A follow-up series to the 1990s sitcom. A group of California low-income high school students are transferred to Pacific Palisades' wealthy Bayside High, following a program by California Governor Zack Morris.
The "human cartoon" approach to sitcoms that 30 Rock and Great News had is a great match for Wigfield's take on Saved by the Bell, which fondly skewers the tropes of the original while recycling them with a self-aware wink.
Saved by the Bell is surprisingly well-written, genuinely funny, and heartfelt. The new characters are actually well-rounded and can carry the show on their own with very little support from the original cast.
Could there have been a more organic way to bring SBTB up to date? Why not simply remake Bayside as a real, diverse school whose student body isn't so wealthy and culturally homogenous?
The relative praise of "for a Saved by the Bell reboot, it's pretty good!" has been fairly earned. Still, a show about the subtle patronization of lowered expectations shouldn't be aspiring to little more than exactly that.
The returning cast fits the new mood ably. The younger players are first-rate - even better than one might notice at first, given the general air of nuttiness.
For all that I've gone on about the smart casting and careful structural strategizing done by Wigfield and her team, I've neglected to hammer home the real selling point of this series which is, it is amazingly, absurdly funny.
"Saved by the Bell" is a throwback that looks forward, embracing the past while living in the now. And it shows that you can teach the old school some new tricks.
