Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar regrets Zack 'basically whoring out Lisa Turtle' in early episode

Mark-Paul Gosselaar is calling "time out" on a certain Lisa Turtle storyline in Saved by the Bell.

The actor, who famously played Zack Morris in the hit '90s teen sitcom, is still living down some of his character's more regrettable moments, and during an appearance on the Boy Meets World rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, he recalled his own experience running a rewatch podcast.

After launching Zack to the Future in 2020, Gosselaar realized that along with the good stuff, he'd have to spend time with some very dated plot points. "There was one where I was basically whoring out Lisa Turtle," he told Pod Meets World hosts Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong. "I charged people to kiss her without her consent. That was a tough one."

The storyline in question was in "The Lisa Card," the second-ever episode of the sitcom, and involved Lark Voorhies' Lisa panicking after exceeding her dad's credit card limit. In an attempt to make the money back, Zack charges boys in their class $1 to kiss her.

A representative for Voorhies declined to comment when EW reached out.

Gosselaar explained that before discussing the episode in full, he and his cohost Dashiell Driscoll made sure to add a disclaimer. "We had to preface the [podcast] episode by saying, 'We do not condone this. We're here just to discuss it.'"

The 2020 podcast episode started with the actor admitting, "I feel a little conflicted by this particular episode. It wasn't as carefree and innocent as the last episode, but maybe it's because I'm watching it through these eyes and not the eyes of a 13-year-old or the audience that watched it back in the '90s."

Addressing their approach to similar situations later, he added, "We're not gonna say that we don't see some of the morally abhorrent or dated situations and responses to certain things, but we're also here to give you a fun podcast. It's a celebration of Saved by the Bell."

Gosselaar's podcast covered the first three seasons of the series before its indefinite hiatus after failing to find a new podcast network.

The actor also addressed the problematic nature of an episode in which Zack claimed to be Native American for a school project, a subject Gosselaar has broached before. "Seeing Zack Morris in a full headdress, that was one we had to be a little sensitive on," Gosselaar said, with Fishel, Friedle, and Strong reacting in horror. "There's things that you just would not film nowadays."

He continued, "There are things in every single episode that we could pick out. At that point, you try not to be negative. It's a watch party... It's a tightrope walk. Overall, you try to be positive about the work and say, 'That was a different time.'"

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