Where Are They Now: Saved by the Bell Edition. Plus, Exclusive Interviews With Tiffani Thiessen and Mark-Paul Gosselaar!

From August 20, 1989-May 22, 1993, our Saturday mornings were centered around one thing: Saved by the Bell. In the almost 20 (!) years since Zack, Kelly, Slater, and the rest of the gang went off to college, we’ve been paying homage through re-runs (and slightly better style). Now, let’s take a look at where the cast is now, plus an exclusive interview with Kelly Kapowski herself–Tiffani Thiessen–about her favorite episodes and more!

TIFFANI THIESSEN

Now: Tiffani has been married for seven years to actor, Brady Smith, and they have a daughter, Harper, 2. She currently stars on USA Network’s drama series White Collar.

Check out our exclusive Q&A with Tiffani!

Glamour: Why the decision to drop the Amber in your professional name?

Tiffani Thiessen: It was an agent’s suggestion a long time ago when I was in my early 20s. I think I was just going on to 90210, and she said You know, I think it’s time to drop it,’ and I said OK. Whatever you say.’ It wasn’t anything [big]. I think people thought a lot more thought had been put into it and it hadn’t. It’s still on my driver’s license!

Glamour: OK, time to talk Saved by the Bell! Do you ever catch episodes now in syndication?

Tiffani: [laughs] I don’t. Every now and then, since they play them on Saturday mornings and I’m going through the channels to have Harper watch Sesame Street in the morning, I’ll pass by it. I’ll stop on it occasionally to see if she remotely recognizes her mother, but she hasn’t. As a 2-year-old, she wants it right now and right that second. So it never stays on the show for more than a couple seconds. I haven’t really sat down and watched it in ages.

Glamour: What was your favorite episode?

Tiffani: Oh, wow. Vegas was probably the most fun. I think it was the last episode that we did, and it was kind of tying up the whole Saturday morning portion of the show. That was really fun, and it was kind of our last hurrah. We were all adults at that point and that was definitely one of the favorites for sure.

Glamour: Who were you closest to back then?

Tiffani: It was all of them, really. I’ve stayed really close to Mark-Paul, and Elizabeth, I talk to all the time now. She emails me parenting questions, since she’s in the beginning stages of being a mom. I’m closest to the two of them in my adult years, but I was close with everybody when we were younger.

Glamour: Where would Kelly be now?

Tiffani: Oh gosh, there is always the joke that I say that Kelly is married with like, nine children! [laughs] I don’t know. I would be kind of a sucker to say that I hope Zach and Kelly are happily married with kids and live a very white-picket fence life. That’s the TV dream!

Glamour: You said at times it felt like you and Mark-Paul were Barbie and Ken. How so? You also said he was like a brother. So, you never dated?

Tiffani: Well, you know what’s so funny is that Mark-Paul and I started the show when were around 15 years old, and you don’t really date until you’re in your later teens. Mark-Paul and I spent a ton of time together, so I think that’s where he’s coming with that. And we were. We were like two peas in a pod, traveling all over Europe, and traveling all throughout the United States and doing autograph signings. It was intimate because we were 16 and literally going from one place to the next place. A lot of times our parents weren’t there, and we’d have a little chaperone woman who came with us. Sometimes his mom did come with us. It was an intimate relationship in that we knew each other so well, but it was more of a brother and sister relationship. The word intimacy sounds completely wrong to describe that, but we knew each other so well and traveled the world together. I mean, the first time we had a glass of wine was together. We went to Europe for the first time together. So it’s like that. We had a huge bond because we had a lot of firsts together.

MARK-PAUL GOSSELAAR

Note: Here’s some unused portions of previous interview with Mark-Paul, which I think you’ll find quite fascinating!

Glamour: I never would have guessed this, but your mom is Asian and your dad is Dutch, right?

Mark-Paul Gosselaar: Yes, that’s right.

Glamour: And here you look like the typical California boy.

Mark-Paul: [Laughs] I don’t know. With age, I think things are starting to fall a little bit. I’m like, Gosh, I look a little Asian.’ I see a lot of my mother in me now, like the low-hanging eyelids. I know that my brothers and my sisters look a little bit more like my mother, but yeah, growing up, I definitely looked like the typical California kid, which was the complete opposite of what I was. I was the only one born in the state of my brothers and sisters. I came way later. My closest sibling, Linda, is 11 years my senior. So the blonde hair is all put on. My dad has blonde hair and blue eyes, but my mother has black hair and brown hair. Now I look a little bit more like my mother.

Glamour: It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 20 years since you were on Saved by the Bell. Props to you for going on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as Zack Morris a couple years back.

Mark-Paul: That was my idea to go on as the character. I didn’t plan on doing the Fallon thing, but he was making the push and his viewers are the people that grew up watching our show. I was promoting Raising the Bar at the time, and I got a call from the producers of his show, and I knew what was going on because he had gotten Elizabeth Berkley on board, as well as Dennis Haskins. And I knew what he was going to ask. We were going to talk about Raising the Bar, and then he was going to ask if I was on board for the reunion. And I thought, You know, I’m really not. I’m really not on board to do this reunion. I don’t like the way it’s being done.’ But I didn’t want to be the party pooper of the group. I was thinking, What other way can I show I support Saved by the Bell, but not doing the reunion on his show?’ And so I came up with this idea [of going on as Zack Morris], and yet a lot of my friends who are producers or people in the industry said to me, It’s kind of dangerous.’ And actually, Jimmy, when I pitched the idea to him, said, So you’re going to come out on stage as Zack, and then we are going to go to a commercial break, and you’ll come back as Mark-Paul?’ and I said, No. I’ll be Zack the whole time and that’ll be it.’ And he said, But you’re going to throw away an interview.’ I said, No I’m not. If people want to hear about Raising the Bar they can go look it up online. I did talk about it in that interview, but what I said was that I wanted this to become viral, and at the time, the things that were becoming viral weren’t these Funny or Die skits. They were people showing their boobs or having sex, and I wasn’t going to do that. So, I came up with this idea to go on as the character of Zack, and I just wanted it to be fun, and it just worked out amazing. I worked with one of Jimmy’s writers, Mike Vincenzo, who was a super fan of Saved by the Bell, and I told him, Listen, I don’t know what Zack would say. But I want to hit these three points, so let’s make it work. Write a script as if it were Saved by the Bell.’ I actually just found the script, and it’s a brilliant script. I went and had wardrobe pick up wardrobe from Western Costume and found a wig that worked, and we just nailed it.

Glamour: If we were doing this in person, I’d probably ask you to sing the theme song with me.

Mark-Paul: Haha! Wow! I don’t know how well that would have gone off. No one has really asked me to do that, but the closest we’ve ever come is with “Friends Forever”. I’d have to look up the lyrics to that as well to see how that went. I don’t even know the first word to it! [laughs]

Update: Mark-Paul, 38, is a newlywed, having just celebrated his nuptials with advertising exec, Catriona McGinn, 33, on July 28. He has two kids, ages 8 and 6 from a previous marriage. Mark-Paul just wrapped his second season of Franklin & Bash with Breckin Meyer on TNT. This fall, Mark-Paul will be guest-starring as himself on an episode of Don’t Trust the B—– in Apt. 23 on ABC.

ELIZABETH BERKLEY

Update: Berkley, 40, just welcomed her first child, son Sky Cole, on July 20, with husband, Greg Lauren, 42 (son of Ralph). Her last two major roles were on CSI: Miami and The L Word in 2009.

MARIO LOPEZ

Just call him Ryan Seacrest Jr. Mario Lopez, 38, is kicking it as the host of the entertainment news programExtra, as well as hosting duties for MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew and radio shows. He is currently engaged to Courtney Mazza, the mother to their daughter, Gia Francesca, almost 2. By the way, did you know that A.C. (as in A.C. Slater) stood for Albert Clifford? How did I miss that?! That’s like finding out Chandler M. Bing’s middle name was Muriel (which I did know, thank goodness).

DUSTIN DIAMOND

As evidenced by the picture above, Dustin Diamond‘s career can only be described as, um, colorful. The 35-year-old has a few movies in the pipeline, which is an upgrade from the sex tape Screeched–Saved by the Smell, that he released in 2006, and the tell-all book he wrote a few years ago called Behind the Bell.

LARK VOORHIES

Lark Voorhies, 38, raised eyebrows earlier this year with a dramatically different look, although the most recent reports explain the change in appearance due to the star having lupus. Voorhies, who played Lisa Turtle, is currently married with one child, and according to Entertainment Weekly, is expected to appear on a new VH1 series called Miss You Much.

Who was your SBTB favorite, and whose career are you most interested in now?

Photos: Getty Images, FameFlynet, Inc., Doug Hyun/TNT

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