The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (2014 TV Movie) User Reviews

Not bad at all, but lacks a point...

[insomniac_rod · 6/10 · 22 August 2015]

I am aware it is Dustin's version; however, it misses the point on describing the real problems and frictions between the cast. They barely display the character's personalities, hobbies, and their life outside the set, which would be helpful to understand some issues.

Instead, the script focuses on describing things we already knew. I know, it is Dustin's story, but a little more objectivity wouldn't hurt.

The acting is surprisingly good, specially the young man that plays Dustin. The rest of the cast does perfectly their job although it seems they haven't seen the original Saved by the Bell series.

I would definitely recommend this one for fans of the series, like myself. I grew watching this series and became part of my life, so, getting extra information after 22 years was a good nostalgic touch, although I expected to see more of the "private" details.

Dustin's summary

[kandit1 · 4/10 · 1 September 2014]

This unauthorized version is told from Dustin Diamond's recollection of events. Since this story is about a group of six teenagers and what went on behind the scenes of the TV show, one man's recollection of events certainly skews history and hence the unauthorized title.

To be fair, Dustin's version of events in the movie version doesn't really target anyone negatively other than the fact that, as the youngest cast member, he felt as though he was an outsider. This lead to awkward and uncomfortable situations with other cast members but we get the impression that on the whole the cast were good friends off the set as well.

Given time limits, many things were skipped which I would have liked to see as someone who followed the show during it's original run. 'Good Morning, Miss Bliss' had Hayley Mills, T.K. Carter and Joan Ryan as teachers along with Heather Hopper and Max Battimo as students. All these actors were not covered in the movie nor why they were excluded when 'Saved By The Bell' carried on with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies and Dennis Haskins all continuing their roles.

Diamond's version for cancellation of 'Saved By The Bell: The College Years' differs substantially from mine. I remember wanting to watch it to continue watching these characters and their exploits taken to a new level in college but the show was so atrociously bad that even I didn't watch it to the end of it's run. Despite Diamond's view that this was the end, it was not. He forgot to mention the 1994 TV movie 'Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas' as well as Dustin Diamond reuniting with Dennis Haskins in 'Saved by the Bell: The New Class' which had more seasons and episodes than the original.

On the whole, this movie portrays Diamond as pretty clean-cut and a victim of blackmail from a guy that introduced him to alcohol and drugs but what would you expect from a story being told only from his viewpoint? It would be nice one day if we got another version or even had someone collectively put together all the major actor's recollections and make a more thorough and balanced review of events on film.

Interesting but...

[Dusius · 5/10 · 31 October 2015]

The movie was interesting enough, but just because it was Dustin Diamond's version, it makes it difficult for someone to watch (and believe) it without any trace of prejudice.

But the worst thing is that the whole plot is weird. All of a sudden Diamond is the center of the universe and the other 5 cast members revolve around him. Diamond is the josher but at the same time the mature one, the rest just join him on the set. We didn't see much about their lives out there, their thoughts and their problems.

The young actors were very good in their roles. Unfortunately, the movie didn't meet my expectations, since in this kind of movies I need to see a collection of verified information from different people who were involved and an equitably shared time to the protagonists.

The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story

[mooredylan75 · 1/10 · 2 September 2014]

To start this off this review, I wish I could give this movie a zero. This is not going to be a slam of Mr. Dustin Diamond, simply a review of what Lifetime put on the screen last night.

There are many things that I find wrong with this movie, I just don't know where to start. I really wanted to enjoy this one because like all who watched this movie, they grew up watching Saved By the Bell. And who doesn't like to know what goes on behind closed doors? But, my interest dimmed after finding out two major components: It's based on Dustin's falsified memoir and two it has "Unauthorized" in the title. I get it, I didn't have to watch it and there were a million things I could have been doing. But, I didn't.

Firstly, the cast was put together poorly. The only ones that I thought matched their counterparts were: Ken Tremblett (played Dennis Haskins), Tiera Skovbye (Elizabeth Berkley, due to her scene when she was on the caffeine pills.), and Taylor Russell (Lark Voorhies). The rest I could care less about, especially Sam Kindseth, I didn't feel that Screech charm, nor did I expect it, I just wanted a glimpse. I felt more anger towards Dustin Diamond as a whole after the movie. I don't know if he was that goofy on set or just pushed himself out of the group, even to this day he doesn't associate himself with them. With hearing about positive things from the other cast members. I am hoping they didn't treat him with disrespect or being a complete bully. I understand that no one wants to be the outcast, especially how the others were adored by millions. But, with that said, just like Jaleel White with his Steve Urkel character he embraced the role. He rode it out and capitalized on his fame, where Dustin didn't. Lifetime took a movie that was about an hour into a 2 hour slotted TV film, the editing was very poorly done. It just felt like it was going from one thought to another without changing the year. Plus what annoyed me were the conversations that Dustin was not in. For example, when Tiffany and Mark were in France, how does anyone know what happened? I get that there were multiple interviews with people, but it was an unnecessary scene. Also with the reenactments with the scenes on the show, were not accurate and most didn't even occur. It didn't help that they tried to cover five years that quickly. I mean for me personally, I wanted to hear about the College Years and the New Class more and how his life altered from those two shows. I know that his narration touched briefly on the College Years, but it felt like road kill you pass by. There was a lot of content that Dustin and Lifetime overlooked. I can tell that this movie was made in a few months, due to the choppy cuts and the actors' interactions with each other. It didn't feel real; it felt like the Days of Our Lives. I would have wanted flashbacks and real memorabilia from the show. I felt like I wasn't watching behind the scenes of Saved by the Bell; Lifetime and Dustin just wanted to tell the viewers a crappy bedtime story.

If you enjoyed it, that's great and I hope you don't take my opinion into account. I wish that this is comprehendible for everyone and I would love to hear what everyone has to say. Thank you!

Saved By The Bell form WISH...

[johngiacovelli · 1/10 · 20 November 2022]

I am a huge Saved By The Bell fan and I went into this knowing it was a Unauthorized "movie." I really tried to like or enjoy this but I just could not. The movie was very under acted and zero SBTB feel. I do not believe the characters spent enough time trying to study the part. I was mildly embarrassed for the movie most of the time. It was way to rushed and not very well thought out. I felt they just wanted to get this movie out and in our face. I wish more time was spent putting the timeline together. The characters needed to really understand what this show meant to a lot of us in this time period.

My love for Saved By The Bell almost made this tolerable...but its a mess

[Robert_duder · 4/10 · 12 September 2014]

I don't even know where to begin with this film. I don't even know why they bothered making it. Lifetime is the home of bad, bad TV movies but this one takes the cake of stuff I've seen lately. I admit I was actually excited about this. I am an adult who grew up absolutely LOVING Saved By The Bell. Kelly was the love of my young life, Zack was my idol, Screech was my best friend...you get the drift. I thought initially it was very smart of Lifetime to explore this show and what it legitimately did for Television. I understand there were some very dramatic things that happened behind the scenes so this could have been very interesting. It is a colossal horrible mess. The casting is the only thing they didn't screw up because it was okay (most will disagree with me) but the story they tell is ridiculous. Because it is Unauthorized they make up sets that look nothing like the actual ones, stories and scripts that never happened and events that were very unlikely. I would have rather watched a documentary about the making of the show then watch them fake their way through this crap. Despite being so terrible I sat there and watched it and maybe because I wanted it to be so good and maybe because I loved Saved By The Bell so much...somehow I found some semblance of redemption in it and was okay with wasting an hour and a half on it.

Now don't get me wrong when I said the casting was okay. The casting is JUST okay. The kids were decent, they looked the part and I think if they had a script that was even okay that they too would have done alright. This script could have been written by monkeys on typewriters. Sam Kindseth shows some talent and some genuine promise as Dustin Diamond/Screech. He actually does his best to show some emotion. I actually thought Dylan Everett did a decent job as Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Much like Kindseth, he tried his best given the material. He almost seemed like he had enough chemistry to carry the movie much like Gosselaar carried Saved By The Bell. Julian Works tried very hard as Mario Lopez but wasn't very well cast. Still he was okay and the chemistry with him and the other cast members were decent. Tiera Skovbye, Alyssa Lynch and Taylor Russell were okay but very underused and were really only there to fulfil the purpose of being those characters and get very little depth. Same could be said for Ken Tremblett who seemed to really nail the Dennis Haskins role in the two or three scenes they actually showed him.

In order for this film to work, they needed a script that truly captured what this show meant to pre-teens and to Television in general. They also needed a cast that had the sort of chemistry that the actual cast had twenty plus years ago. This film had neither of those things. This was slapped together to make a couple of books and move on. Director Jason Lapeyre has virtually no experience behind the camera and Ron McGee, who has written a lot of stuff (most of it looks like garbage) should stop writing. I blame him for the majority of why this didn't work at all. Why they would put the point of view to Dustin Diamond's character is beyond me and they never really touch on any of the important moments in the shows history. Maybe the show doesn't need a behind the scenes film but I still think it could have been done right. It wasn't. Its bad. Unless you're a true die hard fan like me, you won't find much reason to watch this. And if you do...be warned. 4.5/10

Not ringing praise

[ninjaalexs · 7/10 · 12 May 2020]

There's been a lot of criticism for this TV movie on review sites. It is corny, it is sugary and it does miss some of the seedier parts of Dustin Diamond's book.

I read Dustin Diamond's book "Behind The Bell" on which this TV Movie is based several years before this film was even made. It was incredibly difficult to obtain a physical copy so I bought the eBook instead. The book was controversial at the time and arguably libellous in places. The story goes Dustin Diamond wanted to publish a "tell all" book about the Saved By The Bell cast. The book was said to be co-written with the aid of a ghostwriter and also parts were made-up or exaggerated by him.

With this being PG rated it totally glosses over the seedier aspects of the book like: sex amongst cast members, like some of the drug taking, like the dressing room orgies and Dustin's infamous trips to Disney World. If you believe the book. The film is basically a nostalgia piece and fairly flattering to the cast. I can't imagine them being that offended by this film unlike the book. The film takes place in 1989 after "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" gets cancelled and part of the cast are reunited for the Saved by the Bell pilot. The film missed out Lark Voorhees was in this series implying Saved by the Bell was her big break. Dustin Diamond was the youngest cast member, but it also ignored that he was a child actor with substantial acting experience compared to most of the cast.

Other omissions include Dennis Haskins (Mr Belding) not really featuring despite being a major cast member, I think Dustin said Corey Feldman used to visit the set which was missing, the two TV specials: Hawaiian Style and Wedding in Las Vegas were not mentioned and neither was long-running, The New Class which ran for 7 years. I would have liked to have heard more about Peter Engel who was considered a sort-of surrogate father to some of the cast and also that apart from "Hang Time" he never managed to have another big hit in TV (so far).

So it is corny fun much like Saved By The Bell itself and there are several glaring omissions, probably due to libel or inaccuracy. This means it sort of feels shallow. I was a big fan of SBTB and like a lot of people of my age it was a part of my childhood. I do not think this is a great film. The cast do their best with a limited script and all look the part. At 85 minutes it is also really skinny in terms of content, given it is telling 3+ years in that time. The soundtrack is also pretty decent. See it for the nostalgia rather than the drama.

Campy and Silly Like the Real Show

[Michael_Elliott · 17 March 2018]

The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (2014)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This "unauthorized" telling of the events from the hit television show Saved By the Bell is based on the book that was written by Dustin Diamond (Screech) and centers on his unhappy time filming the show.

THE UNAUTHORIZED SAVED BY THE BELL STORY is a rather strange film on a number of levels. If you grew up watching the show like I did then you know it was rather corny and campy and those two words are how I'd describe this television movie. I say that because the movie really doesn't get into the darker elements of the story and it's rather silly when you think that some of the real-life people were upset about the movie. In all honesty, this is a pretty tame look at the events that were going on behind-the-scenes.

With that being said, since the movie was made Diamond has came out and said that a lot of the book was made up so perhaps that's why certain elements didn't make it into the film. For the most part this was a decent made-for-television film that will have some appeal to fans of the show. We learn that Diamond was basically unhappy while making the show because he wasn't treated the same way as other cast members and his "dork" character wasn't able to get ladies. What this movie is basically saying is that pretty people have it easier than ugly ones.

As far as the casting goes, the producers went to great trouble to make sure their young cast looked like the people they were playing. Performances were okay but certainly nothing special. I doubt the producers were looking for Oscar-winning performances but instead people who could at least make the viewers feel you were watching the real characters. The story isn't the strongest thing that I've seen but then again this is a TV movie for Lifetime.

On the whole, there's really nothing special or great about this film but it should appeal to fans who want to relive some of the campy moments from the show.

Dustin Diamond is an "author" now?

[blue_wolverine · 1/10 · 27 September 2020]

Okay, so I'm in no way surprised that a Lifetime movie could be this terrible but couldn't they have found another load of nonsense to use as a foundation? Oh, boohoo, a kid celebrity had a bad experience while becoming rich and then lost it all. Where's my kleenex? Lol

Self-Indulgent and Narcissistic

[lavatch · 5/10 · 13 November 2020]

This film sought to offer a heart-warming and endearing treatment of a group of young actors thrust into the limelight in their teens. While the young cast was earnest in carrying out the film's intention, the overall effect seemed pretentious.

The film failed to truly penetrate the lives of the young actors to appreciate both the fame they achieved and the pressures they were under at such a young age.

Rarely was there a scene that portrayed the youngsters letting the mask down to reveal their personal lives. The strongest character development was that of Dustin, from whose perspective we take in this experience.

The best part of the film was the rehearsal scenes and the live actioin filming of the vignettes. Those scenes captured how the phenomenon of reality television was unfolding in the late twentieth century.

unfair low rating

[surf_dudette · 8/10 · 20 September 2020]

Just watched this tonight. Don't understand why its rating is so low, can only assume it's because people have a problem with it being from Screech's perspective or maybe didn't like that the actors were not exactly like their characters or didn't concentrate more on what people expected to see... Whatever the reason, I think it's unjust as this is actually a fairly good film. I'd really rate it a 7, but am giving it an 8 here to help bump it up a bit to a more realistic rating: 4.6 is totally unjustified. The acting and pace are good, and honestly I thought it was a bit too short, would have liked them to go into 'The College Years' but guess they didn't have time. I grew up watching Saved By The Bell so was very interested to watch this. I know it did not depict every single thing accurately and omitted a fair bit, but I really enjoyed it anyway and was not bored at any point, it left me wanting more.

I think it would be better to be familiar with Saved By The Bell before watching as there isn't time to explain very much about the TV show itself, though you could probably still get away with not knowing much about it, and still enjoy it. Am glad I watched it and would happily watch again. Maybe my familiarity with the characters (i.e. the real-life actors from Saved By The Bell) is biasing my view, but I'd guess most people who go to watch this film will have the same background anyway.

Disappointing

[stassjaw713 · 1/10 · 9 September 2018]

This movie was so poorly made. The acting was terrible. I wish I can give it a lower score..

I enjoyed the movie

[sara2520 · 10/10 · 1 September 2014]

From seeing the previews, i thought the movie was going to be a tell all that was going to destroy my childhood memories of one of my favorite shows, and the cast looked so fake. I was so wrong. The characters were well cast and did an excellent job portraying their characters especially since the casting director from the original shoe came back to cast the characters for this movie. The movie was a homage to the cast and it made me smile, especially since I grew up watching the series as a kid. It's like all the behind the scenes things you heard over the years like Lisa and Mark dating and putting it on screen. If you like the clean image of the show, then you are going to like this movie. I think the original cast will enjoy it too. Great movie, well cast, nice pacing, and it respected the cast instead of trying to tarnish their public images like we were led to believe.

It's a lifetime movie

[jeffvw-05852 · 10/10 · 9 April 2018]

Best movie ever. I can't believe it didn't get a theatrical release. My wife made me watch it once and now we watch it first thing every Saturday morning mostly because our local tv stations just stopped showing saved by the Bell reruns on Saturday mornings last month. It's definitely the next best thing. And the only movie I have watched in the last 14 years.