During its seven year run Saved by the Bell: The New Class went through many cast changes. The list below is arranged in chronological order beginning with the original Season 1 cast.
For tropes relating to Mr. Richard Belding and Samuel "Screech" Powers see the original Saved by the Bell character sheet.
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Characters first appearing in Season 1:
Scott Erickson
Portrayed by: Robert Sutherland Telfer
- Better as Friends: He eventually gives up chasing Lindsay and turns his attention to other girls, much improving his relationship with the rest of the gang.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Scott follows in Zack Morris' footsteps as the lead character who was aware of and interacted with the audience.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Scott vanishes without explanation between Season 1 and Season 2.
- Expy: In both personality and role as the main character Scott strongly resembles Zack Morris. However he also draws a little from Slater in being the brand new student and outsider who is trying to make his mark in school.
- Heel Realization: In 'Homecoming King' Scott has managed to wrangle a date with Lindsay with Tommy D's reluctant acquiescence (Lindsay's mother disapproves of Tommy D and wants her to date other boys.) Scott is fully prepared to make a move to kiss Lindsay but, remembering Tommy D's trust in him, Scott feels too guilty to go through with it and stops going after her.
- High-School Hustler: Not quite to the extremes of his predecessor (he lacks a phone of his own for one thing) but Scott is still a schemer out to make money, impress cute girls and slide by with as little work as possible.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: After the first couple of episodes where he verges into being an outright (comedic) Villain Protagonist he settles into this with the jerk part gradually diminishing.
- Mad Libs Catch Phrase: "Back in Valley I used to run/be president of/called Mr. [extra curricular activity]" used whenever he is trying to convince Mr. Belding to let him into a position of authority in some club, usually implied to be Blatant Lies.
- New Transfer Student: Scott was formerly a student at Bayside's arch-rival Valley High and he begins the series trying to make a name for himself and find his place in a new school.
- Ship Tease: Besides Lindsay (who he spends half a season trying to woo) and Rachel (who he dates even if she only appears in "Swap Meet") Scott has a bit of this with both Megan and Vicki.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In the first episode a viewer would have to look pretty hard to see any redeeming features in Scott. He starts chasing Lindsay, who is in a committed relationship, mostly to secure his place as the Big Man on Campus. However in subsequent episodes he is shown to be much nicer and genuine friends with the others, who in turn warm to him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Tommy D eventually settle into this kind of friendship after Scott stops trying to win Lindsay.
Barton 'Weasel' Wyzell
Portrayed by: Isaac Lidsky
- Academic Athlete: Amazingly enough, Weasel turns out to be a great football player (specifically as a kicker.)
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Weasel vanishes without explanation between Season 1 and Season 2.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Weasel has a long standing and hopeless crush on Megan.
- Expy: Weasel is very much the new 'Screech', albeit the pre-Flanderization version of Screech rather than the more buffoonish version he later turned into. He has an embarrassing nickname, an unrequited crush on the beautiful fashionista in the group and has nerdy interests.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Almost universally addressed by his nickname 'Weasel', with only teachers and his lifelong friend Lindsay using his real name.
- Platonic Life-Partners: He has an ancient friendship with Lindsay who is one of the few to use his real name rather than 'Weasel'.
Vicki Needleman
Portrayed by: Bonnie Russavage
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Vicki vanishes without explanation between Season 1 and Season 2.
- Dogged Nice Girl: Vicki is hopelessly in love with Scott who likes her as a friend but is definitely not into her in that way, partly because he finds her neuroses irritating and partly because she comes on very strong.
- Dumb Blonde: A downplayed version. Vicki is blonde and while not exactly dumb is kind of out there in her thinking thanks to her neurotic personality and poor social skills.
- Hypochondria: Vicki has a vast list of allergies most of which/all of which seem to exist only in her mind. In 'George Washington Kissed Here' Scott even tries to fend off her advances by claiming to have a made up disease - though it turns out her fondness for Scott trumps even her normally crippling health phobias and she gets the school nurse to give her a shot so she can stick near him.
- Punny Name: 'Needleman' is prone to allergies and health neuroses and talks about them constantly.
Lindsay Warner
Portrayed by: Natalia Cigliuti
- Expy: To Kelly. Pretty, popular, bubbly, wholesome, in a Love Triangle with the schemer and the jock.
- Mad Libs Catch Phrase: In Seasons 1 and 2, Lindsay often says, "Isn't Tommy sweet / cute when he's ___?" She invariably hugs Tom when she says it.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Weasel. They have a similar lifelong bond to Zack and Jessie in Season 1.
- Put on a Bus: After season 3, transferring to another school.
Megan Jones
Portrayed by: Bianca Lawson
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after season 2 without any explanation.
- Expy: To both Jessie, being very smart and an overachiever, and Lisa, as the Token Minority and the target of the nerd's unrequited love.
- Go-Getter Girl: As the Jessie character type, she is the school's driven over-achiever.
- Token Minority: Just like Lisa, the only black girl of the main cast.
Thomas 'Tommy D' De Luca
Portrayed by: Jonathan Angel
- Characterization Marches On: As an Expy of Slater in Season 1, he's not above threatening violence on whoever did him wrong. Then he Took a Level in Kindness in Season 2, where his tendency for violent retribution is all but gone. In Season 3 he Took a Level in Dumbass before he's Put on a Bus for the rest of the series' run (Season 4 onward).
- Dumb Jock: The star quarterback of the football team but not very bright.
- Expy: An unusual example in that Tommy D actually resembles the original design of 'Slater' as an Italian-American 'greaser' more than he does the version of Slater that eventually made it to screen, which ended up being heavily influenced by Mario Lopez's acting style and charisma.
Rachel Meyers
Portrayed by: Sarah Lancaster
- Everyone Loves Blondes: A blonde and popular cheerleader.
- The Fashionista: The resident fashion-obsessed shopaholic.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: In the Season 4 episode "Vote Screech". Oddly, she's not this in the Season 2 episode "Tommy the Tenor".
- One Degree of Separation: In a show known for Revolving Door Casting Rachel is the only student character to link nearly all the other main characters. In her Season 1 episode ('Swap Meet') she dates Scott and at least indirectly interacts with Vicki and Weasel. From Season 2 through the end of Season 4 she interacts with everyone and even after she leaves, Liz is explicitly contrasted and compared with her. Only Tony who arrives long after she left has no link at all to Rachel and only Mr. Belding has more links overall (Screech interacts with everyone but is still behind Rachel as he only arrived after Scott, Vicki and Weasel were gone.)
- Promotion to Opening Titles: A Satellite Love Interest to Scott in season 1, promoted to regular in Season 2 when she was brought back to replace Vicki.
- Put on a Bus: After season 4. She's mentioned a few times in early season 5, especially by Maria and Katie.
Characters first appearing in Season 2:
Brian Keller
Portrayed by: Christian Oliver
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after season 2 without explanation or further mention.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Brian has a crush on Rachel early on in Season 2, to the point that impressing Rachel in the hope of getting her to fall in love with him is the ulterior motive behind many of his schemes.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Shown in the episode "Tommy the Tenor".
Bobby Wilson
Portrayed by: Spankee Rodgers
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He, like Brian, disappears after season 2 without explanation or further mention.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Throughout Season 2, Bobby tries, without much success, to date Megan.
- Remember the New Guy?: Just like his disappearance, even his first appearance in season 2 is never explained. He's not a New Transfer Student, he was apparently always there.
- Token Minority: He is the only black guy of the core characters in Season 2, though Megan is also the Token Minority of the girls.
Characters first appearing in Season 3:
R.J. "Hollywood" Collins
Portrayed by: Salim Grant
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after season 3 without explanation or further mention.
- Embarrassing First Name / Embarrassing Middle Name: R.J. stands for "Ronald Joseph". He prefers being Only Known by Initials, though.
- Only Known by Initials: Just like A.C. Slater. Unlike Slater, however, he's addressed as "R.J." instead.
- Token Minority: The only black guy of the core characters in Season 3.
Ryan Parker
Portrayed by: Richard Lee Jackson
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Nicky's Betty for Liz's Archie in season 5. He wins.
- Expy: A blonde KidAnova and sort of schemer like Zack Morris from the original series.
- High-School Hustler: Like Zack. It's even mentioned In-Universe early in season 3 by Maria, due to her having been with Ryan longer as fellow classmates and, therefore, more privy to his tendency to scheme for what he wants. That said, most of his schemes end up failing, for one reason or another.
- KidAnova: Again, just like Zack. He dated Lindsay (season 3), Rachel (season 4), and Liz (season 5).
- Put on a Bus: After season 5. Also a mild example of Put on a Bus to Hell, since in the season 6 premiere his girlfriend Liz is not sad at all about his departure. At some point she pretends to be sad in front of her friends, then she throws away Ryan's picture while happily hanging out with another boy.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Scott, the original main character from Season 1, who was also an High-School Hustler and Expy of Zack from the original series, and therefore they obviously have much in common. However, even beyond that, Ryan seems very closely based on Scott in particular: Scott was a Valley student who transferred to Bayside, wooed Lindsay, dated Rachel and had a frenemy relationship with Tommy D, all of which would later be true of Ryan.
Maria Lopez
Portrayed by: Samantha Becker
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Tino's Foolish. As revealed in "Her Brother's Keeper", her brother Tino can't do anything without her help.
- Go-Getter Girl: Shares this with Katie. Both are ambitious and involved in many school activities.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Maria is arguably the best known New Class student and the one appearing in the most episodes (104 out of 143 total) but she didn't appear until the start of Season 3.
- It's All About Me: She can be very self-absorbed at times. Thankfully she's called out on it.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: She's popular, and somewhat snarky and selfish, but still overall a good person.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Named after Mario Lopez, the actor who played Slater in the original show.
- Official Couple: With Tony in later seasons. They break up near the end.
- Spicy Latina: Maria is attractive, outspoken, and has the attitude.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: She spends one episode trying to get her father's attention, because he's too busy to notice her.
Characters first appearing in Season 4:
Cornelius "Eric" Little
Portrayed by: Anthony Harrell
- Academic Athlete: A football player and a good student. Being also a charming musician, he can qualify as The Ace.
- Embarrassing First Name: His real name Cornelius.
- Lovable Jock: A star athlete and very friendly most of the time.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: It's revealed in "Guess Who's Running the Max" that Eric is just a nickname. He has an Embarrassing First Name (Cornelius) which he would rather keep to himself out of the knowledge of others.
- Remember the New Guy?: Introduced this way in season 4.
- Token Minority: The only black guy of the core characters from Seasons 4 to 7.
Nicky Farina
Portrayed by: Ben Gould
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Ryan's Veronica for Liz's Archie in season 5. He loses.
- Big Applesauce: He comes from New York and after graduation he's planning to go there again to study at the New York University.
- The Generic Guy: He lasted four seasons but has no notable characteristics and is only defined by the girl he's dating (or the girl he's interested in) at the moment.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Shown in the Season 6 episode "The Young and the Sleepless". That said, his singing skill is more decent in the Season 4 episode "Renaissance Faire".
- Official Couple: With Katie, his main Love Interest, though he also dated Maria for a while.
- Satellite Love Interest: This is what defines him the most, as he's The Generic Guy otherwise.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Occasionally with Katie, especially after they get back together in later seasons.
Katie Peterson
Portrayed by: Lindsey McKeon
- Academic Athlete: She is a swimmer, but also likes poetry and is an editor of the school newspaper.
- Girl Next Door: While quite popular, she's mostly an ordinary and responsible Nice Girl.
- Go-Getter Girl: Shares this with Maria. Both are ambitious and involved in many school activities.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: "Big Sister Blues" focuses on her older sister Robin being The Ace and Katie's jealousy.
- Official Couple: With Nicky, her main Love Interest. They become Amicable Exes for a period but eventually they start dating again.
- Passionate Sports Girl: She is in the swim team.
- Remember the New Guy?: Introduced this way in season 4.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Occasionally with Nicky, especially after they get back together in later seasons.
Characters first appearing in Season 5:
Liz Miller
Portrayed by: Ashley Lyn Cafagna
- Academic Athlete: A Passionate Sports Girl who is also quite smart and planning to go to Stanford in the final episode.
- Contrasting Replacement Character: She replaces Rachel (in the group and as Ryan's Love Interest) but, as lampshaded in-universe, she's her opposite: Rachel was a popular, confident shopaholic, Liz is insecure and is more interested in sports than fashion.
- Dude Magnet: Ends up attracting both stepbrothers Ryan and Nicky unwittingly. And after Ryan is Put on a Bus, she immediately finds another boyfriend (who doesn't last long though).
- Naïve Newcomer: A bit sheltered when she first joins the group in season 5, but eventually gets better.
- Passionate Sports Girl: A dedicated swimmer.
Characters first appearing in Season 6:
Tony Dillon
Portrayed by: Tom Wade Huntington
- New Old Flame: Introduced in season 6 as a former boyfriend of Maria who ditched her at the prom a few years ago.
- Official Couple: With Maria, but they break up near the end.
- Troubled, but Cute: He has issues, at least initially, and is described as "cute" in-universe.
