Dustin Diamond Was Working on Commercials with Screech and Kevin the Robot Before He Passed
Earlier this week, we sadly reported that Saved by the Bell star Dustin Diamond passed away at age 44 from cancer. The actor starred in every episode of the original series, beginning with Good Morning, Miss Bliss all the way through Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class.
He had not yet appeared in the Saved by the Bell reimagining at Peacock, but it seems the reunion wasn’t too far off. Returning stars of the series all said they would love to see him back on the series, and Diamond told TMZ:
"See I was one of the people in every episode. I was literally in every episode. Out of all of the cast members, I was in the most. And that's not the case anymore. I'm not in the new one. And how do you have Saved by the Bell without Screech? It seems like there’s a missed opportunity. It's kind of -- what's the old saying about cutting off the finger to spite the hand? Or cutting off the nose to spite the face? Something like that. Ten years in high school, I should know this [laughs] I should have studied it thoroughly."
But it looks like that wasn’t the only Saved by the Bell-related project the actor was working on. In the original series, Screech had a robot named Kevin that he had built that made appearances in several episodes. In the rebooted series, Screech’s absence was accounted for in a line from A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez), who said, "Screech is so lucky he and Kevin get to live on the International Space Station so he doesn't have to deal with all this." And Diamond’s project was side by side with robot Kevin.
According to Diamond's friend, Dan Block of Insurance King (via CB), “They were working on building their own version of Kevin with the hopes of making some commercials for the company. Diamond had done ads for Insurance King in the past, but this was an idea for a new campaign that sadly did not get to see the light of day.”
I think these commercials would have been very well-received and would have led to Diamond reprising his role of Screech on the series. I would have loved to have seen that, as it really isn’t Saved by the Bell without Screech. But I know the series will do its best to keep his memory alive.