Hang Time

The main problem with this show is the amount of times the characters leave and are replaced by new ones, giving you not much time to develop favourites.

I liked Mary-Beth as Megan Parlen was a good actress and i always liked Danny Melon but dear god the actress who plays Julie needs to take acting lessons, she has to be the most wooden actor i've ever seen.

The basketball element was OK, at least they were ambitious but i actually hate basketball and i hate how they always win and they are always the main players (those poor other guys are always the subs!) I would leave the team if the coach never let me play.

This is a bit like Saved by the bell but the story lines at least are a little different and they did touch on some issues like young mums and drugs but it was still a bit safe.

Overall an amusing show for a rainy day.

"Hang Time's" first seasons were decent, most certainly better than "Saved By The Bell: The New Class" or that dreadful "City Guys" the first few seasons featured lots of NBA guest stars, a great actor, Reggie Theus, playing the coach, and the kids who played the High School basketball players were, in general, decent actors. Then came the fallout. They got rid of all the great members of the cast, including Theus as the coach and replaced him with Dick Butkus, who couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag. But until NBC abandons the idea of "TNBC" I believe Hang Time will remain the best show in the lineup, middle ground from the once great Saved By The Bell: Original class, and the horrible New Class.

Of all the american-high-school-coming-of-age-in-a-funny-way this is probably the best, or more correctly the least bad of them. The cast isn't picked by pure looks alone, but their talents (more basketball than acting though). Of course many of the jokes are identical to those of other Peter Angel productions, but still an enjoyable show.

A friend commented to me once that they were sad that there aren't any more cartoons on Saturday morning. This came as news to me since I don't usually crawl out of bed until at least noon on Saturdays. But after a Friday night term-paper session stretched out longer and longer until I noticed (as the paper was screeching it's way out of my old-fashioned printer) that it was Saturday morning, I decided to test the TV waters.

What I found was "Hang Time", which I pegged instantly as a clone of "Saved by the Bell". In this teen-oriented sit-com, we follow the daily hi-jinks of students at Deering High School involved in the basketball program. While it was good for a chuckle, I was initially unimpressed enough to change the channel when I noticed something...or someone to be exact.

Amber Barretto plays the cheerleader of the group, a stunning young lady with a mane of red curly hair the likes of which I've never seen before. Thankfully the writers of the show resisted the temptation to make her character a ditz just because of her cheerleader status. In fact, Miss Baretto (along with Megan Parlen) would make good candidates for a spin-off since they usually get the goofy subplots. They make a pretty good team.

And Daniella Deutscher (that's a hard name to spell) as Julie, the lone girl on the basketball team, is a nordic beauty who practically puts Natasha Hendstridge to shame with her lovely eyes.

No more sleeping in for me. This sure beats Ag Day.

In the lines of the old-fashioned Saved By The Bell, Saved By The Bell; The Next Generation, Malibu CA, and more. The type of show you expect where there are new cast member changes every other season, and everything is alright at the end, this excels most of the average drivel with the humour it displays, the girls, in all honesty, who are all appealing, and the pure addictiveness of the bloody soundtrack. Every season is per Basketball Tournement and League, and every couple of episodes has a cameo by some famous Basketball player. Some classic Teenager characters, including Anthony Abraham (?) as Teddy, the son of a famous basketball player.

An easily enjoyable show on an early Saturday morning, easy to zone in and out of it, it's honestly unfairly picked on, and is worth a watch now and again.