Decades after ending its run, “Saved By the Bell” remains a beloved TV touchstone, a pop-culture phenomenon that made its young stars famous.
However, one of those stars has recently come forward to reveal that it the show did not make them rich.
‘We Made Nothing’
During a recent appearance on “Page Six Radio” podcast. “Saved By the Bell” alum Tiffani Thiessen revealed that she and her co-stars on the show were paid peanuts while the network raked in millions.
And while the show has remained enduringly popular with viewers, that hasn’t translated into a big payday for her.
When asked if she and her co-stars were shown episodes before they aired, she responded that they did not. “
“No … I mean, we didn’t have any pull on that show,” she said.
“We made nothing and we just did our job,” she added.
‘We Got Nothing’
That shocked the podcast’s co-hosts, with one asking, “I didn’t realize you didn’t get paid anything.”
“Oh no, we got nothing,” Thiessen confirmed.
“When we went primetime for one season, we got a little bit more,” she continued. “But yeah, I didn’t start making real money until I went to ‘90210.’”
She also confirmed that the residual checks actors receive for past work can be laughable.
“There’s actually a funny place, I don’t know if it’s still open, called Residuals in L.A., where actors could come in and take their 38-cent check and buy a drink with it,” she recalled.
Asked if she still received residuals, she said, “I think I do. Yeah, I don’t think for ‘Saved By the Bell’ anymore. I think it’s dried out. It looks like negative now. It costs more to print the check now [than the actual amount written on the check].”
A Telling Response
Thiessen’s co-star Mario Lopez caught wind of her comments, and issued a brief but telling response.
“Real talk!” he wrote in an X post commenting on her revelation.
As Page Six recalled, “Saved By the Bell” star Mark-Paul Gosselaar shared his very similar experience during a 2019 visit to “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”
Confessing he and his fellow young actors made “really bad deals” at the time, he added, “Poor deals, back then. It is what it is. You move on, you learn,” insisting that despite the lack of money he had a “great experience” on the show.
Per Page Six, back in May child star manager Denise Simon appeared in an episode of the “Hollywood Demons” podcast, and shared her recollection of how much Lopez actually earned for “Saved By the Bell.”
“Mario Lopez said he started out making about $1,500 an episode. That’s a lot of money to a kid,” she explained.
“But after a second season, in 1991, ‘Saved by the Bell’ was pulling in roughly $15 million in advertising,” she added, pointing out the disparity between what the network raked in versus what the cast was being paid.
That lined up with the recollection of Dan Block, a friend of late “Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond, who claimed that that Diamond had once told him he’d “made $1,250 a week” during his time on the show.
Comments
Mario Lopez Confirms Tiffani Thiessen’s Stunning Revelation About ‘Saved By the Bell’ Residuals