With Mark-Paul Gosselaar of 'Raising the Bar'

When did you very first meet Steven Bochco?

2001, for his project about -- I believe it was a public defender. Kim Delaney played a public defender, a show called "Philly." I went in to meet Steven for that role, and I didn't get it, but I got something better: "NYPD Blue." And he had absolutely no idea what my past was, that I was a child star. He was looking to replace Rick Schroder, who was a child star, and he replaced him with another child star and I was like, what are you doing?

There's sort of a mythology about him.

Maybe it's the white hair. I love having discussions with him, completely off-base, just about life in general, when we're not working.

But you don't go off-road racing together?

There was a period there where I had to ride a motorcycle when I was doing "NYPD Blue," and I had to take the 405 to Century City, that was the only freeway I could take, any other would take me in the opposite direction. Every day I was on the 405 south or 405 north. Steven saw me one day -- he doesn't come by the set that much, he stays away and allows us to do our work -- and he saw me at a stoplight. I pull up next to this Mercedes and I looked at him and he looked at me and I thought, "Holy . . . that's my boss." . . . . Next day I get a call: Steven wants to see me in the office. . . . He started off by saying, "I was once like you! I used to ride motorcycles and do all that stuff." But he was like, "I don't want you doing that . . . . I need you alive, so we can finish these episodes."

Were you acting out over being on "Saved by the Bell"?

No! Actually I started riding motorcycles when I was 3 and racing when I was 5.

I wonder what would have happened to a cast like the "Saved by the Bell" gang in our modern tabloid era.