TV Show Heartthrobs We Loved — Until We Realized They’re Kind of Awful

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TV Show Heartthrobs We Loved Until We Realized They’re Kind of Awful: Zack Morris, Lucas Scott, More

There are an endless amount of TV heartthrobs who had Us swooning while their shows were on air — but some small-screen crushes aren’t quite as lovable in hindsight. Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Zack Morris was an instant teen idol when Saved by the Bell premiered on NBC in 1989. The series, which also starred Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Thiessen, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Dustin Diamond, followed Zack as he led his pals on adventures at California’s Bayside High School. While his bleach-blonde hair, acid-wash jeans and snarky attitude made him a fan favorite at the time, his once-lovable schemes were eventually reevaluated as problematic. Over the course of the show’s four seasons, Zack’s bad behavior included faking a terminal illness to win a kiss from his crush, body-shaming dates, dumping a girl for coming to his rescue in a fight and appropriating Native American culture, just to name a few. Gosselaar, however, found one particular early season 1 episode hardest to shoot. “There was one where I was basically whoring out Lisa Turtle,” he explained during a 2023 episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast. “I charged people to kiss her without her consent. That was a tough one, which we had to preface the episode by saying, ‘We do not condone this. We’re here just to discuss it, but this is in the past.’” Titled “The Lisa Card,” the episode centered on Zack trying to “help” Lisa as she panicked about going over her dad’s credit card limit. In an effort to assist, Zack charged boys in their grade $1 each to “lose their Lisa cards,” i.e., kiss Lisa without her consent. Saved by the Bell returned with a revival in 2021, with Zack as the elected governor of California who found himself in trouble after he closed down a bunch of low-income high schools and sent the students to higher-performing schools, like Bayside, instead. While Gosselaar told Entertainment Tonight in 2020 that he couldn’t “wait” to get back into character, he also admitted that Zack isn’t the easiest person to portray. “I was taking the week we had before the lockdown to get back into the character, to understand him, because there is a way that he says things and if you say it in the wrong way, it can come off very douchey,” he recalled. Gosselaar added that while his son on the show, Mack — played by Mitchell Hoog— was following in his dad’s footsteps, the new iteration was much more careful in how it approached the Morris family’s signature pranks and gags. “The actor who plays my son, Mitchell Hoog, I think he’s brilliantly cast, and he does a really good job of toeing that line,” Gosselaar said. “Saying things that are offensive, but if you say them in the light of the Zack Morris way, it’s effervescent and you can’t take offense to it.” Keep scrolling for every TV heartthrob that was actually kind of awful:

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Zack Morris

From exploiting his friends for money to faking a terminal illness, Zack Morris wasn’t actually worthy of teen heartthrob status. His character also showed little growth throughout Saved by the Bell — did Kelly (Theissen) really need to marry him instead of taking a semester at sea during those college years? — and made the same mistakes over and over again. 

He does get a few points for saving Jesse (Berkley) from caffeine pills that one time, and adult Zack tried his best to be a decent father. Saved by the reboot, we guess. 

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Lucas Scott

Everything about Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) was specifically crafted to make him the likable protagonist on One Tree Hill. He was a sensitive writer who was abandoned by his father, raised by a single mom (Moira Kelly) and outcast at his high school.

His soft-spokenness, however, could only take him so far. After joining the basketball team in season 1, Lucas began to cheat, lie and hurt everyone he loved as his popularity grew. Meanwhile, his half-brother, Nathan (James Lafferty) — initially an antagonist for the series — quickly became the favorite Scott brother through his romance with Lucas’ best friend, Hayley (Bethany Joy Lenz).

Lucas was never a straight-up villain of OTH — and he definitely became a solid friend and brother — but he was truly a horrible boyfriend who never put the girl he was dating first.

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Chuck Bass

When Gossip Girl premiered on The CW in 2007, viewers were instantly hooked by bad boy Chuck Bass’ (Ed Westwick) tumultuous dynamic with on-off girlfriend Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). The twosome’s witty banter and schemes to get the other to confess their undying love kept fans on their toes.

Although the couple ultimately said “I do” by series end, the reality of Chuck’s bad behavior has become more clear since Gossip Girl wrapped. He tried to rape a 15-year-old girl in the pilot, physically and emotionally abused Blair and even sold her to his uncle Jack (Desmond Harrington) for a hotel at one point.

There’s not much to enjoy about Blair and Chuck’s toxic love. Can we recommend Dan (Penn Badgley) and Blair instead? You’ll just need to forget that whole “Dan is Gossip Girl” thing.

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Dawson Leery

Nobody likes a whiner, and nobody whined as much as Dawson Leery. After turning best friend Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) down for the new girl in town, Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams), in season 1, Dawson (James Van Der Beek) ultimately changed his mind and pursued Joey after seeing her perform in a beauty pageant. He later made a self-indulgent movie about their romance and subsequent breakup in season 2, and then pushed away her advances in season 3 in hopes of finding himself instead.

Joey tried to move on with their mutual friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) in season 3, but Dawson decided to fight for her again,  almost killing Pacey via a sailboat race in the process  — because if he couldn’t have her, no one could. When Joey fell for Pacey anyway, Dawson continued to hold Joey’s virginity over her head and make her feel guilty for not honoring a pact they made about being each other’s first time.

While many fans were hoping to see Dawson and Joey end up together when the Dawson’s Creek series finale aired in 2003, Joey riding off into the sunset with Pacey has become the fan-favorite ending as years have passed. Even beyond his treatment of Joey, Dawson’s self-entitlement and privileged problems were unbearable from start to finish.

At least he finally got to meet Steven Spielberg.

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Ezra Fitz

Where to start? Fitz (Ian Harding) and Aria (Lucy Hale) were Pretty Little Liars’ most popular couple throughout the show’s seven-season run. The pair even tied the knot in the series finale, to fans’ absolute glee. However, the twosome were problematic from the start as Fitz was Aria’s high-school English teacher.

While he initially claimed to be unaware of Aria’s real age — they met in a bar and she told him she was a college student — it was eventually revealed that he knew Aria was a minor as he was studying her and her friends for a true crime novel about her life. (Seriously, that happened.) He also dated her BFF Alison DeLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse), who was 15 at the time.

There were an endless amount of inappropriate relationships and terrible men on PLL, but Fitz might take the cake.

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President Fitzgerald Grant III

Speaking of men named Fitz, there is no denying that President Fitzgerald Grant III (Tony Goldwyn) and Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) were the “it” couple on Scandal. However, their uneven power dynamic made them a toxic pairing, and that all landed on Fitz. Despite already being married to Mellie (Bellamy Young), he still wouldn’t allow Olivia to move on with other men, constantly using his power as president to get what he wanted.

We won’t deny the chemistry was red hot between these two, but the road to happily ever after wasn’t as appealing as the show wanted viewers to believe.

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Jim Halpert

Jim Halpert, played by John Krasinski, was the coworker everyone wanted to have during The Office’s nine-season run. Handsome but not intimidatingly so, funny and a solid shoulder to cry on, his love story with Pam (Jenna Fischer) seemed like the ultimate couple goals.

As the series progressed, however, it became painfully clear that Jim only cared about Pam and was rarely, if ever, there for anyone else working at Dunder Mifflin. Ignoring that he actively went after Pam when she was engaged to Roy (David Denman), how he treated her once they got together quickly declined. He bought a house without telling her, let Cathy (Lindsey Broad) stay in that hotel room just a little too long and traveled to Philadelphia to pursue his dreams while leaving his wife alone with two children.

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Damon Salvatore

Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) was the bad boy vampire foil to brother Stefan’s (Paul Wesley) good guy on The Vampire Diaries. With a passionate love for Elena (Nina Dobrev) — despite her being his brother’s girl — fans instantly swooned over the guy with the menacing smirk. When Damon finally won Elena over in season 4, viewers rejoiced, rooting for their romance straight through the series finale in 2017.

Damon’s problematic behavior, however, was often overlooked. He raped Elena’s friend Caroline (Candice King) in season 1, killed Elena’s brother — twice — and was willing to sacrifice anyone to protect her.

When Elena fell for Damon, he chose to sleep with her despite knowing she was sired to him as a newbie vampire. By season 5, the twosome admitted they were a terrible match but stayed together anyway. Even after Elena erased her memories of Damon, he just couldn’t seem to let her go.

Yes, there were serious fireworks between Damon and Elena, as Somerhalder and Dobrev dated in real life, but Damon did some truly unforgivable things.

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Brandon Walsh

Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) was supposed to be the all-American boy when Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered in 1990. His “average Joe” persona was meant to foil “bad boy” Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), making him a heartthrob for all ages

But how Brandon was labeled never matched how he acted. He often tattled on his sister, Brenda (Shannen Doherty), despite the pair being twins, led on Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) romantically for years, only wanting her when she fell for someone else, and had an overall self-righteous attitude despite making a ton of mistakes himself.

He also chewed gum with his mouth open — major red flag.

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Seth Cohen

There were a lot of great things about The O.C.’s Seth Cohen (Adam Brody). A half-Jewish heartthrob who loved video games over sports in the early 2000s was groundbreaking for the time, and his witty and sarcastic remarks made him a fan-favorite character. His romance with Summer Roberts, portrayed by Brody’s then-real-life girlfriend Rachel Bilson, is still beloved by many today.

But Seth was selfish, and that’s hard to deny while rewatching the series. He often only cared about his own problems and winning Summer’s heart. When he found himself in a love triangle with Anna (Samaire Armstrong) and Summer, he mistreated both girls until they dumped him. After Ryan (Ben McKenzie) decided to leave Newport Beach at the end of season 1, he ran away to Portland and left Summer in the dust without an explanation. Then he tried to win her back despite the fact she had moved on with someone else.

Ryan was constantly bogged down with real-world problems, while Seth made his teenage love life the center of attention. He also almost burned his mom’s business to the ground by smoking a joint, so that wasn’t great either.

We’ll always have a soft spot in our hearts for Seth, but he no longer has a spot in the TV Heartthrob Hall of Fame.