Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00.  The show is currently on Prime.

This week, Scott takes over Bayside Radio.  Hey, Zack did that too!

Episode 1.5 “Love Is On The Air”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on October 9th, 1993)

The school board is threatening to close down Bayside’s radio station!

Really?  Didn’t we already do this story on the original Saved By The Bell?  For that matter, wasn’t this exact same plot used on California Dreams, City Guys, Malibu CA, and Hang Time?  Why was Peter Engel so obsessed with high school radio stations?

Scott, of course, talks Mr. Belding into letting him run the station.  Scott wants Lindsay to do an advice show but, right before the show starts, Lindsay has a fight with Tommy D and runs out of the studio.  While Scott is trying to get Lindsay to come back, Weasel goes on the air as “Dr, Love.”  Weasel’s gives relationship advice to anyone who calls in.  No one realizes that they’re actually talking to Weasel.  “Dr. Love” becomes extremely popular while Weasel remains unpopular, despite the fact that he was the most popular kid in school just two episodes ago.

This was a dumb episode.  It perhaps would have been worse if it had aired during the original run of Saved By The Bell, just because Screech would have been Dr. Love.  Isaac Lidsky, who is today a respected businessman, was a considerably better actor than Dustin Diamond and Weasel was easier to take than Screech.  That said, Scott’s sociopathic behavior in this episode was considerably less charming than Zack’s.  Every episode seems to feature Scott trying to break up Lindsay and Tommy D but Lindsay and Tommy seem pretty happy together.  Zack may have competed with Slater for Kelly’s attention but Kelly was single at the time and clearly interested in him.  Lindsay seems to be totally into Tommy.  Scott’s pathological obsession with breaking up a happy couple doesn’t make Scott a particularly likable protagonist

Go back to Valley, Scott!  Bayside doesn’t need you.