The most popular version of Saved By The Bell only ran for four seasons and produced less than a hundred total episodes, but thanks to some really charismatic actors and the magic of repeated reruns, its characters are still household names to what sometimes feels like an entire generation of mid-30s to mid-40s Americans. I don’t even need to use Wikipedia to instantly rattle off the names of lead characters AC Slater, Kelly Kapowski, Zack Morris, Jessie Spano, Screech Powers and Lisa Turtle (also shoutout Mr. Belding). They were the coolest, and if ever you needed a reminder of why, two of the stars dropped one on Instagram earlier this week.
It’s apparently been thirty-four years since Saved By The Bell premiered, and to celebrate, Mario Lopez, who played AC Slater, dropped a video alongside Tiffany Thiessen, who played Kelly Kapowski, that included some footage of the two now, along with a ton of behind the scenes photos of the pair while shooting the show back in the day. It’s set to “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus, which is a hot track and a perfect choice for this. You can check out the magic and get nostalgic below…
If you weren’t watching television as a kid in the late 80s and into the 90s, you probably have no idea why Saved By The Bell holds such a special place in the hearts of so many people. It’s, objectively, not exactly The Wire or The Sopranos or even The Office, but its lead characters were the absolute freakin’ coolest. They were always involved in the wildest schemes and had the most interesting love lives. They coasted through school, as if it was a minor hindrance to their social lives (except Jessie who tried way too hard), and there was just something about their chemistry together that really popped on the screen.
That chemistry is probably a hint as to why many members of the original cast still keep in touch. A few years ago, Lopez posted an amazing photo of Theissen, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris, and Elizabeth Berkley, who played Jessie Spano, and himself all out to dinner together with their significant others. More recently when the gang got together to shoot episodes of the streaming reboot, a bunch of the cast members also dropped fun pictures together and remembrances of how well they got along.
Whether you were a Zack guy or an AC guy, a Kelly fan or a Jessie fan or someone who couldn’t get enough of Lisa and/ or Screech (RIP Dustin Diamond), Saved By The Bell probably holds a special place in your heart. It’s nice to know the original cast feels that love and shares so many of the same memories we do, albeit from a very different perspective.
