She came into our lives as the head cheerleader and all-around awesome girl next door we all wished we could date on Saved By The Bell. After graduation, she moved, relocating to a new area code – Beverly Hills 90210 – but remained at the top of our list of crushes.
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen (now Tiffani Thiessen) seemed like the most logical choice for the inaugural installment of High School Crushes, a new series where we’ll go back in time to look at the hotties who stole our hearts back when we were still counting down to lunch hour with our friends and doing homework in front of the television with a pencil and eraser.
How could we not go with Thiessen?
Much like Zack Morris, we too were in love with the most popular girl to walk the halls at Bayside High. Unlike A.C. Slater, we never stopped pining for Kelly Kapowski, the popular, perky, and naturally pretty girl of our pre-pubescent dreams. We felt for her when her dad lost his job, didn’t care that all of her cheers were essentially the same, and couldn’t believe that Zack would dare dance to “A-12” with another girl right in front of Kelly!
After everyone matriculated from the best high school in the history of Saturday morning television (and after-school syndication), Thiessen remained one of our biggest crushes when she replaced Shannon Doherty on Beverly Hills 90210.
Valerie Malone arrived in “The Zip Code” in Season 5 and started making waves right away. Not only was her character more entertaining and infinitely better than the ultra-annoying Brenda (Doherty), but Thiessen joining the cast of 90210 also gave us the chance to see what the grown up version of Kelly Kapowski looked like, and she was sexy as hell!
From Bayside High to Beverly Hills, we sure did love us some Tiffani-Amber Thiessen.
