Hearne: Remembering When Newly Dead Dustin Diamond Went Toe-to-Toe With Craig Glazer

Never thought much about the day I’d long for deceased comedy king Craig Glazer...

Well, guess what?  That day has arrived.

Just saw a news break about “Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond blowing taps.

Brought back by a memory I know Glazer would vividly recall about a handful of years back when the actor formerly known as Screech headlined  Stanford’s Comedy Club in Overland Park.

I was there – not so much because I was a Diamond fan – more like I was in the neighborhood. So while I can’t fully recall the exact details, I do remember Diamond being an asshole and nearly coming g to blows with Craig, who was pretty quick to put up his dukes.

I also remember Diamond’s show being pretty tepid, even though he was more than just slightly full of his has-been self and wanted  more respect  out of Glazer.

Not having watched Diamond’s hit sitcom, I was intrigued by the news of his passing at the youthful age of 44.

Hey, nobody ever said it was easy to be an aging child star.

Unable to find a story from that night, I did do a bit of digging and here’s what  I found…

 Diamond was diagnosed with cancer in January 2020 and had been also the only major member of the cast not to reprise his role in NBC’s revival of the show in November 2020.

Here’s what the Daily Beast wrote about Diamond four years ago:

“In a self-described effort to shake the ghost of Screech and kick off the goody-two-shoes legacy of Saved by the Bell, Diamond began, publicly, to play the role of the bad guy. But the choices he made—putting on the persona of a first-rate jackass on the VH1 reality series Celebrity Fit Club, releasing a so-called sex tape, and attaching his name as author of a sordid and seemingly preposterous tell-all about his years at Bayside called Behind the Bell —didn’t broaden Diamond’s image and make him more castable in the eyes of Hollywood. It made him seem like a douchebag that no one wanted to work with.”

That’s the impression Diamond made on me at Stanford’s that night.

Two years prior Diamond garnered this headline:

“Ex-girlfriend of Saved by the Bell star tells how ‘abusive’ Dustin Diamond wielded a knife and threatened to throw her off the balcony.”

Another report wast that he’d been convicted of two misdemeanors “stemming from a barroomm knife fight.”

So maybe it was just as well that he and Glazer didn’t fully get into it.

Plus apparently “he kept a cupful of pennies in his car he would pitch at other drivers during his road rage incidents.”

Like I said, being an aging child star isn’t always a walk in the park.

The last evidence of Diamond working a comedy gig I could find was his Facebook post about an August 4th 2018 show at a Bangor, Me. club.

Now he’s  rummaging around with Craig wondering if the Chiefs are gonna win another Super Bowl…

Oh, well…