THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505140030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Hollywood isn't totally unholy.
For six years, Peter Engel, an executive producer at NBC, has produced ``Saved by the Bell,'' a kids' series high on values and low on sleaze.
On Saturday, he told 370 Regent University graduates that they, too, could make a difference - even in fields that seem hostile to their beliefs.
``God has great things planned for you,'' Engel said. ``We're all capable of being Davids and Abrahams and Queen Esthers, planted firmly for that purpose for which we have been called.''
In his 20-minute talk at the Christian graduate school in Virginia Beach, Engel described himself as a ``Jewish atheist, with two divorces under his belt and a heavy drug addiction,'' who found Christ in 1979. But he resisted merging his newfound religion and his work.
Then, in 1986, NBC mogul Brandon Tartikoff asked Engel to produce a Saturday morning sitcom for teens. Less than enchanted with the time slot, he reluctantly agreed. But his wife was enthusiastic: ``Just think of all the children you could reach with clean, wholesome shows.''
He tried to do just that with the series, which follows a group of kids in high school. ``Every show became a small morality play. No matter how much the kids scammed or manipulated, in the end they always did the right thing.''
But the critics were unimpressed. They ripped the series for being unrealistic. This, Engel recalled, is what they said: ``We were fluff, all we cared about was that the kids looked good, the shows were about nothing.''
Wrong on all counts.
The show, he said, is really ``about children loving and taking care of each other, doing the right thing. Of course they never reviewed or commented on our anti-drinking and anti-drug shows.'' Or the award-winning episodes about a homeless girl or a handicapped teenager.
Teenage viewers have been much more appreciative.
He and the actors have met with student editors across the country. ``They told us they could identify with the show because we were dealing with kid issues: peer pressure, grades, parent communication and social pressures.''
There's been an added benefit, he said: He has persuaded the show's director and the editor of a publishing company that sells ``Saved by the Bell'' books to turn to Jesus.
Pat Robertson, the university's founder and chancellor, acknowledged that he has criticized the ``vast wasteland of TV. . . . But it's better to light one candle than curse the darkness. Peter, I appreciate the candle you lit.''
At Virginia Wesleyan College in Virginia Beach, the graduation speaker also put in a plug for his life's work.
The speaker was Robert A. Pastor, an Emory University professor who helped Jimmy Carter negotiate a settlement avoiding war in Haiti last year. Pastor's message: Don't ignore the world.
``Now more than ever before, we need to be reminded that our success depends on our bonds to the world,'' he told 280 graduates, the largest number in the college's history. ``We escape from the world at our own peril.''
America, paradoxically, is the ``most insular and the most international country in the world,'' said Pastor, who is also director of the Latin American and Caribbean Program at the Carter Center.
On the one hand, ``some Americans see the United Nations as an alien disease that we ought to quarantine until we get over it. Some Americans demand that our government bash Japan, don't talk to our enemies like Iran and Cuba, and let Mexico sink under the weight of its deteriorating economy.''
On the other, the United States has ``helped light the way for other nations'' in its attempt to protect rights for blacks, gays, the handicapped.
And, by opening the door to immigrants, ``our nation is the sum of the world's people. . . . The new immigrants have helped us appreciate every part of the world and helped us to understand that the differences that separate our nation are not as deep as we had thought.''
At Tidewater Community College's commencement at Norfolk's Scope, Edward E. Brickell, president of Eastern Virginia Medical School, told the graduates to ``never neglect ideas'' in the pursuit of practical affairs. Quoting the German author Goethe, he said: ``One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, look at a beautiful painting, and, if it were possible, speak a few reasonable words.''
After the speeches, the graduates at the schools got what they really wanted: their diplomas. At Wesleyan, relatives crowded close to the podium, clicking cameras and shouting encouragement: ``Yeah, Jill!'' ``Way to go, Jackie!''
One of the biggest whoops went to senior John Daniels, who walked to the stage with the aid of a Seeing Eye dog.
At Regent, the mood was more subdued, although master's students in journalism threw glitter to mark the occasion.
Communications professors at both colleges also had reason to celebrate.
Gil Elvgren Jr., a playwright at Regent, was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year. At Wesleyan, Bill Ruehlmann, who teaches journalism, won the Samuel Gray Distinguished Teaching Award.
Ruehlmann had little time to bask in the glory. He had another job to do.
Moments after the announcement, he was back up, this time to hand out diplomas, one by one, to President William T. ``Billy'' Greer Jr. to distribute to the graduates. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Regent University Chancellor Pat Robertson, left, and President
Terrence R. Lindvall pass out diplomas to the 370 graduates in
Virginia Beach.
Peter Engel
by CNB