Behind the Bell by Dustin Diamond

So this is my first post about a book (I think). And the book I choose to write about today is “Behind the Bell”, the tell-all memoir from his time on Saved by the Bell by Dustin “Screech” Diamond.

If you are of a certain age, you probably remember Saved by the Bell. The saturday morning live action series that was then syndicated to death in after-school time slots. You may even remember the short-lived Saved by the Bell: The College Years. I have fond memories of Saved by the Bell and my perverse curiosity drew me to Dustin’s book.

The book is all over the place, jumping forwards and backwards in time while telling the story of what was happening behind the scenes on the Bell. Mostly it’s entertaining and lightweight reading. Dustin gets a little confused about dates, which leads me to believe the book never had a thorough fact checking read through, which causes me to question the rest of the book.

The biggest piece of Saved by the Bell dirt that Dustin dishes (other than Tiffani-Amber slept with it seems everyone but him) is that Mario Lopez allegedly raped a girl in the guest house on his parent’s home and NBC lawyers paid the girl off and kept it all quiet for a paltry $50,000 pay off.

Other than that he mostly complains about the gay innuendo between Screech and Belding that was written into scripts of Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

If you liked Saved by the Bell and see this book in a bargain bin, buy it. Just do not pay full price for this, it’s not worth it (trust me).