Late actor Dustin Diamond never got the chance to join his old co-stars for a special appearance in the Saved by the Bell reboot series. Though Diamond had appeared in every episode of the original Saved by the Bell along with its two spinoffs, he was not included in the first season of the Peacock reboot. His absence was significant as nearly every other original cast member had appeared in some capacity.
Sadly, that opportunity is now gone, as Dustin Diamond passed away earlier this year. In January, he was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and despite how bad things looked, he had begun treatment with the hope of defeating the disease. The actor was only able to complete one round of chemotherapy before he died at the age of 44 just weeks after his diagnosis was announced.
Diamond didn’t physically appear in Peacock’s Saved by the Bell, though Samuel “Screech” Powers was referenced. A line of dialogue revealed that he had somehow relocated to the International Space Station along with his robot pal Kevin. This explained his absence in the show without outright ignoring the character. Executive producer Franco Bario now tells Variety that he spoke with Diamond before his death about how the Screech references could “lead us to possible stories that would include him in season 2.”
When Diamond died, Bario and showrunner Tracey Wigfield made the decision to also have Screech pass away in the Saved by the Bell universe. This serves a dual purpose, as it will allow the Saved by the Bell team to pay tribute to Diamond personally while also letting the characters on the show mourn Screech. Bario and Wigfield pitched the idea to the other OG cast members (Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, and Lark Voorhies), and the plan is for the group to reunite for a scene where they remember their old friend.
“At the beginning of this season, we already were coming into writing season 2 [where] obviously Dustin was one thing, but we also were like in a pandemic and in general in the first episode, everyone was feeling the same sense of everyone understands how heavy this last year has been,” Wigfield told Variety. “It would have been wrong to not acknowledge that in a real way and to not have our OG characters mourning this character that we’ll never get to see again. That, I wanted to put on the screen, but I just wanted to make sure we were being as sensitive as possible. There was a real guy who had people who loved him. You don’t want to make any jokes or talk about it in any way that might hurt anyone’s feelings.”
This special tribute will also include old clips of Dustin Diamond as Screech from the original Saved by the Bell, so, in a way, this finally gets him onto the Peacock revival. A lot of thought was put into which clips were showcased for the episode, because as Bario explains, “a lot of what Screech was is known for was being the butt of a joke or being an outrageous character, and what we were hoping for was using the clips to show how important he was to the show, but also to the other characters in the show.”
The second season of Saved by the Bell will premiere on Nov. 24 on Peacock. This news comes to us from Variety.
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