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, Rachel’s boyfriend returns.

Episode 2.8 “Rachel’s Choice”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on October 1st, 1994)

Oh, Hell, we’re back at the country club.

Rachel and Brian are now dating but Rachel still hasn’t told her long-distance boyfriend, football star David Conrad (Kevin Bell).  In this episode, it’s mentioned that Rachel has been dating David for two years (so why was she going on out on a date with Scott during season one?) and that David is the “local boy made good.”  Mr. Belding acts as if David is the only good football player that Bayside ever had, which is definitely A.C. Slater erasure.

(It’s weird how Bayside went from being the most exclusive school in Los Angeles during the first series to apparently just some throw-away slum school in the New Class.)

David told Rachel that he would be spending the summer in Europe but — surprise! — he comes home early for Rachel’s birthday.  (David immediately recognizes Screech as someone he went to school with so David is at least 20.  Rachel appeared in the first 4 seasons of The New Class and, when she left, it was because she transferred to another school.  So, Rachel is around 14 or 15 here and has been dating David for two years, which means that David should probably be in jail.)  Rachel has to make a choice between David and Brian.  Now, that could make for some serious drama if both Brian and David were portrayed as being two nice guys who both liked Rachel.  Instead, David is portrayed as being such a soulless snob that there’s absolutely no doubt who Rachel will eventually pick.  Indeed, the whole episode makes Rachel seem shallow and stupid for going out with David in the first place.

Meanwhile, Mr. Belding is concerned that some of the members are joining a different country clubs.  Why does Belding care?  This is just a summer job for him.  Belding assigns Screech to make a video about the club.  Shouldn’t Belding have run that past the actual owner of the club?

These country club episodes are stupid.  By running them concurrently with the high school episodes, NBC created a situation where one episode would feature Brian and Rachel as a couple and the next episode would feature Brian still trying to work up the courage to ask her out.  It’s as if no one at NBC cared.  That’s a shame because the late Christian Oliver was a likable actor and Brian and Rachel were a cute couple.  (In real life, when this episode aired, 22 year-old Christian Oliver was about 8 years older than Sarah Lancaster but let’s try not to think about that.)

Anyway, the country club sucks.  I hope everyone gets a better job next summer.