Tiffani Thiessen’s finances are not saved by Saved by the Bell.
Over 20 years after the NBC sitcom—which also starred Mario Lopez, Dustin Diamond, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and more—aired its final episode, Thiessen admitted the checks have officially stopped coming.
“I think it has dried out,” Thiessen said a Sept. 24 appearance on Page Six Radio. “It’s like, negative now. It costs more to print the check.”
And despite the massive success of the series—it went on to spawn the Saved by the Bell: Next Class spin-off as well as a two-season reboot in 2020—Thiessen said that her role as Kelly Kapowski was never truly lucrative.
“We didn’t have pull on that show at all,” Thiessen—who also starred alongside Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhies in the series—continued. “We made nothing and we just did our job.”
Indeed, Thiessen shut down the assumption that the Saved by the Bell cast was raking it in during its four-season run from 1989 to 1993.
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“When we went primetime for one season, we got a little bit more,” she recalled. “I didn’t start making real money until I went to 90210.”
E! News has reached out to NBC for comment and hasn’t heard back.
Meanwhile, stars of other 1990s hits have also admitted that their still-relevant series have stopped earning them cash. Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner for all eight seasons of Full House, recently explained why residuals are not a
“I got a one-cent check the other day,” Sweetin revealed during an April appearance on the McBride Rewind podcast. “There’s no syndication anymore because it’s all in streaming. Who gets paid for that? Nobody gets paid for that.”
But even when cable was more commonplace, Sweetin assured that her payouts were barely enough for her not to quip “how rude.”
“In my 20s, there would be money, but not reliable,” the 44-year-old explained. “You don’t know how much it’s going to be or how often they’re going to run the show. So, sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, cool. That was nice.’ Then sometimes you’re like, ‘All right, well, there’s a nice dinner out.’”
And despite being one of the most recognizable TV stars of all time, Sweetin admitted that Full House did not set her up for life.
“It’s not something you can rely on,” she added. “Honey, I drive my 2023 used Hyundai Sonata that I love. I rent my house. I have credit cards that are maxed out.”
For more stars who have sounded off on their paychecks, keep reading…
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
“When it was all said and done, after taxes, I was paid less than $1,500 for the entire first season of Jackass,” the daredevil told Playboy in June 2026. “Before the show came out, my sister kicked me out of the house. I was broke, unemployed, and homeless, and a star on this big MTV show.”
“Look, Leo brings in more box office than I do,” Lawrence told Vanity Fair for its’ December 2020/January 2021 issue. “I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal. But in other situations, what I have seen—and I’m sure other women in the workforce have seen as well—is that it’s extremely uncomfortable to inquire about equal pay. And if you do question something that appears unequal, you’re told it’s not gender disparity but they can’t tell you what exactly it is.”
Her sanguine attitude was hard-fought: When the disparity between Lawrence’s compensation and that of her male costars for 2013’s American Hustle was revealed in the 2014 Sony email hack, it prompted an industry-wide conversation about the gender pay gap in Hollywood.
“I’m so fortunate to have my job. My problem is not money,” Lawrence told the U.K.’s Channel 4 News in 2017. “I wasn’t upset that I only got this many millions for a movie. That’s ridiculous. I was angry about the unfairness and inequality.”
“They gave me the lowest amount of money possible,” Hill recalled on The Howard Stern Show in 2014. But it was the chance to appear in a Martin Scorsese movie, so the Moneyball alum wanted to get the deal done before anyone could change their mind.
“I would sell my house and give him all my money to work for [Scorsese],” explained Hill, who earned his second Best Supporting Actor nomination for his turn as a squirrelly substance-abusing stockbroker. “This isn’t what you make money for. You do 22 Jump Street or you do other things, and you can pay your rent. I would have done anything in the world. I would do it again in a second. This isn’t about money. You should do things that you care about.”
“If you win,” Johnson, who noted pro contracts are dependent on seniority, continued. “it’s not like you get a million dollars. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.” As for those who say farewell to the ballroom early, well, as she explained, “You’re guaranteed until a certain amount of weeks.” According to multiple reports, dancer salaries start at around $1,200 to $1,600 an episode, which can increase to up to of $100,000 per season. (ABC has not confirmed these reports.) On the flip side, celebrities receive a starting salary of $125,000. As they cha-cha further into the competition, stars receive additional bonuses with the semifinalists and finalists getting paid up to $50,000 extra.
But in actuality, she praised the talents of her costars for their performances.
“I felt I did OK, but Jennifer and Courteney? Amazing,” she raved. “David and Matt? They had me laughing so hard. And then Matthew [Perry]—he was just beyond us all.”
And the ingredientses they put into that initial fame-making season weren’t cheap. “I think the first year we had that big party in my great room,” the father of four reflected. “I think that show cost me $150,000 the first year.”
“They were only offering $35,000 to be in this film, and it is the best $35,000 I ever earned,” the billionaire media mogul told Essence in 2023. “It changed everything and taught me so much.”
“I was too young and didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Lopez told Variety in 2019, reflecting on her breakout movie. “It was great they offered me a million dollars. I feel like everyone was making a statement.”
And it paved the way for her to make hundreds of millions more, though sometimes her participation doesn’t cost a thing.
“I do things because I love them,” Lopez explained to GQ in 2019. “I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for Hustlers. I did it for free and produced it. I bank on myself, you know? Like Jenny From the Block—I do what I love.”
“I need a studio movie now, because I’ve poured it all into this,” Brody quipped to Variety, referring to the “barn that looks like a castle” he’s renovating in upstate New York.
Interestingly, the salaries have remained proportional for SNL newcomers, with season one stars John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase reportedly earning $750 an episode back in 1975. Which was roughly equivalent to $3,300 in 2014, according to the Consumer Price Index Inflation calculator. (Though the $750 of 1975 is $4,428 in 2025.)
“That first commercial when they paid me, it was $800,” the All That alum revealed in Demi Lovato‘s 2024 documentary Child Star. “I was 12 so that may as well have been a million dollars.”
“There really are no residuals on Netflix,” Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai Gilmore for seven seasons and then reprised the role for 2016’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, said on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March 2025. “But I’ve been paid in love and appreciation.”
“my earnings for the entire first season of 13 reasons why were $29,953.24 prior to agency and manager fees (20%) and taxes,” Dorfman wrote on Threads July 24. “8 episodes over six months.” She continued, “i did all of the promo and had KEY ART for this show, flew round trip from NYC to SF to shoot for every episode, was kept for days without pay/working. i barely qualified for insurance.”
And, Dorfman added, “within the first 28 days of release, the show’s season 1 garnered a total of 476 million view hours. this is why we strike.”
But, the Armchair Expert host stressed that he did not mind.
“Every job I had ever had in my life prior to Parenthood, I made a point to find out what everyone was making,” he said. “I’d always figure it out—either a conversation where I get it out of them or I backchannel through an agent.”
So he made a point to purposely not seek out such info about his Parenthood family, which helped with enjoying the experience even when he did get an inkling of where he was on the pay pyramid.
His labor of love about CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow speaking truth to power in the 1950s had legs, though: Making his Broadway debut, Clooney wrapped his months-long stint playing Murrow in a stage adaptation of the film in June 2025. And with the play having grossed a Broadway record (for a nonmusical) $3.3 million during a preview week before it officially opened April 3, he made a lot more than $1.
He made so little, Bale shared, that he remembered “sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them.”
“We didn’t earn that much,” she told Variety in 2026. “Can you imagine? I’d have been driving a couple of Porsches!”
However, the actress—who played Daenerys Targaryen for eight seasons between 2011 and 2019—noted that the money she made throughout the HBO show did provide her with enough financial security to pay off her parents’ mortgage.
After the irreverent comedy became a sleeper hit, he was able to renegotiate for a piece of the profits, telling the New Zealand Herald, “They went a little bit higher.”
“I’ve been in this business and making films now over two decades,” the Beninese actor told CNN’s Larry Madowo in January 2025. “And still—with two Oscar nominations and been in many big blockbuster films—and yet I’m still struggling financially to make a living.”
Still, she wrote, the experience was “everything!”
And the Australian actress’ star rose ever a-ca higher, with her fee going from the SAG minimum scale of $65,000 for 2012’s Pitch Perfect to $10 million for 2017’s Pitch Perfect 3. Wilson wrote that she raked in $20 million total for the threequel, Isn’t It Romantic and The Hustle, though—reality alert—she “lost almost 50 percent to taxes, 10 percent to agents and 5 percent” to her lawyer. But even after those obligations and paying her publicist, business manager and assistant, Wilson “netted what to me was an absolute fortune.”
“I’m 48 now, so I’ve finally gotten to the place where I’m OK asking for what I deserve, which is something that comes only with age,” Pompeo told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Because I’m not the most ‘relevant’ actress out there. I know that’s the industry perception because I’ve been this character for 14 years. But the truth is, anybody can be good on a show season one and two. Can you be good 14 years later? Now, that’s a f–kin’ skill.”
Reflecting more recently on how she always made less than costar Patrick Dempsey, even though she was the Grey in question, Pompeo said she didn’t begrudge him his money.
But, she said on a March 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy, “Just being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same and that was harder to get. I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him and they never will.”
Yet while the scream queen earned four figures, director John Carpenter’s friend Nick Castle felt like a king making $25 per day to share the role of Michael Myers. (It’s Anthony Moran whose face you see when the killer’s mask comes off for a freaky second, and editor Tommy Lee Wallace also logged screentime as Michael.)
“That was a lot at the time!” Castle, who attended film school at USC with Carpenter, told Vanity Fair in 2018. “You have to remember: My interest in doing the film was being on set, so I could demystify the experience of filmmaking and directing. I expected to hang around the set for no money. But hey, $25 per day, and all I had to do was wear a rubber mask.”
As for the film’s leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, “You don’t hear a lot of $20 million quotes anymore, but at this time that was happening,” Henson said on the Ladies First With Laura Brown podcast in 2021. “And rightfully so—I’m not saying they shouldn’t have paid Cate and Brad what they deserved.”
But, she continued, “I’m bringing a certain amount to the seat too and I felt like what I was asking at that time in my career was fair, was fair to the ticket sales that I would contribute to this big film. Wouldn’t do it.” Henson was “gutted” when they offered $100,000, she recalled. “When it was all said and done I got $150,000, but I had to swallow my pride, baby.”
Breaking it down, “I know people go, ‘$150,000, that’s a lot of money!’” Henson acknowledged. “I don’t ever want people to think that I’m ungrateful because that is not me.” But, she calculated, “Uncle Sam is going to take 50 percent of that, so now you’re left with, what? $75,000. Now before Uncle Sam takes the money, I have to pay my team before taxes, 30 percent. So once Uncle Sam takes his 75, then I got another 30 that’s coming off of that 75, so I may have made $40,000?”
“Are you kidding me? No,” she retorted on Watch What Happens Live in August 2024 when Andy Cohen guessed LOTR was her biggest paycheck. “No one got paid anything to do that movie…I mean, I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears.”
Hopefully he also got to keep his ears.
