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Mark-Paul Gosselaar reminisces on 'Saved by the Bell' with Leah Remini: 'There is an undeniable chemistry'
Summer flings can actually mean something, apparently.
Leah Remini appeared on the latest episode of Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Dashiell Driscoll's Zack to the Future podcast and discussed her six-episode guest-starring arc as Stacey Carosi on Saved by the Bell in 1991.
To start, the 51-year-old actress and activist revealed that her agent at the time advised her against Saved by the Bell. She switched agents and took the role because she needed "to pay my rent." She was 21 years old, while Gosselaar was only 17. Their characters—Stacey and Zack Morris—had a summer romance at Malibu Sands Beach Club.
When Remini joked on the podcast that she was "a little irritated" at the time at Gosselaar because he "didn't really have a crush" on her, he defended himself by citing their on-screen fireworks:
"I don't say that I didn't have a crush on you. I would say that, yeah, it was an interesting summer because I think I was coming into my own. Like, I'm 17. ... There is an undeniable chemistry between you and I that we have seen, and you'll see it in this episode as well. Those are real kisses. By the way, because Tiffani [Thiessen] and I never had a kiss like we have on the sex—six episodes—I think I slipped right there—on these six episodes. But there is not a single person that Zack comes into contact with, in my opinion, that has a chemistry that you and I had. "And, to top it off… is that the audience is really into us. They really, really loved seeing Zack and Stacey together. Now, you wouldn't think that right? You always thought, 'Oh, it'd gotta be Zack and Kelly [Kapowski].' ... So, we may not have had a relationship in real life, but on-screen, it definitely seems like there's something there."
Remini admitted she was anticipating rejection from fans because of the crowned Saved by the Bell relationship between Zack and Kelly (Thiessen). Quite the opposite happened, as she noted she gets approached to this day about her Saved by the Bell role more than The King of Queens, despite her leading role and 206-episode run on the latter.
Plus, Remini adored Thiessen as much as viewers loved Kelly.
"Mark-Paul, you talk about you being intimidated by me," she said elsewhere in the episode. "Like, I was petrified. I was like, 'Oh, I'm not gonna be this kid's type. Is he gonna disappointed that they cast me? Tiffani Amber Thiessen is so gorgeous. She was like The Little Mermaid to me, and I was just in awe of her face."
As much as Zack was into Stacey at Malibu Sands, he and Kelly eventually lived happily ever after. Gosselaar and Thiessen reprised their roles for Peacock's Saved by the Bell revival series. California Governor Zack Morris and his wife, Kelly, have a son who now attends Bayside High.
Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhies also returned as A.C. Slater, Jessie Spano and Lisa Turtle, respectively.
The first season of the reboot premiered last November. It was renewed for a second season in January, and Lopez confirmed in May that a tribute to the late Dustin Diamond will be worked into the new episodes.
More must-reads:
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- 20 TV show deaths we still haven’t gotten over
- 20 TV shows that wrote actor's deaths into the scripts
- 20 celebrities you forgot appeared on 'Frasier'
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