Mark-Paul Gosselaar can sympathize with the former Nickelodeon stars of the Quiet on Set docuseries, even though his experience as a child star was vastly different.
“I feel really, really awful for them having gone through that,” Gosselaar, 50, told Page Six in an interview published on Tuesday, April 9. “I couldn’t relate because that’s not how our set was run at all. As a cast, I think we’re all pretty unscathed in a way.”
Gosselaar, who starred as Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell from 1989 to 1993, noted that he and his fellow castmates had “good family” and “good producers protecting us,” as well as good on-set teachers. “I feel awful that anyone had to go through that, especially children,” he added.
Saved by the Bell ran for four seasons on NBC and followed Zack and his friends on adventures at California’s Bayside High School. Tiffani Theissen, Elizabeth Berkley, Lark Voorhies, Dustin Diamond and Mario Lopez rounded out the cast. While Gosselaar told Page Six that SBTB was overall a well-fostered environment he did note that being in the spotlight at a young age wasn’t always easy.
“The only thing I can say from my experience is I was very aware of it being a business,” he explained, “and people will do anything for the bottom line at times.”
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV centers on former child stars and crew members who recalled having toxic work experiences while filming various Nickelodeon shows in the 1990s and early 2000s, including All That, The Amanda Show and more. The project primarily focuses on the influence producer Dan Schneider had on the sets of his shows and the allegations from Drake Bell that he was abused by dialogue coach Brian Peck. (Brian, who is no relation to Bell’s Drake and Josh costar Josh Peck, was sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2004 for sexually assaulting a minor.)
After the five-part docuseries dropped last month, various child stars have addressed the allegations and recalled their own experiences on set. Melissa Joan Hart, who starred on Nick’s Clarissa Explains It All from 1991 to 1994, shared that while she trusts the victims and believes them “100 percent,” her time with the network was overall a “pleasant” one.
Like Gosselaar, however, Hart, 47, felt the pressure of being a child star.
“[Shows were working] the kids a lot harder than they probably legally should,” Hart confessed during a March episode of the “Meghan McCain Has Entered the Chat” podcast. Still, she maintained that she was surrounded by “an amazing crew” and “an incredible cast” that kept her protected.
Hart, who filmed Clarissa in Florida, also noted that location could have played a part in the varying experiences, telling McCain, “I think maybe there was a difference between Orlando Nickelodeon and Hollywood Nickelodeon, although I’m not 100 percent sure on that. There weren’t a lot of executives [where I was], they were in New York … In Orlando, I had nothing but a wonderful experience.”
Steve Burns, who played Steve in the popular Nick Jr. series Blue’s Clues from 1996 to 2002, echoed Hart’s sentiment that filming location could have made a difference.
“We’re in New York, they’re in L.A.,” the actor shared during a Sunday, April 7, interview with Today.com. “There’s no overlap whatsoever between any of those shows and what we were doing.”
While Burns, 50, said he has “no particular insight” into the allegations against Schneider and Peck, he added, “I’m coming to it much the same as anyone else, with horror and heartbreak. It’s just terrible to watch it unfold. I don’t know what else to say, other than that it’s heartbreaking.”
