- See that black monitor?
I'm missing one hit show for Saturday morning.
- So what has that got to do with us?
- Everything!
Hot new talent never gets by me,
and you kids have it all.
- You mean you wanna use us in your new show?
- Why not?
You and your other friends from Bayside,
the kids will love it.
- Wow, what would it be like?
- Something like this.
- In the '90s, "Saved By The Bell"
could be seen on TV sometimes up to four or five times a day
on multiple channels.
- One of the biggest surprises of my life,
I'm sitting here talking to you
about "Saved By The Bell."
- [Narrator] "Saved By The Bell" catapulted
a preteen Dustin Diamond on to the worldwide stage.
- [Boy] Screech!
- Screech!
- [Girl] Screech!
- Screech Powers, wow.
- Geeky, nerdy, and you know, really weird. (chuckles)
- I love this job.
- In the world of iconic television characters,
Screech is up there.
♪ Isn't he a pearl ♪
♪ Lovely disarming ♪
- [Narrator] Yet, growing up under the bright lights
had its fair share of pitfalls.
- [Mark] He was treated differently than the other kids.
- [Ron] He was just never gonna be that star athlete,
he was never gonna be the heartthrob.
Being Screech your whole life is not gonna work.
- [Narrator] And by the time the series was over,
Dustin was desperate to sever his ties with Screech.
- He really tried to create another persona
that would give him another chance.
- He couldn't get any other work,
and he was talented, but he just couldn't.
- Everybody wants to talk about the tape.
- [Todd] That was when he really flipped the switch.
- He's most well known for his role
on the popular TV show "Saved By The Bell."
- But now he's in trouble with law
after an argument turned violent.
- [Reporter] Listen to the woman recording the video
as she spots Diamond brandishing an object
in his right hand.
- [Woman] That's a (beep) knife!
- [Narrator] But this new identity hijacked Dustin
and forced him to a breaking point.
- The only thing that he said he regretted was all of it.
He wished he was never Screech.
- I think the odds of being a child star
and... ing up your life,
it seems like it's a 50/50 shot.
(kids screaming)
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
you are about to be entertained.
- [Woman] Getting a laugh is the greatest thing.
- [Man] You want more of it, they want more of it.
She was getting death threats.
- [Woman] It... ed with your head.
- [Man] He's out of his stuff.
- That's what took her down. - This is a crazy story.
- Dustin was born in San Jose Hospital
in San Jose, California.
My name is Mark Diamond,
and I am Dustin Diamond's father.
Dustin had an older brother named Ryan.
Ryan was born with a terminal heart problem.
Because Ryan had Down Syndrome,
although Ryan was technically his older brother,
he was never able to crawl on his hands and knees,
never able to walk.
- He got his start really being comfortable
in front of a camera,
because he was entertaining his sick, older brother.
- He would put on little shows.
He would dance around, he would do things.
He would make Ryan laugh,
it was how he played with him,
because he couldn't go out and run and jump
and do all the things that kids would do.
- Now Dustin was definitely a jokester in school.
He loved practical jokes,
he would mess around,
he'd do things like put Vaseline on the door handles
and set traps.
- [Narrator] In 1983, Dustin's brother Ryan
succumbed to his heart illness and passed away.
- When Ryan died, he was eight years old,
so Dustin was six years old,
and it effected Dustin in a lot of ways,
because up to that point,
Dustin was a very outgoing, happy, funny kid,
who would entertain.
All of a sudden he became morose and dark,
and started failing in school.
We took him down to Southern California
to try to cheer him up, took him to Disneyland.
Outside of the wax museum,
there was a wax figure,
a fellow in a tuxedo with white gloves,
just standing motionless, like this,
and then Dustin realized, "Oh, that's a real guy."
And Dustin thought that was the greatest thing.
- [Narrator] Dustin's encounter
with the living statue performer
makes a huge impression on him.
He soon takes to trying it out for himself.
- In the shopping mall, he pretended he was a mannequin
and he just kind of froze
and people would walk by and kind of look at him,
and, "What is this kid doing?"
And somebody noticed him and then said,
"Hey, you should be an actor."
- Dustin's mother started taking him on interviews
in San Francisco.
Dustin told me that he wanted to be an actor,
and so I wanted to do everything I could
to make sure that he could be happy again.
- [Narrator] The family throw everything
into pursuing Dustin's dream.
- I took Dustin on, I think, 287 interviews in one year.
He had a lot of callbacks, it consumes your time.
Children do not do this on their own,
you know, you have to take them around,
so we had to move to Southern California,
but that involved me giving up my job.
Losing Ryan and then worrying about Dustin,
I was determined that I was gonna give him a fair shot
and what he wanted.
- [Narrator] The Diamond family moves from San Jose
to settle in Hollywood.
Mark becomes Dustin's full-time manager.
- I remember Dustin's dad having to take Dustin
to auditions and to the set,
and the studio, and he didn't work at that time.
I think working with Dustin was a full-time job.
- [Narrator] Dustin lands a few spots in movies
and on television.
But the work is still very inconsistent.
- I remember at the time, seeing that the number
was something like 99.97% of all people fail
trying to become an actor.
And what's considered a success?
You get some jobs, you make some money.
- [Narrator] In 1988, Dustin auditions for a part
on a new series for the Disney Channel
starring Hayley Mills.
- I'm sure that thousands of kids auditioned
and Dustin, you know, he had that look they wanted,
and so he got the part.
- [Narrator] Dustin is cast in the roll
of Screech Powers.
- Someone take a picture of me
and give it to the plastic surgeon.
- He was absolutely thrilled
when he started on "Good Morning, Miss Bliss."
He saw this as suddenly he had older sisters and brothers.
We were sort of a family.
- [Narrator] After only 13 episodes,
Disney pulls the plug on "Good Morning, Miss Bliss."
- Hi, my name is Ed Alonzo,
you may know me better and Max,
the owner of the diner on "Saved By The Bell."
When the Disney Channel decided to no longer
carry the show,
then executive producer Peter Engel
went over to his friend at NBC, Brandon Tartikoff,
and said, "Maybe we could rework this."
The eliminated Hayley Mills,
but they did keep Dennis and Dustin Diamond,
and Lark Voorhies, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar,
so that show then became "Saved By The Bell."
- Screech, hit it.
♪ When I wake up the morning ♪
♪ And the alarm gives out a warning ♪
♪ I don't think I'll ever make it on time ♪
- Well, Screech was a character
kind of like Steve Urkel on "Family Matters,"
geeky, nerdy, and you know, really weird. (laughs)
My name is Todd Bridges.
- What you walking about, Willis?
(Todd laughs)
- Hey, I'm Ron Solomon,
I was one of the writers
on the original "Saved By The Bell."
- Valley!
- [Boys] Right, dude!
(audience laughing)
- Dustin could make anything he did funny.
- Let's hula down!
- [Ron] He was just really gifted
as far as that was concerned.
It was always broad and cartoony,
but it was guffaw, funny, genuine child stuff,
you know, he wasn't forced,
you didn't see him trying to be funny, he was just funny.
- He was a very good actor at what he did.
(Screech exclaims)
That's tough stuff, that comedy work that he did,
it was part physical and part mental.
- Ladies and gentlemen, Leif Garrett.
- [Director] Leif Garrett, take one, marker.
- Thank you, all of you, for saying my name correctly.
- If you were in a scene with Dustin,
the energy that he had and the quirky faces
and line readings that he had were just amazing,
and I think that's what really made "Saved By The Bell"
a funny show was Dustin.
- We were in a unique position,
because we were a Saturday morning show.
- Hey, I've heard about this,
this is one of those new shows on NBC Saturday Morning.
- That's right.
- Right, then we're still on the right track.
- Oh, hi campers, how you doing?
- Hey, it's John Candy.
- We were up against a giant that was Bugs Bunny.
That was the reason everything on the set
was so colorful.
You're sitting at home,
and you're flipping through channels,
and you're seeing cartoons, cartoons, cartoons, cartoons,
wait a minute, these are live kids.
And I think it was just a matter of weeks,
we passed Bugs Bunny, which was a great achievement.
- I've got the geek that laid the golden egg.
(audience laughing)
- [Narrator] "Saved By The Bell" is a major hit
in the US and across the world.
None of the cast can walk in public
without being recognized.
- When I came home from school,
it was, you rush home, you sit down,
you turn on "Saved By The Bell,"
and that was the TV show for my age range.
- That show was a hit right off the bat, bang!
- You'd say, "Wow, I'm too old for this,
"but I'm gonna turn it on,
"'cause I have a fantasy that I could have friends
"in high school too."
- As all regular viewers of "Saved By The Bell" know,
this hip cafe, The Max,
would usually be filled to the mix
with all the teens,
Zach, Slater, Kelly, Lisa, Jessie, and of course, Screech.
- Syndication made the show multi-famous,
'cause now it was airing around the world,
it was being dubbed in other languages.
In the late '90s, "Saved By The Bell" could be seen
on TV sometimes up to four or five times a day
on multiple channels.
- They would get bags, actual postal bags of fan mail.
- I think Dustin resonated with the audience
because he was vulnerable,
and yet he was the most human character on the show,
because he had failings
and because he was just never gonna be that star athlete,
he was never gonna be the heart throb.
Kids saw themselves in him,
'cause they knew that they weren't Zach,
they knew they weren't Slater,
they knew they weren't gonna be with Kelly or even Jessie.
Most of us are Screech in the real world.
- We went to a Denny's at night,
and there was a fellow who had been driving by
and he saw Dustin,
he came up and he said, "I don't wanna bother you,
"but I watch you all the time,
"and could you maybe sign my sleeve?"
And he ended up signing, 'cause that's what he wanted,
and then the fellow left.
And then they said, "Well, bring us the check."
She says, "Oh, it's paid for."
That fellow paid for 10 people's meals,
'cause he was so happy that he spent time with Dustin.
- [Narrator] Dustin is connecting with people
across the world.
But on set, it's a different story.
- Hey, we're buddies, aren't we?
- I think he felt a little bit like an outsider,
just because his character on the show
was the goofy dork on the show,
where most of the other cast
kind of hung out with themselves
and Dustin didn't really hang out as much with them.
- Screech, you'll always be first to me.
- He went to school on the set with the other kids,
and he was behind them academically,
because he was younger.
- Hi, my name is Willie Aames.
♪ There's a magic in the early morning ♪
- And I am no stranger to be a child star train wreck
or knowing how to recover
from having been a child star train wreck.
The dark side of being a child star,
I think, is the loneliness.
- He was 12 and the other kids were 15,
some of them were turning 16,
and so they were sort of becoming adults,
and Dustin sort of separated from them,
because he was still just a little guy.
- The six main were together,
right, good looking ones were all hanging out together
and Dustin was rarely with them.
He was with the extras.
It was sad,
and so he became the real life Screech of the cast.
So Dustin became Screech as opposed
to the other way around.
- [Announcer] We now return
to "Who Shrunk Saturday Morning."
- And then my dumb cat Rover bumped the machine
and wham-o, we end up here.
- Like I always say,
the only thing a cat's good for is lunch.
- [Narrator] Dustin Diamond and his fellow castmates
have secured themselves as rating's heavyweights,
playing a close-knit gang of teenagers
on "Saved By The Bell,"
but Dustin finds he's treated as an outsider
both on and off the set.
- It's like being the mascot
and everybody knows the mascot
just doesn't get treated
like the royalty of the other people.
- [Mark] He was treated differently than the other kids
on the show, when he was in public.
- [Man] Dustin, come on up here.
- [Mark] He would have wonderful people that he met
and he did wonderful things for people.
- First of all, I'd like to tell you,
this game, Sonic 2, is a blast.
- But then there were the people who scream at him
and say, "You're that geek," and "I hate you."
There was one night that he was followed
by a bunch of guys who looked terrifying.
And they started shoving him around,
just because the character was sort of the nerdy character
on the show,
every bully and wannabe bully
acted like bullies do at school.
- [Narrator] Dustin tries desperately
to shake his persona and grow his character.
- Dustin the actor, wanted to evolve
Screech the character,
but he didn't know what to do,
he didn't know how to do it,
and unfortunately, a sitcom doesn't let a character evolve.
- [Narrator] Becoming increasingly frustrated on set,
Dustin starts to rebel.
- So in the beginning when he would just do his,
and it would be a funny little punchline on something,
but as it got older, it became more forced
that he would disarticulate even more
and his neck would go, and he would go,
and it just wasn't funny, 'cause it wasn't Screech.
- I got tattooed,
because I wanted to stop having to take my shirt off,
so I thought, all right... you.
That's the kind of reaction that you have
when you're under an immense amount of pressure
to prefer in a certain way
that no longer suits you,
and you're growing, you're a kid,
and you're also a gravy train,
and you're also a merchandise,
but then all of those people also want you
just be a kid and shut up.
Well, that's a mind for an adult.
- So I did see Dustin become less happy and angrier, bitter,
and as much as I wanted to reach out to him
as a human being, I couldn't,
because I would've gotten fired.
I was a writer, I could write him great stories,
I could write him funny lines,
but it wasn't my place to try and reach out
and help this struggling human being.
(record scratches)
- [Kids] Hey!
- Screech, hey man, get away from the turntable,
you're ruining everything as usual.
People aren't paying to see an idiot.
- Gee, Slater, why are you always on my back?
- Because you're a screw up.
- [Narrator] "Saved By The Bell" and its short spin off,
"The College Years," eventually come to an end.
- Sorry, I wouldn't want to embarrass you.
- [Narrator] Dustin's costars find new roles elsewhere,
but he stays on to reprise his role of Screech
in "Saved By The Bell: The New Class,"
for a further seven seasons.
- Hey. - What's going on?
- Just getting my henna.
- [Paparazzi] Where's Zach at?
- I don't know,
it wasn't my week to watch him.
(paparazzi laughs)
- [Paparazzi] Hey, but what happened
to the "Saved By The Bell" thing man?
Are you guys ever gonna come back
or something like that?
- Oh, we haven't left.
- [Paparazzi] You haven't left?
- No, man, "The New Class."
- Dustin played Screech all the way through
the original show and the spin offs,
"The College Years," "The New Class."
I know personally that I mentioned to him
the risk of being type cast,
but he didn't want to give up a guaranteed paycheck
for some other potential paycheck in the future
that may or may not come.
- [Narrator] In 1996, Dustin is filming the second season
of "The New Class,"
when his mother Jamie dies.
- Dustin's mom passed away from breast cancer.
I know that it took a big toll on Mark and Dustin.
Dustin was 18 at the time.
- He actually became angry.
He became mad at her,
especially after she died, because she left us
and he was mad about that.
Yeah.
- [Narrator] By the time the franchise ends in 2000,
he is 23 and has played Screech Powers for 12 years.
He is finally free to shed the skin
of the character he's lived in for a decade.
But despite many auditions,
he finds it hard to land any significant roles.
- No one wanted to hire...
They wanted to hire him,
but it would have to be for a Screech-like role.
People weren't looking at his acting skills,
they were only looking at one character
that he could play.
- He couldn't get any other work,
and he was talented, but he just couldn't,
because of, unfortunately, being Screech.
And it's like, it's not all what the public can see you as,
but it's all what the business sees you as
'cause that's the kind of people they are.
- If you're at that age, at 21,
or for me, at 23,
and you suddenly are told,
thanks for the last 10 years of your life,
don't need you anymore.
I have a house and a car.
How am I gonna make that work?
- He hasn't gone to college,
he hasn't prepared for anything else
other than being an entertainer.
- He wanted to switch into a different career
where, I think, maybe might've been a little bit more cool,
which was standup.
- Screech was a fun character to play,
and then I reached a point where it was time to move on.
- [Narrator] In his efforts to reinvent himself,
Dustin performs a very adult standup act.
- What's up, (beep)?
Woo!
- I love how everyone thinks they can do it,
but they can't.
- Let me tell you,
people always underestimate standup comedy.
Standup comedy is the hardest form of entertainment.
- I'm not bitter, man, I played that character for 10 years.
After 10 years of Screech,
I am... ing not bitter, I'm horny,
that's all there is to it.
- Being able to inflect jokes,
to be able to put together the words,
it takes a long... ing time.
- Dustin's standup,
when I first saw his show, I was like woo, that was racy,
you know what I mean?
He had a grandma joke that was so bad.
- I am horny though, that wasn't a joke.
I'm like that close to tapping my own grandma,
it's embarrassing is what it is.
- Basically, he came out
and he was, in some cases, obscene,
and other cases just not funny.
- You got big... ing titties,
thank you for sitting up front.
(audience laughing)
- And he's trying to be the anti of what his character was,
and I was like, "This ain't gonna last long for this kid."
Unless it's a true opposite, like Bob Saget was,
'cause Bob Saget was always a dirty comic,
but here's the difference, comic first
then the TV show.
It didn't seem to fit,
and it didn't, you know, do what he wanted it to do.
- If it's not in your bones,
you know, it's really hard for an actor
to just, hey, I'm gonna just be a standup.
- I think part of that was to deal with
some of the trolls and the hecklers
that were coming at him,
and it helped him kind of cope with those people
and give it back to them.
- [Heckler] Where's Lisa Turtle?
- She's in the... ing trunk, thanks, buddy.
(audience laughing)
See, if you're gonna shout out something,
is that the best you can come up with?
Well, share something more with me.
- [Heckler] Get... ed!
- I've already been paid, I don't need to...,
come on, buddy.
You got all night, share something.
Don't be a cock face, come on, tell me something.
- Standup's very difficult,
and the crowd can turn on you in a second.
Especially somebody that has the image of Screech.
You're gonna get a lot of hecklers in the crowd.
- Oh my god, Screech just hit-
- [Narrator] His act is universally panned,
and the foray into standup
did his reputation and self-esteem no favors.
Struggling to reestablish himself
after a long run on "Saved By The Bell,"
Dustin Diamond decides on a change of scenery.
- He would tell me several times
he just wanted to be normal.
He didn't want to be famous,
and he just hated being famous in Hollywood.
And he just got sick of it, so he moved.
He really liked the Midwest.
- [Narrator] Dustin moved to Wisconsin
to escape the glare of Hollywood.
- [Mark] He ended up buying a house there,
and he was making payments.
- [Narrator] But soon,
Dustin falls into huge financial problems.
- When he would call me and say he needed money,
I would say, "Well, didn't you just get paid for something?"
He would say, "Oh, I got here, I got to this gig,
"and they refused to pay me."
- He called me, he had run into some financial trouble
and he asked me for 50,000 bucks.
I don't know what he got in trouble with,
but he had lost a lot of money.
- [Narrator] In fact, most of the earnings Dustin made
during his 12 years on "Saved By The Bell" were gone.
- Dustin actually explained to me
how much money he was making
when he compared himself to Urkel,
you know, and how Urkel beat him out.
He says, "I'd much rather been on a Friday night show
"versus a Saturday morning show."
And he told me he was only making like $1,200 per episode.
You know, there is a brand new actor,
didn't have a whole lot of experience.
The most money he made on a "Saved By The Bell"
was in "The College Years,"
he was getting like $10,000 an episode.
- You know, when he turned 18,
there just wasn't anything left,
and I don't know why that happened,
but that little bit was left over, like 250,000, I guess.
- And so Dustin had a habit of spending money,
you know, Dustin would like to buy every Nerf gun in sight.
He loved to visit the toy store.
His comic books and Star Wars memorabilia.
I don't think he ever had an guidance.
- He didn't know how to handle money.
That's the simplest way to say it.
For instance, when he bought that house,
he got a platinum loan and he didn't make any payments.
- I mean, come on, you know,
I didn't know how to balance a checkbook,
I didn't do any of that stuff.
I had a business manager.
Because when you're really young,
you don't ask, "Can I see the books
"to make sure all the money's correct?"
All of a sudden when you're 18,
you're supposed to handle yourself,
but you've never been taught those things
because you've been busy being the golden goose,
being the cash cow.
- They were getting ready to repossess his house.
- Former child star Dustin Diamond
is facing foreclosure on his Port Washington home.
- [Portia] Wells Fargo filed legal papers
against the "Saved By The Bell" star,
claiming he owes more than $290,000 on his mortgage.
He tried selling T-shirts to raise some money.
- I don't know if you can see the front there.
- [Howard] Yes, that's a picture of you,
are you Screech there?
- No, no, it's just me.
And I'm holding a sign that says, "Save My House."
I'm in front of a shack in the Wisconsin woods, right?
And on the back it says,
"I paid $15 to save Screeech's house."
- [Narrator] When Dustin fails to raise the money
to save his house,
a friend comes to help him out for the time being.
- Yeah, Dustin and I were definitely friends,
and I treated him like family.
And I took care of him, you know?
I got him caught up,
I borrowed him money to make sure he was all current
on his mortgage.
- But the guy that had arranged the home loan
put his job on the line for Dustin,
and said, "Oh, this was all just a big bookkeeping mistake,
"Dustin has movies lined up.
"He can pay for the house easily,
"just give him another loan."
And they did at a much higher interest rate.
He then proceeded to make none of those payments.
- [Narrator] With his financial situation getting worse,
Dustin resorts to more desperate means to pay his bills.
- Everybody wants to talk about the tape.
- Dustin did a series of things
that were attempts at making money,
but they were not smart things to do.
- He didn't think about the consequences there was
on making money from making yourself look bad,
and he didn't understand you shouldn't do that.
- [Interviewer] What are you doing here?
What are you promoting?
- Well, I'm sure you heard I have a video that got out
and it's of an adult nature,
so it fits in this crowd.
- Dustin Diamond's sex tape was called "Screeched,"
obviously it was a play off Screech,
his character from "Saved By The Bell."
And that was a massive, massive story at TMZ,
mostly because we were the ones to break it
and had the exclusive clips of the sex tape.
- It all just started out as a joke,
you know, the Paris Hilton video came out
and made a bunch of money,
and his buddy was on his couch with him,
he was like, "What if you had a sex tape,
"what would you make with it?"
And he goes, "I don't know."
They started thinking about it,
like, "What 50 grand, 100 grand?"
He goes, "Maybe, maybe more."
And so they did it,
and those decisions that started out as just a joke
went much further than that.
- [Dax] From that moment on, everyone looked down on him,
friends, family, people in Hollywood.
So he couldn't shake it after that point.
- [Dustin] A big girl with a bad attitude is not attractive.
- If you even (beep) look at me, Dustin.
- [Spokesman] Dustin Diamond fights his way
into becoming the most controversial fit clubber ever.
- [Dustin] With his reputation hitting an all time low,
Dustin is cast in back to back seasons
of "Celebrity Fit Club."
Where overweight celebrities are pitting against each other
in an effort to shed weight.
- When it came to "Celebrity Fit Club" in particular,
that was when he really flipped the switch
on becoming a person that people really didn't like.
- Let's talk about losers, okay?
Let's talk about, I'm a (beep) child star,
now I got a porn tape on TV
and selling T-shirts to pay my house note.
- He and I were both cast as two of the most
contentious player of that game
ever to be on the VH1 series.
- Dustin is reportedly paid an extra $25,000
in addition to his regular salary
to play a villain on the show.
- Did you guys see "Celebrity Fit Club?"
(crowd cheering)
Yeah, I played the dick on that show,
and everybody thought I was a douche bag.
Baby, it's TV, it's all scripted, man.
They paid me $50,000 to be on that show, 50 grand.
You can't just show up and just get paid,
you gotta out crazy Gary Busey, that's... ing hard.
- When you get viewed as a train wreck,
you're often only cast as a train wreck.
- He wanted to play bad guys,
he wanted to play the heavy,
he wanted to play the naughty boy,
and so on that show, he was sort of an A-hole,
but it was deliberate.
He felt that that would change his image.
- People better watch their ass,
because I could show up at your house
and (beep) knife you in the gut.
- That's a weird thing to say.
- Hey, you piss me off and I justify it,
and I have the skill and technique.
You better (beep) watch your ass.
- See, Dustin liked to collect knives.
People would go, "Oh wow, Dustin's really scary.
"He's not like what I thought he was."
He was changing his image,
but I don't think it was a positive effect.
- I think he was hoping that the VH1 show
would give him that sort of boost
to get him back into the public eye
as somebody who was viable.
To me, that was very indicative of Dustin's frailty.
- First, it's the sex tape,
then you have "Celebrity Fit Club,"
then the third thing, which is the tell all book.
- Within the book, I reveal all that anyone
would ever need to know about the good points
and the bad points, and sort of the uncomfortable points
that we all went through.
- [Dax] He talked about drug use
and his cast members having sex with each other.
- It hurt people that didn't deserve that.
- Everything that I've heard about his book,
'cause it is negative,
and I don't remember those things,
'cause my experience on the show was very positive.
- This is chemistry class, not "Love Connection."
- You know, I was there,
there was nothing bad going on that I ever saw.
- The more salacious a book is,
the more money it's gonna make,
so whether or not he lied, I don't know.
- He kind of isolated himself from everybody
that really cared about him,
so he could go off and do these things
without having to listen to anybody
say, no, no, this is wrong, you shouldn't be doing this.
- There is so much pain in somebody
that makes that choice to continue on with that behavior,
because it's all you have left.
- Anger is an outward expression of a depression.
Losing your money is traumatic.
Not being able to know how to survive.
And they just kind of go back into that trauma response
of being the people pleaser.
You want me to be a train wreck?
Okay, I can do that.
- It's hard to specifically characterize a set of issues
that are specific, necessarily, to child stars,
but fundamentally, they didn't get a childhood,
there are developmental issues around that.
Number two, they often come into money
that they don't know how to manage, 'cause they're children,
they're not adult.
And then three, functioning in the world as an adult.
If you've never been asked to stand on your own
in the world, except as a child star,
boy, there's no floor underneath you.
- If everybody around you was a yes man
and everything did, people gave you accolades for
and said, oh, that's so great,
and you were truly the center of attention,
it effects you growing up.
I mean, you look at only child syndrome,
imagine successful child actor syndrome.
- He's most well known for his role
on the popular TV show, "Saved By The Bell."
- But now he's in trouble with the law,
after an argument turned violent.
- Your life is a microscope,
and when you make a mistake,
of course they're naturally magnified.
- [Narrator] Dustin can't even escape
the public scrutiny of him on Christmas Day,
as he and his girlfriend try to enjoy a night out.
- He was noticed, people came up
and they wanted to take pictures,
and the usual Dustin, sure,
he didn't everything they wanted.
But as they continued to drink,
they started to become more and more obnoxious.
- They started taking note of who we were,
or who I was, and started taking pictures
and laughing and making it a game to bump into us
and try and capture it on video or camera.
- A woman was very rude about Dustin and his girlfriend,
literally calling her a circus clown,
'cause her hair, and what a loser
that that's his best girlfriend he's got now,
you know, Screech has really fallen off, that kind of stuff.
For a long time, he was enduring this.
Before he leaves, the woman came over
and asked for an autograph,
and Dustin was gonna do it,
but his girlfriend said,
"No, absolutely not, you're rude,"
and then she proceeded to pull out her cell phone
to take a selfie with Dustin,
and that's when his girlfriend Amanda
swatted the phone out of her hand
and started an altercation.
- Dustin stepped in and he did a stupid thing.
- We were just sitting over on the other side of the bar,
and then I heard, "Fight,"
and then I was just kind of walking over,
and then I heard, "He's got a knife."
- [Male Reporter] Listen to the woman recording the video
as she spots Diamond brandishing a object
in his right hand.
- [Woman] He's got a (beep) knife.
- [Narrator] In a bar near his home in Wisconsin,
Dustin finds himself defending his girlfriend
from a group of belligerent fans.
- And then the boyfriend came over
and started basically punching Dustin.
- And then some of the guys got involved,
trying to break it up,
and everybody was just kind of pushing each other
and everything.
- [Female Reporter] The two opted to leave,
as Diamond was checking out,
he heard his fiance scream, then saw her bloody face.
- [Attorney] What did you think caused that?
- I thought someone hit her.
- [Female Reporter] Diamond pointed
to this surveillance video played frame by frame
showing when he says,
Schutz was punched, pulled, and choked,
and he was shoved into a corner.
That's where we see Diamond with a knife at his side.
- [Dustin] I opened the pocket knife as a deterrent.
- Dustin pulled his pocket knife out
and the guy cut himself, swinging at Dustin.
- [Female Reporter] Police say that's when Diamond
stabbed a man and left a bar.
- Witnesses say the incident happened here,
by the door, and once Diamond heard the police were coming,
he left the bar.
- [Female Reporter] The pair were arrested
after police found them inside their SUV.
Diamond is charged with recklessly endangering safety,
carrying a concealed weapon, and disorderly conduct.
This body cam on first responders
shows Casey Smet immediately after the fight,
he says he doesn't need to go to the hospital.
- It's right here, and it's already done bleeding,
it's already clotted.
- [Adam] The injuries sustained by the victim
is such that he did not require medical treatment.
Nonetheless, as the court can see,
there was a half inch puncture wound under his armpit
that did result in substantial bleeding.
- The tip of the knife caused a boo boo
that needed a Band-Aid.
But what does the press say?
"Dustin Diamond stabbed somebody!"
- I think every celebrity train wreck out there
makes the audience feel better about themself.
A thrill that America
has watching these people just crumble.
- This is all I've thought about
for the last six months, every single night spent
consumed with what I could've done differently.
Having been in the public eye
ever since I was a little boy
has taught me to be careful with every step I make.
I'm not the type of person that goes out
looking for trouble or is willing to accept
- [Narrator] Dustin is found guilty
of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct,
but manages to escape conviction
for recklessly endangering public safety.
The judge sentences to four months in prison.
- I called Dustin and I talked about
when he's gonna have to go to jail
for six months or whatever,
but I told him what to expect,
and what's gonna happen, you know,
and how to keep his nose out of trouble, you know?
And Dustin would talk big,
but actually sometimes people who talk very big
are very scared inside.
- Hello.
I need to check in.
- [Reporter] Dustin, before you check in.
- [Narrator] After serving three months in jail,
Dustin is released a month early for good behavior.
- [Female Reporter] The 39 year old released just last month
says he got out one month early for good behavior
earned with janitorial work, cleaning floors,
and doing laundry.
- [Leif] This kind of a thing makes it almost impossible
for you to turn your career around after that.
And I know he had tried so hard.
- [Narrator] He's left out of a skit
that brings back his former "Saved By The Bell" castmates.
- What'd you think when you saw
the "Saved By The Bell" reunion
on "The Tonight Show?"
- I wish I could've been a part of it.
You know, I didn't know that was going on
until it was already done.
You know, the photo thing happened after that,
the People Magazine, things like that
where I wasn't part of the cast,
I wasn't part of the cover and stuff,
so everyone started, you know, the telephone game,
the rumors, oh, well, he wasn't invited.
- He used to love Port Washington, Wisconsin,
but after going to jail, he hated it,
and he would go to Wal-Mart,
and have interactions with the people
and he just didn't like it anymore.
- He ended up taking a gig in Florida,
and he had lost the original girl,
and he met somebody while he was in Florida,
and he decided to stay for a while.
- I believe Dustin went to Florida
because he was running away from his problems.
You know, just when things are starting to look up for him,
things were starting to get bad too,
and he just wanted kind of break from reality.
- He had called me and he said he needed to talk to me,
and his voice sounded really bad.
He said that he had a growth on his neck.
- One time he called on FaceTime,
and I went to go help Dustin,
I went and picked him and took him to the hospital,
'cause enough's enough.
- [Female Reporter] ET has confirmed
the 44 year old actor sought medical attention
over the weekend in Florida.
Dustin's team tells ET he's quote, "undergoing tests"
to determine the source of various body pains
he had been experiencing.
- I had this message that said,
"I'm sorry I missed your call, I was on the floor."
That concerned me.
What do you mean you're on the floor?
And when I got through to him,
he said, "There's something really bad."
I said, "Well, did your dog die?"
He said, "No, I'm dying."
And I didn't know what he meant.
So that was the way I found out.
He went in to the doctor
and the doctor said, "You better hope
"this is not small cell carcinoma."
And he was waiting for results,
and it turned out that's exactly what it was.
But he had put off going to the doctor,
much like his mother had.
- [Narrator] With the growth on his neck,
Dustin fears he'll just become more fodder
for trashy headlines.
- I think he was afraid of finding out
that he had cancer,
otherwise he would've gone in sooner.
- People that don't know Dustin
would say such horrible things.
The internet trolls, I believe caused his illness
to get out of control.
He did not go and get help,
because he didn't want to have someone
leak a picture of him being sick.
He just didn't want to have any pictures leaked
to the media of another fallen child star.
You know, people are cruel.
- I first heard that Dustin Diamond
was just going into the hospital.
There wasn't a lot of information why.
We didn't know that he had cancer,
we just knew that he was going in for something.
- [Narrator] Dustin is diagnosed
with stage four cancer,
and starts treatment immediately.
- He was really glad that I was there.
He would get these sudden pains
and he described it as horrific.
And his girlfriend said,
"Is this the same pain you had before?"
And he said, "No, it's a new pain."
He said, "It's a whole new pain."
And then he looked up at me,
and he raised his hands and he sang,
he said, "A whole new pain," and we laughed.
He was showing me even though what I'm going through,
I'm still here, it's still me.
I mean, comedy, humor, is a gift from God
that shines a light
and if even for a brief moment
can relieve the horror of what's going on,
for one brief moment, everybody laughed.
- He was optimistic he was gonna get six months
to maybe a year to live.
So I helped transport him to the transport bed,
and I helped lift him into the van,
and took him to the house
that he was gonna go set up for Hospice.
He was gonna go to live with a friend,
you know, in a spare room.
And when we arrived to the house,
his girlfriend ran straight for him,
I was on the phone with his agent,
let him know, hey, this is what's going on,
you know, I don't think you should come down here,
it's pretty bad.
'Cause it was really tough seeing Dustin,
I mean, he was like a fish out of water,
he couldn't breathe.
And so I walked in, and his girlfriend noticed
that he was already passed.
- It is with a heavy heart
that I announce my friend and "Saved By The Bell" costar
Dustin Diamond passed away this morning
at the age of 44.
- I found out that Dustin died 'cause a friend told me
that they had seen something on Twitter,
that Screech is dead, and I was sad.
He had a tough life,
but Dustin helped me to become a successful writer
in Hollywood and to do well.
- Okay, guys and gals, lovers and lovies,
this is the last dance, make it magic
while the Screech man takes you home.
- [Ron] So many years later, you say the name Gilligan,
you say the name Urkel,
in the world of iconic television characters,
Screech is up there.
- When morning comes and I raise my head,
shut off the alarm and get out of bed,
I brush my teeth like Mother said,
I always feed my spider Ted.
- "Dear Mark, you don't know me,
"but I wanted to express my condolences
"for the loss of your son Dustin.
"His character made me feel like it was okay
"to be different.
"And I'm sure many others felt this way,
"especially going through high school.
"May Dustin rest in peace, and God bless, signed Richard V."
I think it's part of what you talk about, his legacy,
you know, this is someone he never met but he effected.
Dustin meant something to people
who were picked on and outcasts and different
in whatever way.
That was Screech,
and it was our best intention to help him
find his dream, do what he wanted to do.
Yeah, I guess it was a nightmare for him,
and I could only imagine
what people who are bigger stars go through.
Maybe that's why a lot of Hollywood is nuts.
- How's that?
- Hey, keep smiling.
(audience cheering)