In a post Saved by the Bell world, things have not been easy for Dustin Diamond. Having played nerdy comic relief Samuel "Screech" Powers on the popular sitcom and its various spin-offs, the actor has frequently run into trouble with the law. Diamond burned whatever bridges he had left when he wrote a tell-all book in which he revealed some less than flattering (and also embellished) details about his former cast mates. Now after his latest arrest, it seems like Diamond is trying to turn it all around, and he apologized to his co-stars for his book on The Dr. Oz Show.
Appearing on The Dr. Oz Show, Dustin Diamond wanted to set the record straight and formally apologize to his co-stars and fans after serving his most recent prison sentence for holding a concealed weapon and allegedly stabbing a man in a bar fight in 2014. The actor addressed the camera in the hopes that he could get some closure in regards to the past.
Diamond made his name playing Screech, the goofy sidekick in beloved '90s sitcom Saved by the Bell, alongside Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley. After Saved by the Bell ended in 1993, Diamond went on to reprise his role as Screech in the spin-offs, The College Years and The New Class. When both of those were over, Diamond frequently found himself the subject of scandals and several arrests.
Diamond has never been shy about talking about the behind-the-scenes drama in Saved by the Bell and in 2009 published a tell-all documenting what he claimed was a horrible experience for him. He slams his co-stars for frequently having sex and doing drugs on set, stories that many critics have questioned the validity of. Diamond has since revealed that that book was written by a ghost writer who embellished the stories off of answers he gave during an interview. True or not, Diamond has a long way to go if he really wants to make amends and further explains to Dr. Oz how long it's been since he's spoken to some of the cast.
I hadn't talked to most of the cast mates in a long time. Mario Lopez and I speak frequently and Dennis Haskins and I speak frequently. Of course, Slater and Belding. And they know what I went through, but the rest of the cast -- Mark Paul I haven't seen since I was 16 years old, so I feel terrible for it but what can I do? Unfortunately, being in the entertainment industry, you get fleeced a lot and you get taken advantage of a lot. And it hasn't been my first bout with that and so I've gotten good at just kind of brushing it off and moving forward. If I dwell on the past, then it just eats at me and there's nothing I can do about it.
Few left Saved by the Bell without any scars and Diamond's strife and bad experience seems genuine. Still, his book wasn't exactly the friendliest worded thing in print and he's got some work ahead of him if he earnestly wants to start repairing his image.
