Was Peter Engel a genuinely good showrunner/executive producer

[TMC]

One of the biggest criticisms that I read about Engel is that his works were derivative of each other, especially by the time that Saved by the Bell: The New Class was gaining traction. To give you a better idea of what I'm taking about:

If you have ever seen a Peter Engel show, you would know what a recycled plot is.

In the 1990’s, Mr. Engel was known for shows aimed at teenagers. Among them was the wildly successful and memorable Saved by the Bell, which made Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“Zack Morris”) and Mario Lopez (“A.C. Slater”) household names. Other shows Peter Engel produced included: California Dreams, Hang Time, City Guys, and USA High.

What these shows were known for was a formulaic approach to storytelling. Look to Saved by the Bell for the template. Usually the main cast would include an enterprising schemer and heartbreaker (Zack), a pretty, popular girl (“Kelly Kapowski”), a jock/tough guy (Slater), a rich, spoiled girl (“Lisa Turtle”), and a nerd (“Samuel ‘Screech’ Powers”). A Soap Box Sadie (“Jessica Spano”) was optional. If you read about these shows, you would notice that there was at least one schemer/heartbreaker in all the shows and he may not have been the “main” character, but he was still in the main cast.

These shows were also known for “borrowing” plots from one another. One egregious example was the plot of the dishonest, fading musician. A teen or pair of teens from the main cast would approach one of their favorite musicians with a song in hopes of getting a music deal. However, that star would steal the song and claim it as his own. But don’t worry, the moral is that the teen can still make more songs, unlike the aging, spent superstar. This was shown first on California Dreams and would be shared on City Guys and USA High.

Some more specific examples of Engel's shows "borrowing" plots from one another:
City Guys:

• Although similar plots have been done on other teen sitcoms, the B-plot involving Dawn in "Bully, Bully" in which Chris and Jamal teach Dawn about the ins and outs of football to prepare for a date with a player on Manny High's football team, is similar to the B-plot in the Hang Time episode "Fighting Words," in which Mary Beth and Julie teach Kristy how to relate to the same interests as her date (ironically played by Chris' portrayer, Scott Whyte). Both episodes even have the latter character in the respective plots incorrectly guess the day most NFL games are held.
• The plot involving Cassidy's caffeine pill addiction in "Over the Speed Limit" is basically recycled from the Saved by the Bell episode "Jessie's Song".
• The story of L-Train's blues music idol stealing his songs is taken from a popular California Dreams episode.

Hang Time:

• Two episodes have secondary plots in which a character experiences bad luck from walking under a ladder more than once, "Game Day" (involving Michael Maxwell) and "No Smoking" (involving Kristy Connor).
• Part of the plot (technically its plot device) of "Midnight Basketball" is lifted from the "Teenline" episode of Saved by the Bell.

USA High:

• A character spending too much on their father's credit card.
• Guy falling for a disabled love interest and learning An Aesop.
• Boys helping babysit a baby and losing said infant.
• Jackson meets his singing idol and shares some songs with him. To his shock, the guy takes Jackson's work and presents it as his own with Jackson declaring "keep them, I can write fresh songs while you can't." It's almost word-for-word a plot from California Dreams.

[RetroGuy2000]

No, I would not call these well-run shows. Not only were they derivative of each other, they were derivative of other sitcoms at the time. Each felt cheap, with kinda cheesy scripts, and none of these shows would ever win an Emmy.

[TMC]

I can't right away argue or suggest this about Peter Engel's other teen shows, but one comment that I read believes that the original Saved by the Bell seemed too 1950s wholesome for the '90s just like The Brady Bunch did for the '70s as well.

It wasn't a more darkly cynical show that was more genuinely reflective of its generation like say, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Clarissa Explains it All, or Welcome Freshman (at least the first two seasons, before it was retooled into a more straightforward Saved by the Bell knock-off). A show like Welcome Freshman actually seemed like a parody of Saved by the Bell. The kids were selfish and jerks like presumably most real teenagers. And they hated their principal and always mocked and disobeyed him again like real teens would.

Saved by the Bell you could argue, was also a surprisingly socially regressive for the '90s. I don't know for sure how much that exactly goes back to Peter Engel, but when compared to the aforementioned Brady Bunch, it didn't seem to have some progressive elements like the blended family aspect of earlier show and implication that Carol was a divorcee.

Jessie on SBTB arguably, fit every negative stereotype of a rich white feminists while Kelly and Lisa were often portrayed as vapid valley girls.

Jessie Spano in Saved by the Bell. Hilarious in Hindsight, when the actress later went on to star in Showgirls. One of the more common (and possibly unintentional) examples would be her chastising a guy (usually Slater) for calling women "foxes" or "chicks" by calling him a "pig." One episode plays with the trope where it involves a Beauty Contest. Jessie initially protests the pageant but when Mr. Belding allows boys to enter it as well, she drops the protest and enters herself (now viewing it as fair that both genders are involved). She still, however, appears in the swimsuit round with a trenchcoat hiding her bathing suit. She's also ultimately portrayed as quite a positive character, all things considered.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

No, I would not call these well-run shows. Not only were they derivative of each other, they were derivative of other sitcoms at the time. Each felt cheap, with kinda cheesy scripts, and none of these shows would ever win an Emmy.

I've gone back and read what has been said about Peter Engel in regards to California Dreams and what was pointed out was that Engel proved to be a one-trick pony. He would basically take the Saved by the Bell template and apply them to a different scenario/setting. So what we would get is:

• The College Years: Saved by the Bell at college
• California Dreams: Saved by the Bell with a band
• Hang Time: Saved by the Bell with a basketball team
• City Guys: Saved by the Bell in the hood
• USA High: Saved by the Bell in Paris

And even outside of that formula, Engel, the California Dreams Reviewed blog argued, never seemed to have been able to figure out what made a show work. In the case of California Dreams, instead of putting more focus on the band in a show about a band, the show come the second season, showed less focus on the musical aspects of the show.

Also in the case of California Dreams, Engel didn’t appear to understand what went right with season one of that show, so he just started tinkering with everything while missing opportunities for greatness. For example, instead of making squeaky clean Matt a foil for bad boy Jake (kind of like Richie's relationship with Fonzie on Happy Days or Wally's relationship with Eddie on Leave it to Beaver), the show pushes the supposed main character in Matt far into the background. Instead, much of Jake's interactions were with Tiffani and Sly.

[irehtman]

The original Saved By The Bell crewmember group had several severe abused multi-discrimination incidents which led some of the original Saved By The Bell cast members to have post original SBTB real-life problems, while California Dreams, Hang Time, City Guys and USA High do not.

I wouldn't complain about the cast changes of Hang Time at all because they didn't change both the main actress/character and the funniest supporting actress/character in all 104 episodes, which is seriously tolerable. Now, no matter how bad or good too many Hang time cast changes are, there were less post Hang Time real-life changes than these other Peter Engel's projects, TBH, IMO.

All of the former castmembers of only California Dreams, City Guys and USA High each altogether moved onto new and better projects, TBH, IMO again....