Saved by the Bell was a TV staple for many kids growing up in the ‘90s, with episodes airing after school in syndication for years after the series ended in 1993. The hijinks pulled by Zack Morris and his Bayside classmates have lived in infamy over the decades — largely because of what a terrible person Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s character appears to be in hindsight. In fact, that’s the whole focus of the Funny or Die series Zack Morris Is Trash, and even Gosselaar has admitted that some of the episodes crossed the line of exaggerated reality, becoming problematic. He addressed a couple of them recently, and I’d have to agree that “trash” is a pretty good descriptor.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar went on the Pod Meets World podcast, hosted by Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle of Boy Meets World fame. It was there that he discussed rewatching Saved by the Bell for his own podcast, Zack to the Future, and realizing how “problematic” some of the episodes actually were. He told his fellow actors (via Deadline):
In terms of storylines, there was a few. 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.’
The episode was “The Lisa Card,” and it was actually one of the first episodes Mark-Paul Gosselaar dissected with Zack Morris Is Trash creator Dashiell Driscoll on their rewatch podcast. As the actor mentioned, they even included a disclaimer at the beginning of the Zack to the Future episode to clarify that by speaking about the episode they weren’t condoning Zack Morris’ behavior in charging students $1 to kiss Lisa (Lark Voorhies).
On Pod Meets World, the veteran actor also discussed the infamously troublesome episode “Running Zack,” in which the bleached-blond teenager dressed in full traditional Native American garb, complete with a headdress and “war paint” on his face, and stood in a stereotypical pose. The actor admitted to being uncomfortable seeing that, saying:
The other one was where Zack Morris claimed that he was Native American. 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.
His sentiments echoed the 2021 episode of Zack to the Future, in which Mark-Paul Gosselaar said he “cringed” when he saw his character dressed as what Dashiell Driscoll called a “racist caricature.” The hosts invited actor and comedian Tatanka Means on the show to provide context about why Gosselaar’s portrayal was so hurtful, and the actor concluded that such an episode would not happen today “for good reason.”
One good thing that comes from rewatching old media like this and talking about it on a public platform is that we’re able to identify things that were wrong in the past and examine why problematic themes like the ones on Saved by the Bell were able to happen. This hopefully allows us to see what has changed over the years and what still needs to change in order to prevent further hurt. Because no matter how beloved the ’90s sitcom may be, there’s no denying that examples like the two above are incredibly innapropriate.