Saved By The Bell: Zack And Kelly, TV's Most Toxic Healthy Couple?

11/4/2025 | SPOILER ALERTS FOR SAVED BY THE BELL!

Saved By The Bell was one of the most popular teenage sitcoms of the 90s. People would recognize the theme song the second it started playing. It flowed from Good Morning, Miss Bliss, a failed Disney show, to Saved By The Bell, which took off. The most iconic couple of the show was Zack Morris, the lead character, and Kelly Kapowski, the popular cheerleader. But I remember thinking during the College Years spin-off that Zack seemed pretty toxic towards Kelly. So what was it? Were they toxic or were they actually healthy? I just finished waching Saved By The Bell so expect a LOT of posts about it in the upcoming weeks!

Now people are always confusing either side of a relationship. What I mean is that not many people know the difference between toxic and healthy relationships. A toxic relationship is when at least one person in the relationship is being manipulative, abusive, or controlling. A healthy relationship is built on BOUNDARIES. I mean BOUNDARIES, such as people being comfortable with each other and not having to be scared about anything. I mean, do you really want to be scared of someone you could potentially marry?

Back to the 90s, they're calling us. In the start of the show, after Good Morning Miss Bliss, Zack and Slater were always fighting over Kelly. The troublemaker and the jock after the cheerleader. Classic plot line. But Zack always made sure everything went however he wanted it to. One time when Jessie was busy to tutor Kelly, Zack offered to tutor Kelly that night. But when Kelly went to his place, Zack made sure that the lights were dimmed and music was playing as he tried to make out with her. Jessie eventually climbs through the window and said she wasn't busy. Kelly stood up and walked away with Jessie to tutor her instead, not having a single clue about what Zack's intentions were. Of course, Zack got frustrated and kept trying to make moves on Kelly.

Zack got jealous of Slater a lot, even in innocent cases. One time, Kelly was hanging out with Slater at the beach, she wasn't dating anyone at the time. But Zack saw them together and got jealous. He didn't do anything rash but you could tell. In reality, I think both Zack and Slater were being jerks the whole time they fought over Kelly. I think Kelly should have just revealed she liked girls and kissed Jessie lol. I'm just kidding, I don't think that would have happened in the 90s. But for real, Zack and Slater were being really immature. Zack is just more obvious about it.

Finally, talking about when they actually dated. When Zack took Kelly to the junior prom, they started dating since then. I thought Zack became a gentleman after so. For a short time. He was still manipulative towards Kelly. He got jealous of any guy and he would use his friends to get her attention, but would flirt with girls himself. That one time a new nurse came to the school and Zack started making moves on her. I don't remember if Kelly found out but I remember their friends found out. Even worse, Zack JUST asked Kelly to go steady! But Zack tried to ask out the nurse instead, who could have been in her 20s. Luckily their friends told the nurse about the situation and she made sure to get him to back off and stay with Kelly. A few episodes later, Jeff came in the scene. And I think Kelly was in the wrong from then.

Jeff was this college hunk that Kelly met at The Max. They started hanging out a lot and kelly starts to get a crush on him. At one point, Jeff KISSED Kelly when they were alone in the restaraunt. Now think about it for a second. This college guy, in his 20s, kissed a high school girl, who was 16 or 17. CREEP. Kelly even told him she had a boyfriend but he did it anyways. But Kelly ended up liking it. BOO! Eventually at the costume dance, Kelly tells Zack to meet her outside the school. She was in tears and told Zack that she had to break up with him because she found out she liked Jeff more. Zack didn't seem to take it well but he didn't yell at her, which was good.

But later on, Kelly finds out that Jeff was cheating on her with another college student. That was AWFUL. A college guy cheating on a high schooler with another college kid? I hate Jeff so much. Zack sees it and tells Kelly but she didn't believe him at first. But Kelly finds out and was heartbroken. She broke up with Jeff and was grateful for Zack. They didn't get back together right away but they did eventually.

I know this post is very lengthy but bear with me. I think there were still some good moments between the two. There were moments where you can tell they loved each other. I love watching sitcoms with romantic plots! But let's go to the college years. They weren't in a relationship by the end of the original show. They attended the same college and Kelly obviously still had feelings for Zack. But Zack was chasing another girl. So I think Kelly was somewhat in the wrong for this part. Kelly knew Zack was chasing after someone knew but when they were alone, she kissed him in their dorm room. Zack fell into the kiss though. The girl walks in and got mad because Zack claimed to like her but she thought he was dating Kelly this whole time. The show seemed to forget about that episode literally after that. But later on Zack and Kelly become a couple again. Even after Kelly started dating a college professor. That was even MORE messed up. Kelly was 19 and the professor was 32-36. Kelly, stop falling for older guys, jeez. But besides that, at one point Kelly was accepted for a semster overseas program and Zack got JEALOUS. He tried to convince her to stay but she wanted to go. So to try and get her to stay, he proposed to her in the middle of the night when they were asleep just minutes ago. Kelly was shocked and even considered breaking up with him because of it. I mean, you could tell he was really jealous. But she said yes and she didn't go on that program.

So Zack and Kelly go to get married in Las Vegas. They had their friends come with them! But at last minute, Zack, Slater, and Screech got arrested for suspected grand theft auto. It was proven wrong but they had to pay all their money to get out of jail asap. Zack was broke, but wouldn't tell Kelly. So he and Screech got jobs as male escorts to pay for the wedding. Key sentence: Zack didn't tell Kelly about ANYTHING. So when kelly saw Zack with another woman, escorting her, she got mad and threatened to call off the wedding. When Kelly ran to her hotel room with Lisa, Zack climbed out the window of his and into her balcony to explain everything. The rest of the movie went on and they got married. Yay?

Okay, were they toxic or healthy? I think they held up pretty well, considering everything they went through. Zack was a jerk and Kelly had slight attatchment issues. But you could tell they loved each other. Afterall, they were teenagers. Teenagers are dumb. This is coming from one by the way! The two made mistakes, a LOT of mistakes. But they found their way back to each other. When they got older, I think they were more healthy than toxic. Of course, they had moments. That's every sitcom though. But they REALLY should consider couples therapy...