Happy 57th birthday, Dennis Haskins! Who is Dennis Haskins, you ask? You may remember him as Mr. Belding on “Saved By The Bell”, the most culturally relevant television show of our time! The above photo came from my fave, Perez Hilton.com, and was taken at Dimples Karaoke Bar in Burbank. Mr B. was getting his groove on by dueting with Brooke Hogan (Hulk’s daughter) to “Mustang Sally” God, this man knows how to live! So, it got me to thinking about the rest of the SBTB cast…where are they now?
Let’s start with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, inarguably the star of the show as Zack Morris. Mark never quite graduated from TV to films. His most recent gig was a 3 episode stint on the short lived HBO series “John from Cincinnati”. In addition to a bunch of made for TV movies, you probably remember Mark best from “NYPD Blue”.
Next is good ol’ Mario Lopez, who played superjock AC Slater. Mario, too, has stuck mainly to TV. His most recent job was on “Dancing With the Stars”, but my BFF tells me that he had a hot nude scene in “Nip/Tuck”…probably not so suitable for work, so beware.
What would SBTB have been without the lovable (?) Screech…Dustin Diamond played this whiny voiced geek to perfection! So much so that he stuck around for “SBTB-The New Class” to play Mr. Belding’s assistant. Hey, if you’ve got it, work it. The real life Dustin Diamond (who crazily enough is the brother of Mike D from the Beastie Boys) showed us exactly how he worked it on his sex tape. According to TMZ.com, “The tape begins with Diamond in a bathtub, narrating what’s to come. It ends with Diamond introducing one of the women to a Dirty Sanchez”. Gross. If you don’t know what a Dirty Sanchez is, you don’t want to know! In addition to the sex tape, Diamond also gained some notoriety over the past few years when he hawked $15 T-shirts to help pay the mortgage on his house, beat Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter on Celebrity Boxing and generally pissed everyone off when he was a cast member on season five of Celebrity Fit Club (was Screech ever fat?!)
On to the girls…Elizabeth Berkley played Jessie Spano on the show, but is best known for sabotaging her post-SBTB career with the bomb “ Showgirls”. Believe it or not, she has actually had some small parts on the big screen since Showgirls, including “The First Wives Club” and “Any Given Sunday”. Elizabeth is still doing cameos on various TV shows and, of course, made- for- TV movies.
Lark Voorhies played Lisa Turtle on the show. I thought that she hadn’t been in anything since, but apparently I was wrong. Lark has also done cameos in several TV shows…how I missed her in “Love Boat-The Next Wave”, I’ll never know. If you just can’t get enough of the SBTB cast, Lark has an independent movie coming out in February titled “The Black Man’s Guide to Understanding Black Women”
Last, but not least, Tiffani Amber Thiessen played good girl and Zack Morris girlfriend, Kelly Kapowski. In fact, the two even tied the knot in “Saved By The Bell-Wedding in Las Vegas” Tiffani gained some new found TV stardom with her turn on 90210. She has done a number of TV series episodes, including “Good Morning Miami”, “Just Shoot Me”, and “Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place”. Yeah, I never saw them either with the exception of “Just Shoot Me”. By far, Tiffani’s greatest role was as Honey DeLune in The Ladies Man. Granted, it was a small role, but The Ladies Man had such a strong message. It was the voice of our generation. Kind of like a big screen version of SBTB!
So, there you have it. Everyone is alive and doing well (depending on your standards, maybe Screech is not doing so well). I leave you with this parody clip and sincere wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving. When you are remembering your blessings around the dinner table tomorrow, don’t forget to thank these fine actors for the gift that they have bestowed upon us over the years….
Let’s start with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, inarguably the star of the show as Zack Morris. Mark never quite graduated from TV to films. His most recent gig was a 3 episode stint on the short lived HBO series “John from Cincinnati”. In addition to a bunch of made for TV movies, you probably remember Mark best from “NYPD Blue”.
Next is good ol’ Mario Lopez, who played superjock AC Slater. Mario, too, has stuck mainly to TV. His most recent job was on “Dancing With the Stars”, but my BFF tells me that he had a hot nude scene in “Nip/Tuck”…probably not so suitable for work, so beware.
What would SBTB have been without the lovable (?) Screech…Dustin Diamond played this whiny voiced geek to perfection! So much so that he stuck around for “SBTB-The New Class” to play Mr. Belding’s assistant. Hey, if you’ve got it, work it. The real life Dustin Diamond (who crazily enough is the brother of Mike D from the Beastie Boys) showed us exactly how he worked it on his sex tape. According to TMZ.com, “The tape begins with Diamond in a bathtub, narrating what’s to come. It ends with Diamond introducing one of the women to a Dirty Sanchez”. Gross. If you don’t know what a Dirty Sanchez is, you don’t want to know! In addition to the sex tape, Diamond also gained some notoriety over the past few years when he hawked $15 T-shirts to help pay the mortgage on his house, beat Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter on Celebrity Boxing and generally pissed everyone off when he was a cast member on season five of Celebrity Fit Club (was Screech ever fat?!)
On to the girls…Elizabeth Berkley played Jessie Spano on the show, but is best known for sabotaging her post-SBTB career with the bomb “ Showgirls”. Believe it or not, she has actually had some small parts on the big screen since Showgirls, including “The First Wives Club” and “Any Given Sunday”. Elizabeth is still doing cameos on various TV shows and, of course, made- for- TV movies.
Lark Voorhies played Lisa Turtle on the show. I thought that she hadn’t been in anything since, but apparently I was wrong. Lark has also done cameos in several TV shows…how I missed her in “Love Boat-The Next Wave”, I’ll never know. If you just can’t get enough of the SBTB cast, Lark has an independent movie coming out in February titled “The Black Man’s Guide to Understanding Black Women”
Last, but not least, Tiffani Amber Thiessen played good girl and Zack Morris girlfriend, Kelly Kapowski. In fact, the two even tied the knot in “Saved By The Bell-Wedding in Las Vegas” Tiffani gained some new found TV stardom with her turn on 90210. She has done a number of TV series episodes, including “Good Morning Miami”, “Just Shoot Me”, and “Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place”. Yeah, I never saw them either with the exception of “Just Shoot Me”. By far, Tiffani’s greatest role was as Honey DeLune in The Ladies Man. Granted, it was a small role, but The Ladies Man had such a strong message. It was the voice of our generation. Kind of like a big screen version of SBTB!
So, there you have it. Everyone is alive and doing well (depending on your standards, maybe Screech is not doing so well). I leave you with this parody clip and sincere wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving. When you are remembering your blessings around the dinner table tomorrow, don’t forget to thank these fine actors for the gift that they have bestowed upon us over the years….
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