Saturday School: City Guys (1997)

 Call it Saved by The Bell: East Coast.

That was the issue with City Guys, which ran for five seasons on NBC as part of its Saturday teen-centric block, with the last 1st run episode rolling out right before Christmas 2001.

What producer Peter Engel sought to do was recapture the vibe of Saved by The Bell, but on the east coast. Bell's New Class had started its 5th season when City Guys launched, but in reality, the last thing NBC needed was another Bell clone. The last time they tried it, Running The Halls bombed out four years earlier.

Unlike Bell, City Guys' largely unknown cast didn't have any breakout stars. Marcella Lowry, who played the school principal, had been on The Cosby Show, but none of the kids really stood out. In other words, this was as generic as it got.

Let's take a look at the intro. This is from the series' rerun cycle on BET:

While season 5 was on the air, seasons 1-4 went into syndication in a package with another Engel entry, California Dreams, but was pulled from syndication after 1 year. After brief cable runs on networks such as BET, the series now is available for streaming on Tubi.

No rating.