TAMPA, Fla. — Before Mark Consuelos was a famous actor or the husband and co-host of Kelly Ripa, he spent teenage summers bagging groceries and stocking the dairy aisle at a Hillsborough County Publix.

“From like 14 until my early 20s, I was in the Tampa Bay area,” said the actor and talk show host, who attended Bloomingdale High School in Valrico and finished college at the University of South Florida. “I went to a lot of Bucs games. I’ve been a fan since, you know, the late ’80s, which was not an easy time to be a Buccaneers fan. But I just have just so many fond memories of growing up there.”

Consuelos and Ripa will soon relive his time in Tampa Bay both on and off camera. Their morning show, “Live with Kelly and Mark,” will tape four episodes Monday and Tuesday at the Sandpearl Resort on Clearwater Beach.

Thousands of locals applied to sit in the audience. The couple will be joined by celebrity guests like St. Petersburg’s Patrick Wilson and musicians Katharine McPhee, Jason Derulo, Busta Rhymes and Common.

It’s not just Consuelos who has a soft spot for the Tampa Bay area. Ripa first met his parents in St. Petersburg, where they still own a condo.

“To me, it was such a beautiful place,” she said. “I had never seen water that color. I had never seen sand that soft. You know, I had fallen in love with his parents immediately. But the surroundings also helped.”

Consuelos’ mom made her a fruit salad using oranges, grapefruit and star fruit from a neighbor’s trees.

“I was gagged by that,” Ripa said. “I couldn’t believe that people, you know, actually had fruit trees on their property.”

Based in New York, “Live with Kelly and Mark” typically shoots remotely once or twice a year. Executive producer Michael Gelman said the team has been talking about a Tampa Bay visit for 10 years.

“We’ve been to Disney a lot of times. We’ve been to Vegas. We did Palm Springs recently,” he said. “We’re always looking for an interesting place to kind of rub noses with the people that watch the show every day. And we love to go to beautiful venues — and especially warm weather places — when it starts getting colder here.”

During a scouting trip, Gelman was surprised by the number of concert venues and art museums in the area, especially The Dali Museum and the Chihuly Collection.

“I have a lot of relatives in Florida ... but we are more East Coast-oriented,” he said. “So I haven’t really spent that much time on the west coast, and it really is beautiful. I mean, the sand and the beaches. I was not really aware of how much natural beauty and all those places that were art-related.”

In between the tapings, the couple plans to embark on a tour of Consuelos’ adolescent haunts.

“We’re going to go back and visit my high school. Maybe try to get access to a house I lived in without being too creepy,” he said. “I’m going to visit the Buccaneers practice facility; it’s a lifelong dream to actually meet with those guys. I’m such a huge fan. And then I have some friends that live nearby. I think we’ll have a couple dinners, maybe near the hotel there in Clearwater.”

Ripa is determined to find a specific Irish pub near her in-laws’ condo where she first tried Guinness beer.

“I was like, ‘This place is incredible!’ I didn’t realize Guinness ... you can get that anywhere,” she said. “I was just like, ‘They have this beer in Florida called Guinness.’”

Previous visits to the area have included stops at Bern’s Steak House, the Columbia Restaurant and the nightclubs of Ybor City.

“I was probably like 19, 20 years old, but there was only two nightclubs in Ybor City,” he said. “And then to come back years later and see what that turned into, it was just like blocks and blocks. It was like Mardi Gras. I couldn’t believe that.”

“We went dancing all night,” Ripa added. “We used to do that once. I know it’s hard to imagine.”

Will they bust out their dancing shoes during their return next week?

“You never know,” Consuelos said.

“We have to be careful,” Ripa said. “Somebody could break a hip.”

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