Cast Says They 'Never Had Animosity' with Dustin Diamond Over His Tell-All Book

[TMC]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...175612992.html

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez opened up about misconceptions about their relationship with the late Dustin Diamond.

Angela Andaloro
Sun, March 30, 2025 at 10:56 AM PDT·3 min read

Members of the Saved by the Bell cast — Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez — appeared alongside Sweet Valley High's Brittany Daniel on a panel at the Hartford, Conn. to look back at defining a generation's expectation of what their teenage years might be like.

The panel, moderated by PEOPLE's Dory Jackson, featured a fan question for the Saved by the Bell cast about their relationship with late costar Dustin Diamond, who died in February 2021 at 44.

In response to a fan asking if the cast was able to reconcile with Diamond before his death, Gosselaar responded, "Well, just to be clear, there was nothing to be reconciled because that beef that was created, was created out there, not here."

"A hundred percent," Berkley agreed.

Diamond played Screech on Good Morning, Miss Bliss before the show was retooled as Saved by the Bell. After the hit series concluded in 1993 following four seasons on the air, Diamond went on to star in spinoffs The College Years (1993-94) and The New Class (1993-2000). After the show wrapped, Diamond published a tell-all book featuring scandalous claims about his castmates that he later apologized for.

"He wrote a book. It was a thing. We all kind of looked at him like, 'Oh, Dustin,' but we never took that personally. None of that was personal," Gosselaar noted.

Berkley added, "Honestly, it was more like how after high school, you keep in touch with some friends more than others, but there was not a negative [feeling]."

Gosselaar and Lopez both pointed out that the age difference between them at that point made the relationship dynamics different.

"Dustin was substantially younger, and I say substantially because you know, when you were a teenager if you were 17 and somebody was 14, it was light years, right? It's not so much now. I feel our age now, it doesn't really matter. But as teenagers, Dustin was always three years younger than us," Gosselaar noted.

"Like a little brother," Berkley said.

Gosselaar agreed, recalling doing a convention event with Diamond where the two "had nothing but great things to say about each other," adding, "That's why it's a shame that that's still out there because we never had an animosity towards him."

Berkley also noted that the whole cast was "very protective, in terms of honoring his legacy," when it came to the show's 2020 Peacock reboot.

"Because Saved by the Bell would not have been what it was without him," she leveled. "And so when we all got back together and did that, I know that they had been planning on and they have actually talked to him. Franco [Barrio], our producer, had talked to him about doing [the show]."

"It wasn't able to happen, but in terms of in that moment, there was a lot of thought and care from our showrunner, Tracy, and the writers about how to really honor him."

From Friday through Sunday, stars of beloved 1990s series including Beverly Hills, 90210, Charmed, Boy Meets World are reuniting in Connecticut to celebrate all the things we love about that era.

90s Con is running through Sunday, March 30, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.

[JO Sweet Heart]

I started watching my DVDs again due to the recent passing of Peter Engel. Screech will forever be my most favorite person on there.

God bless you and his family and the Engel family always!!!

Holly (a girl who forever misses Dustin Diamond)