R.I.P. Dustin Diamond: 7 Best Screech Moments From ‘Saved by the Bell’
The Bayside gang is a little smaller: Dustin Diamond, who played Samuel “Screech” Powers on the 1990s teen sitcom Saved by the Bell, died on Monday, February 1, of cancer. He was 44.
Some of Diamond’s former Saved by the Bell costars are paying tribute to Diamond, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar calling him a “true comedic genius” on Twitter.
In his most famous role, Diamond played the gangly, geeky Screech for more than a decade — not just in Saved by the Bell, but also in the show’s prequel series, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, and its sequel, Saved by the Bell: The New Class.
Below, our 7 favorite Screech scenes.
Spastic dance in ‘Dancing to the Max’
In the series premiere of Saved by the Bell, Screech wants nothing more than to be Lisa’s (Lark Voorhies) partner in a dance contest hosted by Casey Kasem. To the surprise of no one, she finds a dance partner who doesn’t have two left feet. But after Lisa sprains her ankle kicking her television — don’t ask! — the other guy ditches her. So Lisa joins up with Screech after all, performing a routine they call “The Sprain,” and becoming the competition’s unlikely winners.
‘Risky Buiness’ Homage
When Screech has his house to himself for a weekend, he, Zack, and Slater (Mario Lopez) gets the chance to have a Risky Business moment, sliding around in their socks and lip-synching the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.”
Crushing on Violet in ‘House Party’
Two days after Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered, the first of Tori Spelling’s Saved By the Bell episodes aired, with the actress playing Screech’s nerdy love interest, Violet Anne Bickerstaff. As they flirt with one another, Screech delivers this doozy of a pick-up line: “I’ve always loved the mating habits of worms.”
Alien behavior in ‘Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind’
In this Season 2 episode, Screech plays the part of an extraterrestrial a bit too well. After Zack and Slater hear about a tabloid paying good money for proof of otherworldly life, the duo gets Screech to dress up as an alien. But the man they lure to Bayside isn’t a tabloid reporter. He’s a special agent from the government’s “UFO Division,” who’s ready to haul Screech — or “Zorch,” as he calls himself — away to D.C.
Al Bundy impression in ‘Save the Max’
Any fan of Married…With Children — or Modern Family, for that matter — should get a kick out of Screech doing his best Ed O’Neill impression during Season 3’s “”Save the Max” as the Bayside Gang convenes for a telethon supporting their beloved hangout The Max.
Serenade to Bayside High in ‘School Song’
In this Season 4 episode, the Bayside seniors decide to gift the school’s future students with a new school song, and Screech whips up new lyrics to the song “Home on the Range.” With gusto, he croons, “Oh, give me a school, with a big swimming pool / And a library crammed full of books / Where seldom is heard a complaint from a nerd, and the chess team has plenty of nooks.”
Shirt-ripping in ‘The Bayside Triangle’
Saved by the Bell had its fair share of love triangles, and in Season 4, Screech confronts Zack about “stealing [his] dream” after catching him kissing Lisa. And how does Screech express his hanger? He rips Zack’s shirt open. Touché!
