): "First, Rico quits to join the wrestling team. Then, you're moving. We're like the SpiceGirls! No one wants to stick it out!"
** The title of the season six episode "That '60s Show" is a shout-out to ''Series/That70sShow''.
* SixStudentClique: Technically, Seven Student Clique; Julie and Mary Beth are joined by four other players, plus after Mary Beth is promoted to team manager in season two, the head cheerleader (first Amy and then for the rest of the series beginning with season three, Kristy) and while Mary Beth was head cheerleader in the first season, original team manager Sam.
* SkywardScream:
** Mary Beth gives one in "Full Court Press," when Earl gives her his pet pig Chet as a gift in repayment for saving him from choking.
** Happens twice in "Let Them Play": first, Kristy does this when she finds out that she lost a letter she wrote about her art teacher, Mr. Fields, that was meant to get out her frustrations about him. Later, she does this again after admitting to him about the insulting things she wrote in the letter, not realizing Mr. Fields didn't know about its existence. Both times its prefaced by Kristy looking toward the camera followed by a shot of Deering High's facade as she screams.
* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Done from time to time with Mary Beth and Kristy, they develop into the LaverneAndShirley of the show.
* SmokingIsCool: Averted. Teddy's smoking habit in "No Smoking" causes him to become a bit sluggish on the basketball court; Coach Fuller makes it clear to him that he doesn't want his players to smoke, and issues an ultimatum to give up cigarettes or he'll be kicked off the team. When all efforts fail, Teddy gets kicked off the team but ends up seeking help to stop smoking by the end of the episode.
* SoProudOfYou: A few. One of note is done by Coach Katowinski to Mary Beth for drumming the courage to have a guy who almost sexually assaulted her turned into the cops in "Secrets and Lies".
* SoundtrackDissonance:
** One of the acts Vince has audition for Mary Beth to serve as the band for a beach-themed dance in "Blood Drive" starts out singing a slow love song ("when she looks at me, I want to kiss her"). Then... it abruptly switches to a driving heavy metal song, startling everyone in the hallway and causing the destruction of a tree decoration Mary Beth got for the gym when a keytar player crashes into it.
** In "Goodnight, Vince," Danny plays an audio track of a Mexican bullfighting crowd as the guys help Vince get over his fear of missing a winning shot in the championship-deciding game.
* SpeechImpediment: Julie develops one when nervous in "Fake ID-ology" and "Son-in-Law".
* SplitScreenPhoneCall: A few, "Easy Credit" had one in which Rico, Silk and Hammer take turns talking to who they thought was Mary Beth, only to find out that they confessed their sticky situation to Coach Katowinski, who had just taken Mary Beth's phone from her.
* SuperstitionEpisode: In "No Smoking," Kristy runs under a ladder in the gym three times[[note]]This subplot was [[RecycledPlot recycled]] from the season one episode "Game Day," in which Michael experiences a spate of bad luck after he walks under a ladder twice, and is warned by Earl about it; weirdly, a bad luck plot is averted in "Son-in-Law," in which Vince opens an umbrella indoors, another well-known bad luck superstition, ''more than once'', following his grandfather's advice on destressing by focusing on a mindless activity.[[/note]] and Mary Beth points out that would bring her a lot of bad luck. Immediately after trying to justify that she's not going to be cursed, she gets beaned by a basketball (twice), and later (off-screen, while at home) is hit in the head by a canned ham and in the toe by a bowling ball after crashing into her mom, gets a 66 on a biology test (the first time she's ever scored below a 95) and accidentally gets squirted with ketchup by Danny. What results is her temporarily wearing protective gear to avoid getting hurt (only to crash her car not long afterward); she later finds out that she got the highest grade among the biology class (getting an "A" based on the grading curve) and comes to the realization that the mishaps were just weird coincidences. Whether than explains the blunders that happen to Kristy later on in the series is a bit suspicious.
* SweetPollyOliver: In order to sneak into a fraternity to spy on Antonio, Kristy and Mary Beth masquerade as guys in the season five episode "Finals Fury". Antonio catches on.
* TakeOurWordForIt: Kristy is the muse for a drawing by practicing artist Spencer in "Breaks of the Game," subverted in that instance that we see the drawing, it's not bad. Spencer then asks her to be the model for a painting; although she was clothed at the time, Spencer paints Kristy naked to her shock. We don't see what the painting looks like for obvious reasons, but it leads to a ZanyScheme were she, Julie and Mary Beth break into the student union they're at during a basketball tournament to steal the painting, only for Kristy to break it over Spencer's head after he walks in and they confront him.
* TalkingToTheDead: In the season six episode "The Gospel According to Silk," Silk is visited by the spirit of his aunt Charlotte, whom the gang meets earlier in the episode and later dies off-screen due to complications from a stroke midway through.
* TeensAreShort: Played straight and subverted, James Villani, who played Rico Bosco in season four, was the shortest of any of the 20 cast members in the series. Which says a lot considering most of the actors were close in height, with the sole exceptions of Reggie Theus, Dick Butkus, Kevin Bell and Robert Michael Ryan, who were relatively taller. Mark Famiglietti, who played Hammer that same season, is only about three inches taller than Villani (around the same height as Amber Baretto (Kristy), as is apparent in "SAT Blues"), but still a few inches shorter than the other cast members, even if closer to average height.
* TemptingFate: In the season three episode "No Smoking," Kristy initially does not believe that her running under a ladder in the gym (thrice) will give her bad luck. Then this happens:
-->'''Mary Beth''': You just walked under a ladder three times, that's big time bad luck.
-->'''Kristy''': Get a grip. That's just a dumb superstition, nothing bad's gonna happen to me. (gets hit in the head by a basketball) Aah!
-->'''Mary Beth''': Like that?
-->'''Kristy''': It's just a coincidence. We are in a gym. (gets hit by basketball again) Aaaah!!! Ohh!
-->'''Mary Beth''': Coincidence, I don't think so. (hums ''Twilight Zone''-like music)
* ThatCameOutWrong: In "Assault and Pepper Spray," Michael tells Coach Katowinski to "watch [coach] Larry Bird closely" for coaching ideas as Coach K prepares to leave for an Indiana Pacers game. Trying to VerbalBackspace as he realizes that came off as an insult to his coaching skills, Michael has Julie step in, causing this before they both run off:
-->'''Julie''': "Uh, coach. We'll be in the showers. I mean, not together. I mean, have fun, bye."
* ThinkingOutLoud: In "Stranded," when Coach Fuller holds a session to talk about everyone's issues, he mentions that everyone played their worst game ever the previous night, except Julie. Then this happens:
--->'''Earl, Danny, Sam and Chris (thinking):''' "Coach's pet! Coach's pet!"
--->'''Earl:''' "(aloud) Coach's pet! (thinks) Oops!".
* TitleDrop: Julie and Vince say the episode title (Julie doing it verbatim) in "Winning Isn't Everything," as part of a thinly veiled attempt to get Josh to play with the Tornados.
* TokenMinority: For a sitcom centering on a basketball team, there isn't too much diversity among the main cast. Seasons one through three avert this with the presence of African Americans Coach Fuller, and players Michael Maxwell (season one) and Teddy Brodis (seasons two and three). It's played straight in season four with the departure of Fuller and the arrival of another black player, Kenny "Silk" Hayes, then averted again with the full-time arrival of Mexican American Antonio Lopez.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Julie played the Tomboy to Mary Beth, Amy and Kristy's Girly Girls.
* TrashTalk: For a sports-themed show, this is to be expected at times. Michael Manning and Coach Fuller have insulted referees for what they perceived to be bad calls, and have gotten ejected from games because of it; Michael's hot temper with a player on another team causes Coach Katowinski to do this on purpose in "Finals Fury" to teach him that losing one's cool negatively affects the rest of your team. Occasionally, it's done outside of the basketball court. Coach Fuller even [[ItMakesSenseInContext trash-talked a fish]] in "Love on the Rockies".
* TwoFirstNames: Julie Connor.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Most episodes had two plotlines centering on a specific set of characters: for the first two seasons, the "A" and "B" plots were split pretty evenly among the characters; during the final four seasons, the "A" plot rotated between any of the players and sometimes the coach, and the "B" plot was usually a Mary Beth/Kristy plotline, though this varied a good bit (the latter two characters had their own individual or joint "A" plots in a few episodes, with a mix of some of the players being part of the "A" plot and others being part of the "B" plot, the coaches also had their own plots). In the Very Special Episodes, one plotline was serious and one was comedic.
* TwoWordsObviousTrope: Played with in "Trouble in Paradise," when Danny confronts Chris about "stealing" Julie (after pointing out that Danny can't say two words to her):
--->'''Danny:''' "Yeah! Well, I have two words for you: stay away... from her."
* TypeCasting: NBA player Reggie Theus playing former NBA player-turned-high school basketball coach Bill Fuller.
* UltimateJobSecurity: The many screw-ups Mary Beth has made as team manager (especially those in "The Best Game of the Season") would have gotten her fired many times over in RealLife, but she manages to keep her job anyway.
* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Most of the characters try to avoid this.
* VacationEpisode: Given that this is a show centering on a basketball team, this is to be expected, since basketball players travel a lot. Season three had episodes that took the Tornados to a tournament in Los Angeles and to a ski resort in Aspen (the latter was arranged by Mary Beth's parents); seasons three and four had the characters volunteer at a basketball camp and season four had the characters play in a tournament in San Antonio. Seasons three and four also had the team travel to the Indiana high school basketball championships in Bloomington.
* VerySpecialEpisode: ''Hang Time'' tried it more than its sister show ''Saved by the Bell'' did:
** In season two's "Short Cuts," Vince takes steroids to give him an edge on the court. Josh is the first to find out after noticing pimples on his neck (and noticing Vince's sudden playing improvement and agressiveness during games and practice). Everyone else finds out after Amy notices Vince is in a student film (the tape of which he destroys when they threaten to show it to Coach Fuller) buying steroids from Jimbo, the student who dealt him them. Vince later regrets hitting Josh after Coach Fuller informs him that Josh had spilled, and explains to Fuller and NBA player Muggsy Bogues that the reason he took them was because he felt insecure that his size was a disadvantage as an athlete.
: "Breaks of the Game," from two seasons later, has a subverted RecycledPlot in which Hammer fails a drug test when he tests positive for steroids, only for it to have been a false positive caused by his allergy medication.
** "Superman Brodis" from season two focuses on the topic of ParentalAbandonment, when Teddy meets the father who left him and his mother as a little kid to pursue his basketball career. Teddy is disappointed to find that Theodore, Sr. is strict and critical, and even evokes YouAreNotMyFather in one scene ("you may be my father, but you are not my dad!"). Theodore, Sr. later attends a free-throw competition his son is participating in to make amends and forge a relationship with Teddy, who decides to give it a shot.
** In season three's "No Smoking," Danny discovers that Teddy had started smoking cigarettes over the summer. Coach Fuller catches him smoking while they are both at the mall, and gives Teddy an ultimatum that either he quit smoking or he'll be kicked off the team. This leads Danny, Vince and Michael to try methods that end up failing hilariously at getting him to quit from meditation to hypnosis (which only proceeds to put Vince and Danny in a trance, causing them to fall off the stands). It is only after he discovers that a kid he's mentoring smokes as well, that Teddy makes a deal with him to kick the habit.
: A similar plot occurs in season four's "High Hoops," in which Rico starts smoking marijuana in order to get closer to a girl who smokes it. Rico ends up shirking his responsibility of fixing Hammer's motorcycle, causing him to be injured when his brakes malfunction. Rico then goes to Coach Katowinski for help quitting.
** In season three's "Mary Beth's Parents," Mary Beth finds out that her parents are getting divorced after overhearing Teddy discussing about how to break the news to her, after Vince overheard her parents talking about it. This causes an attempt to recreate her parents' first date in the hopes of rekindling their romance.
** Another season three episode, "The Perfect Girl," has Mary Beth considering having plastic surgery after she is passed over for a modeling opportunity. She later decides against having work done on her after she and Kristy meet a woman at the cosmetic surgeon's office who became a basic mummy after having multiple surgeries done.
** Played a little lighter than the other VSEs, in season three's "Goodnight, Vince," Vince suffers from sleep deprivation after missing a foul shot that their competitors, Edgecliff High, intercept to beat Deering by one point.
** Season four's "Lend a Helping Hammer" has Hammer and his friends try to help out a GirlOfTheWeek named Taylor, whose family is homeless. He blabs it to everyone at the school dance when trying to clarify the reason why the funds raised for new team uniforms are being donated to her family. They pitch in and help her dad look for a job to get Taylor's family out of the situation, although the job he does get is in the next state over, Michigan.
** In season four's "Let Them Play," the Tornados become hesitant to play against Lennox High after they find out that one of the players on that team has HIV; Julie ends up being the only one who backs out – even after meeting said player and being informed that the chances of contracting HIV or AIDS while playing basketball is very low – worrying that she might get infected due to blood contact while defending the ball. The players don't chastize her for it, though. The rest of the team then decides to hold a non-sanctioned game against Lennox when the school board cancels the game out of concerns from the parents of ''that'' school's students.
** Season four's "Assault and Pepper Spray" has a bit of a BreakTheCutie situation with Kristy when she is mugged in a parking garage while leaving from her job at a mall hot dog cart. Afraid to be alone in public, her friends make the unintentional blunder of giving her a surprise birthday party at the gym, turning the lights on and running out of their hiding places. Julie and Mary Beth decide to take Kristy to a self-defense class. Kristy then asks Mary Beth to sub in for her at the cart. Kristy gets Hammer to buy her some pepper spray, believing that she would be safer with it; this backfires when she accidentally sprays herself and Michael when leaving from work, when she mistakes the latter for a mugger. Kristy later admits she should have had Julie, Mary Beth and Michael walk her to her car to avoid such a situation, and decides to retake the self-defense class.
** Season five's "Tolerance" focuses on Kristy befriending a GothGirl; while showing support for Syd after Mary Beth and Julie make fun of those kind of people, she starts donning goth gear herself, but ends up the victim of a hate crime when two jocks beat her and Syd up. The episode ends with Mary Beth and Julie learning a lesson about treating those who may be outcasts (like goths) with respect, and that discrimination against them is no different than discrimination against people based on skin color, sexual orientation, etc.
** Season five's "Beer Pressure" deals with drunk driving. Julie dates an older guy named Brian, who Michael is jealous of. When the takes her to a school dance, Kristy and Mary Beth catch Brian drinking a bottle of beer, but they are unsure whether they should step in and stop her from going with him when Julie doesn't do it. Brian drives Julie home and gets them both injured in a car accident, benching her from the team's next game. With a dislocated shoulder, Julie realizes that she shouldn't try to fit in with older people and decides against seeing him again, and ends up rekindling her relationship with Michael. The Tornados manage to win the game, even without her on the court.
** In the season five episode "Revolver? Problem Solver?," Silk decides to get a gun in an attempt to protect himself from a bully. He narrowly avoids accidentally shooting Mary Beth, who tries to step in to break up the two guys' fight, when the gun inadvertently fires at a window.
* The season six episode "Secrets and Lies" dealt with Mary Beth being forced upon by a guy she meets during the team's tournament. See AttemptedRape and DateRapeAverted.
* WackyFratBoyHijinks: The fraternity orientation that Antonio, Mary Beth and Kristy attend in "Finals Fury".
* WackyGuy: Teddy in seasons two and three qualifies, as does Rico in season four.
* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: In "Kristy Connor," Vince names the cow his Uncle Toomsey delivered instead of a package of meat for a cookout at the basketball camp[[explanation]]Uncle Toomsey's English is not very good, and Vince admits his family never figured out which language Toomsey speaks[[/explanation]] after Mary Beth, whom he was ''dating'' at the time. Michael even points out what a bad idea that was.
-->'''Michael''': "Vince, I don't think you could do anything stupider than this."
-->'''Vince''' (to the cow): "Well, you don't think I'm stupid. Do you, Mary Beth?"
-->'''Teddy''': "You named the cow after your girlfriend?"
-->'''Michael''': "I was wrong. You could do something stupider."
* WhatTheFuAreYouDoing?: Vince breaks a board with his head during a martial arts class in "Fighting Words". Awesome, but painful... he knocks himself delirious and exclaims "I'm not Vince, I'm Batman," before collapsing on the mat.
* AttemptedRape and DateRapeAverted: In season six's "Secrets and Lies," Mary Beth is nearly mauled by a guy named Brett while in a back room at a concert at a nightclub. She manages to get away on her own (threatening to bash him with a guitar), while Brett threatens to get Deering kicked out of the tournament as Mary Beth and her friends used fake IDs (that he sold them) to get into the club. Antonio and Michael confront Brett when Mary Beth, Kristy and Julie inform them about what happened, but Mary Beth and Coach Katowinski step in before things get out of hand and have Brett arrested.
* AscendedExtra: Antonio Lopez is first introduced in the season four episode "Texas Rose," and part-way through "Shoot Out" two episodes later, becomes Kristy's boyfriend (albeit fumbling at first by lying to her and when they get together, their relationship is a long-distance one). The following season in "Hello and Goodbye," he moves to Deering from San Antonio, and ends up renting a house owned by Coach Katowinski, and joins the basketball team for the remainder of the series.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Come on, you'd probably like to have Rico Bosco as your name.
* BadJobWorseUniform: The uniform at the hot dog cart that Kristy works at in "Assault and Pepper Spray". Mary Beth isn't pleased to wear it when Kristy asks for her to sub in.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: "Teen Mom" and "My Family" have gender
* BetaCouple:
** Danny and Sam become this in the season one episode "Will the Real Michael Maxwell Please Stand Up", first to Mary Beth and Chris and then to Julie and Chris.
** Once Antonio was added to the show as a recurring character in season five, Kristy and Antonio became this to OfficialCouple Michael and Julie.
* [[BewareTheNiceOnes Beware the Nice]]/[[BewaretheSillyOnes Silly Ones]]: Danny may be a good guy jokester, but when he learns martial arts in "Fighting Words"... well, his bully in that episode, Tony, gets ''really'' scared at the end of their bout. Imagine what would have happened if Danny didn't show restraint when it looked like he was going to hit Tony. The entire scene and the speech that follows is definitely a CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
-->'''Danny:''' "I could hit you. But what's the point: to prove that I got you this time? And, what about the next time and the time after that? No. This ends now. I got better things to do. Get out of here!"
* BettyAndVeronica: Mary Beth ends up as the Veronica and Kristy the Betty in the season four episode "Love Triangle," with Hammer as the Archie.
* BigEater: Earl (inferred) in season one, Teddy in seasons two and three is stated as one. This comes up as a plot device in the season three episode "Twister," as he is surprised that he has no appetite just as he's about to ''participate in a pizza eating contest!'' for tickets to a rock concert. The considerably smaller Kristy willingly steps in and finishes off all of the pizzas Teddy was supposed to eat, much to her friends' astonishment, to the point where she nearly gets sick.
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "I'm still trying to figure out where Kristy put all that pizza."
* BillingDisplacement: Gradually happened over the course of the series, as the new additions to the cast were added to the roster usually in the order they joined the show.[[note]]Except for Kevin Bell, who was billed before Megan Parlen in season two, despite the fact that he did not join the show until that season.[[/note]] By Season 6, this meant that Daniella Deutscher (who kept top billing throughout the series), Megan Parlen, Adam Frost and Amber Baretto – in that order – were billed prior to everyone else in the main cast (whereas Frost and Baretto were billed sixth and seventh – before Reggie Theus – when they first joined in season three, and Parlen was billed fourth in season one).
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: For the entire series, Julie is the blonde and Mary Beth is the brunette; Sam was the redhead in season one, however there was no redhead in season two (Amy, who joined the show that season was a blonde), Kristy became the redhead in the trio when she was introduced in season three. The trope is also easily applied with BeautyBrainsAndBrawn, with Mary Beth being the beauty, Kristy being the brains and Julie (natch) being the brawn.
* BlowingARaspberry: Not used much in the show, but is .
* BlueBlood: The Peppertons; as first noted in "Trouble in Paradise," Mary Beth's father is worth $40 million.
* BookDumb: Vince shows shades of this in season's two and three (see Comically Missing the Point for one example), as does Rico in season four.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick:
** In "Not a D'Amata," Vince, Michael, Teddy and Danny discuss taking Vince's little brother Nicky out camping to get him in touch with his "inner D'Amata" when he comes back more cultured. Michael talks about to doing guy stuff: "we'll build a fire! get dirty! eat bugs!" He loses the other guys with that last one, then suggests they'll bring pizzas instead.
** A variant in "Goodnight Vince," when Julie, Teddy, Danny and Michael talk about the prospect of traveling to the state championships in Bloomington:
-->'''Michael:''' "It'll be so cool. Living in the college dorms."
-->'''Julie, Teddy, Danny and Michael:''' "Yeah!"
-->'''Teddy:''' "Chilling with the college ladies."
-->'''Teddy, Danny and Michael:''' "Oh, yeah!"
-->'''Julie:''' "Checking out those cute college guys."
-->'''Teddy, Danny and Michael:''' "Yeah! (beat) No! No-no-no-no!"
* BreakoutCharacter: The early episodes balanced all of the characters fairly evenly. Mary Beth began evolving into the comic relief of the show as season two wore on. At some
* BuffySpeak:
** When Kristy manages to shoot a basketball into a goal in "Kristy Connor," she says that she made a "pointy-thingy".
** Done again by Kristy in "The Curfew" when she and Mary Beth are invited to be part of a team unity yell: "my first hands-in-the-middle-pile-up-and-yell thingy!"
* The Bully: Really, only a handful of the show's incidental characters are this, and only when the plot calls for one to be included.
* BurgerFool: Technically, Corn Dog on a Pole is a cart, not a restaurant... but it is complete with an ugly multi-colored uniform as Mary Beth notes (and later has to wear) in "Assault and Pepper Spray":
--->'''Mary Beth''' (using a Monopoly reference about Kristy's Corn Dog on a Pole uniform): "Do not pass go. Proceed directly to fashion jail."
* ButtMonkey:
** Atypical for TheCutie and to an extent, the NiceGirl, poor Kristy ends up one quite a bit by the fourth season.
** Coach Katowinski ends up one at times, at the hands of team members, Mary Beth and Kristy.
** In later seasons, Silk and Eugene have had moments of being butt monkeys. See Scenery Censor for one example.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were
*
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: In "Fake ID-ology," the gang uses fake IDs to sneak into an over 18 club, where they end up getting drunk and the boys... and Julie... get into a bar fight. Coach Fuller benches all of the main characters, which results in them telling an averted RashomonStyle story about [[HowWeGotHere how they got into the mess]].
* {{Casanova}}:
**
** "When Loss is Gain" states that Vince is this. When he and Teddy call off their bet on who can go the longest without doing something (concurrent with a charity fundraiser that had the same purpose) – Vince with girls and Teddy with desserts – Vince asks out three girls in succession for dates on three consecutive nights, and goes off to ask out more.
* TheCastShowoff: Practically every episode shows off the cast's basketball playing ability, which definitely took quite a bit of practice. Whenever they make a show, the studio audience definitely was impressed. Reggie Theus shows off his ability in a couple of episodes, though he had to intentionally miss free throws and a dunk for a storyline in which Coach Fuller gets into a shooting slump in "Not a D'Amata".
* CatapultNightmare: Mary Beth has one in "At the Movies," where she is in love with Eugene. She later asks him out to make sure there's no spark between them... there isn't.
* CatchPhrase:
** There's Coach Katowinski's "aw, geez," also counts as OnceAnEpisode since Dick Butkus uttered it often during his run on the show. With the exception of the season five finale "My Family," when he (and his daughter) say it in unision after being complemented by Kristy, Coach K usually says it whenever he experiences misfortune, is asked to talk about another character's relationship or sees something he wishes he hadn't.
** Kristy's "ooh, I could just shake my finger at him/her," when a character does something bad or mean.
* CelebrityStar: Reggie Theus and Dick Butkus played the show's head coaches, so, duh! Not to mention...
** SpecialGuest: The series had quite a few sports stars, primarily those famous at basketball, appear from time to time; among them, Grant Hill, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Kobe Bryant.
:Ahmad Rashad and Willow Bay, then the hosts of fellow NBC Saturday morning show ''NBA Inside Stuff'', made a cameo in season one's "Full Court Press".
:Track-and-field icon Florence Griffith-Joyner guest stars in the season two episode "Just One of the Guys".
:The Moffatts, an all-brother pop band popular in the late 1990s, appears in "Managing Michael".
:Singer Jennifer Holliday (of ''Dreamgirls'', the original Broadway play, fame) played Silk's aunt Charlotte in "The Gospel According to Silk".
* ChainedHeat: Earl, using the crisis intervention techniques he learned during his experience as a security guard, handcuffs Mary Beth and Chris together after the two break up in season one's "Trouble in Paradise," following a misunderstanding resulting from a love letter Chris had ghostwritten for Danny to give to his crush Julie. It helps them resolve their issues, but increases their contempt for Danny.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** The first season shows Mary Beth as more of a LovableAlphaBitch. As time goes on, what few negative traits we see in her begin to die off and starting in season two, she evolves into more of the semi-competent goofball that she is for the rest of the series (although she still had a few serious plotlines); its easy to pinpoint exactly when she started to fully evolve into the latter, the season two finale "The Best Game of the Season".
** Kristy starts out as just the Nice Girl with traits of a Kelly Kapowki-esque all-American girl; by season three, she becomes a rare ButtMonkey for her type of character (although the fact that she is fairly popular and does catch the attention of Antonio in season four saves her enough from being TheWoobie).
** Coach Fuller starts out as just an upstanding former NBA player-turned-coach who taught his students valuable lessons in life and teamwork; by season two, he developed a periodic HairTriggerTemper when other characters did something comedically stupid or sometimes for the fun of it.
* TheCheerleader: Played with in regards to Mary Beth, as she exhibits some of the cheerleader stereotypes, including being spoiled, but is not dumb and not necessarily mean-spirited. Subverted with Amy and Kristy. Amy may be on peppiness overdrive, but she is not necessarily dumb, just pretty naive and not even close to mean ("The Sure Thing" even states that she doesn't like to hurt other people's feelings). Kristy is depicted as nice, smart and almost Kelly Kapowski-level squeaky clean, however very minor traits of the Mary Beth of that period do rub off on her later in the series.
* ChickMagnet: Silk claims to be one when he is introduced in the season four premiere "A Whole New Ballgame" during his explanation on how he got the nickname.
* ChristmasEpisode: A rare two in one season, during the New York storyline in season four, "Window of Opportunity" and "Christmas in New York".
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** PutOnABus: The only character given a proper send-off was Nick Hammer (played by Mark Famiglietti) in season five's "Hello and Goodbye". Hammer, who was introduced the previous season, is accepted into the pre-admissions program at Duke University in that episode and has to be convinced to move to North Carolina since it's a major opportunity that could get him into the university. TheBusCameBack when Hammer returned for season six's "Life 101".
* ClarkKentOutfit: On a show about basketball, since players who haven't gotten time on the court often wear regular clothes over their uniforms, it's to be expected at times. Most notably, in "Earl Makes the Grade," Earl explains that he never took off his team uniform, even though he was suspended from the Tornados for cheating (by that point, it was revealed he was set up by two students from a rival school), because he didn't know if he'd be allowed to put it back on ever again.
* ClipShow: The season four episode "Waiting for Mary Beth" and the season six episode "High School Confidential," which only features clips from seasons three through six featuring characters were already on the show at that point.
* CloserToEarth: During season one, the only quirky main characters on the show were Danny and Earl, as such, Julie evolves into this in comparison to the other teen characters after the retool. Coaches Fuller and Katowinski count as well.
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: Much of the plot of "When Loss is Gain," in which the group has to sacrifice something important to them for a charity fundraiser: Coach Fuller gives up yelling, Teddy gives up desserts, Danny gives up caring about things, Vince gives up girls, Josh gives up kissing Julie (much to her disdain), Amy gives up being cheerful, Mary Beth has to give up shopping and Julie gives up (of all things) basketball. Vince and Teddy even try to psych the other out; as the guys end up on the verge of breaking, Teddy tries to lick a basketball he hallucinates is a cherry (with Coach Fuller as an ice cream cone)!
* ComicBookTime: Subverted in that the series has some characters graduate off-screen, with "Graduation on Three" centering on all of the characters graduating from Deering... but before then, it gets hazy. Even though it's established each season is set in a new school year, the characters' grade levels are never expicitly mentioned (although the ages of a couple of them are); against logic, Julie and Mary Beth stay at Deering for all six seasons (despite Mary Beth stating in "Mary Beth's Parents" that she is 17, and therefore should have graduated after season three at least). Even though, earlier episodes imply they're a couple of years short of college age. NBC didn't help matters any more by splitting season five into two separate seasons.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: In "Winning Isn't Everything," Amy tries to put a positive spin in an attempt to cheer up the team's starters, who are worrying about losing this season if they can't get Josh on the team. But she ends up missing the point that the basketball season hasn't started yet.
-->'''Amy:''' "You guys have to stop projecting negative vibes. How many games have you lost so far?"
-->'''Vince:''' "Hello! We haven't lost any games yet, because... (knocks table three times) hello, we haven't played any games yet!"
-->'''Amy:''' "Exactly, so you're undefeated."
-->'''Vince, Danny and Teddy:''' "Hello!"
* ComplimentBackfire: At the beginning of season three's "The Laugh Riot," the gang tries to convince Danny to audition at a comedy festival being held at the ski resort they're staying at, only for Kristy to make a complement about his sense of humor that comes off as an insult about him that she gives up on doing a VerbalBackspace after two tries.
-->'''Danny:''' "It's always been a dream of mine to do stand-up."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Hey, you'd be great. Just looking at you makes me laugh. I mean... I laugh at you all the time. Oh, forget it."
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In "Just One of the Guys," Mary Beth and Amy punish Teddy, Danny and Vince for dissing cheerleading by having every female in school give the boys the SilentTreatment... ultimately finding Teddy's AchillesHeel by getting lunch lady Myrtle involved, denying him seconds on the meat loaf. As an apology, the guys end up performing a cheerleading routine at the next game.
* CordonBleughChef: Earl's mom is apparently one, considering in "Trouble in Paradise," she makes him a liver loaf, head cheese and pickled pork tongue sandwich. WTF?
* CorruptPolitician: Robert Kent in "Style Before Substance"[[note]]who is credited as John Kent in the closing credits[[/note]]. He makes himself to be a champion for the environment, but runs for Deering mayor in order to turn a city park into an industrial center. Amy, who supported him because she thought he was cute, is crushed by this; she later shifts her support towards another candidate after informing herself about what he stands for.
* CosmeticCatastrophe: In the wraparound scenes from the ClipShow "Waiting for Mary Beth", the title describes what causes the other characters to end up reminiscing about past moments when Mary Beth is the last one to get ready for a New Year's party; she ends up having a really bad hair day after her hairdresser botches things, giving her a ''Hairspray''-esque poofed hairstyle.
* CreditsGag: Not really a gag per se, but the first season featured a sequence in the end credits featuring the Deering Tornadoes playing basketball. "Harvest Moon" had a scene where Cedric Ceballos was forced to clean the gym floor he scuffed as Coach Fuller watched.
* CompressedVice: Vince's steroid addiction in "Short Cuts," Teddy's cigarette addiction in "No Smoking" and Rico's marijuana addiction in "High Hoops".
* CreatorCameo: Executive producer Peter Engel guest stars as the NBA commissioner in Michael's dream sequence set at the NBA Draft in season three's "Playin' with Pain".
* CreditCardPlot: "Easy Credit" from season four. Silk overcharges his, causing him, Hammer and Rico to try and raffle off a TV set to recoup the money to pay off the bill. On the way to get the set repaired after a jock breaks it while chasing another student, the team van the guys took breaks down, later resulting in Coach Katowinski stepping in to pay the mechanic the $114.75 after the card is declined.
* CuteBruiser: Julie is very athletic and can defend the ball like it's nobody's business. This serves as a plot point in season six's "The Enforcer," in which she causes a player on a rival team to get injured while slapping the ball away from him in mid-air, and becomes filled with guilt over it that it causes problems with her defense. In "Fake ID-ology," she even punches out a guy who hit Josh during a Curb-StompBattle, and is the only one of her friends to get involved in the fight not to get their butt kicked – unlike the guys.
** GirlyBruiser: Mary Beth is very much feminine, but a mugger would be wise to stay away from her as she can kick serious butt, as shown in a scene in "Assault and Pepper Spray" illustrates. In it, she, Kristy and Julie attend a self-defense class after Kristy gets mugged; when Kristy fails to disarm the class' defense dummy, sumo suit-clad Silk, during a lesson on what to do when one gets attacked by a mugger, Mary Beth steps in and proceeds to wallop him ("get her off me, I'm too pretty to die!"). She also has some, as class instructor Officer Keller notes, "twisted but interesting" ideas for defending yourself in case a mugger attacks you.
-->'''Officer Keller:''' "What's the best way to deal with a mugger?"
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Kick him in the cocoa puffs!"
-->'''Officer Keller:''' "Well, that's one way."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Or-- or use-- use one of those shocker things! No, no, no, no, no, ''rip'' out his eyeballs and fill his sockets up with pepper spray! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, a swift blow to the head with a convenient mallet!"
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Vince makes a bad first impression on Mary Beth's father in "Son-in-Law," by accidentally running over his foot and destroying a model of a planned wing of the mall. To get her dad's attention, she pretends Vince is her boyfriend; Vince finds out he's being used and dresses like a punk at a fancy restaurant in front of her and her parents, and acts boorish to teach her a lesson. Mary Beth and her dad come to an understanding and try to build their relationship, then she apologizes to Vince, which also begins their relationship.. a real one.
* DawsonCasting:
** Varies among the cast members (some were played by teens, others were played by actors around at least college age); the least believeable of the actors playing teenagers was Kevin Bell (who played Josh in season two), who clearly looked like he was in his mid-20s.
** Tracy, Teddy's love interest in "The Sure Thing" and "Green-Eyed Julie," is supposed to be a Deering student but her portrayer, Susan Patterson, was clearly in her early 20s.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Given that the majority of the characters get more than one plotline per season and have plots evenly distributed between them, the only one that sticks out is "Style Before Substance," the only season two episode in which the otherwise SatelliteCharacter Amy gets a storyline – an "A" plot nonetheless.
* DeadpanSnarker: Danny has his moments.
* DenserAndWackier: ''Hang Time'' was more of a mundane teen sitcom in its first season, then the season two retool happened, and wackier plotlines and physical comedy were added OnceAnEpisode. Granted, there was as many more realistic down-to-earth plotlines during the remainder of the series as there were comic relief ones.
* DeathGlare: Both coaches give one at times towards the other players.
* DelayedReaction:
** In "Style Before Substance," before a roller hockey game with a booth spot at The Stadium as the prize[[note]]which gets off to a rocky start as everyone fell on the gym floor, and Coach Fuller then interrupts the game[[/note]], Danny tries to explain himself when the [[DumbJock Dumb]] JerkJock football players don't get his trash talking example:
-->'''Danny:''' "Well, you better be good at puzzles, because we're gonna tear you to pieces! (beat) You're gonna have to be good at puzzles because when we tear you to pieces, you're gonna have to put yourselves back together again. (beat) Kinda like ''Humpty Dumpty''?"
-->'''Players''' (finally understanding): "Ohhhh, yeah! Oooh!"
** In "Fuller's Camp," Vince invokes this when he discovers that 12-year-old camper Todd is the one who's been writing poems to Mary Beth (in the first one, Todd's letter spoke of taking her to his "castle of eternal love"):
-->'''Todd''' (while writing the letter): "I think of you all the time, Mary Beth. So, please be mine."
-->'''Vince:''' "Good one. (Todd leaves) (beat) Hey, that's the kid that lives in the castle!"
** Mary Beth invokes this in "Window of Opportunity," as she, Julie and Kristy are asked by Silk, Hammer and Michael if they had seen Rico – whom the guys hadn't seen since they and Coach Katowinski were released from jail (see PrisonEpisode) – and realize that Rico's still locked up:
-->'''Silk:''' "Hey, uh, have you guys seen Rico?"
-->'''Michael:''' "We've been looking for him for hours."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Where's the last time you saw him?"
-->'''Hammer:''' "In jail with us."
-->'''Julie:''' "You guys were in jail?"
-->'''Hammer:''' "Yeah, but we got out."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Oh, cool. (beat) What?!"
* DidISayThatOutLoud: In "A Whole New Ballgame," Mary Beth realizes she should move on from her breakup with Vince as a single girl, when Kristy inadvertently puts the microphone too close to her mouth during a timeout in the game:
-->'''Kristy:''' "Mary Beth, shout it out. You're dateless and havin' fun!"
-->'''Mary Beth''' (over the microphone): "I'm dateless and havin' fun! (everyone turns toward her and stares) (sheepishly claps): Go, Deering!"
* DinnerWithTheBoss: One-off character Leslie, Coach Fuller's ex-fiancee, becomes the school's vice principal in "First Game of the Season". Julie, Teddy, Vince and Danny don't find this out until they see the two at The Stadium.
* DisappearedDad:
** Teddy's father left his mother when he was little in order to pursue his dreams as a basketball star, the two are reunited in "Superman Brodis".
** In "Kristy's Other Mother," Kristy's biological father is explained to have died shortly after she was born, which – coupled with the fact she was barely an adult at the time – was the reason why her biological mom gave her up for adoption.
* Disguised in Drag / AttractiveBentGender: The latter is averted in "The Curfew," but the former is invoked in both that episode (both ways with Julie and the guys) and in "Finals Fury" (in reverse with Mary Beth and Kristy). In the first of the two episodes, Julie, Michael, Teddy, Danny and Vince dress up in drag (with Julie being dressed as a man) in an attempt to get out of a fraternity party on the night before the state tournament without Coach Fuller seeing them, since they're supposed to be at their hotel room before curfew. Vince is a little embarrassed, pointing out he looks like his mom dressed up as a woman, leading to this hilarious exchange:
-->'''Vince:''' "I look like my mother."
-->'''Michael:''' "I feel sorry for your father."
* DoppelgangerDating: Danny takes a girl named Veronica to a school dance, who Josh points out looks like his girlfriend Sam (down to the curly red hair, and as Danny points out "the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the height, the weight and she even manages a basketball team") in the season two episode "Harvest Moon". Danny attempts to save face by explaining one way Veronica is different from Sam:
-->'''Danny:''' "But, she has a ring. Sam never wore jewelry."
Danny later makes the mistake of calling Veronica, Sam, while asking her to take her hair down, causing her to get fed up and leave.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: The show's title, ''Hang Time'', is taken from a sports term (more commonly associated with football, but appliable to basketball as well) for the length of time that a ball spends in the air, however it can be interpreted as "the time one spends hanging out with friends".
* DoubleStandard: In "Team Captain," Vince gets Mary Beth to do his bidding to make up for the fact that she kissed another guy while at space camp over the summer. It turns out Vince had kissed another girl himself (which Mary Beth finds out about), leading to some SuspiciouslySpecificDenial when he sees her again at the movie theater:
--->'''Vince:''' "I'm not Vince! I've never seen you before in my whole life. Now, leave me alone Linda Sue Robinson!".
* DreamSequence: Several throughout the second, third and fourth seasons. One of these was an...
** AffectionateParody: Of fellow NBC series ''Series/Seinfeld'' in "The Laugh Riot," with Danny as Jerry, Vince as George, Mary Beth as Elaine, Coach Fuller as Kramer and Teddy as Newman. The dream even begins and ends with a bassline a la ''Seinfeld's'' theme and intersitial music.
* DressesTheSame: Julie, Kristy and Mary Beth wear the same dress to the school prom in "A Night to Remember".
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Novice driver Kristy in "Julie's Guy," who tells Teddy that she has gotten into accidents during her driving lessons. When he volunteers to teach her how to drive in the gym using a golf cart, Kristy accidentally backs into a cardboard cutout of a mom carrying a baby stroller. When Teddy decides to have Kristy practice on the road one night, Danny, Michael and Vince burst into the backseat and ask her to tail a car carrying Julie and Jason Redmond (a player on a rival team she's on a date with), causing a harried Kristy to speed and make very hard turns; after she slams the brakes when they reach a red light, Teddy – happy that he's still ''alive'' after the debacle – passes out.
* DrivingTest: Teddy volunteered to be Kristy's driving instructor in "Julie's Guy". He was lucky to be alive, see DrivesLikeCrazy for further explanation.
* DumbBlonde / GeniusDitz: Vince's date in "Harvest Moon," also a bit of a klutz considering she got her hair caught in the car door when they arrived at the dance. However, she does know what the area of a circle is, but confuses pi with pie.
* DumbJock: Invoked in the "B" plot of "Style Before Substance," Josh manages to trick a group of football JerkJock{{s}} that the Deering basketball team is arguing over their booth with at The Stadium into believing that Troy Aikman is signing autographs at the mall... twice! Before that happens the first time, Danny tries to explain the meaning of "basement" as a euphemism for "the lowest point" or "losing" to one of the football players, who uses the wrong term:
-->'''Willie:''' "You chumps will be lucky to get out of the attic."
-->'''Danny:''' "You meant the basement, right?"
-->'''Willie''': "What?"
-->'''Danny:''' "The basement? You meant "get out of the basement." (using hand gestures): You see, the basement is down here and the attic is way up here. Am I going too fast?"
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first season feels like a subtly different show, compared to the last five. That season, The Sport Shack was an occasionally seen hangout and the teen characters were also seen hanging out together in an outdoor cafeteria at the school in certain scenes, both of which were dropped in the retool. There wasn't the dynamic of the coach, Julie and one of the male players being more sane than the others as everyone was pretty down-to-earth... except maybe Mary Beth, who had character traits that put her somewhere between the LovableAlphaBitch and just the AlphaBitch. Coach Fuller didn't have a Hair-TriggerTemper. Danny was more of an {{Adorkable}} type than the snarker. The humor was also fully down-to-earth and more staid, compared to the wacky and very special episode plots that later seasons incorporated, making it mesh differently from the rest of the TNBC lineup.
* EdutainmentShow: Only in technicality, but it incorporates life lessons, so NBC figured that it counts, brandishing an E/I logo at the top of each episode during its run.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Chris ''Leslie'' Atwater. Really?
* EnsembleCast
* EnterStageWindow: Michael does this to talk to Julie about his father's argument over his grades in "Rocky Road to the Playoffs," and ends up being hit in the stomach by a basketball thrown by Julie, who mistook him for an intruder. Silk and Hammer do this as well a minute later, but they stop Julie and Michael before they could get hit.
* EstablishingShot: One for Deering High, one for the mall where The Sport Shack and The Stadium are located and several others for other settings that the episode dictates to be part of the storyline.
* EstrangedSoapFamily: Very few of the characters' parents appear on the show; the only ones that are seen are Michael's father in "Rocky Road to the Playoffs," Kristy's adopted parents in "Extreme Eugene" and her biological mother in "Kristy's Other Mother," and Teddy's long-lost father in "Superman Brodis". In the series finale "Graduation on Three," when the gang graduates, we never see them.
* {{Expy}}: Kristy is essentially that of [[SavedByTheBell Kelly Kapowski]], if slightly skewed to account for the fact that she (unlike Kelly) experiences general mishaps. The two also are really bad at a particular thing (for Kelly, it's singing, though that was later retconned; for Kristy, it's basketball).
* ExpositoryThemeSong: The tune very finely summarizes the meaning of the show, teamwork and dedication to work on your dreams and the friendships forged while being part of a team. The original theme song from season one is reminiscent of a Miller-Boyett sitcom theme song; the theme used for the last five seasons is a more catchy, rock-fueled tune.
* FailedASpotCheck:
** In "The Laugh Riot," the gang is at a ski resort in Aspen, where Vince failed to notice something that could have saved him time climbing up the hill:
-->'''Vince:''' "It's tiring. It takes me four hours just to climb up the hill."
-->'''Julie:''': "Why didn't you take the chair lift?"
-->'''Vince''': "The what?"
-->'''Danny:''': "Didn't you wonder where those people were going on the moving chairs?"
-->'''Vince''': "No."
** In "Assault and Pepper Spray," Silk surprises Coach Katowinski with a medal that he had bronzed, not realizing that it was a gold medal... that Coach K won for coaching the Olympic "Dream Team".
** Similarly in "Winning Isn't Everything," Mary Beth has Coach Fuller's "Dream Team" basketball cleaned while redecorating his office, not realizing it was autographed.
* FieryRedhead: Subverted with Sam. Usually averted with Kristy, although this side does come out at certain times and not really until later in the series, Mary Beth even points out how she's evolved into this in season five's "That '60s Show".
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Kristy is established partway through the third season as studying to eventually become a nurse. This serves as a plot point in the apropos titled "Kristy Nightingale," when her friends try to convince her not to quit her dream when she fails to perform proper procedure in treating Rico's bumblebee sting, not knowing that he's allergic to beestings; her friends pretend to have ailments in order to help change her mind, though she later finds out about the plan. When she treats Michael's arm after it is fractured when a tree branch falls during a storm, her worries about being a good enough nurse are alleviated.
* FoodFight: Danny, Vince, Julie and Teddy have one in the cooking class that Coach Fuller is substituting at in "The Perfect Girl", with Fuller getting caught in the crossfire while they are tossing around eggs.
* FromBadToWorse: In the second season finale "The Best Game of the Season," Mary Beth causes several screw-ups. The episode opens with her having gotten herself dunked in the goal while trying to clean it; she later decides to clean the scoreboard... ''with soap and water!''... causing it to short out. After Coach Fuller warns her that she is on thin ice as team manager, she gets Vince to by a buffer to buff the gym floor, but ends up kissing him after he speaks an Italian phrase, causing him to sand a hole in the gym floor and realize too late he got a power ''sander'' (luckily, her father agrees to pay for a new floor and Mary Beth manages to keep her job on the basis that she not touch anything).
* {{Gasshole}}: The cow that Vince's Uncle Toomsey delivers in "Kristy Connor". When the guys hide it in their cabin one night, Teddy got the brunt of it.
* GamerChick: Kristy in the B plot of the season three episode "Teen Mom". She becomes addicted to an arcade game at The Stadium called ''Klown Kombat''; so much so, that she misses a cover photoshoot for a sports magazine that Julie booked for her, Kristy and Mary Beth to appear, which Julie manages to have rescheduled.
* GameShowAppearance:
** Teddy, Danny, Michael and Vince appear on the dating game show ''Catch of the Day'' in "Kristy's Other Mother," to win "a jet ski and other fabulous prizes". Vince ends up matched with one of the contestants, which nearly ruins things with his relationship with Mary Beth when she meets his date. Though, she forgives him when she finds out why he went on the show, thinking he won the prizes for her!
** A DreamSequence version occurred in "Restless Mary Beth," in which Mary Beth and Kristy "appear" as contestants on ''Set Your Priorities," an in-dream game show relating to the plot of Mary Beth's issues trying to balance multiple extracurricular activities in order to improve her chances of getting into California University[[note]]As in the one from ''Saved by the Bell: The College Years''[[/note]].
* GenderEqualEnsemble: Averted. Only three girls (including the actors playing Mary Beth and Julie) are part of the main cast at any point during the series, the other five are always male.
* GeneHunting: In "Kristy's Other Mother", HappilyAdopted Kristy is given the phone number for her biological mom by her adopted mom. Julie and Mary Beth are surprised to find out that she is adopted, and try to help her through it. While in Los Angeles, she proceeds to track down her real mother, whom meets her at a restaurant, where they get along very well. Kristy turns down an offer, after much consideration, by her bio mom to move to L.A. in order for her to get to know the daughter she gave up at age 18.[[note]]It's later revealed in "Tolerance" two seasons later, that Kristy learned she was adopted when she was 10.[[/note]]
* GenkiGirl: Sam
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In "Earl Makes the Grade," Earl is in the gym with an attractive classmate[[note]]who is pretending to be interested in him, just so he gets too distracted to pass a test that could keep him on the team[[/note]], when she ends up kissing him. Earl then asks her, "did I just get to first base?"
* GirlOrGuyOfTheWeek: Almost every main character has had at least one of these, with Amy being the lone exception.
* GothGirl: One-time character Syd in "Tolerance". Kristy is partnered with her on a biology project, and while working on it at a goth club called The Morgue (where Kristy comes dressed in a cheerleader uniform after coming from practice), learns that Syd became a grote (the episode's reference to goths) because it was the only group of people who didn't reject her. Kristy becomes friends with Syd, derides Mary Beth and Julie for demeaning them, and even starts briefly dressing like a grote[[note]]although the next scene shows that the black hair is a wig and the piercings are fake[[/note]]. Kristy and Syd both get beaten up by a couple of JerkJocks. The episode ends with AnAesop drop with Mary Beth acknowledging that being intolerant of goths is no different than discriminating any other class of people, with her and Julie apologizing to Kristy.
* GoshDangItToHeck!: Averted, sorta. In the season one episode "Let's Get Ready to Rumble," Mary Beth scolds Chris for calling a judge's wife (who graduated from Derring the year before) "bitchin'" while attending a country club function. For a Saturday morning teen comedy, that is a bit jarring, considering other TNBC sitcoms played this trope pretty straight. Other than that, earlier seasons had featured minor utterings of "god," though from season three onward, these were replaced by "gosh".
* GrandFinale: "Graduation on Three", involving the show's main characters graduating from high school and their struggles (moreso Kristy, who takes the changes their experiencing the hardest) in dealing with moving onto college.
* Green-EyedMonster: In a season two episode aptly titled "Green-Eyed Julie," Julie feels threatened by Nicole, a new employee at The Stadium, who has a crush on her boyfriend Josh – the result of having been cheated on by her last boyfriend, Chris. Josh tries to set up Nicole with Danny, but she's not interested in him. When Josh tries to tell Nicole he doesn't like her that way, she kisses him and is caught by Julie, who breaks up with her at the school's '70s dance. She ends up regretting it when Danny informs her that Nicole kissed Josh, who pushed her off, and apologizes.
* GratuitousSpanish: "Texas Rose" has Antonio doing this during his first meeting with Kristy[[note]]Kristy assumes he only speaks Spanish when she sees Antonio talking to a guy friend in the language, he just doesn't tell her that he's a bilingual American, which backfires on Antonio later in the episode[[/note]]; although Kristy is far from fluent as evidenced by the fact she asks him if he's "ever sat on a cactus in Texas," tells him to "lick a cow" during a goodbye greeting, and resorts to using hand gestures and TranslationByVolume to ask him out to dinner because she doesn't know how to do it in Spanish. Needless to say, Julie and Mary Beth are embarrassed... for Kristy and themselves.
* Hair-TriggerTemper + AngryBlackMan: It's not until season two that Coach Fuller's temper becomes a character trait. His BerserkButton{{(s)}}: the kids doing something boneheaded and anyone scuffing or damaging the gym floor (Cedric Ceballos found that out the hard way in "Harvest Moon" and was forced to clean the marks his shoes made).
* HatesBeingTouched: Coach Katowinski often stops his players from hugging him or lets out an "aw, jeez" in disdain when they do.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mary Beth and Kristy.
* HeyItsThatGuy!:
** Anthony Anderson played main character Teddy Brodis for two seasons.
** Hillary Tuck played Sam Morgan, two years before playing Amy Szalinski in ''HoneyIShrunkTheKidsTheTVShow''.
** Jay Hernandez, Antonio Lopez during the last three seasons, played KirstenDunst's love interest in ''Crazy/Beautiful''.
** A pre-''AmericanPie'' Shannon Elizabeth guest starred as Nicole, Josh's co-worker at The Stadium, in the season two episode "Green-Eyed Julie".
** In the above-mentioned episode, Nicole introduces Danny to her friend Kim, played by [[Series/Psych Juliet O'Hara]] herself, Maggie Lawson.
** Scott Whyte (Chris Anderson from fellow TNBC show ''CityGuys'') played a superficial boy that Kristy liked in the season three episode "Fighting Words".
** Mark Walberg (the host of ''AntiquesRoadshow'', not the [[MarkWahlberg actor]]) played sports commentator Chick Storm in "Fuller's Rival" and "That '60s Show".
** Bree Turner (later of ''[[Series/Grimm Grimm]]'') plays Rico's taller girlfriend Gail and [[Series/HouseOfCards Constance Zimmer]] plays Rico's cousin Lisa (whom he has pretend to be Gail) in "The Tall and the Short of It".
* HighSchool
* HighSchoolDance: Several episodes have one, usually resulting in some bungle. The dance in the season four episode "Love Triangle" is actually punnily called the "Basket Ball".
* HighSchoolSweethearts: Julie and Michael, even though they are an on-again/off-again couple. Kristy and Antonio qualify too, although they spend the first few months of their relationship as a long-distance couple until the start of season five.
* HintDropping: Kristy does this to Michael, Julie and Mary Beth in "Assault and Pepper Spray," regarding her birthday presents.
* HollywoodDateless: Mostly averted, as the vast majority of the lead actors are decent looking to gorgeous, and their characters are fairly popular at the school. There are a couple of odd examples, though. Amy is never given a love interest (at least, one who likes her back and she can date legally)[[note]]She develops a crush on a crooked mayoral candidate in "Style Before Substance," with whom she works as a campaign manager.[[/note]] during her run in the second season. Kristy is not given a long-term love interest until Antonio is introduced halfway through season four, although she is seen dating a couple of times before then, even ending up on the losing end of a love triangle with Hammer and Mary Beth in the aptly titled "Love Triangle".
* HollywoodNerd: Kristy is a plain-clothes version of this, essentially falling into a Type 2.
* HormoneAddledTeenager: This is a high school sitcom. So, yeah.
* HurricaneOfPuns:
** Julie, Vince and Michael each make jokes to Kristy after Mary Beth blabs to them that she got her fingers stuck in a Dan Quayle-autographed bowling ball in "Fuller's Big Offer":
-->'''Julie:''' "So, Kristy, how was bowling?"
-->'''Michael:''' "I heard you had a real ball."
-->'''Vince:''' "I heard you're really stuck on the game."
** Mary Beth and Julie rattle off a series of bad butt puns in "Shoot Out," as they try to remove cactus needles from Kristy after she accidentally sat on one that Antonio planned to give her as forgiveness for lying to her about being from Mexico and not speaking any English based on an assumption.
-->'''Kristy:''' "If you don't mind, I don't want to hear another thing about Antonio."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "Fine! You got it."
-->'''Julie:''' "Yep, we're butting out."
-->'''Mary Beth:''' "But, we really think you should turn the other cheek."
-->'''Julie:''' "Yeah, you should just put it behind ya."
-->'''Kristy:''' "It's not funny! (Julie plucks a needle out of Kristy's butt) Ow! Okay, it is."
* HustlingTheMark: A twist in "The Hustlers" from season three, which has Julie and Teddy being roped into playing two-on-two pickup games for quick cash. When they lose their money and realize they were hustled, Julie and Danny decide to win their money back and enlist Michael to join them to beat the guys who hustled them out of their money to another game. After Michael sprains his wrist, Coach Fuller finds out what's going on and brings in Kobe Bryant to help school the hustlers at their own game.
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: Said by Danny after he gets the chance to say "objection" in "War of the Roses".
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: All InUniverse examples:
** NBA player Cedric Ceballos was introduced as this for Coach Fuller in "Harvest Moon," although that changed when he scuffed up the gym floor.
** Tom in "Sexual Harrassment," a former classmate of Vince's who helped the latter with basketball while Tom was a player... and abuses his power as manager at The Stadium by making moves on Vince's girlfriend Mary Beth.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: Dustin Diamond appeared as [[SavedByTheBell Screech]] in the season four episode "The Hustlers". Diamond appears again in "At the Movies" two seasons later, using the same high-pitched voice that he began using for his character when he joined ''Saved by the Bell: The New Class," claiming that his real voice is much higher[[note]]Anyone who watched ''Saved by the Bell'' or its ''College Years'' spinoff knows that Diamond originally used a voice closer in pitch to his own, just affecting it with some cracking[[/note]]. The latter appearance retcons "Goodnight, Vince" and "Phenom Blues," which indicate that ''Saved by the Bell'' exists as a TV show within the ''Hang Time'' universe.[[note]]In addition, his appearance in "At the Movies" is the InUniverse result of Kristy's idea to premiere ''Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas'' at the theater she and Antonio are working at, however that film debuted as a TV movie on NBC in 1994, six years before the episode aired.[[/note]]
* InSeriesNickname: Kenny Hayes (played by Danso Gordon in seasons four through six) prefers to be known by his nickname "Silk," because he's "smooth on the court, and even smoother off the court... with the ladies."
* InvisibleSubtleDifference: In "War of the Roses," the guys discover that the locker room has been painted pink. Danny thinks it's actually rose and Teddy thinks it may be salmon. Vince insists it's pink. However, Amy, during a student court case between Danny and Mary Beth, agrees with Teddy.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mary Beth can say and do some pretty dumb things at times, and is shown early on to be shallow and a little self-centered, but she does care about her friends, especially Kristy and Julie. Her negative aspects are toned down as the series goes on.
* JumpingOutOfACake: Teddy did this to surprise Coach Fuller with a pineapple-upside down cake baked as a group cooking class project with Danny, Julie, Michael and Vince in "The Perfect Girl". The coach is impressed by how good it tastes, even though most of it didn't get into his mouth as Teddy tripped and accidentally smashed it in his face.
* TheKlutz:
** Vince develops this trait as season two goes on, which helps advance the plot of "Son-in-Law" as his klutziness makes a bad impression on Mary Beth's dad. In "Green-Eyed Julie," Vince tries to practice dancing with Mary Beth in preparation for the school's disco dance, and nearly injures her on the spins.
** When Eugene is introduced in the season five premiere, he proceeds to fall twice on the court while trying to show Katowinski his agility as an athlete, while trying to convince the coach to put Eugene on the team. It just the first of several blunders with gravity or... everything else involving Eugene.
** The Tornados, as a whole, have had klutzy moments. Most notably, "Style Before Substance" (the starters of the basketball and football teams all fall on the gym floor, sticks in hand, as they start a roller hockey game for a booth at The Stadium), "Just One of the Guys" (Teddy falls on Danny and Vince during their apology cheer to Mary Beth and Amy, the result of the heaviest of the three forming the top of the pyramid) and the opening scene of "Team Captain" (which has them all collapse during a group chest bump).
* {{Landlord}}: Coach Katowinski became this when Kristy convinced him to allow Antonio to move into a house that Coach K owned in "Beer Pressure".
* LargeHam: Teddy and Silk have their moments.
* LastNameBasis / FirstNameBasis: Most of the characters call Nick by his last name, Hammer. The only main characters to have called him "Nick" on at least an alternating basis are Coach Katowinski and Mary Beth.
* LaughTrack: Used moreso in season one; episodes from season two onward used it periodically in scenes, often for pre-taped sequences not filmed in front of a live audience.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Also Like Godfather, Like Godson, Teddy is a basketball player just as his biological father Theodore Brodis, Sr. and his godfather Bill Fuller were.
* LimitedSocialCircle: The show's social circle originally consisted of Julie, Mary Beth, four other players (Chris, Michael, Earl and Danny) and team manager Sam. This was altered slightly beginning in the second season after the show introduced other players to the team and Mary Beth became the new team manager, with the new head cheerleader, Amy, joining them. Every other character added afterward (including Michael Manning, Kristy, Silk, etc.) joined this group with Julie and Mary Beth as the only constants.
* Line-of-SightName: When asking Teddy if he thinks she's feminine for a "project" for an "image identity" class, Julie comes up with the name of a fake teacher this way – Mr. Spalding (referring to the sporting goods manufacturer) – by looking at the basketball she's holding.
* LittleBoySeeksBigGirl: Todd, one of the kids at the basketball camp, towards Mary Beth in "Fuller's Camp" (weirdly, Vince actually sees Todd – a 12-year-old! – as a threat, even though he acknowledges the kid clearly doesn't have a legitimate shot with her). After Mary Beth lets him down gently, Todd moves on to Kristy when he sees her, much to Mary Beth's relief... but informs him to back off if Kristy tells him that she's not interested.
* LocalHangout: The two seen in the show are pretty appropriate for a show centered around sports. The Sport Shack, a sporting goods store (which Mary Beth's father buys in "The Sweat Shack"), serves as the hangout during season one. The Stadium, a sports-themed restaurant in the same mall, replaced it in the second season.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In six seasons, a total of twenty different main characters appeared in the show's opening credits (though not all at the same time obviously). Only Megan Parlen (Mary Beth) and Daniella Deutscher (Julie) appear in the opening titles for all six seasons.
* LockedInARoom: In the season one episode "Stranded," Coach Fuller, Chris, Michael, Julie, Mary Beth, Earl, Danny and Sam are stuck in the school gym during a major blizzard, which ends up knocking out the power.
* LovableAlphaBitch: Mary Beth. She's popular, but never particularly mean to any of the characters, other than ribbing Kristy about her clothes and at least once, her thick curly hair. Shades of this as well as those of the plucky comic relief Mary Beth of later seasons are visible early on, but whatever negative traits there were gradually eroded beginning as early as halfway through season one onward to the third season.
* LovableJock: The majority of the characters on the Deering team, among them FunnyGuy Danny, BookDumb Vince and Rico and BigGuy Teddy.
* LoveTriangle:
** Chris, Mary Beth and Julie in season one. Mary Beth realizes she wants to get back together with Chris in "Poetic Justice," only for Julie to decide to go public with her relationship with him. Mary Beth acts as if she's fine with it, but Earl convinces her to get out her frustrations on paper, in a scathing poem she performs in front of her friends at a coffee shop's poetry night. After the triangle is revisited in the first season finale "Game Day," it becomes an AbortedArc as Chris was written out in the {{Retool}} under the guise of having gone to college,[[note]]See Green-Eyed Monster for the real reason.[[/note]] with he and Julie having broken up over the summer.
** There actually was an apropos season four episode titled "Love Triangle," in which TheMatchmaker Mary Beth takes up said role for Kristy, but things get screwed up when Hammer becomes interested in Mary Beth instead, causing a brief rift between the girls.
* {{Malaproper}}: Vince has a tendency to do this at times. This leads Mary Beth to realize he was the one who wrote a letter to her in "War of the Roses" about the newly pink locker room, signing it as "unanimous" instead of "anonymous." In "Fake ID-ology," Danny purposely does this with "impulsively" (rewording it as "impuntively") when Vince doesn't get what Coach Fuller meant when he used the correct word.
* MeaningfulTitle: The season four premiere "A Whole New Ballgame," which features major changes to the team's starting lineup with the additions of Rico, Silk and Hammer (replacing Teddy, Danny and Vince), along with Mike Katowinski's introduction as the new coach.
* MistakenForCheating: Antonio in "Extreme Eugene". He has a run-in with Kristy's parents when they park their car in a parking space he wanted. Mary Beth then arranges for Eugene to pretend to be Antonio, whom Kristy was supposed to introduce to her parents. A couple of days later, Mr. and Mrs. Ford see Eugene at the mall with his GirlOfTheWeek and tell Julie after they run into her; Julie later informs Kristy about it at the insistence of Mr. and Mrs. Ford. Antonio clears things up during a game break; Mr. and Mrs. Ford then see Kristy kissing the real Antonio, whom she properly introduces. As smart as Kristy is, it's odd she didn't connect the dots that her parents saw Eugene and not the real Antonio.
* {{Montages}}: During most episodes, usually involving the basketball game being played in that episode.
** TrainingMontage: One occurs during the guys' martial arts lessons in "Fighting Words".
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: A variant in "Teen Mom," when Danny introduces his GirlOfTheWeek Sarah to Teddy, Michael and Vince when they come to the same movie theater:
--->'''Danny:''' "That's, uh, (pointing to Teddy) dumb (pointing to Michael), dumber (pointing to Vince) and Vince."
* NewJobEpisode: Three, two of which involve Mary Beth:
** Mary Beth gets a power trip when she becomes the manager of The Sports Shack in "The Sweat Shack". Also leads to SoundtrackDissonance, when the employees, led by Sam, go on strike when their strike chant is set to a conga tune.
** "Sexual Harrassment" counts as this, although it mainly centers around Mary Beth's boss' advances toward her.
** Season six's "At the Movies" has Kristy and Antonio both getting jobs at a movie theater, technically is part of a work study assignment, but it leads to problems when Kristy is promoted to assistant manager over Antonio.
* MoodWhiplash: Particularly noticeable in the more serious episodes in which a comic scene is injected between the serious scenes.
* NewTransferStudent:
** Julie transferred to Deering after moving from Chicago in the pilot episode, so she's not any newer to the audience than the rest of the characters. Mary Beth considered Julie to be a threat in a few first season episodes, to her popularity and for the affections of original boyfriend Chris Atwater, before evolving into her friend.
** Michael Manning was introduced as a transfer student in season three, which becomes a plot point in "The First Game of the Season," as Deering plays against Michael's former school, Lynwood High.
** Antonio Lopez becomes one in season five, which removes the [[LongDistanceRelationship long distance]] part of his relationship with Kristy.
* TheNineties: Cultural references of the decade aren't rampant but they pop up from time to time, although stylistically there are lots of '90s influences throughout the show's run, most apparent in the first three seasons.
* NoIndoorVoice: After Kristy is locked in the trunk of the autoshop teacher's car in "High Hoops," she shouts (obliviously) when speaking to Mr. Parker when they get back to the school on account of being temporarily deafened from the blaring stereo he turned on while she was inside.
-->'''Kristy:''' "Thanks for getting me out of the trunk, Mr. Parker!"
-->'''Mr. Parker:''' "Sorry about the loud stereo."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Oh, that's OK! Thank goodness you had a flat tire or else I'd still be locked in there!"
-->'''Mr. Parker:''' "You don't have to shout."
-->'''Kristy:''' "Who's shouting?!"
* Non-ActorVehicle: Though the teens are the primary characters, the show is this for ex-athletes Reggie Theus and later, Dick Butkus.
* OfficialCouple: Julie, being the lead, and her boyfriends during the series' run: Chris (in late season one), Josh (season two) and Michael (off-and-on from late season three through season six). Mary Beth was originally this with Chris during the first two-thirds of season one, before they broke up in "Let's Get Ready to Rumble".
* OhCrap: In "Phenom Blues," Rico, Silk, Michael and Hammer are stuck on an amusement ride similar to a skilift pod that starts to fall, after they decide to bail on a tournament game out of fear they will lose because to the other team, who was a ''very'' agressive player. The two end up getting rescued by helicopter and Michael manages to grab hold of the ladder to get them to safety.
* OneHeadTaller:
** Original character Earl Hatfield (and by association, Robert Michael Ryan) is the tallest of any of the teen charaters in the series, and is at least half a foot taller than the other season one cast members.
** On the other end, the reverse case is occasionally referenced with Rico during season four, in that every other player is taller than him. When he is introduced in the fourth season premiere "A Whole New Ballgame," he claims that he is 'just under 6'5"'. In "High Hoops" from that same season, Silk hilariously notes this when trying to explain the dangers of smoking marijuana to Rico:
-->'''Julie:''' "You'll get kicked out of school."
-->'''Silk:''' "Not to mention it'll stunt your growth... more."
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. The series had three characters named Michael, Michael Maxwell in season one, Michael Manning (played by Adam Frost) during seasons three through six and Mike Katowinski (played by Dick Butkus) in seasons four through six. As illustrated, the latter two characters' runs overlapped.
* TheOtherDarrin: Mary Beth's parents are first played in "Son-in-Law" by John H. Brennan and Lucy Butler; the following season in "Mary Beth's Parents," they are played by Michael Bryan French and Cristina Raines.
* PainPoweredLeap: In the season five episode "My Family," Antonio and Michael (along with several other people) are zapped by defective pagers sold to them by Silk and Eugene in a GetRichQuickScheme, causing both guys to do this.
* ParentalIssues: Mary Beth has some when her parents divorce in season three's "Mary Beth's Parents," while Michael butts heads with his father over grades in "Rocky Road to the Playoffs".
* PerformanceAnxiety: In "Son-in-Law," the Tornados get an extreme bundle of nerves in the days before a game against one of their biggest rivals, Remington High.
* PieInTheFace:
** During a championship dinner in "Fuller's Rival," Fuller's former basketball rival B.B. Bynes (who coached the team that Deering lost to in part because of Fuller's and Michael's actions during the game) asks him to push a pie in his face, knowing he doesn't have the guts to do it. Fuller decides against it out of good sportsmanship, but that doesn't stop Vince from giving it a good smash.
** In "The Perfect Girl," Coach Fuller accidentally gets a pineapple upside-down cake in the face.
** In "Finals Fury," Kristy gets two of these when she and Mary Beth, while in drag, infiltrate a fraternity orientation to spy on Antonio.
* PracticalJoke: Julie and Danny get into a prank war in "Earl Makes the Grade," after Danny put shaving cream in Julie's shoes just before the events of the episode. They call a truce towards the end of the episode, but Danny gets one last prank in by putting a "desprate for a date" sign on Julie's back.
** In "First Game of the Season," at Mary Beth's insistence that she come up with a revenge prank after some students from Lynwood High put ping-pong balls in the lockers at Deering, Kristy steals Lynwood's dog mascot Butch. She and Mary Beth search for Butch throughout the school when he gets loose (leading to a funny but brief sequence in which the dog ends up with a hat from each class he left from), before they spot him. They later learn that the dog is actually Buzz, the Lynwood principal's dog, and there's a $500 reward for its return.
* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Coach Fuller put down some ground rules for Julie, Teddy, Danny and Vince in taking care of his car while he's out of town in season three's "Coach Fuller's Car"; the foursome tries to find the episode's titular car after they decide to leave it at a fraternity when they drink punch unknowingly spiked with vodka and it gets stolen the next day.
* PrisonEpisode: "Window of Opportunity" has Katowinski, Rico, Michael, Silk and Hammer end up jailed when they're mistaken for a wanted group of robbers dressed as Santa and his elves (like they are)... turns out they weren't the only ones mistakenly arrested for the crime spree. However, Rico is processed when he falls asleep in the cell as his friends and the coach are let go once the real criminals are thrown in the slammer.
* ProductPlacement: "Trouble in Paradise" and "Not a D'Amata" has the team members (as well as Vince's younger brother in the latter episode) attend an Indiana Pacers game, with the team's logo appearing on the stadium set.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: The only main cast member to fall under this trope was Jay Hernandez, who originated his role as Antonio Lopez in season four as a recurring character, and is upgraded to a full-time character in season five; all other cast members who joined the cast of ''Hang Time'' were newcomers to the show.
* PutMeInCoach!: Happens whenever a character is benched for something they did (such as with Teddy in "The Curfew"), the team is losing, and they want to help turn the tide.
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly
*
** Two episodes have secondary plots in which a character experiences bad luck from walking under a ladder more than once, "Game Day" (involving Michael Maxwell) and "No Smoking" (involving Kristy Connor).
** Part of the plot (technically its plot device) of "Midnight Basketball" is lifted from the "Teenline" episode of ''Saved by the Bell''.
*
* RelationshipUpgrade: Julie and Chris at the end of season one, Julie and Josh and Mary Beth and Vince in season two, and Julie and Michael in season three.
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** Vince D'Amata first appeared in the season two premiere "Winning Isn't Everything," however the character is established in that episode as having been part of the Tornados during the events of season one, albeit as an alternate who spent most of his time on the bench.
** New head cheerleader Kristy Ford is introduced similarly in the season three premiere "Team Captain," although moreso that the characters got along with her as if she had been there the whole time. Her sudden appearance is not explained at the beginning of the episode.
* RepeatWhatYouJustSaid:
** In "Fighting Words," Danny, Michael, Teddy and Vince don't realize they're supposed to be the "nothing"s in the following line:
--->'''Sensei:''' "I am Sensei, you are nothing. Repeat after me. (pointing to himself) Sensei! (pointing to the class) Nothing!"
--->'''Danny, Michael, Teddy and Vince:''' "(pointing to themselves) Sensei! (pointing to the sensei) Nothing!"
** From "At the Movies," when Kristy tries to discuss Antonio's issues with her being his boss at a movie theater and Dustin Diamond parrots everything:
--->'''Antonio:''' "Hey, Mr. Hollywood. You wanna stop hugging my girl?"[[explanation]]Dustin Diamond arrived at The Stadium as part of a plan to help Kristy make Antonio jealous.[[/explanation]]
--->'''Kristy:''' "Oh, so now I'm your girl?"
--->'''Dustin:''' "Oh, so now she's your girl?"
--->'''Kristy:''' "But when I'm your boss, I'm not your girl?"
--->'''Dustin:''' "But when she's your boss, she's not your girl?"
--->'''Kristy:''' "Is that how it works?"
--->'''Dustin:''' "Is that how it works?!"
--->'''Antonio and Kristy:''' "Enough!"
--->'''Dustin:''' "Enough!"
* {{Retool}}: ''Hang Time'' got retooled for its second season: Vince, Teddy and Josh join the Deering High Tornados, ushering in the revolving door casting that continued for the rest of the series. The show's humor becomes more akin to that of its TNBC stablemates, with the incorporation of some wackier plots. Also, the show abandoned the original theme song and credits sequence, in favor of a more rock-fueled ExpositoryThemeTune and the bouncing basketball
* RevolvingDoorCasting: By the time ''Hang Time'' ended, Julie and Mary Beth were the only characters to have been there from the pilot. Granted, high school is four years (though the timeline's a little screwed up on account that the two original characters appeared all in six seasons, the fifth being split up into two 14 and 12-episode seasons, and technically should have been in college by season five), but many of the characters that left were never stated explicitly to be seniors; even so, all but of the few that were written out were mentioned to have gone to college, the others were Put on a Bus with only a brief explanation.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: A twofer from Josh to Mary Beth in "When Loss is Gain" (see Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense below for further context):
--->'''Josh:''' "I think you're the one who's lazy and ungrateful."
--->'''Mary Beth:''' "What?"
--->'''Josh:''' "You heard me. Lazy because you couldn't give up shopping for a few days, and ungrateful because you take all your daddy's money for granted."
:Later...
--->'''Josh:''' "Look, I'm really sorry you got mugged, and I'm glad you're not hurt... but your attitude stinks! Y-- you're nothing more than a selfish, naive little princess. I don't even know why we're friends."
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Mary Beth lacks common sense or tact at times, and needs to be schooled by her friends. A key example is in "When Loss is Gain," when she breaks a vow not to shop as part of a charity fundraiser and Josh scolds her for not taking her family's wealth for granted. When she starts ragging on homeless people after being mugged for her money (technically, she gave it up to them before they actually did anything bad to her), she eats her words when she discovers that Josh is poor, living in a trailer with his grandparents.
* RomanticFalseLead: A gender-flipped version in the first season, as Danny had a crush on Julie during the first few episodes. He ended up dating Sam beginning with "Will the Real Michael Maxwell Please Stand Up" and ending off-screen a few episodes into season two, in "Harvest Moon," after Sam was already written out of the show.
* RunningGag:
** Characters being beaned in the head by basketballs.
** In "Style Before Substance" and "Sexual Harrassment," the characters perform a domino-effect bump to knock one of them out of their booth seat at The Stadium.
* SceneryCensor: In "Secrets and Lies," Eugene and Silk are duped by two girls from Deering's tournament competitor into giving them their basketball uniforms after intentionally spilling food on them under the guise of trapping them in the locker room to keep the two boys from playing in the game. When we see them undressed, they end up covering their naughty bits with a bench, and soon catch on that they were tricked. While crawling through an Air-VentPassageway, they inadvertently end up at the game wearing only cheerleader skirts, much to their embarrassment.
* SecretRelationship: Chris and Julie after the former's amicable breakup with Mary Beth in season one; the secret gets out in that season's penultimate episode "Poetic Justice".
* SexySantaDress: Mary Beth has Julie and Kristy wear some to serve as human mannequins in "Window of Opportunity".
* ShipTease: In season three's "Blood Drive," Danny becomes jealous when Kristy becomes friendly with a handsome doctor who is helping out at the school blood drive. This leads Danny to "volunteer to help" during a live television interview about the drive, breaking a blood pressure cuff that he overpumps. He makes it up to Kristy by arranging for Shareff Abdur-Rahim (then of the Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies) to appear at the drive. There was no mention of Danny having a romantic interest in Kristy before ''or'' beyond that episode.[[note]]Danny's only relationships after his long-distance relationship with Sam ended in early season two were with one-off characters until his departure, the same goes for Kristy until she meets Antonio in season four.[[/note]]
* ShortDistancePhoneCall: Vince has one with Mary Beth in order to get across that he wants quality time with her in "Blood Drive," as Mary Beth is super busy planning a dance.
* ShoutOut:
** "War of the Roses" is a shout-out to the Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner film of the same name, in title only. Although it does feature an EscalatingWar between a male and female character (in this case, Vince and Mary Beth).
** A reference to a popular band of the mid/late 1990s in "The Best Game of the Season," after making several impressive shots after Coach Fuller told the team not to get cocky about winning, Julie is asked to stay around the locker room after practice; thinking that she got in trouble, she blames listening to rock-and-roll (it turns out that she was being offered to join an women's pro basketball team in Italy). Seconds later, Teddy scolds Julie, "I told you listening to Hootie and the Blowfish would lead to no good!"
** "Fighting Words" has Julie and Kristy (in separate scenes) imitating the signature laugh of BeavisAndButthead.
** A reference to ''Film/Twister'' in a season three episode of the same name, when Vince compares the tornado that he and Mary Beth just experienced to what the flying cows in the "twister sisters" scene in the movie went through.
** In "Let Them Play," a student utters the famous "the truth? you can't handle the truth!" line from ''AFewGoodMen'' when Kristy asks him what he thought about a painting of hers that got a "C" in art class.
** "Lend a Helping Hammer" has a scene where Mary Beth and Kristy point out how cute Hammer and his date Taylor look together. Kristy compliments Taylor that she's "all that and a bag of chips," accidentally bumping Mary Beth's shoulder while snapping, eliciting this:
--->'''Mary Beth:''' "Enough with the snaps, [[Series/Moesha Moesha]]!"
** In "Kristy Nightingale," Kristy (who's studying to be a nurse under a professional one at camp) treats Rico for a bumblebee sting, Silk suggests they should start nicknaming her "[[Series/Dr.QuinnMedicineWoman Dr. Kristy: Medicine Redhead]]''.
** This quote from Silk regarding the then-recent breakup of a popular British girl group in "Hello and Goodbye," a hilariously weird comparison that easily applies to that season's and the show's other (constant) cast changes:
-->'''Silk''' (to Hammer): "First, Rico quits to join the wrestling team. Then, you're moving. We're like the SpiceGirls! No one wants to stick it out!"
** The title of the season six episode "That '60s Show" is a shout-out to ''Series/That70sShow''.
* SixStudentClique: Technically, Seven Student Clique; Julie and Mary Beth are joined by four other players, plus after Mary Beth is promoted to team manager in season two, the head cheerleader (first Amy and then for the rest of the series beginning with season three, Kristy) and while Mary Beth was head cheerleader in the first season, original team manager Sam.
* SkywardScream:
** Mary Beth gives one in "Full Court Press," when Earl gives her his pet pig Chet as a gift in repayment for saving him from choking.
** Happens twice in "Let Them Play": first, Kristy does this when she finds out that she lost a letter she wrote about her art teacher, Mr. Fields, that was meant to get out her frustrations about him. Later, she does this again after admitting to him about the insulting things she wrote in the letter, not realizing Mr. Fields didn't know about its existence. Both times its prefaced by Kristy looking toward the camera followed by a shot of Deering High's facade as she screams.
* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Done from time to time with Mary Beth and Kristy, they develop into the LaverneAndShirley of the show.
* SmokingIsCool: Averted. Teddy's smoking habit in "No Smoking" causes him to become a bit sluggish on the basketball court; Coach Fuller makes it clear to him that he doesn't want his players to smoke, and issues an ultimatum to give up cigarettes or he'll be kicked off the team. When all efforts fail, Teddy gets kicked off the team but ends up seeking help to stop smoking by the end of the episode.
* SoProudOfYou: A few. One of note is done by Coach Katowinski to Mary Beth for drumming the courage to have a guy who almost sexually assaulted her turned into the cops in "Secrets and Lies".
* SoundtrackDissonance:
** One of the acts Vince has audition for Mary Beth to serve as the band for a beach-themed dance in "Blood Drive" starts out singing a slow love song ("when she looks at me, I want to kiss her"). Then... it abruptly switches to a driving heavy metal song, startling everyone in the hallway and causing the destruction of a tree decoration Mary Beth got for the gym when a keytar player crashes into it.
** In "Goodnight, Vince," Danny plays an audio track of a Mexican bullfighting crowd as the guys help Vince get over his fear of missing a winning shot in the championship-deciding game.
* SpeechImpediment: Julie develops one when nervous in "Fake ID-ology" and "Son-in-Law".
* SplitScreenPhoneCall: A few, "Easy Credit" had one in which Rico, Silk and Hammer take turns talking to who they thought was Mary Beth, only to find out that they confessed their sticky situation to Coach Katowinski, who had just taken Mary Beth's phone from her.
* SuperstitionEpisode: In "No Smoking," Kristy runs under a ladder in the gym three times[[note]]This subplot was [[RecycledPlot recycled]] from the season one episode "Game Day," in which Michael experiences a spate of bad luck after he walks under a ladder twice, and is warned by Earl about it; weirdly, a bad luck plot is averted in "Son-in-Law," in which Vince opens an umbrella indoors, another well-known bad luck superstition, ''more than once'', following his grandfather's advice on destressing by focusing on a mindless activity.[[/note]] and Mary Beth points out that would bring her a lot of bad luck. Immediately after trying to justify that she's not going to be cursed, she gets beaned by a basketball (twice), and later (off-screen, while at home) is hit in the head by a canned ham and in the toe by a bowling ball after crashing into her mom, gets a 66 on a biology test (the first time she's ever scored below a 95) and accidentally gets squirted with ketchup by Danny. What results is her temporarily wearing protective gear to avoid getting hurt (only to crash her car not long afterward); she later finds out that she got the highest grade among the biology class (getting an "A" based on the grading curve) and comes to the realization that the mishaps were just weird coincidences. Whether than explains the blunders that happen to Kristy later on in the series is a bit suspicious.
* SweetPollyOliver: In order to sneak into a fraternity to spy on Antonio, Kristy and Mary Beth masquerade as guys in the season five episode "Finals Fury". Antonio catches on.
* TakeOurWordForIt: Kristy is the muse for a drawing by practicing artist Spencer in "Breaks of the Game," subverted in that instance that we see the drawing, it's not bad. Spencer then asks her to be the model for a painting; although she was clothed at the time, Spencer paints Kristy naked to her shock. We don't see what the painting looks like for obvious reasons, but it leads to a ZanyScheme were she, Julie and Mary Beth break into the student union they're at during a basketball tournament to steal the painting, only for Kristy to break it over Spencer's head after he walks in and they confront him.
* TalkingToTheDead: In the season six episode "The Gospel According to Silk," Silk is visited by the spirit of his aunt Charlotte, whom the gang meets earlier in the episode and later dies off-screen due to complications from a stroke midway through.
* TeensAreShort: Played straight and subverted, James Villani, who played Rico Bosco in season four, was the shortest of any of the 20 cast members in the series. Which says a lot considering most of the actors were close in height, with the sole exceptions of Reggie Theus, Dick Butkus, Kevin Bell and Robert Michael Ryan, who were relatively taller. Mark Famiglietti, who played Hammer that same season, is only about three inches taller than Villani (around the same height as Amber Baretto (Kristy), as is apparent in "SAT Blues"), but still a few inches shorter than the other cast members, even if closer to average height.
* TemptingFate: In the season three episode "No Smoking," Kristy initially does not believe that her running under a ladder in the gym (thrice) will give her bad luck. Then this happens:
-->'''Mary Beth''': You just walked under a ladder three times, that's big time bad luck.
-->'''Kristy''': Get a grip. That's just a dumb superstition, nothing bad's gonna happen to me. (gets hit in the head by a basketball) Aah!
-->'''Mary Beth''': Like that?
-->'''Kristy''': It's just a coincidence. We are in a gym. (gets hit by basketball again) Aaaah!!! Ohh!
-->'''Mary Beth''': Coincidence, I don't think so. (hums ''Twilight Zone''-like music)
* ThatCameOutWrong: In "Assault and Pepper Spray," Michael tells Coach Katowinski to "watch [coach] Larry Bird closely" for coaching ideas as Coach K prepares to leave for an Indiana Pacers game. Trying to VerbalBackspace as he realizes that came off as an insult to his coaching skills, Michael has Julie step in, causing this before they both run off:
-->'''Julie''': "Uh, coach. We'll be in the showers. I mean, not together. I mean, have fun, bye."
* ThinkingOutLoud: In "Stranded," when Coach Fuller holds a session to talk about everyone's issues, he mentions that everyone played their worst game ever the previous night, except Julie. Then this happens:
--->'''Earl, Danny, Sam and Chris (thinking):''' "Coach's pet! Coach's pet!"
--->'''Earl:''' "(aloud) Coach's pet! (thinks) Oops!".
* TitleDrop: Julie and Vince say the episode title (Julie doing it verbatim) in "Winning Isn't Everything," as part of a thinly veiled attempt to get Josh to play with the Tornados.
* TokenMinority: For a sitcom centering on a basketball team, there isn't too much diversity among the main cast. Seasons one through three avert this with the presence of African Americans Coach Fuller, and players Michael Maxwell (season one) and Teddy Brodis (seasons two and three). It's played straight in season four with the departure of Fuller and the arrival of another black player, Kenny "Silk" Hayes, then averted again with the full-time arrival of Mexican American Antonio Lopez.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Julie played the Tomboy to Mary Beth, Amy and Kristy's Girly Girls.
* TrashTalk: For a sports-themed show, this is to be expected at times. Michael Manning and Coach Fuller have insulted referees for what they perceived to be bad calls, and have gotten ejected from games because of it; Michael's hot temper with a player on another team causes Coach Katowinski to do this on purpose in "Finals Fury" to teach him that losing one's cool negatively affects the rest of your team. Occasionally, it's done outside of the basketball court. Coach Fuller even [[ItMakesSenseInContext trash-talked a fish]] in "Love on the Rockies".
* TwoFirstNames: Julie Connor.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Most episodes had two plotlines centering on a specific set of characters: for the first two seasons, the "A" and "B" plots were split pretty evenly among the characters; during the final four seasons, the "A" plot rotated between any of the players and sometimes the coach, and the "B" plot was usually a Mary Beth/Kristy plotline, though this varied a good bit (the latter two characters had their own individual or joint "A" plots in a few episodes, with a mix of some of the players being part of the "A" plot and others being part of the "B" plot, the coaches also had their own plots). In the Very Special Episodes, one plotline was serious and one was comedic.
* TwoWordsObviousTrope: Played with in "Trouble in Paradise," when Danny confronts Chris about "stealing" Julie (after pointing out that Danny can't say two words to her):
--->'''Danny:''' "Yeah! Well, I have two words for you: stay away... from her."
* TypeCasting: NBA player Reggie Theus playing former NBA player-turned-high school basketball coach Bill Fuller.
* UltimateJobSecurity: The many screw-ups Mary Beth has made as team manager (especially those in "The Best Game of the Season") would have gotten her fired many times over in RealLife, but she manages to keep her job anyway.
* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Most of the characters try to avoid this.
* VacationEpisode: Given that this is a show centering on a basketball team, this is to be expected, since basketball players travel a lot. Season three had episodes that took the Tornados to a tournament in Los Angeles and to a ski resort in Aspen (the latter was arranged by Mary Beth's parents); seasons three and four had the characters volunteer at a basketball camp and season four had the characters play in a tournament in San Antonio. Seasons three and four also had the team travel to the Indiana high school basketball championships in Bloomington.
* VerySpecialEpisode: ''Hang Time'' tried it more than its sister show ''Saved by the Bell'' did:
** In season two's "Short Cuts," Vince takes steroids to give him an edge on the court. Josh is the first to find out after noticing pimples on his neck (and noticing Vince's sudden playing improvement and agressiveness during games and practice). Everyone else finds out after Amy notices Vince is in a student film (the tape of which he destroys when they threaten to show it to Coach Fuller) buying steroids from Jimbo, the student who dealt him them. Vince later regrets hitting Josh after Coach Fuller informs him that Josh had spilled, and explains to Fuller and NBA player Muggsy Bogues that the reason he took them was because he felt insecure that his size was a disadvantage as an athlete.
: "Breaks of the Game," from two seasons later, has a subverted RecycledPlot in which Hammer fails a drug test when he tests positive for steroids, only for it to have been a false positive caused by his allergy medication.
** "Superman Brodis" from season two focuses on the topic of ParentalAbandonment, when Teddy meets the father who left him and his mother as a little kid to pursue his basketball career. Teddy is disappointed to find that Theodore, Sr. is strict and critical, and even evokes YouAreNotMyFather in one scene ("you may be my father, but you are not my dad!"). Theodore, Sr. later attends a free-throw competition his son is participating in to make amends and forge a relationship with Teddy, who decides to give it a shot.
** In season three's "No Smoking," Danny discovers that Teddy had started smoking cigarettes over the summer. Coach Fuller catches him smoking while they are both at the mall, and gives Teddy an ultimatum that either he quit smoking or he'll be kicked off the team. This leads Danny, Vince and Michael to try methods that end up failing hilariously at getting him to quit from meditation to hypnosis (which only proceeds to put Vince and Danny in a trance, causing them to fall off the stands). It is only after he discovers that a kid he's mentoring smokes as well, that Teddy makes a deal with him to kick the habit.
: A similar plot occurs in season four's "High Hoops," in which Rico starts smoking marijuana in order to get closer to a girl who smokes it. Rico ends up shirking his responsibility of fixing Hammer's motorcycle, causing him to be injured when his brakes malfunction. Rico then goes to Coach Katowinski for help quitting.
** In season three's "Mary Beth's Parents," Mary Beth finds out that her parents are getting divorced after overhearing Teddy discussing about how to break the news to her, after Vince overheard her parents talking about it. This causes an attempt to recreate her parents' first date in the hopes of rekindling their romance.
** Another season three episode, "The Perfect Girl," has Mary Beth considering having plastic surgery after she is passed over for a modeling opportunity. She later decides against having work done on her after she and Kristy meet a woman at the cosmetic surgeon's office who became a basic mummy after having multiple surgeries done.
** Played a little lighter than the other VSEs, in season three's "Goodnight, Vince," Vince suffers from sleep deprivation after missing a foul shot that their competitors, Edgecliff High, intercept to beat Deering by one point.
** Season four's "Lend a Helping Hammer" has Hammer and his friends try to help out a GirlOfTheWeek named Taylor, whose family is homeless. He blabs it to everyone at the school dance when trying to clarify the reason why the funds raised for new team uniforms are being donated to her family. They pitch in and help her dad look for a job to get Taylor's family out of the situation, although the job he does get is in the next state over, Michigan.
** In season four's "Let Them Play," the Tornados become hesitant to play against Lennox High after they find out that one of the players on that team has HIV; Julie ends up being the only one who backs out – even after meeting said player and being informed that the chances of contracting HIV or AIDS while playing basketball is very low – worrying that she might get infected due to blood contact while defending the ball. The players don't chastize her for it, though. The rest of the team then decides to hold a non-sanctioned game against Lennox when the school board cancels the game out of concerns from the parents of ''that'' school's students.
** Season four's "Assault and Pepper Spray" has a bit of a BreakTheCutie situation with Kristy when she is mugged in a parking garage while leaving from her job at a mall hot dog cart. Afraid to be alone in public, her friends make the unintentional blunder of giving her a surprise birthday party at the gym, turning the lights on and running out of their hiding places. Julie and Mary Beth decide to take Kristy to a self-defense class. Kristy then asks Mary Beth to sub in for her at the cart. Kristy gets Hammer to buy her some pepper spray, believing that she would be safer with it; this backfires when she accidentally sprays herself and Michael when leaving from work, when she mistakes the latter for a mugger. Kristy later admits she should have had Julie, Mary Beth and Michael walk her to her car to avoid such a situation, and decides to retake the self-defense class.
** Season five's "Tolerance" focuses on Kristy befriending a GothGirl; while showing support for Syd after Mary Beth and Julie make fun of those kind of people, she starts donning goth gear herself, but ends up the victim of a hate crime when two jocks beat her and Syd up. The episode ends with Mary Beth and Julie learning a lesson about treating those who may be outcasts (like goths) with respect, and that discrimination against them is no different than discrimination against people based on skin color, sexual orientation, etc.
** Season five's "Beer Pressure" deals with drunk driving. Julie dates an older guy named Brian, who Michael is jealous of. When the takes her to a school dance, Kristy and Mary Beth catch Brian drinking a bottle of beer, but they are unsure whether they should step in and stop her from going with him when Julie doesn't do it. Brian drives Julie home and gets them both injured in a car accident, benching her from the team's next game. With a dislocated shoulder, Julie realizes that she shouldn't try to fit in with older people and decides against seeing him again, and ends up rekindling her relationship with Michael. The Tornados manage to win the game, even without her on the court.
** In the season five episode "Revolver? Problem Solver?," Silk decides to get a gun in an attempt to protect himself from a bully. He narrowly avoids accidentally shooting Mary Beth, who tries to step in to break up the two guys' fight, when the gun inadvertently fires at a window.
* The season six episode "Secrets and Lies" dealt with Mary Beth being forced upon by a guy she meets during the team's tournament. See AttemptedRape and DateRapeAverted.
* WackyFratBoyHijinks: The fraternity orientation that Antonio, Mary Beth and Kristy attend in "Finals Fury".
* WackyGuy: Teddy in seasons two and three qualifies, as does Rico in season four.
* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: In "Kristy Connor," Vince names the cow his Uncle Toomsey delivered instead of a package of meat for a cookout at the basketball camp[[explanation]]Uncle Toomsey's English is not very good, and Vince admits his family never figured out which language Toomsey speaks[[/explanation]] after Mary Beth, whom he was ''dating'' at the time. Michael even points out what a bad idea that was.
-->'''Michael''': "Vince, I don't think you could do anything stupider than this."
-->'''Vince''' (to the cow): "Well, you don't think I'm stupid. Do you, Mary Beth?"
-->'''Teddy''': "You named the cow after your girlfriend?"
-->'''Michael''': "I was wrong. You could do something stupider."
* WhatTheFuAreYouDoing?: Vince breaks a board with his head during a martial arts class in "Fighting Words". Awesome, but painful... he knocks himself delirious and exclaims "I'm not Vince, I'm Batman," before collapsing on the mat.
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* VerySpecialEpisode: Tried it more than its sister show did, even, with issues from AIDS to sleep deprivation.
to:
* VerySpecialEpisode: Tried it more than its sister WildTeenParty: A brief one happens in season one's "The Bachelor Pad," which Danny (who was looking after Coach Fuller's apartment) stops and results in Coach Fuller's massage chair shorting out.
* TheWindyCity: Not in regards to the show's setting, which is in a state that borders Illinois, but in that both Julie and Vince are both established to be from Chicago. Vince is the only one of the two that has a "Chic-ah-go accent".
* WomenAreWiser: Julie fits this at times. However, the other girls in the showdid, even, with issues from AIDS to sleep deprivation.have equal moments of incompetence as the guys. Doubly subverted in that Coach Fuller can be a pretty wise man himself.
* TheWindyCity: Not in regards to the show's setting, which is in a state that borders Illinois, but in that both Julie and Vince are both established to be from Chicago. Vince is the only one of the two that has a "Chic-ah-go accent".
* WomenAreWiser: Julie fits this at times. However, the other girls in the show
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* YoungerThanTheyLook: Wendy, the new calculus teacher at Deering that Eugene dated in "Tolerance". Eugene, who believed Wendy was 22, thought that she would dump him if she found out he was still in high school, Eugene finds out from her at the school dance that Wendy's actually a 16-year-old GradeSkipper genius.
* [[YouKnowI'mBlackRight You Know I'm a Girl, Right?]]: The focus of the season two episode "Just One of the Guys". As much as Julie tried to prove she can be just as good a player as the guys can when she first joined the Tornados, Julie becomes self-conscious when Mary Beth and Amy break to her that she needs to act more feminine. Her attempts to impress Josh by acting more like a [[GirlinessUpgrade girly girl]] (as part of an UnnecessaryMakeover, complete with a BareYourMidriff top and a DangerouslyShortSkirt) fail. She then decides to quit the team, out of concern that Josh won't notice her until a talk with Olympic track-and-field legend Florence Griffith-Joyner (arranged by Coach Fuller) sets her straight that she can be an athlete and still be a woman.
* YourTelevisionHatesYou: A twist in that it's also Your Book Hates You; in "Fighting for Your Dreams," Kristy tries to take Antonio's mind off of blowing a shot at getting into the University of Kentucky after injuring his knee by watching TV... only to turn on the Kentucky Derby, and then a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken (although she turns off the TV before the announcer says the full name). She then reads a mystery book to him, in which the character remembers the summers he spent in... you know where this is going.
* ZanyScheme: Not relied upon, but the show had quite a few, many of which involved Mary Beth and Kristy.
* [[YouKnowI'mBlackRight You Know I'm a Girl, Right?]]: The focus of the season two episode "Just One of the Guys". As much as Julie tried to prove she can be just as good a player as the guys can when she first joined the Tornados, Julie becomes self-conscious when Mary Beth and Amy break to her that she needs to act more feminine. Her attempts to impress Josh by acting more like a [[GirlinessUpgrade girly girl]] (as part of an UnnecessaryMakeover, complete with a BareYourMidriff top and a DangerouslyShortSkirt) fail. She then decides to quit the team, out of concern that Josh won't notice her until a talk with Olympic track-and-field legend Florence Griffith-Joyner (arranged by Coach Fuller) sets her straight that she can be an athlete and still be a woman.
* YourTelevisionHatesYou: A twist in that it's also Your Book Hates You; in "Fighting for Your Dreams," Kristy tries to take Antonio's mind off of blowing a shot at getting into the University of Kentucky after injuring his knee by watching TV... only to turn on the Kentucky Derby, and then a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken (although she turns off the TV before the announcer says the full name). She then reads a mystery book to him, in which the character remembers the summers he spent in... you know where this is going.
* ZanyScheme: Not relied upon, but the show had quite a few, many of which involved Mary Beth and Kristy.
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* AndStarring: Reggie Theus got the last credit in the first three seasons; his [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replacement]] Dick Butkus got it for the last three.
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Pretty sure it was focussed more on the kids as a whole than just Julie.
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More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on Creator/{{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of Julie Connor as she joins the Deering Tornadoes. Moving from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering, she must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
to:
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on Creator/{{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of the Deering Tornadoes, a highschool basketball team. The series starts as Julie Connor as she joins the Deering Tornadoes. Moving moves from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering, she Deering and joins the team. She must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
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** Reduced in many episodes, which gave rest of the team (and the other characters) as much focus as Julie.
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Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on {{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of Julie Connor as she joins the Deering Tornadoes. Moving from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering, she must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
to:
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on {{NBC}}'s Creator/{{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of Julie Connor as she joins the Deering Tornadoes. Moving from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering, she must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
team.
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* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were not
to:
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were not not
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* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly Saved by the Bell with basketball, as almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For example, CaliforniaDreams is Saved By the Bell WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!)
to:
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly Saved by the Bell with basketball, as almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For example, CaliforniaDreams is Saved By the Bell WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!) BAND}}!)
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* YouGoGirl: Basically the whole point of the series.
to:
* YouGoGirl: Basically the whole point of the series.
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SavedByTheBell [[RecycledINSPACE WITH BASKETBALL!]]
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on {{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of Julie Connor as she joins the Deering Tornadoes. Moving from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering, she must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
It is similar to Saved By the Bell in yet ''another'' way: the infamous cast changes. Two characters from the original series remained by the last season, and those shuffling in between have been lost to time.
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!!Tropes related to the series:
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Naturally. It gives Julie some competition.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were not
* CatchPhrase: MICHAEL MAAAAAANNING!
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After season one, all main characters but two were dropped without explanation. In later seasons they would make up excuses for them - scholarships elsewhere, joining the wrestling team instead, etc.
* GenkiGirl: Sam Morgan.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: [[SavedByTheBell Screech]] appeared in one episode.
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly Saved by the Bell with basketball, as almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For example, CaliforniaDreams is Saved By the Bell WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!)
* SixStudentClique
* SpecialGuest: Famous basketball stars, eventually Lisa Leslie.
* WhoNeedsOvertime
* VerySpecialEpisode: Tried it more than its sister show did, even, with issues from AIDS to sleep deprivation.
* YouGoGirl: Basically the whole point of the series.
----
More specifically, ''Hang Time'' was a sitcom airing from 1995-2000 on {{NBC}}'s Saturday morning SavedByTheBell-clone block, TNBC, about the adventures of Julie Connor as she joins the Deering Tornadoes. Moving from the big city to the small Indiana town of Deering, she must adjust to culture shock as well as try to fit in on the boy's basketball team.
It is similar to Saved By the Bell in yet ''another'' way: the infamous cast changes. Two characters from the original series remained by the last season, and those shuffling in between have been lost to time.
----
!!Tropes related to the series:
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Naturally. It gives Julie some competition.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Most of the events of the first season were not
* CatchPhrase: MICHAEL MAAAAAANNING!
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After season one, all main characters but two were dropped without explanation. In later seasons they would make up excuses for them - scholarships elsewhere, joining the wrestling team instead, etc.
* GenkiGirl: Sam Morgan.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: [[SavedByTheBell Screech]] appeared in one episode.
* RecycledINSPACE!: Quite clearly Saved by the Bell with basketball, as almost all shows on the TNBC lineup were. (For example, CaliforniaDreams is Saved By the Bell WITH A {{GARAGE BAND}}!)
* SixStudentClique
* SpecialGuest: Famous basketball stars, eventually Lisa Leslie.
* WhoNeedsOvertime
* VerySpecialEpisode: Tried it more than its sister show did, even, with issues from AIDS to sleep deprivation.
* YouGoGirl: Basically the whole point of the series.
----
