Like Mister Rogers Before Him, ‘Saved By The Bell’s Peter Engel Found Faith & A Path Toward Morals In Kid TV: Guest Column

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Carl Kurlander is a screenwriter (St. Elmo’s Fire) who served as a writer-producer for four of Peter Engel’s NBC series. He also teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, where he has made a series of documentaries including the birth of educational television and how AI is poised to transform the way young people learn.

He was mentored by Peter Engel, the man behind the TV fixture Saved by the Bell, who died last week. Here, Kurlander contrasts the wildly different paths taken by Engel and Fred Rogers that led each to generate programming that helped kids cope. Making Good Attractive: How Peter Engel and Fred Rogers Shaped Young Minds Through Television I was stunned to hear Peter Engel passed away recently at 88, though he lived a long and interesting life.

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.