Tiffani Thiessen once acted opposite her real-life boyfriend in an episode of Saved by the Bell but says “a lot of people didn’t know.”
The actress, who is currently starring in Hulu’s Coven Academy, joined SheKnows in studio for a game of Never Have I Ever to react to clips from her iconic 1990s teen show and reveal whether she has dealt with similar situations while parenting her own kids.
In the video above, Thiessen revealed that the actor who played Hollywood star Johnny Dakota in a 1991 episode of the show was cast because they were dating in real life. “Eddie Garcia, who actually came onto the show to play one of the characters, was actually my real-life boyfriend in real life, and we dated for over five years,” Thiessen, who played Kelly Kapowski on the show, said.
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As Thiessen recalls it, Garcia, who spent a lot of time on set due to their off-screen romance, stepped into the role when another actor was recast.
In the episode, Johnny is at Bayside to film an anti-drug commercial. However, Kelly and her pals learn that Johnny secretly smokes marijuana, making him a hypocrite. They refuse to be part of the ad, causing an angry Johnny to quit.
“It was an interesting episode because I remember as a cast and as a TV show we were like, ‘Let’s do something real, not just caffeine pills. We want to do real stories,’” Thiessen told us. “And so it was our first episode of really talking about real drugs. So, it was a big deal. Very big deal.”