Mark-Paul Gosselaar Joins the ‘Saved by the Bell’ Revival: What Has He Been Up to Since the Original Series Ended?
Actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar has been acting for many years, appearing in notable series like Weeds and CSI. But he’ll always be best known for Saved by the Bell. Now, he’s officially rejoining his former co-stars for a revival. Here’s what he’s been doing in the interim, and what we know about the new show so far.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar played Zack Morris in ‘Saved by the Bell’
Gosselaar was the primary star of the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell. He actually began on the series’ first iteration, titled Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which aired on the Disney Channel for one season. The show was then retooled for a slightly older audience, and thus, Saved by the Bell was born.
The actor portrayed Zack Morris, who was a bit of a troublemaker in his Southern California high school. Gosselaar was joined by Dustin Diamond (bottom far left) and, from the top left, Elizabeth Berkley, Tiffani Thiessen, Lark Voorhies, and Mario Lopez. Over time, the cast changed a bit, but these were the central characters for most of it.
He’s been on a number of TV series in the years since
After Gosselaar said goodbye to the character who made him famous with Saved by the Bell: The College Years, he began to try and enter the film business. However, the actor was clearly made for TV. He starred in series such as NYPD Blue, Raising the Bar, and Franklin & Bash.
Last year was a big one for Gosselaar. He starred in the short-lived thriller series The Passage. After its cancelation, he quickly found a role on the Black-ish spinoff, Mixed-ish. In the sitcom, he portrays Paul Jackson, the father to the flagship show’s Rainbow Johnson (played by Tracee Ellis Ross as an adult).
Gosselaar’s role on ‘Mixed-ish’ got in the way of the revival
Mixed-ish, which airs on ABC, may have come at a perfect time for Gosselaar, but did it get in the way of his appearing in Saved by the Bell? The revival, which was announced in Sept. 2019, is heading to NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, at some point in 2020, if we had to guess. But there were some factors to work out.
Appearing on Access Daily (co-hosted by Lopez) shortly after the announcement, Gosselaar said, “I’m on ABC right now, this is NBC. People don’t understand, there’s other things [involved] than just saying, ‘I want to be a part of it.’ We’ve always said we want to work together, we want to do a reboot.”
Who is returning for ‘Saved by the Bell’?
It sounds as though there was never a real issue there, just a matter of logistics. And now, they’ve all been worked out! It was announced on Jan. 10, 2020, that Gosselaar will, in fact, be a part of the Saved by the Bell revival in some capacity. Oh, and there’s more!
After Lopez posted the above video of himself and Berkley (who was previously revealed to be attached to the project), he announced that both Gosselaar and Thiessen will be returning. Of the original cast, that only leaves Voorhies and Diamond unaccounted for. And given that the former hasn’t acted in many years and the latter’s legal troubles (among other things), we have a feeling they won’t be involved.
