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Like Mister Rogers Before Him, ‘Saved By The Bell’s Peter Engel Found Faith & A Path Toward Morals In Kids TV: Guest Column
Like Mr Rogers Before Him, How 'Saved By The Bell's Peter Engel Found Faith & A Path Toward Moral-Driven Youth TV
When I worked for Peter in the 1990s at NBC, he was introduced to crowds before “Saved By the Bell” tapings as “The Man behind the Bell.” I currently teach at the University of Pittsburgh where Fred Rogers help pioneer the world’s first community-supported educational television station. At first glance, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Saved by the Bell” might seem worlds apart—one featuring a soft-spoken ordained minister in a cardigan, the other showcasing trendy teens navigating high school hijinks. The “gang” was led by Zack Morris, a cool kid played by Mark Paul Gosselaar who could talk to the camera and sometimes freeze the action with a “time out” and his on again-off-again pursuit of the dreamy cheerleader Kelly Kapowski played by Tiffani Amber Theissen But the magic of the show was this close-knit group of friends which also included the jock A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez), the smart, feminist Jesse Spano (Elisabeth Berkely) , the geek Screech (Dustin Diamond), and the fashionable Lisa Turtle (Lark Vorhees) who Screech was often pining over.
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