Saturday mornings were truly something special back in the halcyon days of 1992. Preteens would stumble out of bed, pour a bowl of their sugary cereal du jour, and feast on the smorgasbord of zany TNBC content. Hijinks were the name of the game as shows like California Dreams, Hang Time, and City Guys taught us that the unbeatable combination of friendship and comically farfetched schemes could thwart our one common enemy: adults.
No show exemplified the TNBC spirit more than the iconic sitcom Saved by the Bell. The seminal series about a group of teens going through the highs and lows of adolescence at Bayside High originally aired 86 episodes (not including Good Morning, Miss Bliss) before producing myriad spinoffs — The New Class, The College Years, and most recently a satirical revival that aired on Peacock — on its way to becoming the epitome of wacky ’90s sitcoms.
The show was almost always untethered from reality — Zack Morris routinely froze time and there were countless crazy episodes, including one where the gang accidentally convinced a government agent that Screech was an alien — but it also featured several moments that felt all too real, like Jessie’s addiction to caffeine pills, the whole “no hope with dope” campaign, and, of course, the infamous Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Slater (Mario Lopez) fistfight.
The episode in question, Season 5’s “The Fight,” is actually pretty grounded by SBTB standards as it centers on Zack and Slater both trying to date the new girl in school. Their series of pranks is pretty typical SBTB chicanery (Slater third wheels Zack’s date, Zack hires an actress to pretend to be Slater’s mom to ruin A.C.’s movie date) but the tone inexplicably shifts as the playful back and forth turns violent.
It all goes down at the lockers. Zack calls Slater a jerk, Slater calls Zack a punk, and it…is… on. A.C. shoves Zack, who escalates the altercation by throwing a wild haymaker. Bad idea, Preppy. Slater’s defining traits are “wrestler” and “loves chameleons,” so he effortlessly takes Zack down and delivers a hard punch of his own. Eventually, Mr. Belding, who’s wearing a toupee in this episode, interjects and puts an end to this wild brouhaha.
I’ll say what we’re all thinking: “Hey, hey, hey, hey! What is going on here!?“
So why exactly in the silly world of Saved by the Bell does the Zack/Slater fight look so comparatively real? Because it kinda was, at least according to Mark-Paul Gosselaar. During a recent appearance on The Kristian Harloff Show, the actor who brought Zack Morris to life said the Preppy/Slater scrape was just as realistic as it looks.
“You go half speed during rehearsals and the run-throughs and stuff like that, and when the lights came on it was Friday night, we’re in front of an audience, and I think it was a real fight,” Gosselaar told Harloff.
“Mario used his wrestling to get me down on the ground. I didn’t have any pads on, there was nothing on the ground. I hit the pavement of the studio,” continued Gosselaar. “I look back at that now and just giggle because there [were] no standards and practices. It was raw, and there may have been some, like, real emotions in that because none of us were backing down. I surely wasn’t going to say he hurt me, and he wasn’t going to say that I hurt him in any way. But that’s about as real of a fight scene as I think I’ve ever done, and I was only sixteen.”
So how exactly does the episode end? Zack and Slater almost square off for Round 2 but cooler heads prevail. After pouring fruit punch down each other’s clothes (now that’s the Saved by the Bell I remember), the two former friends prepare to fight, but super principal Mr. Belding is once again there to break it up. Thank you, KING.
During the scuffle, Belding’s wig ends up in the punch bowl and a hearty laugh is had by all. Our heroes make amends as the audience collectively says “awwww.”
Something tells me those two will be friends forever.
You can watch Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s full interview with Kristian Harloff on YouTube.