IT was the Nineties show with the unforgettable theme tune and cheesy plots that teens looked forward to on a Saturday morning.
Saved by the Bell aired between 1989 and 1993 and had several spin-offs, including The New Class, The College Years, and a reboot under the same name that saw much of the cast reunite in 2020.
With its cast all grown up, this week one of its stars – Tiffani Thiessen – was spotted out and about looking unrecognisable in casual joggers and a woolly hat.
The actress, now 49, who played Kelly Kapowski, ditched the make-up while running errands in Los Angeles, California.
Tiffani landed the role of popular cheerleader Kelly when she was 15, and soon after leaving she played Valerie Malone on Fox’s Beverly Hills, 90210.
Since then, the brunette beauty has starred in Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, Just Shoot Me!, and White Collar before finding her calling as a TV cook.
Tiffani hosted her own cooking channel series, Dinner at Tiffani’s, between 2015 and 2017, hosted Deliciousness in 2020, and continues to flaunt her kitchen skills on social media.
She also starred in the Netflix series Alexa & Katie.
Tiffani married actor Brady Smith in 2005 and the pair have two children – 13-year-old Harper, and eight-year-old Holt.
Here we take a look at what happened to the rest of the cast.
‘Bedded 2,000 women’ and published own sex tape
In February 2021, Dustin Diamond – who played Samuel ‘Screech’ Powers – sadly passed away aged 44, just weeks after being told that he had stage four cancer.
Dustin was the youngest cast member – he was just 11 years old when he landed the role of Screech.
He went on to feature in independent films, as well as playing himself in movies like Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.
Dustin filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and traded his Hollywood home for a modest house in Wisconsin in what he described as a “shady real estate deal”.
In 2006 he published his own sex tape, titled Screeched – Saved By The Smell, in which he appeared to have sex with two women in a hotel room.
He’d hoped it would make him a fast buck, telling Oprah Winfrey: “My buddy was at my house and the rumour was that Paris Hilton made $14million off her sex tape… And my buddy said, ‘$14million, holy smokes. Where is the Screech sex tape?'”
He also admitted that he’d used a “stunt person” in his place to actually have sex in the film.
He also appeared in the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2013, and released a scandalous tell-all book called Behind The Bell in 2009.
It contained all sorts of sordid revelations about people working on the show, including a claim that he’d slept with 2,000 women.
The book also claimed other cast-members were involved in wild sexual shenanigans with each other, and accused star Mark-Paul Gosselaar of using steroids.
Diamond later distanced himself from the book, saying a ghostwriter “fabricated” many claims in it after having spoken to Diamond for just 90 minutes.
On Christmas Day in 2014, Diamond got into a bar fight while out with his fiancee Amanda Schutz. He was arrested and, at trial, said he’d accidentally stabbed his assailant when he’d taken out a pocket knife.
Diamond was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct and sentenced to four months in prison.
Steamy role ‘ruined’ career
Elizabeth Berkley, 50, was the oldest cast member at 17 when she took on the role of proud feminist Jessie Spano.
Fans were shocked when one of her first big projects after Saved By The Bell saw her strip off for racy 1995 film Showgirls.
She later claimed the film made her feel like a “pariah” in Hollywood and she was “left out in the cold”.
“It changed me,” Elizabeth said of the erotic thriller. “No one associated with the film spoke up on my behalf to protect me.”
She went on to have roles in The First Wives Club, and has appeared in various TV shows including NYPD Blue, CSI, The L Word and – most recently – New Girl.
Elizabeth competed on Dancing With The Stars in 2013, where she landed in sixth place, and also returned for the Saved By The Bell reboot.
Elizabeth married artist and actor Greg Lauren in 2003, and the pair welcomed their son in July 2012.
Trans kids row
Mario Lopez has enjoyed huge success in the US since bidding farewell to resident jock A.C. Slater in the ’90s.
He ditched the hunk’s iconic curly mullet when he returned for the reboot.
He was 15 when he first started on the show, and joined crime drama series Pacific Blue soon after wrapping until 2000.
Mario, now 47, also starred in The Bold and the Beautiful, and Nip/Tuck, but found his true calling as a TV presenter – working as a correspondent on shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Extra.
In 2012 he co-hosted America’s second series of The X Factor alongside Khloe Kardashian– and was the sole host for the third and final series.
Mario married Broadway dancer Courtney Mazza in 2012, with whom he shares a daughter and two sons.
In 2019 he landed himself in hot water when he appeared to imply it’s dangerous for parents to definitively label their young children as transgender.
He told Candace Owens during a TV appearance: “My God, if you’re three years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way, or you think you’re a boy or a girl or whatever the case may be, I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make that determination then — ‘Okay, well then you’re going to be a boy or a girl,’ whatever the case may be.
“It’s sort of alarming and my gosh, I just think about the repercussions later on.”
Mario later said in a statement: “The comments I made were ignorant and insensitive, and I now have a deeper understanding of how hurtful they were.”
Eloped in Vegas
Lark Voorhies played lovable ’90s fashionista Lisa Turtle from the age of 15 until she was 19.
Lark dated co-star Mark-Paul for three years but they separated during the show’s run.
Post Saved By The Bell, she joined Days Of Our Lives and continued enjoying a career in various American soap operas for the next few years.
In the early 2010s she took a step back from acting and focused on writing books – and has penned three.
She met her now ex-husband Jimmy Green on Facebook in 2014 and they casually eloped in Las Vegas in April 2015, but she filed for divorce six months later.
But according to TMZ her mum had serious reservations about her choice in partner, and accused him of being a gang member and threatening her.
It was reported Jimmy was a “fugitive from justice” after a 2012 incident in Tuscon, Arizona where he allegedly threatened to kill a store owner.
He later claimed: “It was just a misdemeanor. They are blowing it out of proportion. Whatever happened, it is in my past. I am a changed man.”
Lark, now 48, had a cameo role in the Saved by the Bell reboot.
‘Dated all three female co-stars’
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played teen heartthrob Zack Morris, was 15 when he landed the lead role in the sitcom.
He went on to appear in other TV shows, with his most notable as Detective John Clark Jr. in US comp drama NYPD Blue between 2001 and 2005.
The 48-year-old actor has also starred as Peter Bash in comedy drama Franklin & Bash, as well as other small-screen roles in The Passage, mixed-ish, and Pitch.
In 2009, Mark-Paul revealed that he’d dated all three of his Saved By The Bell female co-stars during his time on the show, but remained friends with them all.
He married model Lisa Ann Russell in 1996, with whom he shares two children – 16-year-old Michael, and 14-year-old Ava.
They split in 2010 and Mark-Paul married advertising exec Catriona McGinn in 2012; the pair share seven-year-old Dekker, and five-year-old Lachlyn.
He’s long ditched his blonde curtains and now rocks a more demure brunette look and hunky beard.