Peacock’s revival of Saved By the Bell mostly focuses on a new generation of students at Bayside High School, but it does feature appearances by most of the original series’ cast. Season 1 included Elizabeth Berkley Lauren and Mario Lopez in supporting roles, and included guest appearances from Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, and Lark Voorhies. The only one of the original six Saved By the Bell teens who didn’t at least make a cameo was Dustin Diamond, who played Bayside’s lovable dork Screech. And sadly, Diamond passed away last February before he could film a role in Season 2. (Diamond died after a battle with lung cancer. He was only 44 years old.)
When Saved By the Bell does return for Season 2 later this month, it will thankfully include a tribute to Diamond. Fans should rest assured it is more than a simple episode dedication in memory of the late star. Bell producer Tracey Wigfield told Variety that the show created a special scene in honor of Diamond and Screech that features the five other original stars reunited at their old high school hangout The Max.
Here’s how Wigfield describes the tribute:
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. 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.
It’s good they’re doing something for Dustin Diamond; between Saved By the Bell and Saved By The Bell: The New Class, he was the longest-tenured cast member besides Dennis Haskins as the principal, Mr. Belding. Speaking of which, Haskins hasn’t been on the new show yet either. It would have been nice if he could have been part of the tribute, given that he worked with Diamond even more than the other actors; they were the two cast members who hung around to do several years of Saved By The Bell: The New Class after the first series ended and the main cast graduated high school.
Season 2 of Saved By the Bell premieres on Peacock on November 24. Here’s the show’s most recent trailer:
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