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YMMV / Saved by the Bell: The College Years

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  • Awesome Music: The theme song is considered just as catchy and memorable as it was in 1993 and the previous series' theme.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the episode "A Question of Ethics", while the others are dumpster diving to look for a copy of a difficult exam, Screech deposits his trash in while singing the Sesame Street theme song.
  • Character Rerailment: Subverted with Screech. He was a bit of a fusion of his season 1-2 and season 3-4 self from the original. While he had a tendency to screw up like the latter, it was less disastrous and less frequent, and he showed the academic intelligence that defined his character in the early seasons.
  • Designated Hero: Slater and Teresa from "Slaters War" were portrayed as heroes for trying to call for more Hispanic representation on campus. While that in and of itself wasn't a problem, their behavior throughout the episode was deplorable. Teresa acted very racist towards Slater immediately assuming he spoke Spanish and told him he was Hispanic just because he looked it and because Hispanic people had been ashamed of their heritage in the past. While she ended up being right, she was never called out on adhering to the ideology all Hispanic Americans speak Spanish. Zack mentioned he thought Slater was Italian, it was never pointed out how racist Teresa would've been if Zack had been right as people from other races can look Hispanic. On Slater's side, he acts like an immature easily offended brat getting offended over completely mundane things like being asked to clean a table while working as a busboy. He even accused Zack of being racist for thinking a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes was beautiful even though his main love interest was a brunette, and he even briefly dated Lisa in the original series who was black.
  • Designated Villain: Zack in "Dr. Kelly". In the episode, he comes off as unsupportive of Kelly's decision to go to medical school, but in reality he was far more logical than Kelly for a number of reasons. Firstly, even if it is a joke, he remarks how bad she was at giving CPR to her class dummy (something that one is required to be competent at in order to be a doctor), who subsequently died. Also, Kelly was seen both here and in the original series to be an average student who cared more about sports and other extracurricular activities than maintaining high grades and her decision to be a doctor seems like more of a whim than a passion. Lastly, given all of the above and her lack of finances otherwise (to the point of admitting that working at the student health clinic doesn't pay well and working at the Hooters-esque restaurant, while it pays somewhat better, is demeaning work with a sexist environment), even if she were somehow successful in her goal, it's not unheard-of for Med students to withdraw from their courses due to massive debt. While Zack may have hurt her with his remark to be more realistic in pursuing a career in medicine, it was little more than a pipe dream anyhow.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Dean Susan McMann. She didn't show up until the last few episodes of the series, but fans liked her no-nonsense attitude and her interactions with Zack. Holland Taylor's performance as her also helped a great deal.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Seeing Dean McMann deny the right for a man to be declared homecoming queen in spite of overwhelming support from the students in one episode becomes this for two reasons: little fuss would be raised in today's world over the decision to do so and that Holland Taylor came out as a lesbian years after the series ended.
  • Memetic Mutation: "The College Years" (or just "The _______ Years") is often sarcastically used as a stock subtitle for hypothetical spinoffs to television shows, in much the same manner as _______ 2: Electric Boogaloo is for hypothetical sequels to movies.
  • The Scrappy:
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Slater learning his dad was Mexican and changed his last name to avoid facing bigotry in the Army had a lot of potential to explore his family history, instead it's just relegated to a plot point in a Very Special Episode.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Kelly in two instances:
    • First was her attitude in "Dr. Kelly" when she decides to set a high goal for herself and become a doctor. Zack warns her that she might be in over her head. Medical school is extremely challenging and Kelly was just an average student in high school, so Zack came off as just trying to stop her from setting herself up for failure. Kelly overreacts and decides to ditch class and be a waitress at a hostile sports bar. The show comes off as shortsighted as Kelly didn't have to be a doctor to be in the medical field. In the end, it's Zack who has to learn to respect her goals and Kelly never even admits she took Zack's comments too personally.
    • Second was her relationship with Dr. Lasky. While Lasky committed a gross ethical violation, Kelly comes off as even stupider than she did in the Jeff arc. She expected Lasky to put his career on the line to commit to a relationship that wasn't guaranteed to go anywhere. The only reason Lasky got away with it was a huge Continuity Snarl when Lasky almost got in trouble when Zack pretended to be him to date a student. Also, she was incredibly short-sighted dropping his class thinking that would make their relationship okay and she never considered the fact she would have to be the stepmom to his child, even if it went anywhere, as she thought it was like being her babysitter. Kelly telling Lasky off for not wanting to commit to her after all she did for him was supposed to be a Moment of Awesome but came off as entitled, since he told her he didn't feel anything serious towards her episodes prior and was not leading her on, but she thought he still liked her because he got her out of trouble as a favor to Zack.
  • Values Dissonance:
    • In the Thanksgiving Episode, Zack at one point imitates an East-Indian convenience store clerk's mannerisms, complete with accent. It's...uncomfortable to view to say the least, then or now.
    • Similarly, in the second episode Professor Lasky pretends that he's a fellow student in his own class and tells Zack that the teacher is likely into Pygmy women who wear bones through their noses.
  • Vindicated by History: When the series first premiered, many wrote it off as a gratuitous and less funny extension of Saved by the Bell. Over time and through repeated airings on TBS, fans have warmed up to the show to the point that they consider it the best thing to come out of the franchise after the original series.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: Many derided Zack's longer hair in the series, with some going as far as to say that it made him look fat.

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