Fans around the world were heartbroken to learn of the untimely death of Dustin Diamond on Feb. 1, 2021 from carcinoma. Diamond is best known for his work on Saved by the Bell, where he played Screech for all four seasons of the beloved show (as well as the series’ several spinoffs).
When his time on the show came to an end, Diamond didn’t have the easy career many would expect from a successful actor. Instead, his personal life was marred by scandal and legal strife, which inevitably affected his professional reputation.
He infamously released a sex tape titled Screeched: Saved by the Smell in 2006, but later claimed he hired a stunt double. He also found himself in serious financial trouble when he was audited for nearly $100,000 in 2016. However, the nail in the coffin of Diamond’s potential career was when he was arrested in 2014 during a bar fight in Wisconsin, per The Sun.
Diamond’s career was further damaged when he released a tell-all memoir about his time on Saved by the Bell, which shattered the illusion of childhood innocence on set, per A.V. Club. Rather, the show depicted in Diamond’s book was full of sex, drugs, and infighting… it is Hollywood, after all. It should be of little surprise that Diamond was not asked to reprise the role of Screech in the 2020 reboot.
While he might not have been part of the show, Diamond still had big plans for Screech’s future.
Dustin Diamond had big ideas for Screech
When the first trailer for the Saved by the Bell reboot was released, it was easy to notice what was missing: Screech! After all, Dustin Diamond’s breakout character remains a fan favorite to this day.
After some speculation, Diamond confirmed he was not asked to join the NBC reboot, and he wasn’t happy about it. “How do you have Saved by the Bell without Screech, right?” he asked when speaking to TMZ in February 2020. “It seems like a missed opportunity.” Diamond claimed he thought it was short-sighted of NBC to leave anyone out of the reboot. “If you reboot an entire series, you bring back all the staples,” he said.
It turns out that Diamond had a vision for what he wanted to do with his beloved character if he ever had another opportunity to play him on screen. In the same TMZ interview, he expanded on his ideas about updating Screech. “Screech would be dealing with parenthood and dealing with his kids, and finding out that he’s got a little Screech of his own now,” Diamond said. Diamond envisioned a dynamic in which Screech was tasked with raising a son — very similar to his teenage self — and finding it exceedingly difficult.
It sure sounds funny. It’s too bad the producers didn’t change their minds.
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