Leah Remini's Saved By The Bell Role, Explained

In the early 1990s, the programming wizards at NBC realized they might be leaving advertising dollars on the table by not providing adolescents a Saturday morning entertainment bridge from cartoons to live-action sitcoms that reflected, in that garish sitcom way, their middle to high school lives. The only serious counter-programming threat in these hours was "Yo, MTV Raps!," so for kids who were more into bubblegum pop than hard-hitting rhymes, there was a demand not being met. And thus the TNBC block was born.

The linchpin of the TNBC block early in its heyday was "Saved by the Bell." What began as a spinoff of "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" — which started on NBC before moving to The Disney Channel — became a Saturday morning mainstay for both kids looking to do a whole lot of nothing on their morning off from school and hungover adults who knew better but nevertheless got hooked on this mind-numbingly innocuous riff on "Beverly Hills 90210" (which we love unironically). The show went on to make minor stars out of Mark Paul-Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Lark Voorhies, Dustin Diamond, Tiffany-Amber Thiessen and Elzabeth Berkley (who gave her all in Paul Verhoeven's spectacularly entertaining "Showgirls"), and spawned a college-set spinoff that co-starred former Cleveland Browns linebacker Bob Golic. It also gave early exposure to a major sitcom star of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Don't remember how Leah Remini factored into the original run of "Saved by the Bell?" Dear reader, come take a trip down memory lane with me.

Remember the season 3 plotline of "Saved by the Bell" when Zack Morris (Gosselaar) and the gang all took summer jobs at the Malibu Sands Beach Resort run by Mr. Carosi (Ernie Sabella, best known as the voice of Pumbaa in 1994's "The Lion King")? And remember Zack falling begrudgingly in love with Mr. Carosi's sassy East Coast daughter Stacey? That was a 21-year-old Remini.

The Brooklyn-born Remini had already impressed on shows like "Who's the Boss?" and its short-lived spinoff "Living Dolls" before popping up as the tough-talking Stacey. Looking over Zack's multiple love interests over the series' four-season run, she was easily his most formidable foil. The relationship came to an abrupt end when Stacey moved back east for school. Fans of the series will generally admit that the show struggled to get its snap back in the wake of her absence.

Successful actors can often be gun-shy about discussing their early performances (typically because they were still honing their craft, and had to take whatever gigs were available), but Remini had no qualms about dropping by Gosselaar's podcast "Zack to the Future" in 2021 to reminisce about her six-episode stint on "Saved by the Bell."

Remini was initially terrified by the prospect of having to fit in with the main ensemble. She was particularly worried that she wouldn't be Gosselaar/Zack's type, and thus disappoint the casting director. She was especially intimidated by Gosselaar's on-again/off-again love interest on the show. As she told her one-time co-star:

"Tiffani-Amber Thiessen is so gorgeous. She was like the Little Mermaid to me. And I was just in awe of her face. In awe of her face! Everyday showing up, I was like, 'Aggghhh! She's a little mermaid. She's a little mermaid.' I felt like a fat-ass cow there. I just felt old and not pretty. Every time I put that skirt on, I was like, 'Oh my God. I look so dorky.' I was intimated by you guys."

Gosselaar assured Remini that she was an ideal screen partner for him. "There is an undeniable chemistry between you and I," he told her. "Those are real kisses. Because Tiffani and I never had a kiss like we have on these six episodes. There's not a single person that Zack comes into contact with, in my opinion, that has the chemistry that you and I had."

Hollywood is rife with horror stories about actors loathing each other, so it's refreshing to learn that Remini and Gosselaar not only got along on set, but also still have a fondness for each other to this day.

Remini quickly became a familiar face on television after her short run on "Saved by the Bell." She played Carla's daughter Serafina Tortelli in a couple of "Cheers" episodes, and booked guest appearances on high-profile shows like "Friends," "Home Improvement," and "NYPD Blue." Then, after one season on the short-lived Sharon Lawrence series "Fired Up," Remini landed the role that would make her a bonafide TV star: Carrie Heffernan, the wife of Kevin James' Doug Heffernan on "The King of Queens." For nine seasons, Remini traded amusing barbs with comedic dynamos like James, Jerry Stiller (as her widowed father), and Patton Oswalt, and more than held her own.

After "The King of Queens" concluded its run in 2007, Remini joined "The Talk," CBS' panel talk-show answer to ABC's "The View." Upon being dismissed from the show in 2011, she wound up in a very public dispute with her co-star Sharon Osbourne, whom Remni claimed had her fired (along with Holly Robinson-Peete). Remini quickly bounced back by appearing on season 17 of "Dancing with the Stars," where she finished a respectable fifth place before later returning as a guest judge. Remini also re-teamed with James in 2017 for his CBS sitcom "Kevin Can Wait;" alas, the second time was not a charm, as the series was cancelled after two seasons.

While Remini has kept busy on television by appearing on shows like "Match Game," "The Masked Singer," and "So You Think You Can Dance," she's made a much bigger impact as an anti-Scientology crusader via her 2015 memoir "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology" and her Primetime Emmy Award-winning documentary series "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath."

Remini's battle against Scientology started in 2006 when, while attending the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, she asked after the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of church leader David Miscavige. Though the LAPD quickly dismissed Remini's missing person report regarding Shelly's well-being (she has not been seen publicly since 2007), the performer has kept coming at the notoriously litigious religion, which she claims blackballed her the moment she began challenging the church. Despite the turbulence caused by her heroic outspokenness, she managed to remain married to her husband Angelo Pagan, with whom she raised her daughter Sofia. In August 2024, she announced on Instagram that she and Angelo were amicably filing for divorce.