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Behind the Bell Hardcover – September 29, 2009
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length311 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTransit Publishing, Inc.
- Publication dateSeptember 29, 2009
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.25 x 10 inches
- ISBN-100981239692
- ISBN-13978-0981239699
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Product details
- Publisher : Transit Publishing, Inc.; 1st edition (September 29, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 311 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0981239692
- ISBN-13 : 978-0981239699
- Item Weight : 1.53 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.25 x 10 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,792 in Television Performer Biographies
- #4,040 in Rich & Famous Biographies
- #10,452 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies
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The biggest faults I can find with him are, first, he uses a lot of gratuitous vulgarity in the book, particularly the f word, which could have been done without. Secondly, I did think it was in poor taste for him to brag about how many young women he had casual sex with.
On the other hand, I don't doubt that some of the complaints he has are justified, knowing Hollywood, such as the way child actors are exploited. He says wisely that he would not want any child of his to become a child actor. He felt he was excluded socially by the other members of the cast, due to them being quite a bit older than himself. That seems believable, knowing how immature and cliquish teen-agers can be. I think, that, combined with the fact that he was typecast as the nerd on the show made him feel like an outsider.
He does explain the difference between his own sexual activities and those of the other cast members though, in that all the relationships he had were completely consensual, whereas some of Mario's were not, and that he never promised anything more than casual sex, whereas he felt the other members were exchanging sexual favors for promotions.
He did feel disadvantaged by being typecast as a nerd, not because the character of Screech Powers wasn't likeable, he was, but Dustin felt it made it harder for him to get hired for other roles. One way he broke out of this, he explains was when he played a dislikeable character on the show Celebrity Fit Club. He said he enjoyed showing that he could play the role of a dislikeable character as well as a likeable one.
He also stated that not only Screech the nerd, but all of the characters on the original Saved By The Bell were stereotypes. I agree with him on that, I noticed that when I first watched the show. Although I think the show had many good points, the stereotypes were rather over the top.
Dustin refers to Mark Paul as the "Golden Child". Even though a natural brunette, Mark Paul's hair was dyed blond for the show. Was that really necessary? Like only blond boys can be "cool" or handsome?
Another complaint he had was that the whole cast was put on a diet because Tiffany started gaining some fat on her butt cheeks, even though the rest of the cast members were skinny.
Another complaint was that in The New Class, the writers put in a lot of homosexual innuendo between Screech and Mr. Belding. Dustin said he has nothing against people's sexual preferences, but though that putting that into the script was gratutitous, since Screech and Mr. Belding had always been known to be quite heterosexual.
All told, I don't think he is bitter toward his cast mates. He had his differences with them, but as they all grew and matured, they became closer. In the book, he had positive things as well as negative to say about them.
To me, the high points of the book were some of the humorous and often tender stories he told, such as about a litter of cats that he cared for. The way he described his relationship with Linda Mancuso was moving too. Of all the women he had relationships with, it is clear from the way he writes that she was the one he was most deeply in love with. Unfortunately, she died of breast cancer, as had his own mother at a very young age.
I would recommend this book to anyone, I think you will learn a lot from it.
The irony about this book is I knew Dustin was the Author so the book would focus on his perspective and life, but I was still more interested in the tidbits about the "cool kids" at bayside high. Whenever Dustin would talk solely about himself, the book became less compelling at the moment. Dustin does a lot of self embellishing, and I suspect outright fabricating some stories just to fill up the book. Dustin claims he bedded over 2,000 woman and his alleged " Monster" endowment is gratuitously mentioned more times than necessary. In one story, Dustin claims that a Tony Montana esque character approaches him in a nightclub, and tells him that his show makes his daughter very happy. "Tony Montana" then proceeds to lead Dustin out to the back parking lot, pop the trunk, and offer Dustin a kilo of free coke for his appreciation. Can you say, " YEAH RIGHT?" After Dustin declines the free kilo, he states that he's sure some of his cast mates might have been tempted. This is my second issue with the book. There is a lot of INSINUATION throughout the book. Dustin doesn't see a lot of the things first hand, he just attempts to lead the reader to come to certain conclusions. For example, Dustin claims that Peter Engal and Mark-Paul would have lengthy closed door sessions with Tiffany Amber Thiessen, which I'm sure was true. Dustin then insinuates that Tiffany was having ménage action with Peter and Mark-Paul, but unless he put his ear up to the door and heard moaning, saw Tiffany coming out the office fixing her dress, lip stick smeared, or Mark Paul coming out the room sweaty, and zipping up his zipper. There's just no compelling evidence to corroborate his claims. Is it possible there was some " Three Way" action going on? YES. Does Dustin present any real evidence to show that it went down? NO.
I found the tidbits he gave about how the episodes were put together interesting, and his detailed account of how an episode came together on a weekly basis made me feel like I was on the set. I also liked how he referenced certain episodes, because as a fan of the show I knew exactly what he was talking about. I was appreciative of any type of behind the scene, insider information he divulged no matter how minuscule.
Toward the end of the book, there are a number of grammatical errors, duplicate paragraphs, misspelled words, and editing mistakes, but the majority of the book was edited decently enough that I was able to navigate my way past the grammatical errors rather easily. From other readers reviews I thought the errors would be a nightmare, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
If you were a big fan of the show, I would buy this book USED like I did, as its worth a read. Do not buy it NEW! There isn't enough "Meat" in this book to captivate non saved my the bell fans, and Dustin's life which is 80% of the book isn't very compelling. Dustin seems bitter and resentful of the other cast mates, and coupled with a lack of first hand evidence to corroborate the stories in this book, it falls short of what a truly " Behind The Bell" book should be in my opinion. I would much rather read a memoir by Mark-Paul, Lark Voorhies, or Mark Lopez which pertains to the show " Saved by the bell." Dustin was three years younger than everyone else on the show and basically an outsider of the cast, which likely explains why he can't give as much details about what happened behind the bell as I would have liked.


