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The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story (Lifetime)

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Sun-Bun

Sun-Bun

Awful. Just awful. Awfully amusingly bad.

And a few of the music choices were just baffling.

The actors/wigs weren't nearly as bad as they seemed on the previews though, but they were still pretty bland overall.

And how annoying/creepy were the adult execs/producers? Always worrying and yelling and lecturing "the kids" or watching/musing over them like they're a batch of zoo creatures??

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Jeebus Cripes
Jeebus Cripes

Dustin Diamond is an asshole. Weird is the least of his problems.

methodwriter85
methodwriter85

This looks like a big piece of garbage and I'm SO EXCITED!   I really, really want to see an Unauthorized Beverly Hills 90210 story now.

Dejana
Dejana

Not really encouraged by the news that it will be "inspired by" the Dustin Diamond tell-all. I doubt these kids were all super clean-cut but I think there was some embellishing for shock value and Dus

halfpint ingals

halfpint ingals

I too wish I had known there was live tweeting.  Tara, thanks for the link.   It was as bad, cheesy, and inaccuate as I was expecting.

 

The scenes they showed were not episodes, and Tiffani and Elizabeth filmed the graduation episode before they left, they did not return for it.

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Runningwild

Runningwild

(edited)

Horrible editing. They talked about hiring Elizabeth Berkely for a new character that was already listed on their cast list.

Other than that I enjoyed it. Can't say for sure why. Just love the show I guess.

Edited by Runningwild
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halfpint ingals

halfpint ingals

(edited)

Stars Fallen, I assume you are talking of Peter Engel, who created this show and a few other Saturday morning shows at that time.

Eta: I am not sure why he was wearing a letterman jacket. Maybe the real man wore one.

Thanks Tara for the information.

Edited by halfpint ingals
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kia112

kia112

Stars Fallen, I assume you are talking of Peter Engel, who created this show and a few other Saturday morning shows at that time.

Eta: I am not sure why he was wearing a letterman jacket. Maybe the real man wore one.

 

Yeah, they all had letterman jackets made for the executives and the cast.  Peter just wore his all the time and considered it something of a uniform.  Plus, was just really proud of the show.

 

Okay, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be -- it was just boring, and that's even worse.  I'm fairly obsessed with this show, so they showed me nothing that I didn't already know (or if I didn't know, I didn't care to know, either).  Like I said, earlier, I was just trying to nail down some specifics on the whole Mark-Paul/Lark deal, and I was fairly satisfied with what I saw.

 

Those actors were so bland.  I think that the one playing Berkley might have been the best -- her hair was definitely better than the real Berkley's.  I don't remember TAT's mole being so...pronounced.

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MrHufflepuff

MrHufflepuff

This movie was just.. boring. Nothing was really edgy or new information. I pretty much knew all this stuff from the E!TrueHollywood story. 

 

Yeah, it was a total snooze-fest.  I didn't know anything about "Saved by the Bell," but I heard that the cast had disputed what was in this book, so I was expecting something juicy.  Instead what did we get?  MPG bought a motorcycle?  Mario Lopez slept with a few girls?  Lark Voorhies had relationship issues because of her religion?  DD drank some vodka and smoked some pot?  Big deal.  Even the network people were portrayed as pretty reasonable.  What exactly is so unauthorized about this?  I guess DD came off kind of douchey (like when he laughed at the NotCoffee scene, but I laugh at that one all the time too), but that's standard stuff for a teenager.  Worst. Unauthorized. Story. Ever.

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Luciano

Luciano

(edited)

The (very craptacular) Dustin Diamond book went much further with the scandals, but he then stated that most of it was made-up/exaggerated by his ghostwriter - which, whatever, he came off as a bitter douche so he tried to lay blame elsewhere during his "I'm not that much of a douche, really!" press tour. I'm guessing they couldn't put those stories in because they were lies.

Edited by Luciano
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ramble

ramble

(edited)

Well I can certainly see that Dustin Diamond had a hand in this by the pains they took to make him so likable & put upon & misunderstood. Gag! The duck quacking scene & how everyone loved him? Good grief! Even as a teen I would've found that annoying in that situation.

This was sadly boring. Not shocking. Not cheesy & entertaining. Just boring. I was disappointed.

ETA: The ad for the Brittany Murphy story made me feel dirty. That looks really, really awful.

Edited by ramble
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Blakeston

Blakeston

(edited)

Please tell me Dustin Diamond didn't get paid anything for this.

 

And count me in as another person wondering how you can "fake" a sex tape. I'm guessing he just responded to the widespread disgust with "Oh, uh...that was fake."

Edited by Blakeston
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Milaxx

Milaxx

We announced it on Twitter yesterday and today! Gotta follow @PreviouslyTV or miss out on IMPORTANT CULTURAL EVENTS LIKE THIS!!!

This show was so awful they couldn't even get the hashtag right for twitter. I think #Unauthorized was the official one, but I saw at least 5 others. Did not one in charge of social media not think #Unauthorized might be too vague?

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howmanywords

howmanywords

(edited)

What really irks me and makes me dislike DD even more than I have the last few years, he actually admitted he never even read the script to this crapfest! He gets an Executive Producer credit but he never even saw the script. Unreal. 

 

"No one who is writing this was there," says Diamond, revealing his first signs of concerns over the film, to which he signed on in a hands-off capacity. "I didn't talk to [the writers] really, so how did they research? I'm going to watch with very nervous hopes . . . if they butcher it and get it completely wrong, I'm just going to film a documentary of just me talking about the errors."

 

Mario Lopez has been tweeting all night sounding pretty irritated about this movie.  I just pre-ordered his book that's coming out on 9/30 which he says gives a much more accurate behind the scenes look at SBTB. I think I'll trust Mario WAY more than Dustin.

I suppose they couldn't use real lines from actual episodes because of rights or something. In the first couple of NotSBTB scenes, I was trying to place the episodes they were reference but then realized they were fake. I did however laugh that NotDustin cracked up during the NotCaffine scene, pretty sure everybody did. And I'm glad that the scene like this whole movie was awful but it did ruin the most iconic saved by the bell scene for me. 

I thought there were a couple of lines that seemed vaguely familiar like the scene with Zach and Slater arguing over Kelly, that scene I could swear I remembered.  Agreed about the infamous "I'm so excited..I'm so scared" scene which it looked like they at least attempted to get it close to the original but they failed.  That scene may have been cheesy but damn it it was an awesome cheesy!

Edited by howmanywords
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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

Wow, you aren't kidding that Mario seems pretty irritated about the movie. And at the same time, incredibly smart to promote his new book while Saved by the Bell is trending.

The line about Tori Spelling being beautiful had me laughing. Like when I read her book, and she said that Luke Perry called her "Camel" because her eyelashes were long and sexy like a Camel. Uh, right.

One thing I'll give them- they did a good job of making me feel like I was watching teenagers in the early 1990's. That's probably because a lot of early 90's trends are back, but still, I'll give them points. It's a shame that the outfits were copyrighted so they couldn't accurately recreate the looks (I had a wtf reaction to the blue graduation robes but it now makes sense.)

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EdnasEdibles

EdnasEdibles

I was so disappointed in the lack of real dirt. None of the kids did drugs or anything really terrible.  

 

As for Screech, I thought he was hanging out with some sort of Hollywood drug dealer until the end of the movie when I found out that guy was an extra. And honestly, talk about a long con.  How many years did that guy hang out with freakin' Screech in the hopes of getting the career catapulting role as Tori's ex-boyfriend on Saved by the Bell? 

 

And honestly, Screech is kind of a jackass for helping him out a little bit.  I mean, if Tom Hanks can still put Peter Scolari in every movie he does, Screech could at least get a few speaking lines for his friend so the kid can get a SAG card. Especially when you figure the kid's been giving him free vodka for years. 

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Misslindsey

Misslindsey

 

The (very craptacular) Dustin Diamond book went much further with the scandals, but he then stated that most of it was made-up/exaggerated by his ghostwriter - which, whatever, he came off as a bitter douche so he tried to lay blame elsewhere during his "I'm not that much of a douche, really!" press tour. I'm guessing they couldn't put those stories in because they were lies.

This. When I was in college Dustin Diamond came to do stand-up ( Yeah, they were scrapping the bottom of the barrel with that one). So much of his stand-up had to do with Saved by the Bell. He was a bitter douche about it all. He did get heckled a lot for sounding so bitter. So I figured that this movie would paint Screech to be the likable one. Wasn't Dustin the one that stuck around for all those Saved by the Bell New Class seasons?

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howmanywords

howmanywords

(edited)

The one thing I know that was pretty scandalous during the SBTB years was Mario being accused of rape.  Now I don't know how much Dustin embellished this in his book but I remember pretty clearly when it was all over the news when the show was still on.  The rumor, till this day is NBC paid the accuser $50,000 to go away. Everything that was brought up in the movie though was boring and tame, and even that stuff is being shot down by the actors.

 

eta:  A quick search brings this up

Edited by howmanywords
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shelley1234

shelley1234

Dustin Diamond is an asshole. Weird is the least of his problems.

 

He sure is.  Even a show from his perspective shows that he's a huge dickwad.  I never knew what an absolute asshole he was until he was on Celebrity Fit Club (twive) and good lord...no one could be as much of an ass as that guy.  

 

This looks like a big piece of garbage and I'm SO EXCITED!

 

I really, really want to see an Unauthorized Beverly Hills 90210 story now.

 

That is what I said....because unlike this story...YOU KNOW THERE IS ACTUAL DRAMA behind the scenes in that show.  Big time.  

 

I don't get it. Why did DD get mad at Mario for doing push-ups? Why did MPG get mad at DD for doing push-ups? Why is everyone fighting over push-ups??

 

Because push ups prove WHAT A MAN YOU ARE!  *eye roll*

 

Mario Lopez has been tweeting all night sounding pretty irritated about this movie. 

 

Yeah??  Heads over to twitter!

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MaiSoCalled

MaiSoCalled

The one thing I know that was pretty scandalous during the SBTB years was Mario being accused of rape.  Now I don't know how much Dustin embellished this in his book but I remember pretty clearly when it was all over the news when the show was still on.  The rumor, till this day is NBC paid the accuser $50,000 to go away. Everything that was brought up in the movie though was boring and tame, and even that stuff is being shot down by the actors.

 

I remember that as well.

 

What baffles me is I don't think anything happened that would be too scandalous for an actual episode of Saved by the Bell. We knew which cast members were involved because they held hands sometimes, and the person who led Dustin to drinking turned into a villain that Mark Paul never trusted. 

 

It was nice to get a bit of a timeline on the Mark Paul & Lark romance, but even that felt tame. I couldn't tell if they were actually dating, or just close friends who flirted a lot. But maybe that is the actual truth. 

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kia112

kia112

From what I know, Mark-Paul and Lark's legit dating came later in the series. Like Hawaiian Style movie/senior year/senior year with 100% more Tori. Basically the part that the movie rushed over. This stuff in the movie seemed like what happened for the first couple of years of the series, which is believable to me.

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DkNNy79

DkNNy79

I don't get it. Why did DD get mad at Mario for doing push-ups? Why did MPG get mad at DD for doing push-ups? Why is everyone fighting over push-ups??

Mario doing push ups before a photo shoot just seems so him.  It looked like DD was doing them to "compete" with Mario.  I think MPG was annoyed at DD for doing them, because it just seemed out of character for him to do them.  If Mario wasn't doing push ups, then DD wouldn't have done them either.  I'm sure MPG thought they were douches.  It was an eye roll moment for me.

 

I was expecting a more scandalous movie, it was very tame.  I was hoping to get more information about the cast hookups.  The MPG and Lark relationship seemed very PG 13, but I thought they were full fledged teenagers when they dated.  They were also very vague about MPG and TAT's relationship.

 

I thought they all came off looking very good, except Dustin and Mario.  Dustin was annoying and Mario came off as a male whore, which I already knew.  MPG came off very good, which I'm happy about since he was one of my first crushes.  For some reason I was expecting Dustin to go after him due to jealously that he was the "main" star and heartthrob.

 

For me it was a chance to revisit one of my first favorite shows, so I enjoyed it.

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shelley1234

shelley1234

The acting was SO horrendous.  I kept saying on the twitter last night that the bad acting was SO bad that it had to be on purpose, right?  It reminded me of anytime that I watched The Carrie Diaries....that bad acting that was so across the board, consistently BAD had to be on purpose.  

 

Of course this movie is on Lifetime, so I had no expectations that it would be anything other than a campy mess and it definitely delivered.  

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Mischievious

Mischievious

I agree with everyone. Beyond disappointed. Leading up to this, publicity (or maybe just discussions of DD's book) implied how lots of them were drinking, using drugs and basically everyone dated everyone else. This felt like an afterschool special. It wasn't even ridiciously cheesey bad to be good. Maybe E! could air a True Hollywood Story about this. You know that they'd at least make it juicier. Also, I'm sad I missed out on the live tweeting.

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jumper sage

jumper sage

I thought they all came off looking very good, except Dustin and Mario.

I agree with that statement.  I was ready for an all out trashing and none came.  I thought it made most of the cast look very nice and well cared for by their parents.  To me the show was more about how Dustin was soooo insecure and never got over it.  To this day, he fights himself.

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Mckinnonsgirl

Mckinnonsgirl

(edited)

So I'm not the only one that noticed the casting was horrendous for this movie and did DD really think viewers were going to believe this skewed storytelling? 

 

Oh, how I miss the days of the Movie of the week that ABC/CBS/NBC produced.

 

The ratings are in and it's not looking to good for old DD, of course something tells me he will take what ever $$$ he can get.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/lifetimes-saved-by-bell-movie-729460

Edited by Mckinnonsgirl
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KaveDweller

KaveDweller

I don't remember TAT's mole being so...pronounced.

 

Neither do I.  It kept distracting me.

 

Mario Lopez has been tweeting all night sounding pretty irritated about this movie.

 

What's he irritated about though?  The movie didn't portray him negatively.  I thought the only one who came off badly was Dustin for being so bitter about having to play the dork. Now I'm sure the guy who played Mr. Belding is pissed though, since his character had like two scenes in the entire movie.

 

I remember watching an E True Hollywood Story about this show, and the producers talked about how everyone in the cast hooked up with pretty much everyone in the cast (except DD, because he was a lot younger), and I feel like we barely got any of that in this movie.

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txhorns79

txhorns79

(edited)
I thought the only one who came off badly was Dustin for being so bitter about having to play the dork.

 

I thought Mark Paul trying to convince everyone he was a natural blonde (followed by a scene of him touching up his roots) was amusing.  

 

Otherwise, it was a pretty boring movie.  A little too much "woe is me" from Dustin Diamond.  And was it just me, or did all the actors playing the kids seem really short?   

Edited by txhorns79
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MissScarlett

MissScarlett

(edited)

I was a little bummed when I watched this and realized that halfway through nothing had really "happened".  No Zack and Kelly sex romps with show producers, drugged out actors, etc.  I suppose I thought that perhaps we would get some of the fake "scandals" that DD wrote in his book.  Instead, it seemed that it was rather tame and to me... seemed like it was somewhat "true-to-life".  None of the characters were over the top.  The guy who played MPG (while he did NOT look like him in the slightest), seemed to emulate him well.  The actresses who played Lisa Turtle and Jessie were the only ones who even looked remotely like the original actors.

 

I know that some of the key players - Mark-Paul, Mario, and Elizabeth have been really outspoken with their disgust for this movie.  However, I feel like they are bitter bitchcakes about it for nothing.  The movie actually portrays them in a normal and mostly positive light.  The only reason I can think for the trashing of this movie is because DD was involved.  If it hadn't already been reported that DD never actually read the script for the movie before signing on as executive producer, I would have thought the movie served as an apology letter of sorts.

 

I didn't really have high standards for this movie to begin with, so I enjoyed watching it. 

 

I wonder if we would have had a better outcome if the movie was an "authorized" behind the scenes SBTB movie with input from the original cast and crew?  I'm betting it would be.

 

Side note... if there be live tweeting for the Brittany Murphy unauthorized bio-pic that airs next week, I am all in!!  So sad that I missed the live tweeting on this one.

Edited by MissScarlett
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tvallthetime

tvallthetime

I know from a Lifetime movie perspective, this was pretty dull. But, I'm glad that in real life, most of the cast seemed to emerge from child actorhood relatively unscathed. The stories of the Danny Bonaduces and Dana Platos or even Lindsay Lohans of the world are tragic.

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omgsowicked

omgsowicked

I wasn't a huge fan of the show but decided to check this out at the last minute, thought it might be a fun trainwreck... but it was just boring. The casting was awful (I like Dylan Everett, who played MPG, but... no) but what really threw me off, oddly enough, was the use of the word, "douchebag". Made me do a double take, haha!

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howmanywords

howmanywords

What's he irritated about though?  The movie didn't portray him negatively.  I thought the only one who came off badly was Dustin for being so bitter about having to play the dork. Now I'm sure the guy who played Mr. Belding is pissed though, since his character had like two scenes in the entire movie.

 

I think its probably just the principle of the thing, that Dustin at some point wrote a bunch of lies and inaccuracies and now the lies are being broadcast on TV and he's profiting from it. Mario is the only one that I see tweeting about it but most of the other cast have been expressing their disgust too before the movie.  Looking around at some stuff Dustin has said even recently I honestly dont blame the cast for hating him.  The dude is just nuts and delusional.  Last week MPG's current co-star Breckin Meyer called DD a derogatory name while defending MPG in regard to stuff DD said about him, and DD's idiotic response was something like "does anyone even know who he is? I couldnt tell you one thing he's been in except for Clueless several years ago, but everyone knows Screech."  NEWSFLASH you IDIOT, Breckin is a WORKING actor currently on TV and you're living in the past latching on to a character from 20 years ago. Pathetic. He also said a couple of years ago that he wasnt afraid of Mario and Mark Paul being mad at him, that he could easily take them with his karate skills lol.

 

As for the guy that played Belding, yup he's pissed but not because of how much he's seen in the movie, pretty much the same reason they all are..

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Dejana

Dejana

Okay, how much did Tori Spelling pay Dustin/Lifetime to describe her as Aaron Spelling's "beautiful" daughter? I'm one who thought she looked perfectly nice with her natural face, but the line smacked of 90210's overkill about the gorgeousness that was Donna. And the actress who played her here looked about 12.

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kissedbyarose

kissedbyarose

Maybe the actors were pissed because they thought the movie would be more like DD's book of lies?

I also thought this was boring. Nothing happened and the bright colors of the wardrobe and SBTB seemed...muted. This was just a fail all around from casting to script...just no.

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Starscream

Starscream

(edited)

I wasn't a huge fan of the show but decided to check this out at the last minute, thought it might be a fun trainwreck... but it was just boring. The casting was awful (I like Dylan Everett, who played MPG, but... no) but what really threw me off, oddly enough, was the use of the word, "douchebag". Made me do a double take, haha!

Seriously, that was only a hygiene product back then.

 

I think the casting was good in terms of their voices.  The actors for Lark and Mario sounded particularly good.

 

The only reason I could see any of the others attacking this movie is out of habit because Dustin is behind it (not the worst of reasons).  Mark-Paul comes out of it smelling like a rose if the worst thing he did was ride his dirt-bike a little recklessly around the studio and drink a little bit.  That guy, at that time, could have easily fallen into the child star abyss with all the temptation that was surely around him.  The shot at Showgirls was a little mean, but it's the truth.  And if Mario's reputation is even remotely true, then he came off looking pretty good as well.

 

The one thing that surprised me was the depiction of Mark-Paul and Tiffani's relationship.  They seemed much more "into" each other than we've ever been led to believe.

 

I agree that Dustin's lackey had a very Durden-esque feel to him up until Mark-Paul confirmed his existence.

 

My favorite bit was that they used the fuzzy pink frame when Dustin was daydreaming about being with a bunch of girls in a jacuzzi.

Edited by Starscream
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kia112

kia112

One of the problems for me was that the writing/portrayals seems to be stuck on how they probably were in the first couple of seasons, but not letting them mature as they grew.  One problem was the actors.  I could maybe buy them as the season one/season two version of the cast.  Season three/season four?  No.  They were all hot and they all knew it.  Not in a conceited way, but still.  Case in point: Lark.  I think she grew up a lot during the time on the show.  She was never scandalous or anything, but they had her waling around in cardigans the whole time when the real Lark was wearing stuff like this.

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MaiSoCalled

MaiSoCalled

The one thing that surprised me was the depiction of Mark-Paul and Tiffani's relationship.  They seemed much more "into" each other than we've ever been led to believe.

 

I saw the two as partners in crime, so to speak, with some lingering crush vibes. I thought that Mark Paul's "what's Saved by the Bell without Zack and Kelly" felt very real. 

 

It seems like whoever wrote this movie decided we would all be interested in the behind the scenes of the show itself - the cancellations and evolution of the program - rather than the actors. But, as the show pointed out, we all felt like we knew the characters. Like we went to school with Zack and Kelly. We were ready to know more about the people behind the characters, not how many times they were beaten down by the network. 

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Luciano

Luciano

(edited)

He was smaller than Mario Lopez when the show started, and taller than him by the time the show ended.

I'm not comparing him to Mario, I'm comparing him to Dustin. MPG was taller than DD for most (all?) of the show. Screech was a wee little thing in the beginning. By the time DD caught up in height to the rest of them, MPG was much bigger in size.

This movie had DD taller.

Edited by Luciano
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kia112

kia112

The one thing that surprised me was the depiction of Mark-Paul and Tiffani's relationship.  They seemed much more "into" each other than we've ever been led to believe.

 

In the past, Mark-Paul has specifically called out relationships with Elizabeth and Lark (and putting a time period on them) while saying that he dated Tiffani "off and on."  I think that Tiffani and Mario were the ones that ventured outside of their bubble to date (Tiffani was dating "Johnny Dakota" when that episode aired), so that makes sense that Tiffani and Mark-Paul would be off and on.  Mark-Paul also talked about how Tiffani and Lark weren't talking to each other at one point, so again, I'm assuming that was probably during M-P & Tiff's on period, but before he and Lark started dating.

 

See, I can provide more context/information than this movie!

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