Peter Engel, who executive produced Saved by the Bell, its spinoffs and 2020 reboot, Last Comic Standing and many other series, died Tuesday at his Santa Monica home. He was 88. His family confirmed the news to Deadline but did not provide a cause of death.
Engel exec-produced more than 1,000 hours of TV during a 40-year long career, mostly for NBC as part of a long-term partnership. His credits also include scores of episodes of City Guys and Malibu CA — both of which he also created — along with Hang Time, USA High, California Dreams, How to Survive a Marriage and others.
He also wrote more than 100 episodes of City Guys, nearly as many of USA High and 50-plus for Malibu CA.
Engel penned a dozen episodes of teen sitcom Saved by the Bell, which NBC aired mostly on Saturday mornings from 1989-93. The popular show helped launch the careers of such stars as Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and the late Dustin Diamond, who played Screech. Its final episode aired in primetime.
Saved by the Bell began life as Good Morning, Miss Bliss, for which Engel recruited Sam Bobrick to co-create. Starring Hayley Mills as the titular teacher, lasted only one season on Disney Channel in the late 1980s. But then-NBC chief Brandon Tartikoff saw something in the show. He rescued the canceled series, moved it to Saturday mornings and rechristened it Saved by the Bell.
The series spawned a pair of NBC spinoffs, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, which ran for in primetime for one season in 1993–94, and Saved by the Bell: The New Class, another Saturday show that lasted longer than its predecessors combined, airing from 1993–2000.
Saved by the Bell was rebooted in 2020 with original stars Lopez and Berkley reprising their respective A.C. and Jessica characters alongside Josie Totah, Dexter Darden, Haskiri Velazquez, Mitchell Hoog, Alycia Pascual-Pena and Belmont Cameli. Engel also EP’d that series, which lasted for two seasons on the then-nascent NBCUniversal streamer Peacock.
The franchise also generation a pair of TV movies for NBC: Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style (1992) and Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas (1994).
DEADLINE RELATED VIDEO:
Engel also executive produced Last Comic Standing, the popular stand-up comedy competition series that would run for nine seasons on NBC from 2003-15. Jay Mohr hosted the first few seasons, with later hosts including Bill Bellamy, Craig Robinson and JB Smoove. Wanda Sykes also was among the EPs on the show.
Born on June 30, 1936, in Manhattan, Engel began his career as an NBC page at 30 Rock. His memoir, I Was Saved by the Bell: Stories of Life, Love, and Dreams that Do Come True was published in 2016 and details both his career and his personal life.
He is survived by his children Lauren Engel, Joshua Engel, and Stephen David Engel and grandchild Ezra Alhadeff.