Saved By the Bell Star Reflects on Series’ Most Problematic Episodes

It’s hard to look back at any popular art made 20 or 30 years ago without saying “Oof…that didn’t age well.” It’s a phenomenon that’s probably been going on forever, but is even more notable now that we have 24-hour access to almost everything ever made. And in the case of Saved By the Bell, there are folks going back to revisit the “classic” series all the time, since Peacock’s revival is a pretty popular show in its own right. And if you were paying attention, there were some pretty cringy episodes of that series.

Nobody is more impacted by the re-evaluation of problematic behavior than Zack Morris, played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar. The idea that Zack Morris is a terrible friend, an abusive boyfriend and just generally the worst is a meme that was running (mostly as a good-natured joke, but with some truth underpinning it) through pop culture even before the revival happened.

“In terms of storylines, there was a few,” Gosselaar said on an episode of Pod Meets World. “There was one where I was basically whoring out Lisa Turtle. I charged people to kiss her without her consent, that was a tough one. We had to preface the [podcast] episode by saying, ‘We do not condone this, we’re just here to discuss it.’”

Like Pod Meets World (hosted by Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle) or other shows like Office Ladies and Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Gosselaar has launched a Saved By the Bell-themed podcast, along with Dashiell Driscoll, one of the writers for the Peacock series. It was there that the actor first started to consider how problematic some of those episodes were.

“The other one was where Zack Morris claimed that he was Native American,” he added. “Seeing Zack Morris in a full headdress… That was one we had to be a little sensitive on, there’s things that you just would not film these days.”

The show launched in 2020, not long after the revival became a reality. As Deadline notes, even at the time, he knew that they would have to address some of the controversial and dated elements of the series. He just didn’t want them to overshadow the show as a whole. He said that, now thirty years older and a lot more experienced in Hollywood, if he saw a script that sent up red flags, he would advocate more for his character — something he didn’t do, or didn’t have the power to do, when the original Saved by the Bell was happening. 

“This would be one of those times where I would have a dialogue with a writer, producer and have a discussion and say: ‘I think we should look at this a little deeper, is this going to reflect well for me, for the character, for the future of the show?’” Gosselaar said.