Peter Engel was responsible for almost all of NBC's Saturday TNBC block in the 90's. 1997's USA High was supposed to be another entry for the block, but someone at NBC felt it may have been too much like Saved by The Bell to fit in, despite the fact that this series was set in Paris, with the core cast a group of exchange students attending high school in France.
The idea was that viewers were used to foreign exchange students coming here to learn, but we never knew about their American counterparts going overseas. Archie Comics tried to address that with an ill-fated Betty & Veronica story arc a few years back that sent the girls on what amounted to a foreign exchange world tour.
USA High aired instead on---wait for it---USA Network, which slotted the show on Friday afternoons and sometimes also on Sunday mornings, but not Saturdays. The first season consisted of a ridiculous 75 episodes, while the order was trimmed to a more reasonable 20 for the 2nd season. The series was cancelled after 2 seasons. The stigma of being a Bell clone, but lacking in charismatic characters, was too much to overcome in the long term.
Let's take a look at a sample episode:
With Bell well into its New Class era, entering season 5 in 1997, and airing for a full hour on NBC, viewers weren't interested. I have to say I fall into that category, as this didn't move the meter for me, either. No rating.
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