Mario Lopez co-signed Tiffani Thiessen’s shocking reveal about their “Saved by the Bell” residuals.
The actor wrote via X on Wednesday that his former co-star’s recent admission to Page Six Radio about the number being “negative” was “real talk.”
The 52-year-old, who played A.C. Slater, did not elaborate further.
Last week, Thiessen divulged to us that her residuals for the beloved NBC show, which ran from 1989 to 1993, had “dried up.”
The Daytime Emmy nominee, whose character was Kelly Kapowski, explained, “It’s like, negative now. It costs more to print the check.”
Thiessen, also 52, also told co-hosts Evan Real and Danny Murphy that she “didn’t start making real money” until she joined the “Beverly Hills, 90210” cast in 1994.
“We didn’t have pull on that show,” she recalled. “We made nothing and we just did our job. … When we went primetime for one season, we got a little bit more.”
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, similarly, told “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” viewers in 2019 about the “really bad deals” he and his castmates made.
“Poor deals, back then. It is what it is. You move on, you learn,” he said at the time, clarifying he had a “great experience” acting as Zach Morris on the hit series.
Child star manager Denise Simon shed some light in a May “Hollywood Demons” episode on how much Lopez, in particular, earned.
“Mario Lopez said he started out making about $1,500 an episode. That’s a lot of money to a kid,” she noted.
However, Simon continued, “But after a second season, in 1991, ‘Saved by the Bell’ was pulling in roughly $15 million in advertising.”
Lark Voorhies, who played Lisa Turtle, wasn’t in a “strong … position of negotiation,” her mom, Tricia Holloway, said during the episode.
“You feel fragile and you feel vulnerable … because they’re in charge and they can make a decision that can change your child’s life,” she explained. “And you don’t want to be responsible for doing something or saying something that jeopardizes that.”
Dan Block, a friend of “Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond, alleged the late actor told him he’d “made $1,250 a week” on the show.
