What was life really like behind the scenes at Bayside High? You can find out this Labor Day, since Lifetime is reportedly working on a tell-all docudrama about the making of “Saved by the Bell,” the cheesy teen series that aired from 1989 to 1993.
The movie will be partially based on cast member Dustin Diamond’s scathing 2009 memoir “Behind the Bell.” Diamond, who played nerdy Screech, dished on sex, drug use and other gossip.
Here are five points we hope make it into the movie.
2,000 and counting!
Diamond — hardly the most handsome and masculine actor — nevertheless claimed to have bedded some 2,000 “chicks” during his time on the show. He met them on press tours, at malls and on the set, but it turns out his favorite pickup spot was Disneyland.
A game of musical beds
Diamond claims that “Saved by the Bell” leads Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez cycled their way through female stars Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Lark Voorhies and Elizabeth Berkley. Diamond also suggests Gosselaar and Thiessen were having sexy closed-door meetings with the producer in his office.
Hush money
In 1993, Lopez, who played the show’s jock, A.C. Slater, was accused of date-raping an 18-year-old. Diamond claims that NBC paid off the accuser to the tune of $50,000.
Doogie alert!
According to Diamond, Neil Patrick Harris spent a lot of time with Ed Alonzo, who played Max, the owner of the restaurant where the kids hung out — and the two were often “going away to perform magic together.”
Roid rage!
Before shooting the 1993 spinoff series “Saved by the Bell: The College Years,” Gosselaar began taking steroids to beef up, according to Diamond.