Saved by the Bell 's Tiffani Thiessen confirms Zack Morris IS Mac's father
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Trae Patton/Peacock; Inset: Casey Durkin/Peacock
Tiffani Thiessen doesn't need Maury Povich to confirm the father of her small screen son Mac Morris (Mitchell Hoog) on the Saved by the Bell revival.
Time out!
In the Peacock series' season 1 finale, Thiessen's character Kelly Kapowski plants some paternity doubts during a blink-and-you-missed-it moment. In the scene, Mac asks his mom, "Do I know my father?" and Kelly responds "You're not Jeff's" with a nervous laugh that some fans interpreted to mean her ex-boyfriend Jeff (Patrick Muldoon) might actually be Mac's dad instead of her husband Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar).
Thiessen laughs at the notion.
"I promise you it's not Jeff," Thiessen tells EW while promoting her new MTV series Deliciousness on Thursday. "I mean, look at him! [Mac] looks exactly like Mark-Paul. It was such a good line to add in there, wasn't it? That's [executive producer] Tracey [Wigfield] for you. No way that could happen, it would kill everything. It's just a funny, really good line. It's those little lines that are just so great, but there's no way. Mac looks exactly like Zack. It's truly uncanny how they cast him. Mitchell is good, too. He's such a good actor. All of the kids in the cast are so talented."
Even though she was certain about that, there are some things that surprised her about Kelly, who she portrayed in the original NBC series for four seasons, though she didn't think it necessary to question Wigfield's decisions.
"I'm actually surprised they didn't have more kids," she explains about Bayside super couple Zack and Kelly. "I always thought that they would've had at least four kids by now, if not more. It's just the way they wrote it and no one is going to argue."
Thiessen had a lot of fun revisiting the character that put her and costars Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, and Lark Voorhies on the map. And while she's hopeful the revival will get another season, she says there were storylines that were cut that she hopes they'll revisit if the show continues.
"I loved that we got to revisit the 'Zack Attack' episode and I noticed fans really loved to see them together again. I think that would be hard to top," the actress and cookbook author shares. "There were a couple of scenes from the original script that I won't tell you what they were but they were so good! Maybe they'll bring those back if we get a season 2? People gotta watch so we can do it again."
She adds about expanding Kelly's role on the show, "As far as how much I could participate in a future season, that all depends. Mark-Paul and I had shows we were working on at the time this all started. We both have commitments right now, too. So it will depend on the timing of it all but I'd be very open to going back and doing more. We had a blast!"
No matter what happens with the show, Thiessen is grateful to have revisited with the old gang. But looking ahead, she's excited at the prospect that more original castmates like Dustin Diamond (Screech), Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding), and even Leanna Kreel (Tori) could join them in the future.
"That would totally be fun!" Thiessen exclaims. "We were all very excited and felt fortunate that Lark was able to come on and that she wanted to be a part of this. I think she loved being a part of it. She looked absolutely beautiful and it was really all just super fun. We had a whole text chain happening. It was really neat to have that because we hadn't spoken or seen each other in awhile. I'm glad we reconnected in that way. It was also great to work with one of our original producers, Franco Barrios, again after how many moons later? I hope we do get a season 2 so we can explore this new world further."
MTV's Deliciousness premieres on Dec. 14 at 7 p.m.
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