Fans of the early-90s teen hit Saved by the Bell were quite surprised to hear that, after several decades, the show was getting a revival that would allow us to catch up with many of our old favorites, as well as be introduced to new characters. One of those brand new teens who's now dealing with high school hijinks at Bayside is Mac Morris, son to original characters Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski. Mac and Zack are basically twinning when it comes to the father / son looks game, and Mac's portrayer Mitchell Hoog has now spoken about how they perfectly matched Mark-Paul Gosselaar's famous blonde Zack hair.
While Mitchell Hoog already looks a fair bit like original Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the revival just wouldn't have been the same if either actor were without one of Zack's claims to doucebag fame: that flippy, swoopy, gelled blonde 'do. Gosselaar has already shared what some of the process was like for him to return to his Zack roots, and when CinemaBlend's Nick Venable spoke with Hoog and the discussion turned to the hairstyle, he said:
Well, it was funny because it took a minute to get my hair right, as well. Kimberly, who did my hair, we sat in that chair and did color after color trying to get it right. And then one day we’re both sitting in the makeup chairs, me and Mark-Paul, and somebody walked in and said my name to him and his to me. And I think we were both kind of like, ‘Okay, the hair works. We’re good.’
Trying to match Mitchell Hoog's hair to the Zack Morris aesthetic was just one of those things that needed to be done for Peacock's Saved by the Bell revival, but that doesn't mean that it would be easy for either Hoog, Gosselaar or any hairstylist who had to figure out to make that happen. Luckily for fans, they got it very right, and you can take a look at the evidence for yourself right here:
If that's not a perfect douche twosome, I don't know who is! At any rate, even with all of the TV reboots / reimaginings and revivals that we've seen come along in the past five years, I can't imagine that any of them relied so heavily on something as basic as how a character's hair would look. But, let's face it, seeing as how Mac is a nearly complete chip off of the ol' Zack block in personality and looks, it's hard to envision that he'd walk around with a buzz cut or something.
And, Zack is, well, still very much one of the reigning jerks of TV, so there's no way that dude would dare chop his locks or, heaven forbid, try a different style. When the issue of the hair being such a sticking point was mentioned, Hoog said:
I think that hair has become a bigger thing in kind of the past couple of years, due to kind of the freedom of expression. I think getting that right was a really big part of having that continuity to give nostalgia to the original.
Mitchell Hoog makes a good point, and the producers were absolutely on the right track when they decided that the Zack hair had to make a comeback for the series. But, Hoog also noted that the original cast members who returned (who also included Tiffani Thiessen, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhees) were very forthcoming with details about their days on the Saved by the Bell all those years ago. When asked if any of the returning players offered advice to the newcomers, Hoog said:
The whole original cast didn’t dictate anything or push us into a corner. I think that was one of the really beautiful things about the relationship with the original cast was that they gave us advice and told us stories, and I think the stories are where we all kind of found the camaraderie. But there was no one piece of advice that I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s Mac!’ You know? It was more, I feel, like life advice. Just kind of ‘Have fun, do your thing. Work your imagination and trust it.’
Awww! It doesn't sound like anyone on the set of Saved by the Bell took on any of Zack and Mac's jerkosity, and that's a very good thing. You can watch Saved by the Bell right now on Peacock, but for more to watch in the coming weeks, check out our schedule of Christmas movies and specials, and see what's on tap for the new year!
