Sad news for the 90’s kids yesterday as Dustin Diamond, aka Screech Powers, died at the age of 44.
Look I try not to blow celebrity/musician/etc. deaths out of proportion because at the end of the day we really don’t KNOW know these people, but if you grew up in the 80’s/90’s like I did, there’s a strong chance you watched Saved By The Bell. Arguably one of the biggest teen-drama shows of all time. And Screech was a massive part of those shows. Hell, he hung on for EVERY version of Saved By The Bell. He was there with Miss Bliss before Kelly Kapowski and AC Slater hopped on the scene, he was there for the heyday, he stayed on for the New Class and the ill fated College Years, I think the only version he isn’t on is the new version on Peacock Network because he became nerd-non-grata with some of his activities in recent years.
And speaking of those activities, clearly Dustin Diamond had some demons. I’m not a psych major but I have seen almost every episode of VH1’S Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and one commonality among a lot of troubled celebrities is that they were childhood stars. Fame at a young age doesn’t really jive with everyone. And I would imagine being famous at a young age for portraying the 2nd biggest nerd in America (shoutout Urkel) didn’t make things any easier. For better or worse, he was Screech, 24/7/365. Which likely led to a lot of the drug and alcohol issues he dealt with as an adult, which then fueled some of his run-in’s with the law, including that stabbing incident at a Port Washington bar in 2014. Again, don’t interpret a blog about Dustin Diamond’s death as an endorsement for those things, Strange Brew is 100% against stabbing, let the record show.
In any case, a sad story and a troubled life. He just had a birthday a month ago, and I feel like it was not long after that that it was revealed that he was battling cancer. Obviously it was late stage because yesterday’s news came quickly. RIP to a 90’s pop culture icon.
PS: Not related to Screech at all, but today being Groundhog Day, I’d be remiss in my efforts as an internet journalist to not post my favorite Groundhog Day picture of all time, Jimmy the Groundhog going Mike Tyson on the ear of the Mayor of Sun Prairie:
I will never not laugh at that picture. I’m pretty sure Jimmy escaped the next year and was just MIA for a good month or so. So out on the mean streets of Su Prairie ripping Marb Reds and hitting on your girl. Bad Boy 4 Lyfe.
