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00:00:01First, I wanted to say thank you so much for making my childhood.
00:00:04Teaching me how to be cool in high school.
00:00:06He's the young heartthrob who has teens across the country.
00:00:09Saved by the bell.
00:00:11Saved by the bell.
00:00:14Saved by the bell, right?
00:00:17How you doing?
00:00:18How you doing?
00:00:19There's a lot of people that watch this show.
00:00:28Stalking.
00:00:29Criminality.
00:00:30The price of fame.
00:00:32911, what's your emergency?
00:00:34To be totally honest, it was pretty bananas from the jump.
00:00:37Dustin, die!
00:00:38He alleged his parents were stealing his money.
00:00:40He had a small puncture wound on his chest.
00:00:45Excuse me a second.
00:00:45Yeah.
00:00:47It was overwhelming.
00:00:50It was fake.
00:00:52Shannon Steichel fan.
00:00:56How did Saved by the Bell shake you?
00:01:03Ellen, it went through.
00:01:04It's right there.
00:01:08But I've seen the tape.
00:01:09You're going to die.
00:01:12This situation will never be repeated again.
00:01:25I remember sitting in my little pajamas.
00:01:29I was on my couch in my living room in Miami, Florida.
00:01:33The Saved by the Bell theme came on.
00:01:41It kind of just grabbed you with those rainbows of colors.
00:01:44Lots of 90s pop art graphics.
00:01:48Bus drive by.
00:01:51It's all right.
00:01:52Because I'm safe out of the Bell.
00:01:54It had that kind of bam, bam, bam.
00:01:56Lots of neon geometric shapes whizzing past.
00:02:02How can you not move to this groove?
00:02:05It just draws you in.
00:02:08Saved by the Bell ran from 1989 to 1993.
00:02:17It's part of millennial core.
00:02:22It was so popular that I don't think you would have been able to find a teen in the 90s
00:02:28who didn't have a favorite character on that show.
00:02:30Every girl you knew had a crush on Zack Morris or A.C. Slater
00:02:35or wanted to be Kelly Kapowski or Jesse Spano or Lisa Turtle.
00:02:39Saved by the Bell is a comedy meets sort of melodrama,
00:02:43sort of fantasy about high school with a group of kids.
00:02:46It was colorful, vibrant, somewhat bubblegummy.
00:02:50Viewers might say that it's the school they wish they had attended
00:02:53where everybody gets along, everybody has an identity, everybody has a good time.
00:03:03But it's really about that cast and they could do almost anything.
00:03:08Saved by the Bell followed this group of six friends and their daily lives at Bayside High.
00:03:14And the cast was made up of actual teenagers.
00:03:20It felt authentic.
00:03:22There was that age element that connected us to these characters.
00:03:26Bring them out to the stage.
00:03:27Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez, and Mark Paul Gosselaar.
00:03:31The show was named one of the 20 best school shows of all time by AOL TV.
00:03:37Hi.
00:03:38Great to be here.
00:03:39Hello, everyone.
00:03:40People remember it with great affection.
00:03:45But that sort of glossy, lovely quality, behind that, there were a few other things that were going on.
00:03:55It's a very different, more complicated and darker story.
00:04:00The executive producer who was our showrunner, a guy named Peter Engel, was a very strong born-again Christian at
00:04:06the time.
00:04:06Peter Engel is the writer and the executive producer of Saved by the Bell.
00:04:11Before that, he was in Hollywood, in the more darker, difficult parts of Hollywood,
00:04:18into a decadent life, doing drugs, dating adult film stars.
00:04:21And suddenly, one day, he saw a vision of Jesus on the beach.
00:04:29And decided he wanted to be a force for the good.
00:04:35And his quote about that,
00:04:38no one said a word when I did a thousand bucks of cocaine.
00:04:41But when I saw Jesus in Malibu, everyone said, are you crazy?
00:04:47However, I don't care if it was a cocaine psychosis.
00:04:50It was something came through and delivered a moment of clarity for him.
00:04:53So we weren't even allowed to cuss.
00:04:55But I think that's part of the innocence that made it sort of charming and maybe resonated.
00:04:59So it was, because it was a big escapism.
00:05:01In order to understand Saved by the Bell,
00:05:03you actually have to go back to how the show originally started,
00:05:07which was a very different show.
00:05:11Before Saved by the Bell, Peter Engel produced a Disney show called Good Morning, Miss Bliss.
00:05:21So Good Morning, Miss Bliss was going to be a Saturday morning kid show.
00:05:25And it was about Miss Bliss and her dealing with these young adolescents in middle school.
00:05:30You know, at that time, the Disney Channel was looking for more live action shows that they could put on
00:05:36their network.
00:05:37Hayley Mills was attached, which I love Hayley Mills.
00:05:39I'd grown up watching her in Pollyanna and Parent Trap.
00:05:42Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which is a show really about the teachers.
00:05:46And the children are there, but they are secondary characters.
00:05:49There are three cast members in this cast that you'd be more familiar with at Saved by the Bell.
00:05:54I was tasked with finding all the kids, the principal and the other teacher.
00:05:57They were very specific for the main character, Zach.
00:06:00They wanted a Ferris Bueller-type kid.
00:06:03I was like, oh, okay.
00:06:05But I was not finding that personality.
00:06:08But then I remember when Mark Paul came in and he read, and he was the one.
00:06:15He was the kid.
00:06:17His perfectly coiffed blonde hair, which I later found out, was not a natural shade.
00:06:24His dimples, his smile.
00:06:27He had swagger.
00:06:29I mean, if you can say that about a teenager at the time, Zach Morris had swagger.
00:06:40Hi, everyone.
00:06:41I'm Max Patimo, and I'm formerly from Good Morning, Miss Bliss.
00:06:45And Micah Gonzalez was my character.
00:06:47And it's nice to be back on camera after 35 years.
00:06:53And I just remember going in and, you know, starting out meeting the casting director, going back for the second
00:06:59and third auditions.
00:07:00And I remember telling my mom, if I get on this show, you owe me a box of C's chocolates,
00:07:05a really big one.
00:07:07Thirteen auditions later, I think it was, I was on Good Morning, Miss Bliss as a 13-year-old.
00:07:12I was Mikey Gonzalez, Zach's best friend.
00:07:25And this is Lark as a little baby.
00:07:30I think she's like three months in here, smiling for the camera.
00:07:36She grew up in Pasadena.
00:07:39Here's Lark at four.
00:07:43Ballerina.
00:07:44She loved doing that.
00:07:47Lark had been a strange relationship between her and her dad.
00:07:52We were divorced when Lark was about three, four years old.
00:07:57Lark was a quiet little girl, shy.
00:08:00But when I put her in ballet, she would just light up and just show off.
00:08:08I worked at Columbia Pictures.
00:08:10I became an executive secretary.
00:08:12And my daughter showed interest in getting into show business.
00:08:17She wanted to do commercials.
00:08:19She's turning 11, 12 soon.
00:08:22And I just started to get my daughter an agent and go from there.
00:08:27What's your problem?
00:08:28Uh, well, uh, uh...
00:08:30What do you want?
00:08:32Your deed is sweet.
00:08:33I remember this scene.
00:08:37What?
00:08:38Doing that really reinforced her desire to be an actress, a performer.
00:08:45And then there was a good dry spell, six to nine months.
00:08:49And she was becoming discouraged, because she wasn't getting anything.
00:08:54And then she auditioned for Good Morning, Miss Bliss.
00:08:59Lisa Turtle was the most stylish friend of the group.
00:09:04It was between Lark Voorhees and Tiffany Thiessen.
00:09:08In the room at the testing, I did bring up,
00:09:11Hey, we don't have anybody of color in this piece.
00:09:15And on the seventh callback, she got the part of Lisa Turtle.
00:09:21And then you're also meeting the other characters.
00:09:23I thought Heather Hopper was very funny.
00:09:26She was cast as a girl named Nikki.
00:09:28And the last role to round up the ensemble is a character named Samuel Screech Powers.
00:09:33He was dorky, he was goofy,
00:09:37and just kind of more the comedic relief.
00:09:41We ultimately ended up doing an open call.
00:09:44And that's where we found Dustin Diamond.
00:09:46And I remember his father being there.
00:09:48I remember his voice was kind of screechy, you know?
00:09:52Can anyone tell me where the Lost Colony is located?
00:09:56No one knows Miss Bliss.
00:09:58That's why it's lost.
00:10:00Ha!
00:10:01Dustin starts on Miss Bliss at age 11
00:10:03and begins playing a character who's three years older than he actually is.
00:10:08And he is the only one that's not playing his actual age.
00:10:11It's tough for a child actor.
00:10:13I mean, it's tough for an adult.
00:10:14It takes a lot of energy and a lot of work.
00:10:17Being on set as a child actor in a typical week, Monday through Friday,
00:10:21I think we'd had to be there at 8 a.m.
00:10:23Monday was the table read.
00:10:24You would sit down and go over the script.
00:10:26Tuesday and Wednesday were rehearsals.
00:10:30Thursday was the dress rehearsal.
00:10:32And then Friday we would film.
00:10:33And every day in between doing all of that, there was a mandatory three hours of school.
00:10:39So it was demanding.
00:10:40And it was a job as a child, which I think makes children grow up differently.
00:10:49On weekends, I was exhausted and recovering and ready to go back on Monday.
00:10:54To me, it feels no different than when you're training a puppy.
00:10:58The puppy doesn't really know what it's doing.
00:11:02In the beginning, I think it's fun for the kid.
00:11:06But I think after a while, it's not just chasing the ball for fun and getting a little treat afterwards.
00:11:13It's like, oh, and we're going to do it again?
00:11:15It's like, how many times can I do this?
00:11:18Peter Engels tried to keep the set wholesome, made sure the parents were around,
00:11:22and made sure language was appropriate for this age group.
00:11:26But child stars are pushed into an adult environment prematurely
00:11:30and missing the normal developmental milestones of childhood.
00:11:35I was away from my friends.
00:11:37You're not interacting with different people.
00:11:39You're not going outside to do P.E.
00:11:42If you're coming back to regular school from being a child actor,
00:11:45nobody's going to know who you are.
00:11:47It's like, you've been absent.
00:11:48Like, you're an outcast.
00:11:49You're a new person.
00:11:55Lark took it in stride.
00:11:57And she knew that this was what she wanted to do.
00:12:01But we didn't know how the show was going to do.
00:12:04There was no way to know.
00:12:07Because most Saturday morning shows were cartoons.
00:12:10And they were trying to introduce something different.
00:12:13We have here a classroom based on mutual respect.
00:12:17There are three things I ask of you.
00:12:19The Miss Bliss character was overly saccharine.
00:12:22And that doesn't make for an interesting TV character.
00:12:26So we filmed 13 episodes, which was one season back then.
00:12:30Ultimately, I got the call.
00:12:32It wasn't picked up for a second season on the Disney Channel.
00:12:35And, you know, that was the end of Good Morning, Miss Bliss.
00:12:41We didn't get a lot of information from Disney.
00:12:45Basically, what we were told was Disney didn't want to continue the show.
00:12:49And what they did was they sold the rights to a few of the characters to NBC.
00:12:54And NBC was going to package it as a new show.
00:12:57It was a welcome surprise that it was picked up.
00:13:00But you feel vulnerable.
00:13:02They can decide to not pick you up the next season.
00:13:06So only three of the students from Good Morning, Miss Bliss make it over to NBC.
00:13:13Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, and it's Lark Voorhees.
00:13:19It was devastating, I would say.
00:13:21It was tough to process as a child.
00:13:24Because, you know, you feel the rejection of not continuing after, you know, a year of doing this.
00:13:30And I think my response was to take a break and go be a regular kid.
00:13:36And lo and behold, I never looked back.
00:13:40But for some of these actors, there were some strange outcomes for some of them.
00:13:49Including stalking.
00:13:53And criminality.
00:13:55911, what's your emergency?
00:14:03We'll do zoom-ins on him, too.
00:14:05I'm Robin Lippin.
00:14:07I'm the casting director of Saved by the Bell.
00:14:10Producers decided to shift the focus away from this teacher, Miss Bliss, and cast three new teen actors to go
00:14:19alongside Zach, Screech, and Lisa, who will now be in high school at a completely different school.
00:14:25I was casting A.C. Slater, who was the jock and the kind of the Fonzie, John Travolta type.
00:14:32It was hell on wheels.
00:14:34To find someone with that personality and the look and the comedy, it was really hard.
00:14:39Until Peter said, let's open it up and he could be any ethnicity.
00:14:44Then all I remember is Mario Lopez walking in.
00:14:47See, you have to understand, we're both like this one girl, right?
00:14:52And we're both kind of little, we're leaders.
00:14:54And I remember calling Peter and saying, I found him.
00:14:57They weren't necessarily looking for like a Latin guy to play the role, which I thought was really cool.
00:15:02Which I thought is the way it should be.
00:15:03Should be people that look like you and me be able to play roles.
00:15:07I was casting Jessie Spano, who was the feminist.
00:15:11Elizabeth Berkley had confidence, but there was also a vulnerability about her.
00:15:15I don't believe a woman should be displayed like a side of beef.
00:15:20However, I am wearing a swimsuit underneath.
00:15:22And for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing, it's blue with pink stripes, okay?
00:15:28And then I was casting Kelly Kapowski, the cheerleader.
00:15:33Tiffany just had that look.
00:15:34B-A-Y-S-I-D-E, go this side!
00:15:37Woo!
00:15:38In addition to six young actors, there were only a couple of adults as series regulars.
00:15:43A guy named Max, who's a very great magician named Ed Alonzo.
00:15:47He's always entertaining.
00:15:48Right.
00:15:49I played Max, the owner of the diner, where the kids hung out.
00:15:53We're just sort of there to keep the scene moving.
00:15:56When we had the episode with buddy bands, and they said, make the buddy bands appear.
00:16:01And I made them appear, and I gave one to each kid.
00:16:05And that kind of stuff sort of brought, like, you know, like, I'm here to always help you guys out.
00:16:10But the attention really needs to stay on the core of the six kids.
00:16:15That's the show.
00:16:21When we watched the pilot episode, I thought, oh, what a refreshing show this is.
00:16:27The show started to dominate Saturday morning kids programming.
00:16:31Saved by the Bell garnered more ratings than the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show, the Smurfs, and Alvin and the
00:16:37Chipmunks.
00:16:37I don't think any of us imagined what it would have become.
00:16:41During the original run of Saved by the Bell, it attracted more teenage viewers than the Cosby show.
00:16:46At that time, they hadn't seen a black young actress perform that way.
00:16:50You want to know who boosted my confidence as a little black girl growing up in the 90s?
00:16:55Lisa f***ing Turtle.
00:16:57Lark was a fan favorite and a breakout character.
00:16:59Lisa Turtle was hashtag soft life before hashtag soft life was a thing.
00:17:04Not only was she the fashionable one, but both of her parents were doctors.
00:17:10That is a flex.
00:17:11We started to see a real fan base of kids.
00:17:15People were showing up to NBC to try and get a glimpse of Mark Paul or Mario.
00:17:23We started touring and doing like mall tours.
00:17:26When I saw that crowd of people that I was like, oh, wow, there's a lot of people that watch
00:17:34this show.
00:17:35It was just, it was very strange to me where I was coming from junior high where kids, you know,
00:17:43were horrible and mean and like would pick on you or say horrible things.
00:17:47And then you've got a group of, you know, 5,000 kids who are all wanting your autograph.
00:17:53There were giant bags of actual fan mail coming in.
00:17:57But I know that Dustin seemed to be getting the most letters from fans.
00:18:04Some members of our audience showed up today with something special.
00:18:07Where are you?
00:18:07On this talk show, there are a few teenagers in the audience.
00:18:12Over here, would you stand up and show Dustin what you did?
00:18:15Wearing t-shirts with the letters Screech on him.
00:18:21Do you consider yourself sort of a teen heartthrob?
00:18:25Well, not usually.
00:18:28Of all the guys.
00:18:30And we can't forget there was a massive Screech fan base out there.
00:18:35And he seems taken back by this.
00:18:39After season two, syndication really made the show blow up.
00:18:45That is when you're able to be sold to other stations across the country so it can be played in
00:18:53the local Channel 5 markets or the local Channel 9s or 11s and 13s.
00:18:58Then Saved by the Bell was basically playing five times a day, seven days a week in different time zones.
00:19:06Not just one episode every Saturday morning.
00:19:09And then it started going into all these other countries, which is why I ended up traveling through all these
00:19:13other countries because of the show.
00:19:20What can be great about being a young actor, a successful young actor, is fame and fortune.
00:19:26What can be really bad about being a young actor is fame and fortune.
00:19:34I think that the public doesn't realize how really unglamorous this industry is.
00:19:43Mario Lopez said he started out making about $1,500 an episode.
00:19:48That's a lot of money to a kid.
00:19:50But after a second season, in 1991, Saved by the Bell was pulling in roughly about $15 million in advertising.
00:20:00If it's a union show and they were really paying them low, somebody was cashing in on it.
00:20:08Generally speaking, the executive producers, the higher-ups, make a lot of money.
00:20:14As a 12-year-old, you probably don't have any credits behind you.
00:20:17Chances are this is going to be your first big job.
00:20:20I've seen deals that are, this is what we're offering, take it or leave it.
00:20:24And if you leave it, we'll have somebody else.
00:20:27Look, when you're offered your first job, you don't say no.
00:20:29You have to start somewhere.
00:20:32You feel fragile and you feel vulnerable.
00:20:35So you don't feel strong in a position of negotiation.
00:20:40Because they're in charge and they can make a decision that can change your child's life.
00:20:47And you don't want to be responsible for doing something or saying something that jeopardizes that.
00:20:56These actors just didn't get good deals.
00:20:59And even worse, Dustin Diamond alleges his parents misused his money.
00:21:04My dad is not good with money.
00:21:07He bought all this stuff with my money.
00:21:10So in the 1990s, the law requires that 15% of a child's earnings needs to go into a blocked
00:21:19trust account.
00:21:20Legally, the parent cannot touch that money.
00:21:24However, a child can't legally manage their own money, which means that a parent or guardian has to manage the
00:21:34other 85% responsibly and in the best interest of the child's, not theirs.
00:21:40Is that enforceable?
00:21:45I met Dustin in like 2017, 2018.
00:21:50I came into his life much later.
00:21:53Dustin started to tell me more about how much he made or how much he didn't really make.
00:21:56He made about $1,250 per week working at NBC on Saved by the Bell.
00:22:02Dustin had alleged that, you know, his parents were stealing his money or taking his money.
00:22:06You know, my parents wasted so much of my hard work.
00:22:09If the child is now approaching adulthood with nothing, nothing to show for hard work and long hours.
00:22:16If I just found out after 10 years of working that I had nothing in the bank anymore.
00:22:28That's tough.
00:22:33My name is Mark Diamond and Dustin Diamond is my son.
00:22:37You might know Dustin Diamond as Screech from Saved by the Bell, but there were a lot of other aspects
00:22:43to Dustin.
00:22:51Well, one of the things that was a big part of our life that almost nobody knows about is that
00:22:58our family was dealing with hard things.
00:23:04Yeah, I had a lot of loss.
00:23:07I basically lost everything and everyone I ever cared about, you know, except for a couple of friends.
00:23:13And, uh, yeah, yeah, my sister was murdered when she was 16.
00:23:20Yeah, she disappeared on her way home from school and a hunter found her in a field three days later.
00:23:34They wrote it off as a suicide.
00:23:38But, I mean, my sister was right-handed and she was shot in the left temple.
00:23:45Dustin and his dad had already had a bunch of loss and grief around his family.
00:23:51The death of someone close to you is always hard, but the impact of not having closure or really accepting
00:23:56how they died can impact not just Dustin's dad, but the whole family.
00:24:04Generational trauma is the idea that, you know, your parents or your grandparents experienced a trauma and it shaped the
00:24:11way that they then treat the next generation.
00:24:14So, for example, if your grandparents were alive during a war and they experienced, like, wartime trauma, you know, for
00:24:23their children, they may end up being very protective of them.
00:24:27And so, that shapes the way they see the world, how they attach to each other, and how they operate
00:24:32in the world.
00:24:34My first son was named Ryan.
00:24:37He was born on my sister's birthday, March the 4th.
00:24:41He had the same day of the week, same time, same minute.
00:24:46So, you know, people were telling me, well, your sister's been reincarnated.
00:24:51But he had Down syndrome.
00:24:53He had an enlarged heart.
00:24:56He had exterior connections.
00:24:58It's called ductus arteriosus.
00:25:00I still remember.
00:25:01And that's like a leak outside your heart.
00:25:06And most of these kids don't live past a year.
00:25:10When Dustin was born, he was two years younger than Ryan.
00:25:15We were really, really worried that he might have Down syndrome, that he might have similar problems.
00:25:21But he was born healthy.
00:25:25But the thing was, Ryan couldn't crawl.
00:25:29He couldn't stand.
00:25:31He learned to roll around.
00:25:33And Dustin used to entertain him and play with him.
00:25:38And I think that was the beginning of his creativity.
00:25:42But then Ryan got the measles.
00:25:46He got them in his lungs.
00:25:47And his lungs were already compromised.
00:25:51He died in 1983, at the age of eight.
00:26:01Dustin had been perky, outgoing kid.
00:26:05He was getting good grades.
00:26:06Suddenly, he was morbid and failing in school.
00:26:14I feel like I bonded with Dustin in grade school before Saved by the Bell.
00:26:20In fifth grade, our teacher said we were going to be getting a new student.
00:26:26I immediately liked him.
00:26:28You know, he liked to be a little goofy.
00:26:31We constantly were creating a ruckus.
00:26:35And we were just great friends and enjoyed our company together.
00:26:41Dustin didn't talk about his brother that much.
00:26:45Dustin just didn't really want to talk about the pain from losing a brother.
00:26:52I know that Dustin definitely wanted to be an actor.
00:26:56Dustin got involved with going on auditions.
00:26:59We did two episodes of The Wonder Years with Fred Savage.
00:27:05This is The Wonder Years, The Glee Club.
00:27:07He really enjoyed this.
00:27:10Not because it was a primetime thing.
00:27:12He just liked the opportunity to work with all these other kids.
00:27:15That'd be great, Miss Hancock.
00:27:17We'd love to sing in the spring scene.
00:27:19Oh, come on.
00:27:20So Dustin looked to acting as a way to solve his grief.
00:27:25And now here he is in a community, in a family, where everyone else feels a part of something.
00:27:32I was the one taking Dustin, going on auditions.
00:27:36And quite frankly, I thought, he'll get tired of it.
00:27:41But he gets cast in Saved by the Bell.
00:27:44And by law, you can't have a minor on the set completely unsupervised.
00:27:54It was a legal requirement that either a parent or a guardian was there.
00:27:57So a guardian you would have to pay.
00:27:59I think all of the parents that were on Saved by the Bell, we were all determined to be there.
00:28:05Mark Paul's mother was always there.
00:28:07If I wasn't there because I was working sometimes, my mother was there.
00:28:15Dustin's mother was working for what had been the phone company.
00:28:19But when Ryan had his medical bills, we were forced into bankruptcy.
00:28:24We just don't have the income we used to have.
00:28:27And we got to a point where we had to make a decision.
00:28:30I gave up my job so I could leave and go to the set.
00:28:36Any regrets?
00:28:40Just with my life, working for Columbia Pictures, I was offered a position to something better.
00:28:50I didn't accept it because Saved by the Bell was just getting popular.
00:28:56And my whole point was to forward my daughter's career.
00:29:01So I said no to the position that I wish I had said yes to.
00:29:09And hired somebody else to be on the set.
00:29:14His dad gave that up to go make sure that Dustin became successful.
00:29:19He tells the press that my parents took my money.
00:29:22Yeah, yeah.
00:29:23How did it feel that he was blaming you?
00:29:27Well, it really made me upset.
00:29:30And I told him, why are you throwing me under the bus when I can't pop myself on television and
00:29:37go, uh, no.
00:29:40Dustin's agent would take out her 10% commission.
00:29:44Anything left over, we had to cover certain things like taxes.
00:29:48Gasoline, obviously.
00:29:50Headshots.
00:29:51Every fan letter wanted the same thing.
00:29:54Can you send us an 8x10 picture?
00:29:56Autograph.
00:29:57Thousands of letters.
00:29:59But see, we had to pay for that.
00:30:01This didn't leave much money for us to do anything.
00:30:04In fact, nothing.
00:30:06So it wasn't like he was taking money from Dustin.
00:30:12The parents do have to give up their careers and they don't get paid.
00:30:17So the parent may think, well, if I become their manager, I can take 10% of whatever they make,
00:30:23as opposed to giving it to another manager.
00:30:26That was the case for Mark Paul's mom.
00:30:29Look, it's tough. I do feel bad for parents.
00:30:32But the money, I think it really messes up that sacred relationship with a child and parent.
00:30:39The public tends to think success, particularly fame, will solve all the problems.
00:30:47Not only does that typically not solve problems, it makes them worse.
00:30:51We had no idea that Saved by the Bell would be such a success.
00:30:56And you can have some fans that are very dark themselves and obsessed.
00:31:05And Lark had one in particular that was very dark.
00:31:10He sent many letters.
00:31:12He was very demanding.
00:31:15It was during the time when Rebecca Schaefer, she was killed by a psycho fan.
00:31:22And Lark had a psycho fan.
00:31:25Just by the things that he would write.
00:31:28He was going to be her husband and nobody else would be.
00:31:32And he would kill anybody who tried to get in the way of that.
00:31:45There was a period of time when I wouldn't allow Lark to answer the door.
00:31:54I was afraid one day he would show up at the door.
00:31:59He sent many letters.
00:32:02A lot of them, I didn't show them to her.
00:32:04Because I didn't want her to have that kind of fear.
00:32:08But I did tell her that there was a fan that was crazy.
00:32:12And we want to be on the lookout for that.
00:32:17As long as she was on the set, at the studio, it would be harder for him to get to
00:32:25her.
00:32:26Because he's got to go through these layers of security.
00:32:33Dustin had a stalker too.
00:32:35And we were actually afraid for his life.
00:32:41The guy called on the phone.
00:32:43This guy said, you're Dustin's father.
00:32:46And I said, yes.
00:32:47Who is this? And he said, I want Dustin.
00:32:50You will bring me Dustin.
00:32:53Or you're going to die.
00:32:55We never had any kind of contact or anyone following us around anywhere, anything like that.
00:33:01And then we ended up in a house, which was in another city.
00:33:06I'm sure this was, I mean, unsettling is not a strong enough word for a young adolescent to be dealing
00:33:14with something like that.
00:33:17The young performers really have no sense of what fame is going to be like for them.
00:33:26In 1993, a woman accused Mario Lopez, he was 19 at the time, of raping her at her home in
00:33:34Chula Vista.
00:33:35She was 18.
00:33:37Shortly after those allegations surfaced, a second woman comes forward and claims that Mario Lopez raped her in 1991.
00:33:44Reporters were calling me, asking me, is this possible?
00:33:49Listen, just because somebody has a squeaky clean character and history doesn't mean these things shouldn't be taken seriously.
00:33:57They should be, they should be investigated carefully.
00:33:59Also of note, during these rape allegations, Mario Lopez was completely cooperative with detectives and denied any wrongdoing.
00:34:08I believe Mario is suffering the unfortunate consequences of having a high profile in the community.
00:34:15The deputy district attorney announced that there was no evidence to support either allegation, the 1993 rape allegation or the
00:34:23subsequent 1991 allegation.
00:34:25Mario is not the first person who has some celebrity status to suffer this type of allegation.
00:34:34Even though there were these things that were going on behind the scenes, season four did very, very well.
00:34:43Well, this is Mario, Tiffany, Mark Paul and Lark.
00:34:50Sometimes after the show ended, she would get into a dark mood.
00:34:56And it's as if she had been fighting that whole day, whatever is going on in her head.
00:35:02And then after the show, she would just give into that space.
00:35:13She had anger moments, but they would be short-lived.
00:35:19And I didn't know why.
00:35:26Saved by the Bell was on for four seasons, and then it ended, and it had been a long time
00:35:31coming.
00:35:32All the kids grew up, and Peter wanted age-appropriate kids.
00:35:37Saved by the Bell did end.
00:35:40It ended on a high note.
00:35:42They were doing this graduation show, and that was going to be it.
00:35:47We had said goodbye after we graduated on Saved by the Bell, and then I was going back to school.
00:35:52I was like, I wasn't really sure if I was going to become an actor or continue being an actor.
00:35:57And then Peter wanted to do a couple of TV movies.
00:36:01There was Las Vegas.
00:36:04There was Hawaii Style.
00:36:07Peter Engel definitely carved out his own niche on television in the 90s.
00:36:13After Saved by the Bell ends, he created shows like California Dreams, USA High, Malibu, California.
00:36:20All shows about teenagers based in California.
00:36:24Yoo-hoo! Dr. Drew over here!
00:36:26Hi!
00:36:27I was actually a guest appearance on one of the Peter Engel shows, Hangtime.
00:36:33We all get jealous sometimes, and it's usually when we have a lack of self-confidence or feel inadequate or
00:36:38insecure.
00:36:39Talking to young people about relationships to probably bring that educational, informational element in.
00:36:46And then comes the spinoff, The College Years.
00:36:48This wasn't a kid's show anymore because it aired during primetime on NBC.
00:36:53Executives were smart enough to still cater to the audience that grew up with this cast with the same type
00:36:59of quirky and fun storylines the viewers came to know and love.
00:37:03In the college years, that's the one that I was really proud of.
00:37:06It has all the elements of a primetime adult show.
00:37:11But just like when Good Morning, Miss Bliss became Saved by the Bell, the entire cast was not invited back.
00:37:19The three guys, Mark, Mario, and Dustin, all go on to that show.
00:37:25Tiffany Amber Thiessen is also brought back, but not Lark and Elizabeth.
00:37:32They said, they don't want Lark.
00:37:37And I told him, I said, this is the first time that I no longer believe in the show.
00:37:46Because I'm almost ready to cry.
00:37:49But it hurt her.
00:37:52It was a stupid decision.
00:38:03They did exclude Lark.
00:38:05And I didn't know why.
00:38:07You don't know if you're negotiating where they can exclude you, exclude your child or that character.
00:38:14That's part of the business.
00:38:19A lot of people in the black community resented not having Lisa Turtle on there.
00:38:25And that's, that was their black identity on Saved by the Bell.
00:38:31And then it was suddenly gone.
00:38:34Lark Voorhees did go on to perform in soap operas and movies too.
00:38:39She did How to Be a Player in 1997.
00:38:44And then she did How High in 2001.
00:38:48In 2008, she stars in a movie called The Next Hit.
00:38:51But she's in her early 30s by this point.
00:38:562001.
00:38:57And the next thing that she does is 2008.
00:38:59That's seven years.
00:39:00That's a long time.
00:39:02What was going on during that time?
00:39:07A lot of conflicts with things that she was going through emotionally, mentally.
00:39:17She went through bouts of anger.
00:39:22Sometimes we'd be slamming the doors.
00:39:24Or yelling out of frustration.
00:39:27She would run out of the house.
00:39:30And I didn't know where she was.
00:39:33I thought maybe there were things in her childhood that I didn't know about.
00:39:39I was seeing something impacting my daughter that wasn't healthy.
00:39:45That wasn't good.
00:39:48The controversy surrounding Lark Voorhees from Saved by the Bell.
00:39:51Kevin Frazier was first to talk to Lark and her new husband.
00:39:55In this ET interview, she was described as odd and rambling by the press.
00:40:00How did your mom react?
00:40:01The support was there, you know, at specific necessary.
00:40:08Exact.
00:40:09And, you know, it's all celebratory.
00:40:14So it's a very strong, powerful ongoing.
00:40:20And we carry that through.
00:40:23Her speech is just confusing.
00:40:24It's hard to follow.
00:40:26I have no worries myself, nor do I.
00:40:31Exude, exhibit, or possess within my living stratus.
00:40:39I had leadership positions in a psychiatric hospital for over 30 years.
00:40:42Saw tens of thousands of patients with a variety of serious mental illnesses.
00:40:47And there is something odd about this.
00:40:49And when there's an odd presentation, you have to worry that there's some sort of thought disorder.
00:40:54Schizophrenia, mania, something in there that's just not where the thinking isn't lining up.
00:41:02Certainly drugs could also cause something very similar, for sure.
00:41:05But she didn't look intoxicated.
00:41:07Let's just set the record straight, once and for all, and clear this up.
00:41:10Are you bipolar? Have you ever been bipolar?
00:41:13No. I have always been mentally healthy, 100% stable.
00:41:19Even though that's what she's claiming, it's clear that there's something deeper going on here.
00:41:24You and I have to talk. I'm pregnant.
00:41:31Time out.
00:41:34More than 20 years since the show wrapped, the Saved by the Bell cast reunited.
00:41:38And Lark and Dustin were both excluded from this reunion on The Jimmy Fallon Show.
00:41:47Dustin did get invited, and that kind of hurt him a little bit.
00:41:50He goes, man, how do you not have Screech?
00:41:52How do you not have Screech? Like, come on. That's ridiculous.
00:41:55I don't know why they didn't contact Lark as well.
00:41:59I know she was hurt.
00:42:03Disappointed.
00:42:04There's just a lot of speculation around what was happening to Lark Voorhees.
00:42:08It was a mystery.
00:42:11First, I was told she was bipolar.
00:42:13Then the recent diagnosis is that she's schizoaffective thought disorder.
00:42:23So here are signs and symptoms of schizoaffective.
00:42:27Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech.
00:42:29We saw that.
00:42:31But do not get schizoaffective disorder confused with schizophrenia.
00:42:34They are very different.
00:42:36Schizophrenia is a progressive, disabling, specific syndrome.
00:42:41Schizoaffective disorder is not progressive.
00:42:44It's not as disabling as schizophrenia, and same with the mood disorders.
00:42:48They can be relatively mild.
00:42:49But it doesn't have to be traumatizing.
00:42:52It makes me wonder how she's doing today.
00:42:55Let's get all around, Derek.
00:42:57Exactly.
00:42:57Cool.
00:42:58So just a little quick powder, and I'm back.
00:43:16So, what?
00:43:17How are you?
00:43:18I'm grand.
00:43:20Tell me who you are.
00:43:26Hi, I'm Lark Voorhees.
00:43:30You might recognize me from Ka-Hi.
00:43:32That was a lot of fun.
00:43:35And Lisa Turtles, Saved by the Bell.
00:43:37And it was the best feeling in the world.
00:43:40The best.
00:43:42It is great to bring life to these characters.
00:43:45And when you know you've hit that character, there's nothing like that rush in the world.
00:43:49Because you can see the boom that it's going to bring to everybody else in the audience.
00:43:54One of the movies that I really loved doing was Saved by the Bell Hawaiian style.
00:43:59Got to splash each other, ride bicycles, get bit by mosquitoes.
00:44:03And naturally, we're in Hawaii, so we had a good time.
00:44:06My favorite episode on Saved by the Bell is called The Mall.
00:44:11And I loved it because we got the cut loose, and we had all these sets.
00:44:15We had a theater, and then we were hiding in a tent.
00:44:18There was all these different storylines going on at once, and we do it.
00:44:21And we did that and went to school.
00:44:23Really?
00:44:23Yeah.
00:44:24I remember I was taking my final exam in chemistry.
00:44:28I had to stop doing that, go film my scene, come back, and finish my final exam.
00:44:34And that's your job.
00:44:36That's your job.
00:44:37Full, full days, full days, full days.
00:44:42Schizoaffective is a complicated illness.
00:44:47This stuff comes on 18 to 22.
00:44:49So Lark was 19 years old when she finished Saved by the Bell.
00:44:54So it was just coming on then.
00:44:56There hardly would have been any noticeable signs during that time.
00:44:59But there are all kinds of stressors around child actors.
00:45:03The exposure to fame, the stress of being in adult roles at a young age.
00:45:07The child also feels a chronic stress to always be performing.
00:45:11This all contributes to developmental problems.
00:45:15It can, to some extent, the stress can be good.
00:45:18But if it's chronic stress over a long period of time,
00:45:21now you're throwing not one day of stress or two days of stress,
00:45:25but an entire, you know, year or more of a stress that they have to live under.
00:45:31That can make them more vulnerable in their later years to other psychiatric conditions.
00:45:35These stressors, these experiences, does not explain a causation of schizoaffective disorder.
00:45:42It's contributing to how it's manifesting.
00:45:44But the schizoaffective has to have some genetic component also.
00:45:56Was a relative that also had similar signs?
00:46:00Her father had indicators of things.
00:46:06When we were married, his anger scared me.
00:46:09When there was one slap, I left. I was gone.
00:46:15When she got older, around 12, 13, she spent time with him, and she talked about his anger fits.
00:46:25He passed away somewhere around 2016.
00:46:29I came to some paperwork on his death, and there was a medication which indicated there was some sort of
00:46:41personality disorder.
00:46:43And that's why he and I could not get along in our marriage years ago.
00:46:51And Lark's aware of this too, correct?
00:46:56I don't think so. No.
00:46:59I didn't tell her that.
00:47:03So she'll learn now.
00:47:20I'm the owner of Charlie's Comic Con, and we're looking to have luck come out here.
00:47:27I love it. I love it. Can't get enough.
00:47:30And I'll always be entertaining.
00:47:33We have movies coming up and this and that, and I look forward to working.
00:47:38In 2021, NBC's streaming platform, Peacock, released a reboot of Saved by the Bell.
00:47:48She was great. She's bright, she's cheerful, she's well put together, she looks great.
00:47:52I hadn't seen them in years, and we got to share our talent again.
00:47:56And find that Saved by the Bell method that makes you go.
00:47:59When I wake up in the morning and the dog goes out of the morning, I don't think I'm gonna
00:48:04make it on time.
00:48:05Yeah, all that.
00:48:07Give myself a look.
00:48:09See the bus drive by.
00:48:12You got it.
00:48:13Yeah, I love Saved by the Bell.
00:48:14Yeah, so do I.
00:48:18She can live with this condition if she learns to manage it, it's symptomatologies,
00:48:24and start dealing with this both symptomatically with medication and cognitive behavioral therapy, both very, very helpful.
00:48:31For any young women, or young gentlemen, if they're in this business, really in life, period, don't give up.
00:48:38There's so many actors out there now, and so the really strong ones are gonna pull through, and that's what
00:48:44they're gonna be looking for, so don't give up.
00:48:47I've been watching this guy on television since I was a baby.
00:48:51He was like this buff dude with the mullet and the tank top.
00:48:56Whenever you're part of a really big show, you become pigeonholed into that role that you made famous.
00:49:04With Saved by the Bell, though, that actually wasn't the case.
00:49:07Hi. How are you?
00:49:08I'm good. How are you?
00:49:10Tiffany Amber Thiessen became this teen TV show darling.
00:49:14She appeared on shows like 90210.
00:49:16I'm having a real problem working with you.
00:49:19I saw her in a Woody Allen film, and she was excellent.
00:49:22Let's even look at Mario Lopez.
00:49:24Saved by the Bell wraps up. He starts radio announcing.
00:49:27He hosts Extra for a while.
00:49:28I'm even creeping in your hotel rooms while on vacation.
00:49:32I even went out dancing with the stars because my mom wanted me to do it.
00:49:34On Saved by the Bell, they dressed him in a unitard.
00:49:38I said, Mario, you're the strongest person I know.
00:49:40Because he can get on stage and pirouette.
00:49:42He does do it.
00:49:43And stay true to his point.
00:49:46Mark Paul became quite successful in adult programming.
00:49:49NYPD Blue, he was a regular cast member.
00:49:51That was a big leap.
00:49:53Many of them did go on to have some success after Saved by the Bell.
00:49:57Except for Dustin Diamond.
00:50:01Screech is in a world of his own on Saved by the Bell.
00:50:05Because you could argue that the other characters were conventionally attractive,
00:50:09whether it was being an athlete, a cheerleader, or having a keen sense of fashion.
00:50:17Screech didn't necessarily have any of those qualities.
00:50:21He was dorky.
00:50:23He was goofy.
00:50:25And he was obsessed with Lisa Turtle.
00:50:29Hey, Lisa. My horoscope says we're destined to dance together.
00:50:32And she did everything she possibly could to get away from him.
00:50:37My horoscope says beware of dorks.
00:50:39Well, Lisa, Screech is easier to get rid of.
00:50:42Goodbye, Miss October.
00:50:44But Screech was adorable, okay?
00:50:47Even if it wasn't their favorite character.
00:50:49He's just so memorable.
00:50:52Dustin is the only child actor who is in all the seasons of the show.
00:50:57Began with Miss Bliss and all of the iterations.
00:51:00He does Saved by the Bell the college years, where the kids grow up, go to college, was 1993 to
00:51:051994.
00:51:06And then during the college years, they also launched a new spinoff.
00:51:10Saved by the Bell, the new class.
00:51:12It didn't have any of the original cast, except for the principal and Screech.
00:51:17He's literally in every single branded aspect of Saved by the Bell.
00:51:23For me, as a manager, I didn't want my client to get pigeonholed into one character they were going to
00:51:30play.
00:51:31And then maybe never work again.
00:51:33I mean, what do you do?
00:51:35You walk away from what has been a successful show and already has an established audience, even though it's a
00:51:43different version of it.
00:51:44There's a good chance you're going to have a chance of succeeding.
00:51:49In 1994, he's 17.
00:51:51And with the new cast, it gets a little uncomfortable.
00:51:57I was there when Screech, Dustin Diamond, returned into that fold.
00:52:04I'm gonna be, well, to be totally honest, it was pretty bananas from the jump.
00:52:13So you'd walk in the dressing room and it was immediately a little odd.
00:52:18He had pictures of, like, knives and guns in his dressing room.
00:52:25I will tell you that Dustin did like to carry a pocket knife.
00:52:29We were friends from before he was on the national stage and he liked the Chinese stars, the samurai swords,
00:52:38the knives.
00:52:39He came off the big hit, Saved by the Bell, but he's still an insecure teenager at that time.
00:52:47Who comes in wanting to present, like, I'm the big boss, I've got the gravitas, I'm really the star of
00:52:54this show.
00:52:57I saw him treat a lot of people poorly, to be very clear.
00:53:02We were shooting something.
00:53:04One day, as I recall, it was a promotional video.
00:53:07I was one of the PAs involved and they, you know, told him, be natural, have fun, joke around and
00:53:12we'll just capture it.
00:53:13And soon enough, there was an argument between Dustin Diamond and a cast member.
00:53:19I can't even remember what started it exactly, but here's Dustin Diamond saying, I could have you fired.
00:53:26Very quickly, it led to Dustin pulling out a butterfly knife.
00:53:37It's a very physically threatening thing.
00:53:39Everybody's trying to say, back off, everybody cool down.
00:53:42Finally, it ends up with Dustin, he didn't attempt to strike him with the knife,
00:53:47but it ends up with him in tears and he runs off.
00:53:50I have trouble making sense of Dustin's behavior some of the time.
00:53:53That's not good.
00:53:55That's violent.
00:53:56I guess my best read on that situation was that he's pulling out all the stops to display his power,
00:54:03but reached this emotional crescendo with these threats.
00:54:07And then the reality, I think, comes in of like, you're not going to stab him.
00:54:11You're not going to be able to get him fired.
00:54:15I think running off and crying was the only route available.
00:54:20They told me that there was something that happened on the set and Dustin threatened somebody.
00:54:27And I went to taping, I think, the next week and we sat down and talked to him.
00:54:33A lot of people don't realize that he was dealing with hard things.
00:54:37He already lost his brother.
00:54:41Now, Dustin's mother, she had been diagnosed with cancer.
00:54:45And she went downhill pretty quickly.
00:54:49And, you know, Dustin saw that happening.
00:54:53In 1996, during the course of the run of Saved by the Bell, the new class, his mother passed away.
00:55:02Ultimately, it is just Dustin and his dad.
00:55:07The new class lasted seven seasons.
00:55:10That's actually longer than the original Saved by the Bell.
00:55:14And Dustin performs as Screech from age 11 to the age of 22.
00:55:20He misses out going to proms to the football games on the weekend.
00:55:26And so he was never able to sort of branch out and make friends in the real world with kids.
00:55:32And in the end, this was the demise of his career.
00:55:40In 2001, he declares bankruptcy.
00:55:43He lost his house and lost everything by not paying the mortgage payments.
00:55:46One of the things we see with child actors is they may not get the usual skills that are necessary
00:55:52to be an adult.
00:55:53And certainly, if somebody didn't pay attention to his financial education, he may not at all understand how to handle
00:55:59money.
00:56:01He moved to a small town in Wisconsin and starts complaining that he needs money.
00:56:06You would think if someone who went on and did all these shows, he wouldn't have any issues for life.
00:56:14I think where the money was really to be made were in the residuals and the syndication.
00:56:19Residual payments are payments you get every time the show is aired.
00:56:29So, I got some of the, I believe these are residual checks from Dustin.
00:56:34Like, here's one for 12 hours and 74 cents.
00:56:37It says right here, literally reused on TV.
00:56:40So, this was from 2002.
00:56:43So, the series is already over.
00:56:45Yeah, it's 12 hours and 74 cents.
00:56:52So, after Saved by the Bell, Dustin finds small roles.
00:56:56In 2001, he is in Made with Vince Vaughn.
00:56:59Did you just let Screech in the club?
00:57:01In 2003, he's in Dickie Roberts' former child star.
00:57:05Wait, seriously, you guys had limos?
00:57:06There's a song called, I Do, from 98 Degrees.
00:57:11And there's this record scratch moment.
00:57:15Aw, man, I was just with that girl on my living room rug, man.
00:57:17That's my girlfriend.
00:57:19Every time, he plays himself.
00:57:22I met Dustin through our manager at the time, right after the new class.
00:57:27As much as he would say, ah, I'm tired of being, you know, the Screech, he loved it.
00:57:32He loved when people recognized him for being Screech.
00:57:36But at no point in Dustin's career does he gain a reputation for being a skilled thespian.
00:57:43His career is about being Screech.
00:57:51For many years, Dustin actually went into comedy.
00:57:55At one point, he was touring 300-plus days of the year.
00:57:59Ready for your headliner at all?
00:58:01Yes.
00:58:03We're gonna do it up for Dustin Diamond!
00:58:05What happens a lot of times with child stars is that for so many years of their life, they've been
00:58:11defined by this character, by the expectations of producers, by audiences.
00:58:15Who came out to get drunk and make fun of Screech?
00:58:18Part of their entire self-identity is tied to being approved of and in hearing the claps and the rewards
00:58:26that they get from people paying attention to them.
00:58:29My career is sailing, isn't it? Most people in my line of work who start out stand-up comedy hope
00:58:33to get a movie.
00:58:34Hope to get a TV series someday.
00:58:37I'm doing it backwards.
00:58:39You know, later in life, if you're not still acting or getting that same amount of attention.
00:58:44You guys ready? You wanna see some questions?
00:58:46Yeah!
00:58:47I'll give you Robert De Niro as Jesus of Nazareth.
00:58:59That can also lead to, you know, a lot of substance abuse, risk-taking behaviors.
00:59:04We made it!
00:59:05Yeah!
00:59:06You're thrill-seeking because you're still seeking that hit.
00:59:10In 2006, a sex tape emerged entitled, Screech Saved by the Smell.
00:59:17Yeah, it was disgusting.
00:59:18Oh, I don't wanna, like...
00:59:22Oh, gentlemen, uh, we know that we get three points for every position. We'll tally those up later.
00:59:29At very minimum, him talking to the camera and advising his gentleman viewers of what he has accomplished here
00:59:39suggests that this was not something leaked accidentally,
00:59:43suggests that he intended to put this out.
00:59:46When that hit, it wasn't exactly Kim Kardashian big,
00:59:50but when you hear Screech has a sex tape,
00:59:53come on, everyone's talking about it, you know?
00:59:56Even myself at work, my coworkers, my friends, were like, ew, you know?
01:00:02Like, how could you be friends with someone who put something out like that?
01:00:08And that's what really bothered me about that sex tape.
01:00:13But I've seen the tape.
01:00:14Yes.
01:00:15And you are kind of a jerk in the tape.
01:00:19I was a close friend of Dustin Diamond.
01:00:22I work as a professional wrestler.
01:00:24He loved wrestling.
01:00:26And we have a common interest.
01:00:28We just like to entertain people.
01:00:31But 2006 is a turning point in his life.
01:00:34Now, with every Google search,
01:00:36every person that looks, there's an asterisk next to his name.
01:00:39So here's one more challenge that he's got to navigate.
01:00:43One more piece of criticism that he's got to deal with.
01:00:46And this is a big one.
01:00:49Can I be honest, too?
01:00:50I think ever since the sex tape came out, he started to hit rock bottom.
01:00:55If you agreed to combat, I'd fight you.
01:00:57This is...
01:00:58I did not threaten you.
01:01:00Celebrity Fit Club, the new reality show.
01:01:03This is a Marine sergeant.
01:01:06And Dustin threatens him.
01:01:08You put yourself in a second spot.
01:01:10No, you got the first half.
01:01:11You said you kicked his ass.
01:01:13You said you kicked mine.
01:01:14And then this gentleman loses it.
01:01:17He did that, and he got paid extra to be the bad guy.
01:01:21And that's when he started seeing that people didn't like him anymore.
01:01:24He started thinking he was a jerk.
01:01:26And so you started going from the good guy, the funny, dorky kid,
01:01:30to now you're not what we thought you were.
01:01:34You know, there was always a fear of somebody wanting to attack Dustin.
01:01:37You'd always get a lot of hate calling him names.
01:01:41Some people would try to belittle him.
01:01:44There was a time we were walking to New York City,
01:01:46and I think someone threw something at us and stuff like that.
01:01:48And it's just, Scrooge sucks, or something like that.
01:01:52When he's 32 years old, in 2009, Dustin publishes a memoir
01:01:57about everything that he says went on behind the scenes of Saved by the Bell.
01:02:02And there it was, behind the bell.
01:02:04He alleges in this book, favoritism, sexual misconducts, sexual acting out, drug use.
01:02:12And most of the performers that I have talked with report no such thing.
01:02:18I was upset when I read the book.
01:02:20I was thinking, how could you say any of this?
01:02:23And he was going, I didn't, I didn't.
01:02:24They hired a ghostwriter.
01:02:26And I said, well, how could you be so stupid as to, you know,
01:02:30hire somebody and not check what they're doing on a regular basis?
01:02:34But I know the answer to that.
01:02:35He didn't want to write a book.
01:02:37He didn't want to take the time to even check on it, apparently.
01:02:42I never read the book.
01:02:43And the only thing I know about the book was what he told me.
01:02:47I think he got about $50,000 for that.
01:02:49And so that may not have been worth it.
01:02:54Cast members, they hated it.
01:02:56They really felt betrayed.
01:02:59He was just going, doing, getting in trouble one after the other.
01:03:04My intuition said something.
01:03:07Something's not right with him.
01:03:09And something else is going to happen.
01:03:20It's December 25th, 2014.
01:03:24Dustin and his fiancee at the time were in Wisconsin in a bar.
01:03:28There was an argument, and he actually stabbed someone.
01:03:36Jesus.
01:03:39This is the knife.
01:03:41And this is the damage done.
01:03:50There are two sides to every story.
01:03:53When I met Dustin for the first time in jail,
01:03:56he explained to me what had happened.
01:04:00It was December 26th.
01:04:02He and his fiancee, Amanda,
01:04:06normally don't spend a lot of time socializing outside
01:04:08because they get strange reactions.
01:04:11But they decided to have a little Christmas cheer
01:04:14and go to the local establishment to have a drink.
01:04:20We went to the bar and sat down.
01:04:24People noticed that he was there,
01:04:27noticed that he was a star,
01:04:29and began trying to covertly take pictures of him.
01:04:35But Amanda, at some point, said,
01:04:37hey, guys, we're just here trying to have a drink.
01:04:40Can you leave us be?
01:04:43I never was a problem until later.
01:04:47I started taking pictures and laughing and making it a game
01:04:50to bump into us and try and capture it on video or camera.
01:04:53And Dustin noticed this happening,
01:04:55and Amanda was actually going to the bar to get the check.
01:05:00And somebody did body check her for the video.
01:05:07And she turned around, and it became a pushing match.
01:05:11His fiancee screamed.
01:05:13Dustin looked at the commotion and saw
01:05:15two men were holding her back.
01:05:19And there was blood actually coming down from her nose.
01:05:22And at that time, he intervened.
01:05:25Dustin said that this guy...
01:05:27Casey Smet makes contact with Diamond
01:05:29and attempts to push him away from the group.
01:05:34Dustin was very protective of Amanda.
01:05:40And he said he remembered he had this pocket knife.
01:05:43And that's when his knife caught the kid's shoulder.
01:05:49He had a small puncture wound about a centimeter long
01:05:53on his right, the right side of his chest.
01:06:04Here's a police photograph of the injury to Casey Smet.
01:06:09And this photo, I don't think that's all blood.
01:06:12Looks like he's been wiped with iodine,
01:06:14which makes a bulk of that color on him.
01:06:18Dustin was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment,
01:06:22which is a felony in Wisconsin.
01:06:24So he was facing up to 10 years in prison for that.
01:06:28But he was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
01:06:31At the time, the knife that he had was not legal for him to carry.
01:06:36Since that time, it's now legal to carry the same knife.
01:06:38But he was also charged with disorderly conduct.
01:06:44We don't know exactly what happened,
01:06:47because this is a classic he said, she said situation.
01:06:52And when you look at the surveillance footage,
01:06:55it's really hard to tell who was the aggressor,
01:06:58who was defending themself.
01:07:00Dustin and Amanda told me that they don't go out very often.
01:07:04He said, Tom, let me give you an example.
01:07:06If I go out during the daytime and I'm at the store,
01:07:09I get one of two reactions.
01:07:11One is somebody, this person I've never met before,
01:07:15will run up to me, throw their arms around me and hug me.
01:07:17I love you, Dustin. I love you.
01:07:19What Dustin said, the other thing that happens is somebody will take their cell phone,
01:07:24hit record and say, what's it like to be a D-bag?
01:07:29As I got to know Dustin over the weeks and months where we were preparing for trial,
01:07:34I learned that Dustin was a young man when his brother died.
01:07:37He also was a young star.
01:07:40And essentially half of his childhood was spent working on this show.
01:07:46And being a star took away some of his normalcy growing up.
01:07:51Something Dustin Diamond dealt with constantly was being the punchline.
01:07:57Yeah, you've been called a lot of things.
01:07:58You idiot. Get lost, creep.
01:08:00You're a strange and weird person.
01:08:02Air nerd is more like it.
01:08:06Back when bullying was cool.
01:08:08Screech, you got a dummy, you dummy.
01:08:10It's the Beatles, you idiots.
01:08:11He's not our kid, you goof.
01:08:13Let's call me twink.
01:08:15So stupid.
01:08:16I'm not a simp.
01:08:17I'm a twink.
01:08:18I'm a twink.
01:08:19There is no stable, you dork.
01:08:21I didn't do anything, you twink.
01:08:23Screech, you're an idiot.
01:08:24But we allowed this as entertainment.
01:08:27It's not a pretty picture.
01:08:29This dink is frying my brain.
01:08:31You know what you knit with?
01:08:32That's the royal doofus.
01:08:33After a while of repetition, you keep hearing this,
01:08:35you start to believe that you're those things.
01:08:38Stupid, goofball, idiot.
01:08:40I mean, I love Saved by the Bell, but I mean, it was always funny when we see it, you
01:08:45know?
01:08:45But listening to that over and over again, it makes me sad for him.
01:08:57Sorry, I just...
01:09:04Now I get it.
01:09:05I get why he was so 50-50 with the show, you know?
01:09:12And sometimes he got it in real life, too.
01:09:15And you know what's funny is I was always nice to Screech in real life.
01:09:18Yes.
01:09:18I think I was the only one that was really nice.
01:09:19He was.
01:09:20I gotta say.
01:09:21Wait a minute.
01:09:21You put up with a lot.
01:09:22I did.
01:09:23I was really nice to him.
01:09:25Not really.
01:09:25Not really.
01:09:27Not really.
01:09:29I can say I was not very nice.
01:09:31You were.
01:09:31I was not.
01:09:32The thing with Dustin, too, is that we were all three years older than him.
01:09:36So, at that point in your life, that's a big gap.
01:09:39Like, three years now, you know, if you're 30 or 35 or whatever, that's not a big gap.
01:09:44But when you're 15 and someone's 12, that's a huge thing.
01:09:48So, he was always ostracized.
01:09:49He was always in the, you know, kind of trying to follow what we were doing.
01:09:53And, you know, as teenagers, you're like, hey.
01:10:00Dustin was so separated from the other cast because of the age,
01:10:04and so he would always hang out with the background people.
01:10:07When Dustin was in school, you know, it was between the ages of, like, six and ten.
01:10:14Nobody has really developed into nerd, bully.
01:10:19So, he didn't really experience being bullied so much until later,
01:10:26because he was a nerdy kid in his television high school role.
01:10:32Like, the real bullies of the world sort of made up for his lack of not being bullied in school.
01:11:02First verdict that has been signed by Mr. Nichols reads,
01:11:05We, the jury, find the defendant, Dustin Diamond, not guilty of second-degree recklessness.
01:11:10Dustin was found not guilty of the serious felony charge, which left the other two charges.
01:11:15We, the jury, find the defendant, Dustin Diamond, guilty of carrying against you.
01:11:28A few days after being discharged, he gets picked up for parole violation because his urine drug screen shows oxycodone.
01:11:36He was sentenced to another 60 days in jail.
01:11:40That tells me that that is not an incidental interaction with opioids.
01:11:46Somebody who is on probation and goes back to opiates is an opiate addict, by definition.
01:11:59I've been doing car insurance since 1999 in Rockville, Illinois.
01:12:03And I started working with Dustin through TV commercials for my company.
01:12:10Do you realize it's illegal to screech your tires?
01:12:13Yeah, but it's kind of my thing.
01:12:15He can't, you punk! Get covered!
01:12:18I am covered. Hmm?
01:12:20Barely.
01:12:21That paid him more money than stayed by the bell.
01:12:23It was a lot more than the $1,200 per week.
01:12:25You know where I can get cheap car insurance?
01:12:27Yeah, that's easy. Insurance cake!
01:12:29And when we started doing these commercials with Dustin, that's when we started to really, really grow.
01:12:36And that's what started our friendship.
01:12:44I did a lot of things for Dustin that people probably don't know about.
01:12:48After his girlfriend Amanda had moved back to New York, I started realizing he needed more help.
01:12:53Like, um, I bought him a vehicle.
01:12:56And I remember one time I made a deal with him to meet his dad.
01:13:01And that's because I had found out that it had been 15 plus years before the last time I'd seen
01:13:07him.
01:13:07He was always traveling all the time for comedy gigs or commercial shoots.
01:13:12They just didn't see each other.
01:13:13And so we met with Mark.
01:13:17When Dustin finally went to see his father, they were able to hash out everything from the past and make
01:13:22amends.
01:13:23When Dustin came out to California, one of the things he wanted to visit was there's an old cemetery up
01:13:30in this area where they have some people that fought in the Civil War.
01:13:35And he wanted to see this one that we had shown him when he was a kid.
01:13:41It says, remember, man, as you passed by, as you are now, so once was I, as I am now,
01:13:48so you shall be prepared for death and follow me.
01:13:53So in 2018, things started to kind of spiral a little bit for him.
01:13:58We would go out to dinner and things, and he would eat himself under the table and then get violently
01:14:05ill.
01:14:07I asked him, you know, is it pain pills? What's going on?
01:14:11You know, and there's a point where he kind of shut down.
01:14:14He was afraid to go get help because he didn't want to be that child star that had that problem.
01:14:19You know, that, look, another one on drug addiction or something like that, you know.
01:14:23When the child performers end their run, it can be very disorienting to them and hard to lose the dazzling
01:14:31fame and lifestyle that was so gratifying for them.
01:14:34And sometimes that's when you see people retreat into drugs.
01:14:39I brought him to the hospital for MRSA.
01:14:42MRSA, the staph infection is basically like a bacterial skin, flesh-eating disease, basically.
01:14:48Dustin had a surgery, and he had it removed.
01:14:52There was a point after the surgery where the surgeon came up to talk to him.
01:14:56So he was in there for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, something like that. It was a long time.
01:15:01And I knew that the surgeon didn't have a 45-minute conversation about, you've got to pay us your bill.
01:15:06So we get back to his house. I had made some payments for him.
01:15:10And he says, give me a one-way plane ticket to Florida.
01:15:14People that were close to him, eventually they would break apart.
01:15:20It's just sometimes Dustin wanted to just kind of push us away a little bit.
01:15:23And I'm going to put myself in that category. He pushed me away, too.
01:15:27He wasn't used to people caring about him.
01:15:34What people don't understand about being a celebrity is that they have problems just like you and I.
01:15:41Difference is, when you have a problem or I have a problem,
01:15:44our family knows, our coworkers know, our people around us.
01:15:48When they have a problem, the whole world knows.
01:15:53So they become reclusive.
01:15:58Especially when I think that he found out during that interview with MRSA,
01:16:02I think he found out that he had something and he was afraid to deal with it.
01:16:07He was just too nervous to even go to the hospital or to a doctor to get checked
01:16:11because he thought that the next day he would be in the tabloids of like,
01:16:15oh, we must have something wrong.
01:16:19He was getting ready to film in August. Dustin said, I can't.
01:16:22I'm like, why? He goes, I just won't look right for television.
01:16:25I'm like, is it MRSA? He goes, no, this is way worse.
01:16:28I'm like, what is it? He goes, I don't know yet.
01:16:32I'm going to go get a biopsy and we're going to start figuring this out.
01:16:36So then he finally did get in to do a biopsy and then he called me.
01:16:41He's like, yeah, come down here and help me with this stuff.
01:16:44Right?
01:16:44Did you know what it was by the time you got there?
01:16:47We knew it was cancer. Yeah, we knew.
01:16:50It was a really large tumor on his neck.
01:16:55He called me and he said, I'm dying.
01:16:59And I wanted to go back there and see him.
01:17:01He was afraid that he was going to go out like his mother did.
01:17:07So we had heard that he had maybe six months, maybe six weeks.
01:17:12We didn't think it was six days.
01:17:18We would take some fan letters and read some of these letters to him in the hospital.
01:17:22Some of them were really touching about how, I remember reading one of them from a fan that said he
01:17:34saved his life.
01:17:41Yeah, he said he was going to kill himself.
01:17:51So he was getting bullied in school.
01:18:06I get home and my boyfriend at the time, I walk in.
01:18:09He says, I got news for you.
01:18:11I said, what?
01:18:12He says, did you hear?
01:18:13I said, what are you talking about?
01:18:15Hear what?
01:18:16He said, Dustin Diamond passed.
01:18:24I'm sorry.
01:18:25And I said, what?
01:18:26He said, Dustin passed.
01:18:28I'm sorry.
01:18:44He didn't want to be buried.
01:18:46He actually did not want a grave marker at all because he didn't want to be messed with in the
01:18:50afterlife as he was when he was in life.
01:18:55What's the world missing not having Dustin in it?
01:19:14Nothing.
01:19:16I missed having fun.
01:19:18I can remember to have fun.
01:19:24Just give me a second.
01:19:25Yeah.
01:19:45He wasn't done doing the things he wanted to do.
01:19:50He's gone a year later.
01:19:53Do you miss Dustin?
01:19:55All the time.
01:19:57Yeah.
01:20:03All the time.
01:20:13Yeah.
01:20:23It was really cool to go out there and be a part of the memorial episode.
01:20:28Yep.
01:20:28The only one I didn't get to meet was Lark.
01:20:31From what I understand, she was just too emotional and she had to keep going back to makeup and she
01:20:36was crying during the shoot and she had a hard side with that.
01:20:38Yeah.
01:20:39Well, he died of cancer.
01:20:41That hurt.
01:20:44Even with Dustin gone, we still carried it on in the name of Save the Bell, Peter Ingle, all of
01:20:52the writers and producers and Dustin.
01:20:55And we all got to celebrate him.
01:20:57To Screech.
01:20:59Screech.
01:21:00Screech.
01:21:01I'm glad we got that on footage.
01:21:04Because he matters.
01:21:06Yeah.
01:21:09I got some stuff that we found in Dustin's dad's house.
01:21:15This was one of his first headshots.
01:21:18This was one of his report cards from Onset, from the Valley Professional School.
01:21:24And he did get all A's, right?
01:21:27So, that was pretty cool.
01:21:30I found an unopened fan letter.
01:21:33Do you want to open it?
01:21:34Okay.
01:21:391994.
01:21:40Dear Dustin, I watch all of your TV shows.
01:21:44I like them all.
01:21:46You're very, very, very funny.
01:21:48I know you're busy, but maybe could you send me your signed picture?
01:21:53I know you're famous, but please, I'm nine.
01:21:57I love Save the Bell, and my favorite animal is a pig.
01:22:02What's yours?
01:22:04Well, it was definitely a dog.
01:22:05He ate a lot of dogs.
01:22:07Do you, in real life, like Lisa?
01:22:10From your fan, Danielle.
01:22:13Right?
01:22:16It's kind of cool.
01:22:17So, I can tell you, Danielle, that he absolutely did like Lark.
01:22:23She was a really good person, and she left a voicemail for him, and we played it for him before
01:22:29he died, and he enjoyed it.
01:22:32She was the only one that really reached out to him, and is really heartfelt, and I know they had
01:22:39a connection.
01:22:42That was my very good friend.
01:22:48I miss him.
01:22:55These celebrities have to get the drugs from someplace.
01:23:00This is part of the drowning.
01:23:01Responsible for Matthew Perry's death.
01:23:03The physician added to his demise.
01:23:05He was known as Doc Hollywood.
01:23:07I have the power of all the doctors.
01:23:09Somebody should be held accountable for killing somebody.
01:23:11me.
01:23:11uy.
01:23:11I.
01:23:12Of course.
01:23:12Love you.
01:23:13Oh.
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