Mark-Paul Gosselaar Regrets Whoring Out Costar in Problematic Saved by the Bell

Transcript

00:00 There was one where I was basically whoring out Lisa Turtle.

00:03 Mark Paul Gosler says he regrets this problematic Saved by the Bell episode.

00:09 The actor, who starred as SoCal heartthrob Zach Morris on the 90s sitcom,

00:13 visits Danielle Fischel, Rider Strong, and Wilfred L's Podmeets World podcast

00:18 and opens up about one particular ep from back in the day that gives him the ick.

00:22 The reason? Major boundaries were crossed that modern audiences would now find super offensive.

00:27 He explains,

00:29 "In terms of storylines, the one that I think we had to be most, well there was a few. There was

00:34 one where I was basically whoring out Lisa Turtle to charge people to kiss her without her consent.

00:44 That was a tough one."

00:47 In the episode, which aired during season 2 of Saved by the Bell,

00:51 Lark Voorhees' character Lisa Turtle charges way too much to her dad's credit card,

00:56 leading Zach and the gang to help her come up with ways to raise cash to pay it back.

01:00 Zach ends up taking money from boys in the class with the expectation they can kiss

01:08 Lisa without her permission. Yep, definitely problematic by today's standards.

01:12 Mark Paul also mentions another episode that's pretty infamous in Saved by the Bell history.

01:17 He tells Podmeets World,

01:19 "The other one was where Zach Morris claimed that he was Native American."

01:23 "Oh no."

01:23 "And we didn't know how. Yeah."

01:26 "There's no way you remembered these either, right? Like you just kind of stumble into

01:31 them and you go, 'Oh gosh.'"

01:32 "Yeah. Yeah, seeing Zach Morris in a full headdress."

01:36 "Oh my god."

01:37 "Oh my god."

01:38 "Oh jeez."

01:38 "Yeah. And so that was one we had to be a little sensitive on.

01:44 There are things every single episode that we could pick out."

01:48 Gosseler, who after Saved by the Bell went on to star in NYPD Blue and Mixed-ish,

01:52 along with 2020's Saved by the Bell reboot, says today he would approach those kinds of

01:56 questionable storylines with care. He explained on a previous episode of his Zach to the Future

02:01 podcast, per Buzzfeed, "This is one of those things now, being the actor that I am, I would

02:05 protect myself as well as my character. This would be one of those times where I would have a dialogue

02:10 with a writer, producer, and have a discussion and say, 'I think we should look at this a little

02:14 deeper. Is this going to reflect well for me, for the character, for the future of the show?'"

02:20 "I think we should look at this a little deeper."