Social media is once again aflutter with the #10YearChallenge, in which people post pictures of themselves from a decade previous in order to show off how hot, different, etc. one used to be. (Or how hot, different, etc. one is now, compared to ten years ago.) Former Saved by the Bell co-stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez ain't got time for mere mortal challenges like that, and posted their own SBTB-inspired 30-Year Challenge photo.
If someone had told me that Mario Lopez had taken the picture on the left at home just minutes before driving up to the Extra studio in order to meet up with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, I think I would only have reached a "mild suspicion" about that statement not being correct. Because geez, he does not currently look 30 years older than his teenaged self. He probably stayed away from those dangerous caffeine pills.
As seen above, Mario Lopez and Mark-Paul Gosselaar basically recreated a 1989 promo pic for Saved by the Bell, in which the latter's Zack Morris is standing alongside the former's A.C. Slater. The two characters were begrudging friends or mild enemies, depending on what the storyline called for, but the actors themselves have maintained an absolutely friendly relationship in the decades since Saved by the Bell was an ongoing hit.
Time for another buddy pic!
While it would be perfectly acceptable for the two former co-stars to have some social media fun after randomly waxing nostalgic about Bayside High, this featured a more professional setting. Mark-Paul Gosselaar showed up as a guest on Extra to talk to Mario Lopez about the new Fox supernatural drama The Passage, on which Gosselaar plays a lead.
The actor's presence is probably the only thing that could possibly connect The Passage with Saved by the Bell, too. The new series, which is based on Justin Cronin's novel series, deals with secret medical experiments, vampires and other high-minded elements that would confuse the bejesus out of Mr. Belding. It's not exactly the kind of show that would allow for an easy-peasy Mario Lopez cameo, since that would threaten to derail the seriousness, but I'd still welcome it.
Also getting in on the share-ful excitement, Mark-Paul Gosselaar posted a video to his Instagram page he took on the Today set, in which Mario Lopez drops an amusing surprise F-bomb.
Recently, Mark-Paul Gosselaar revealed that he hadn't really kept up with any sentimental memories about his time filming Saved by the Bell, and that he didn't remember much in the long run. (Not even all those musical moments?) Which means we probably can't ask him about his younger self's shirt, the one with all the clocks on it. Who can we ask, though, because WTF is that shirt?
Mario Lopez can be found on leading the team on Extra on a daily basis, though he had a couple of scripted parts in 2018 on shows such as Jane the Virgin and the animated series Elena of Avalor. Meanwhile, Mark-Paul Gosselaar can be found trying to keep the world safe on The Passage, airing Monday nights on Fox at 8:00 p.m. ET. If you don't know what else is hitting primetime soon...it's all right, 'cause you're saved by our midseason TV schedule.
