Time to reserve a table at The Max? Elizabeth Berkley was really, really excited to reunite with her Saved by the Bell cast on The Tonight Show in 2015, but that doesn’t mean a permanent return to Bayside High is in the works.
The actress, 44, opened up about reprising her role as Jessie Spano with the cast while attending the 16th Annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball in L.A. on Saturday, June 3.
“[It was] a little tease!” she exclusively told Us Weekly. “We’re all busy working on so many good things. We’re actually fortunate that most of our cast consistently works and have been working actors since we were kids. And we stay in touch. We love each other. So, if something else presented itself that was as intelligent as the way Jimmy [Fallon] did it, I’m not saying we wouldn’t consider but we did what felt great for all of us at this moment.”
Berkley starred alongside Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Tiffani Thiessen, Lark Voorhies and Dustin Diamond in the cookie-cutter series, which ran from 1989 to 1992. Some of the best episodes? When the pals found cash in a shoebox at the mall, Zack (Gosselaar) and Kelly (Thiessen) danced outside at prom and when Zack dreamed that the group became a rock band. (Cue “Friends Forever!”)
Although a reboot isn’t in the works (yet), Berkley understands why fans are eager for one. “People bring it up to us all the time, especially in light of the recent Full House success, same generation of everything. So, we’ll see,” she told Us on Saturday. “There seems to be a resurgence or an appetite for a little more innocence again in a climate and culture that is not.”
Since leaving the ’80s hair behind, Berkley has created the Ask Elizabeth program, which offers advice to teen girls in the hope of boosting their self-esteem.
“They are watching [SBTB] now in syndication. I’m coming to their high school as a volunteer to help them and they are seeing me when I was their age. So, there’s a sweet connection there,” Berkley explained. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving that show because now I get to help people and they get to have a connection and see me through my adolescence in a certain way – not my real one.”
