Saved By The Bell pays tribute to Screech star Dustin Diamond with original cast

Virgin Radio

25 Nov 2021, 12:34

It's hard to believe that everyone's favourite TV nerd has gone. Dustin Diamond - aka Screech Powers - lost his battle with cancer in February aged 44 and his former co-stars have marked his passing in a SBTB reboot.

The 90s sitcom icon was remembered in the season two premiere by Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and AC Slater (Mario Lopez).

"The worst things happened this year," Zack told Slater. The old gang including Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley), Kelly (Tiffani Thiessen) and Lisa (Lark Voorhies) joined in the memorial followed by the unveiling a new addition to the menu: Screech’s Spaghetti Burger.

Screech's robot pal Kevin served the burgers to the old friends as they raised their food in memory of him, followed by a tear-jerking video montage of his best bits.

Executive producer Tracey Wigfield told Variety about the much-needed tribute: "I didn’t know him and I hadn’t met him, but just thinking about it as a fan, I knew we wanted to do more than just putting a picture of him up at the end.

“It would have been wrong to not acknowledge that in a real way and to not have our OG characters mourning this character that we’ll never get to see again. That, I wanted to put on the screen, but I just wanted to make sure we were being as sensitive as possible.

"There was a real guy who had people who loved him. You don’t want to make any jokes or talk about it in any way that might hurt anyone’s feelings.”

RIP Dustin.