Hollywood might represent another side of the American Dream, but to many it often embodies a true nightmare, especially for young actors. Dustin Diamond is best known for his character Samuel Screech Powers in the late '80s and '90s on the long-running American TV teen sitcom Saved by the Bell (SBTB). Diamond's new book gives readers the disheartening story of an ex-child star. Dustin faced serious challenges moving his career beyond his comic role as the smart, funny, and endearing nerd of Bayside High School on the show that made him an audience favourite. Through his eyes, we uncover Hollywood's myths and see what happens when the lights go out and career expectations are shattered. Dustin also reveals how working as a child actor on SBTB created emotional turmoil that hurt his life at home and his future. For the first-time, Diamond presents the inside story of the young cast from Saved by the Bell that the viewing public thought were so lucky . . .
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A tell-all account of Dustin Diamond's life as Samuel "Screech" Powers on the TV show Saved by the Bell, including sexual escapades among cast+crew
About the Author
Dustin Diamond is an American actor, reality TV star, musician and stand-up comedian. He originally won fame for his comedic role as Samuel "Screech" Powers on the television show Saved by the Bell. He recently appeared on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
228 of 239 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's the worst book I've ever read. Ever.
Despite the book itself being horrible, there clearly was no editor. The grammar was appallingly bad. The former copy editor in me wanted to take a red pen to it even though it was a library book. Words were misspelled. He used idiotic words such as douchenozzle to make a point. He also writes moronic, vague sentences, then follows them with the sentence "What I mean to say is this." (Say what you mean! Use your words!) The literary violations extend beyond letting the author have artistic control. The most egregious error: when the word horses**t needed a hypen to split it onto two lines, the hyphen appeared between the s and the h. Yes, horses-hit. How does that even happen in the post-typewriter world?
When I could get past the cringing from his complete misuse of me, myself and I, as well as that, which who and whom, the memoir was unnecessarily mean and condescending to every other human being in the world, past, present and future. Diamond showed no perspective, decency or rationality. He writes off people he met as a child. Yes, I understand you thought Fred Savage was spoiled when he was eight. Does it mean he still is? Perhaps, but none of us can stand the scrutiny of the actions of our eight-year-old selves. He boasted about his own sexual exploits while deriding others for it. Although he is ridiculously misogynistic, he seems to hold sexual adventure against everyone but himself. Yes, this derision includes the women he slept with; he's incredibly hateful to them.
I finished the book, but it was uncomfortable to read. I'm not a prudish person, but it was hard to read the words of someone so clearly unable to let go of his hatred for so many people, places, situations and things. Diamond needs therapy. He needs an editor. He needs a fact checker. Mostly, he needs to find something to enjoy. He needs to find some sense of meaning in his life. It was uncomfortable to read because he's a human being.
Despite the book itself being horrible, there clearly was no editor. The grammar was appallingly bad. The former copy editor in me wanted to take a red pen to it even though it was a library book. Words were misspelled. He used idiotic words such as douchenozzle to make a point. He also writes moronic, vague sentences, then follows them with the sentence "What I mean to say is this." (Say what you mean! Use your words!) The literary violations extend beyond letting the author have artistic control. The most egregious error: when the word horses**t needed a hypen to split it onto two lines, the hyphen appeared between the s and the h. Yes, horses-hit. How does that even happen in the post-typewriter world?
When I could get past the cringing from his complete misuse of me, myself and I, as well as that, which who and whom, the memoir was unnecessarily mean and condescending to every other human being in the world, past, present and future. Diamond showed no perspective, decency or rationality. He writes off people he met as a child. Yes, I understand you thought Fred Savage was spoiled when he was eight. Does it mean he still is? Perhaps, but none of us can stand the scrutiny of the actions of our eight-year-old selves. He boasted about his own sexual exploits while deriding others for it. Although he is ridiculously misogynistic, he seems to hold sexual adventure against everyone but himself. Yes, this derision includes the women he slept with; he's incredibly hateful to them.
I finished the book, but it was uncomfortable to read. I'm not a prudish person, but it was hard to read the words of someone so clearly unable to let go of his hatred for so many people, places, situations and things. Diamond needs therapy. He needs an editor. He needs a fact checker. Mostly, he needs to find something to enjoy. He needs to find some sense of meaning in his life. It was uncomfortable to read because he's a human being.
86 of 89 people found the following review helpful
By swimgym1285
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dustin Diamond is obviously an incredibly bitter guy, about stuff that happened around 20 years ago. Although I'm sure some of it is true, and the other cast members were rude to him, after reading this book, who wouldn't be?! Dustin is clearly not a guy in it to make friends. He seems to hate Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen the most. Interestingly, Tiffani is the one who probably went on to achieve the highest amount of success - not surprisingly, Dustin has nothing good at all to say about her. In the case of Tiffani and Elizabeth especially, these girls were teenagers when the show was around, I don't think anyone should be judged forever based on their high school years, and I don't think a guy in his 30's should be dissecting the behavior of teenage girls the way Dustin does. Tiffani is 36 years old now, I don't think that Dustin's opinion of her as a 16 year old has any relevence whatsoever, and it certainly doesn't change my own favorable view of her. Dustin calls Tiffani a slut, and then goes on to detail the fact that he has slept with thousands of girls and hooked up on "every bed on the SBTB set"... cool? Good for you buddy. Tiffani is on a hit USA show, married and pregnant, what are you doing Dustin?
I gave the book 2 stars because it is always interesting for me to hear what a castmate of one of my favorite shows has to say about it, but the only interesting parts for me are about the show and they are few and far between. He talks ALOT about being drunk and hooking up at Disneyland - stuff that I couldn't care less about. To sum it up, Dustin hates Mario for being mean and self-absorbed, is jealous of and hates Tiffani for being a "princess" and a "slut," thinks that Elizabeth is pathetic, hated Mark-Paul ("the golden boy") but thinks he later redeemed himself, and thinks Lark is bizarre and was abused. He also thinks he was typecast (duh), his parents took most of his money, and he doesn't think the entertainment industry is good for kids - I just saved you $20.
I gave the book 2 stars because it is always interesting for me to hear what a castmate of one of my favorite shows has to say about it, but the only interesting parts for me are about the show and they are few and far between. He talks ALOT about being drunk and hooking up at Disneyland - stuff that I couldn't care less about. To sum it up, Dustin hates Mario for being mean and self-absorbed, is jealous of and hates Tiffani for being a "princess" and a "slut," thinks that Elizabeth is pathetic, hated Mark-Paul ("the golden boy") but thinks he later redeemed himself, and thinks Lark is bizarre and was abused. He also thinks he was typecast (duh), his parents took most of his money, and he doesn't think the entertainment industry is good for kids - I just saved you $20.
65 of 75 people found the following review helpful
By M. miller
Format:Hardcover
this book was absolute garbage! the writing was god awful...not to mention there were multiple typos and even an entire paragraph printed twice in a row! grammatical errors...odd spacing...and just all together awful writing...name dropping...total redundancy....i cannot stress enough it is one of the worst reads ive ever attempted ...i actual started to just skim til i saw mark paul or tiffani's names to possibly get some juicy gossip....however i believe he used to premise of telling lots of behind the scenes stories to sell books when the rest of the cast is not mentioned as often as u would think....lots of time spent on his boring childhood friends and verbal pissing contest with his cast mates that im not sure they are aware they are a part of!! ok we get it screech...you got laid too! grow up
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Exploits of Screech (aka Everyone Else Is Stupid, Dustin Diamond...
Like so many other people of a certain age, I was interested in this book because I grew up watching Saved By the Bell and was somewhat eager to read all the supposed gossip... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Jungle Red
3.0 out of 5 stars
The bell
The story is ok some parts drag and some are interesting I would say not a must read but a fun read.
Published 1 month ago by pink
4.0 out of 5 stars
What's not to like?
Sure there were some grammar errors and a small paragraph repeated once but I enjoyed the heck out of this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jamie Cochrane
1.0 out of 5 stars
Biggest load of BS....
I think the only redeeming quality of this book is that Dustin Diamond proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who the biggest jerk is from the cast of "Saved by the Bell. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jennifer Ryan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Behind the bell
It's proved: anybody who can spell three words, thinks that he can write a book.
Saying this book is stupid, with lack of contents, senseless, and pitiful would be a... Read more
Saying this book is stupid, with lack of contents, senseless, and pitiful would be a... Read more
Published 2 months ago by karen green
1.0 out of 5 stars
AWFUL
As a fan of Saved by the bell, I wanted to know more. This book was awful. Dustin does not write well.
Published 2 months ago by Amy LaBarge
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not to be taken seriously.
I purchased this book despite / because of the many negative reviews from Amazon. So, when I started reading it, I simply had no expectations, or decided not to face it as a... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Makotton
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ehhh *spoilers*
Overall it was ok. It started out good but I thought he would delve more into what went on with the characters more then go on and on about his giant package and the technical... Read more
Published 3 months ago by IRromanceLover
4.0 out of 5 stars
Guilty Pleasure
Behind the Bell is not an eloquently written masterpiece. In fact, it's stuffed almost as full of misspellings, grammatical errors, and typos as it is with juicy tidbits about... Read more
Published 3 months ago by victoria
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting...
I grew up watching Saved by the Bell (like many others I know) so I was very interested to see what he had to say. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Christofficer
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