Saget describes himself at the time in an article by Glenn Esterly in the 1990 Saturday Evening Post: 'I was a cocky, overweight twenty-two-year-old. Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California but quit a few days later. He attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher, Elaine Zimmerman, saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films. Saget lived in Norfolk, Virginia, and Encino, California, before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from Abington Senior High School.
His father, Benjamin, was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Rosalyn, was a hospital administrator. Saget was born in Philadelphia to Jewish parents.
