Mario Lopez backed up Tiffani Thiessen’s bleak account of their “Saved by the Bell” earnings.
The actor, 52, wrote via X on Wednesday that his former co-star’s recent admission about their residual checks being “negative” was “real talk.” Lopez, who played A.C. Slater through the show’s 1989-1993 run, offered no additional comment on the financial revelation.
Thiessen, also 52, disclosed Radio last week that her payments for the NBC teen sitcom had effectively evaporated. “It’s like, negative now. It costs more to print the check,” the Daytime Emmy nominee explained during the interview with co-hosts Evan Real and Danny Murphy. She portrayed Kelly Kapowski throughout the series’ original run.
The actress added that she “didn’t start making real money” until she landed a role on “Beverly Hills, 90210” in 1994. Her experience mirrored the broader pattern of young cast members locked into unfavorable contracts during the show’s heyday.
“We didn’t have pull on that show,” Thiessen recalled. “We made nothing and we just did our job. … When we went primetime for one season, we got a little bit more.”
Mark-Paul Gosselaar had raised similar concerns years earlier. The Zach Morris actor told “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” viewers in 2019 that he and his castmates signed “really bad deals.” “Poor deals, back then. It is what it is. You move on, you learn,” he said at the time, while noting he still had a “great experience” on the hit series.
Child star manager Denise Simon offered concrete figures during a May “Hollywood Demons” episode. “Mario Lopez said he started out making about $1,500 an episode. That’s a lot of money to a kid,” she pointed out. Simon then added a stark contrast: “But after a second season, in 1991, ‘Saved by the Bell’ was pulling in roughly $15 million in advertising.”
The gap between network profits and cast compensation left young performers with limited leverage. Lark Voorhies, who played Lisa Turtle, faced particular vulnerability during negotiations, according to her mother Tricia Holloway. “You feel fragile and you feel vulnerable … because they’re in charge and they can make a decision that can change your child’s life,” Holloway said during the same “Hollywood Demons” episode. “And you don’t want to be responsible for doing something or saying something that jeopardizes that.”
The late Dustin Diamond, who portrayed Screech Powers, reportedly earned even less than Lopez’s starting rate. Dan Block, a friend of the actor, alleged Diamond told him he’d “made $1,250 a week” on the show. Diamond died in February 2021 at age 44 following a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
The original “Saved by the Bell” followed a group of students at the fictional Bayside High School, becoming a defining Saturday morning program for NBC before a brief primetime shift. Its enduring popularity in syndication and streaming has not translated into meaningful ongoing payments for its core cast, who were minors or young adults when they signed their initial contracts.
