Whether you’re “standing on the edge of tomorrow” or the “alarm gives out a warning,” if you grew up during the nineties there’s virtually not a soul who hasn’t watched Saved By The Bell or any of its spin-offs. Each show was delightfully corny, but still catchy enough to win anyone with even the most cynical heart over.
Over the course of each series, plenty of guest stars came to hang out with the kids from Bayside High. Here are ten stars you didn’t notice guest starred on Saved By The Bell.
Denise Richards
When you’ve got Slater’s physique and spend the summer running around the Beach Club topless, you’re bound to earn a few female admirers. Towards the end of the summer, one of the ladies finally had enough courage to play a damsel in distress, sending Slater into full-on Baywatch mode. It turned out the lovely lady was merely faking drowning to get Slater’s attention and get “rescued.” The girl was played by none other than Denise Richards.
Eric Dane
For several years, during the beginning of Grey’s Anatomy, Eric Dane had earned the nickname “McSteamy” for his portrayal of Dr. Mark Sloan. His very first role had brought much farther down the Pacific Coast.
He played Tad Pogue on one of the Summer episodes of SBTB, “The Game,” playing one of Stacey exes, challenging the Sands crew to a high stakes volleyball game.
Carla Gugino
When Zack returned to school in the very first episode of Good Morning Miss Bliss, he arrived telling everyone about his new girlfriend, Karen. But one caveat, Karen was older and Zack was lying through his teeth that he was too. It’s hard to blame Zack for this one, since Karen was played by vivacious Carla Gugino. She would go on to play another Karen, Karen Cisco in her own TV show, as well as The Silk Spectre in the big screen adaptation of The Watchmen.
Milo Ventimiglia
Saved By The Bell: The New Class might not be held in the same regard as the original series, but they too had a dearth of guests that would go on to be stars. Milo Ventimiglia had played Greg in the episode, “The Final Curtain.” He would go on to play bad boy Jesse in Gilmore Girls, try to save the world on Heroes, and now if breaking, soothing, swooning, and just about everything else you could do to hearts on the series, This Is Us.
Gabrielle Union
Fun fact - Gabrielle Union is a vampire. How else do you explain how a 47 year old woman looks not a day over 20 years old?! She looks virtually the same as when she played a high school cheerleader in Bring It On and 10 Things I Hate About You. But before that, she made not one, but two stops at Bayside High for The New Class as Hilary in one episode and Jennifer in another.
Solei Moon Frye
In the mid-eighties, there was no cooler kid on TV than Punky Brewster, played by Solei Moon Frye. Between her stints on that show and Sabrina, as Roxie King she too came to Bayside High as Robin, a girl who pretends to be in love with Screech, but was just using the lil’ guy for his newfound wealth due to his faux-original Spaghetti Sauce he created.
Patrick Fabian
For fans of the Breaking Bad prequel series, Better Call Saul, you’ll know that all sorts of characters from the original series pop up at some point or another. But Patrick Fabian absolutely nails the smarmy factor for the character of Howard Hamlin.
Fabian has been playing bit parts as a working actor for years and is finally getting his due with Saul. But one of his earliest roles would earn him a life in syndication playing Professor Lasky, a love interest of Kelly’s during The College Years.
Christine Taylor
Without studying a lick, perennial slacker Zack Morris wound up getting over 1500 on his SATs. Besides making Jesse’s blood boil with jealousy, he also tried to use his newfound brain to ensnare girls into study dates. One of them was Christine Taylor’s Heather Brooks, fresh off her stint at The Dude Ranch in Hey Dude. She would go on to also star in The Brady Bunch movies, as well as several Ben Stiller flicks.
Tori Spelling
Tiffany-Amber Theissen wasn’t the only member of the cast to be a part of both SBTB and Beverly Hills, 90210. Both teen shows were also blessed with the presence of Tori Spelling.
On Saved By The Bell, she spent several episodes playing Screech’s girlfriend, Violet Bickerstaff - probably the only lady who ever actually gave the kid a real chance, she was equally dorky too.
Leah Remini
Unless you’re one of the die-hard Saved By The Bell fans who consistently watched, no matter how many times you’ve seen reruns in syndication, you might not realize that the queen of Queens also had a guest-starring role during the summer episodes. Leah Remini, who recently starred in her own reality show played Stacey Carosi during the Summer episodes as the boss’ daughter and Zack’s summer fling.