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Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar said some of the clothing (and lack thereof) on set was exploitative to him and others as underage actors
Saved by the Bell’s Mark-Paul Gosselaar says it’s strange that the show marketed shirtless images of him at age 15
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Times have changed since Saved by the Bell dominated television airwaves. The ‘90s teen sitcom aired during a time when studios weren’t always mindful of how they treated child actors. Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris on the show, was 15 years old when the series began. Unlike other high school programs, Saved by the Bell used actual teenagers. While Gosselaar is grateful for his time on the show, he questions some of the decisions the producers and his parents made.
“I didn’t like wearing those spandex when we had to do the swan thing,” Gosselaar admits during a panel at GalaxyCon Oklahoma City 2025. Gosselaar is referring to an episode where he and Mario Lopez (Slater) perform Swan Lake while wearing tights.
“We’re wearing these tight baby blue…I look at photos of that now and I’m like, why would my parents even sign off on that? There’s pictures of us with our shirts off. I’m like, I was 15, what am I doing? And my parents are like, ‘Yeah, take your shirt off. It’s fine. Show a little nipple. It’s fine.’”
Gosselaar and Lopez then dismiss the thought by saying it was the ‘90s. In 2024 Max and Discovery+ aired Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, a documentary that detailed child exploitation that occurred on Nickelodeon’s sitcoms. Although Saved by the Bell was not a Nickelodeon show, and Gosselaar didn’t mention the documentary during the panel, it’s clear that the program has caused us to take a second look at how child stars are treated by studios.
I only hope that conversations like this continue to shine a light on the topic and prevent future child stars from experiencing the same thing.
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