Saved by the Bell: The College Years is the third incarnation of the Saved by the Bell franchise and the only one to air in primetime rather than on Saturday mornings, running for a single season on NBC from May 1993 to February 1994.

In the original pilot, the six dorm residents included newcomer Danielle Marks, played by Essence Atkins, but she was written out after the pilot and replaced by Zack's former girlfriend Kelly Kapowski from the original series.

Executive producer Peter Engel cited the show's biggest flaw as not bringing all six original Saved by the Bell characters to college, which made it hard for viewers to connect with the storylines, and the series was cancelled after just one season.

The series has a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and in 2008 Time Magazine listed it as one of its Top 10 Worst TV Spinoffs.

The series was wrapped up with a 90-minute TV movie, Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas, which was later split into four separate episodes for syndication.

Five novelizations tied to the show, four based on the series and one based on the Wedding in Las Vegas movie, were published in late 1994 and early 1995 by Aladdin Paperbacks, all written by Beth Cruise.

Zack, Slater and Lisa Turtle crossed over into Saved by the Bell: The New Class, appearing in its second-season finale, while Slater also returned once more in the fourth-season finale; Screech later became a main cast member on The New Class as Mr. Belding's administrative assistant.

The 2020 Saved by the Bell sequel series revisited The College Years era by creating a flashback scene showing Jessie Spano visiting Slater at his college dorm.