Saved By The Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar has admitted that he regrets the ‘kissing without consent’ episode of the show.
Gosselaar played Zack Morris on the hit teen sitcom, which ran from 1989 to 1993, and was most recently revived in 2021.
In a new appearance on the Pod Meets World podcast, Gosselaar remembered an episode in the show’s first season where Morris charges classmates money to kiss Lisa Turtle (played by Lark Voorhies) without her consent.
“There was one where I was basically w*****g out Lisa Turtle,” he said. “I charged people to kiss her without her consent.”
Gosselaar admitted: “That was a tough one.”
Credit: NBC Productions.
Discussing another episode where Morris wears a Native American headdress, Gosselaar said: “There’s things that you just would not film nowadays. There are things every single episode that we could pick out.
“At that point, you try not to be negative. It’s a watch party,” he added. “It’s a tightrope walk. Overall, you try to be positive about the work and say, ‘That was a different time.’”
The second season of the Saved By The Bell reboot in 2021 paid homage to former cast mate Dustin Diamond, who died earlier that year.
The actor played the high schooler for the original show’s four seasons until 1993, and then went on to star in spin-offs The College Years and The New Class. He passed away three weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.
The first season of the reboot premiered in 2020 and saw Gosselaar’s character now as a local politician.
