Despite being one of the most popular television shows of the 1990s, Saved by the Bell apparently isn’t making its stars much money these days. At least, according to Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen.
Lopez, who played A.C. Slater on the NBC sitcom from 1989 to 1993, recently confirmed that the residual checks he receives from the show are so small they sometimes aren’t even worth the postage.
That’s quite a revelation considering how many times Saved by the Bell has aired in reruns over the past three decades.
Mario Lopez’s comments follow an admission by Tiffani Thiessen, who played Kelly Kapowski, during a September appearance on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio.
“It’s like, negative now. It costs more to print the check,” Thiessen said about the money she receives from the show.
Lopez responded to her claim on social media, writing, “Real talk!”
‘Saved By The Bell’ Stars Didn’t Make Much Money Even When The Show Was Popular
According to Page Six, Mario Lopez said the cast didn’t receive particularly lucrative contracts because Saved by the Bell was originally a Saturday-morning television show rather than a primetime series. Tiffani Thiessen also admitted that the cast had very little negotiating power, and former cast-mate Mark-Paul Gosselaar has also acknowledged that the actors signed bad contracts.
“We didn’t have pull on that show,” Thiessen said, adding that she didn’t start making real money until joining Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1994. “We made nothing, and we just did our job. … When we went primetime for one season, we got a little bit more.”
“It is what it is. You move on, you learn,” Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris, told Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
In the documentary Hollywood Demons: After the Bell, child star manager Denise Simon revealed that Lopez initially earned approximately $1,500 per episode. Meanwhile, the show reportedly generated around $15 million in advertising revenue during its second season.
“A lot of people think just ’cause you come out of TV and stuff, you’re set,” Mario Lopez told DailyMail.com earlier this month. “That’s not always the case. Not everybody’s making that sort of Seinfeld, Friends-type money from that era.”
He added that they do still receive some residuals; it’s just that “it’s just sometimes less than the postage.”
Other Popular TV Stars Have Revealed Their Surprisingly Small Residual Checks
Lopez and Thiessen certainly aren’t alone. Former Nickelodeon actress Jennifer Hyatt Tedmori recently shared a video opening residual checks from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. One was worth just two cents.
Jodie Sweetin, who appeared in all 193 episodes of Full House, revealed earlier this year that she received a one-penny residual check.
Eve Plumb, who played Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch, said she doesn’t receive residuals despite the show airing in reruns for more than 50 years.
Then there’s Ray Romano. Unlike those actors, the Everybody Loves Raymond star was reportedly still earning $18 million annually in syndication residuals seven years after his sitcom ended.
Apparently, not all hit television shows are created equal. Especially when it comes to what those stars get paid after the show ends.