Mario Lopez says the recent, epic Saved by the Bell reunion on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which saw him showcase some beautiful, elegant dance moves and sport a super-freaky hairstyle, was planned YEARS ago.
Last week, the NBC talk show featured a skit spoofing the cult '80s and '90s teen series, featuring most of the former cast members and some of the most memorable storylines.
The Extra co-host and actor reprised his role as studly high school wrestler and superb dancer A.C. Slater, donning a smashing pair of tights and dancing some ballet. He joined a pregnant Tiffani Thiessen, who played Kelly Kapowski, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played hero Zack Morris, Dennis Haskins, who played Principal Belding and Elizabeth Berkley, who starred as Jessie Spano.
Host Jimmy Fallon also took part in the parody, which was filmed earlier this month in Los Angeles, where several episodes of the New York-based The Tonight Show were shot.
"He approached me about six years ago to try to get it together," Lopez said on The Ellen DeGeneres show earlier this week.
"He said, 'Mario, I'm coming out to L.A. Help me rally the troops so we can do it,'" Lopez told host Ellen DeGeneres.
"So when he was here recently, we managed to make it work and they took all kinds of moments from the show and he decided he liked the one where I was in tights doing ballet and then I had to stay in that for the rest of the scene!" he said.
Notably absent in the parody were Dustin Diamond, who played Zack's nerdy buddy Screech. The actor, who recently pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from an alleged stabbing incident, said he had "prior commitments." Lark Voorhies, who played Lisa Turtle, was also absent from the Saved by the Bell reunion. She said she was busy with work.
The actors who were featured in the parody looked almost exactly the same way they did—right down to Lopez's mullet—as on the original show, which ended its four-season run in 1993.
"It's way too aggressive," he added. "It's a little bit more Rick James as opposed to kinda like what I used to rock."
And boy, did Lopez rock that mullet.