Saved by the Bell star Tiffani Thiessen reveals the surprising amount she earned from the hit show
Tiffani Thiessen has revealed that her residual checks from Saved by the Bell have all but disappeared more than two decades after the show wrapped.
Speaking on a Sept. 24 appearance on Page Six Radio, the actress, who played Kelly Kapowski on the NBC sitcom, admitted the payments have effectively stopped altogether.
'I think it has dried out,' she said. 'It's like, negative now. It costs more to print the check.'
Thiessen starred alongside Mario Lopez, Dustin Diamond, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhies across the show's four-season run on NBC from 1989 to 1993, a series that later spawned the spin-off Saved by the Bell: Next Class and a two-season reboot in 2020.
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But despite the franchise's staying power, she made clear the cast never saw much financial upside from the original show.
How much do Saved by the Bell stars make in residuals?
According to Thiessen, not much - and that was true even before the checks dried up entirely. 'We didn't have pull on that show at all,' she said. 'We made nothing and we just did our job.' She did note a slight bump once the series moved to a primetime slot for one season, but said her financial turning point came only after she left the franchise behind. 'I didn't start making real money until I went to 90210,' she added, referencing her later role on Beverly Hills, 90210.
Thiessen isn't the only face from that era of NBC and network sitcoms to go public about vanishing residual income. Full House star Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner for all eight seasons of the show, made a similar admission during an April appearance on the McBride Rewind podcast, revealing she'd recently received a residual check for a single cent.
Why don't classic sitcom stars get paid residuals anymore?
Sweetin pointed to the collapse of traditional syndication as the reason. 'There's no syndication anymore because it's all in streaming,' she said. 'Who gets paid for that? Nobody gets paid for that.' She explained that even in the cable era, her Full House payouts were inconsistent at best. 'In my 20s, there would be money, but not reliable,' she said. "You don't know how much it's going to be or how often they're going to run the show. So, sometimes you're like, 'Oh, cool. That was nice.' Then sometimes you're like, 'All right, well, there's a nice dinner out.'"
Sweetin, 44, went on to make clear that her time on one of the most recognisable sitcoms of the 1990s hasn't translated into long-term financial security.
'It's not something you can rely on,' she said. 'Honey, I drive my 2023 used Hyundai Sonata that I love. I rent my house. I have credit cards that are maxed out.'
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Thomas Bamford