Saved By The Bell star Dustin Diamond has been hospitalized, with what is likely a cancer prognosis, according to reports. Diamond’s team reportedly shared that the actor was hospitalized in Florida over the weekend, after experiencing pains all over his body and generally feeling like something was wrong. TMZ reports that its sources within Diamond’s medical team are saying that cancer is a major concern based on the tests, and are reportedly awaiting a biopsy to confirm. No word on what type of cancer doctors might suspect Diamond could be afflicted with; the actor does have a history of the disease in his family, as his mother died of breast cancer.
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TMZ spoke to Dustin Diamond early in 2020 (before the COVID-19 pandemic) about the planned Saved By the Bell reboot on Peacock, and whether or not his character Screech would be showing up. Obviously, we now know that Diamond is not one of the cameos that Peacock’s Saved By The Bell delivers; at the time of his interview, Diamond shared why he appreciates the show, and would love to see Screech back:
“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? Right? It seems like there 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.
For all the cast members to say… I think everyone should all be thinking the same thing (as far as I’m concerned), everyone should be thinking: ‘We should all be a part of this. You can’t have ‘Saved By The Bell’ without Zack; You can’t have ‘Saved By The Bell’ without Screech; You can’t have ‘Saved By The Bell’ without Kelly; You can’t have ‘Saved By The Bell’ without Slater; You have to have all the cast members, you know?… If it’s a reboot, bring back all the original staples.”
Diamond also shared where he thought Screech would be in a modern Saved By The Bell series – and now we genuinely hope he gets to see that hope realized:
“I think that right now Screech would be dealing with parenthood and dealing with his kids and finding out he’s got a little Screech of his own now. And that maybe he wasn’t a barrel full of roses to deal with growing up, and realizing ‘Was I ever this difficult?’
We send hopes and good wishes to Dustin Diamond as he faces this health crisis.
