American Star

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

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

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.

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.

The low score for this made-for-TV biopic on the iconic kid's series SAVED BY THE BELL was based on a book that none of the cast liked, written by Dustin Diamond, an actor none of the kids liked either, who played the comic relief Screech on the series: so the fans are probably siding with the cast about how this movie plays loosely with the facts...

The only thing is, there aren't many facts here at all... Nothing too controversial or that would make any of the real life actors look like they did anything wrong, other than argue with each other backstage, which is par for the course...

Overall it's not too shabby a biopic, even beginning with a few scenes about the first Haley Mills series from which it spun-off...

So it all flows pretty well, done in a breaking the 4th wall style that "Zack Morris" would do in the original series (inspired by older shows like Gidget and before that, Dobie Gillis)...

Only here, Dustin Diamond's persona takes the reigns (basically saying it's "his turn" to speak this time)... and while he provides his narration, the people in the scene would freeze (like the end of the Night Squad episodes)...

Meanwhile the girls don't look like their real life counterparts too much, but they are extremely cute in their own way... as for the guys, they kind of go through the motions...

Of course the true star here is Dustin Diamond's character and they make him the most vulnerable, being his story...

The only silly thing is, they make it seem as if Diamond didn't get girls and was an outcast/loser in real life, when in reality, he probably landed as many groupies as the more typically-handsome actors... but my parents once saw Don Knotts with a blonde on each arm, so life DOES NOT imitate art...

All celebrities have a great time, for a while, no matter how their careers eventually pan out.