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The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story (Lifetime)

BetterButter

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outtosee

outtosee

SUPER disappointed. I loved Saved by the Bell so I was mega looking forward to this. The anachronisms in speech really annoyed me ("douchebag" and "that's what she said!" and the Evil Eric character's little "raise the roof" dance and song) and the casting wasn't so great. It wasn't even bad in a this-is-so-bad-it's-good way. :(

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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

tvallthetime

tvallthetime

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.

The most disturbing thing about this photo is that some of these fashion have come back.

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Josette

Josette

(edited)

"Douche bag" was used as far back as the 1980s, so I don't think it's out of place in this movie.  I mean, it was used in E.T..  After a quick search, I discovered it also shows up in Toy Soldiers and What About Bob? which are both from 1991.   Sometimes we just forget how long a slang expression has been used.  It's probably more ubiquitous now, though.

Edited by Josette
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aradia22

aradia22

So I finally got a chance to sit down and watch this. It was as bland as I was expecting it to be after watching some of the newer Lifetime movies (FITA, Lizzie Borden). Surprisingly, I think the adults were the worst. The blond woman basically voiced every negative sentiment and the male character essentially made every choice that as an audience member you know as the "right" one. I wasn't expecting perfect matches to the real people so I wasn't too disappointed. The Belding seemed good. And even though they weren't fantastic I can see why they cast the Mario Lopez and MPG characters. I think the Tiffani also had shades of TAT despite not looking much like her. The ones who seemed off the mark were the other three who could have been anyone. The actress playing Elizabeth was good but not much like Elizabeth. 

 

The bit characters who just breezed in and out had some life to them. Like the daughter of the head of the network and the extra who gave Dustin a swig of vodka.

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aradia22

aradia22

 

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.

I actually thought that along with the blandness and lack of scandal they softened the DD bias. I was expecting it to be much worse.

 

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??

I don't know if this is a legitimate question or just a joke. But if it's the former, it's easy characterization without having to take time to develop the characters. You see, Mario is a jock who does push ups to show off and also to get ready to be in front on the camera (like the male models on ANTM this season). Dustin is trying to prove that he can hang, similarly to volunteering the information about karate in a previous scene. But he cannot hang. MPG pulls him away to stop him from embarrassing himself and Mario continues to show off by increasing the difficulty of the push ups he's doing with the clapping thing. So like their characters on the show, DD comes off as a misfit nerd, Mario is a jock jerk, and MPG is the leader. Writing!

 

I read through Mario's tweets. He didn't seem that upset. A lot of retweets about how no one could replace the real AC Slater and how he looks young enough to still play the part. Also, he posted a picture of the cover of the book which lists him as a "New York Times Bestselling Author" which I thought was premature since the book hasn't been released yet. Looked it up... oh my God he's written fitness, cooking, and children's books. I can't.

 

 

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.

Yeah, I assume that must be it. Elizabeth comes off really well and it fits the narrative of where she ended up with her books and her attempts to give advice to girls. Tiffani is just kind of pretty and bland. MPG comes across as a popular leader figure who had one fight with his mom about a car, rode a motorcycle, and drank a bit of wine in France where it was legal. He's spoken about how they got into some trouble like normal teenagers but didn't have to worry about the kind of intense scrutiny that young stars face today so I was expecting a lot worse.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

One of the things I liked when this show was on, was the PSA that the main cast did after airing the Jesse "I'm so excited" (godawful in its cheesiness) episode, with Brandon Tartikoff.

 

Did the movie show that? And how they felt about it? Please tell me that Tartikoff wasn't shown to be an ass. I've always liked him, and was sad when he died so young.

 

How about Miss Bliss? Was there anyone who played Hayley Mills? Or did this start from the season she was gone?

 

Just out of curiosity, you understand. I know, I know, I should probably watch it if I want to know, but please, can someone enlighten me? I really, and I mean really have no desire to see this.

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aradia22

aradia22

@GHScorpiosRule There was no PSA. They did talk about the Miss Bliss years but I think the Hayley Mills character was only in one scene when all the actors were just meeting each other. The actor playing Belding (well, technically the actor playing the actor playing Belding) said he had a crush on her.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

@GHScorpiosRule There was no PSA. They did talk about the Miss Bliss years but I think the Hayley Mills character was only in one scene when all the actors were just meeting each other. The actor playing Belding (well, technically the actor playing the actor playing Belding) said he had a crush on her.

 

Thanks aradia22.  That's too bad. It would have been nice to know what Mills thought of being pretty much fired...Oh wait...this is based on Dustin's unauthorized story, which was mostly shit anyway, so, never mind.

 

P.S. those @ mentions don't work anymore. Glark David had to disable it or something. So now we don't know when someone mentions us in a post.

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Princess Sparkle

Princess Sparkle

(edited)

He was smaller than Mario Lopez when the show started, and taller than him by the time the show ended.   I thought they did a good job with that considering they only hired one actor to play the role.  The dark eyebrows with the blonde hair, on the other hand, drove me crazy.  I didn't think it was that big of a contrast with MPG.  Maybe his screen presence made it less of an issue than it might have been with someone less charismatic. 

 

You know, I was wondering why the dark eyebrows were bugging me too, so I went to go look at some pictures of MPG when he was Zach to see if I was just blocking it out, and I came to two conclusions:

 

1. It looks like when MPG was younger, they must've been dying his eyebrows as well, since it looks like they're very light here: 

 

14wt74k.jpg

 

When he got older, they clearly weren't, but they were when he was younger.

 

2. In the movie, the kid they had playing Zack has eyebrows that are both darker and thicker than MPGs - almost as if they filled them in, Joan Crawford style.  You can really see it here when they're side-by-side:5agzo2.jpg

 

I don't know if those are the actors natural brows, or if they styled them that was specifically for the movie, but it is pretty jarring.

 

I am super disappointed that we didn't get the juicy stuff from DD's book - even if it's all bullshit, it was PERFECT for a Lifetime movie.  How in the world did they give up an opportunity to have multiple castmembers having threesomes?

 

I will add in here - for anyone that's a fan of the original Saved by the Bell, there is a wonderfully hilarious podcast called "Go Bayside", where comedian (and Saved by the Bell superfan) April Richardson watches each episode of SBTB with a guest (usually one that's never seen the show), and they discuss the episode.  It's almost at the end of the run (she's about to do the last episode), so I don't know if she'll continue on, but there's a good amount of episodes already out there.  She also has an episode with an extra from the show, who gives a little bit of inside dirt - I can't remember a ton off the top of my head, but I do remember him saying that Elizabeth Berkeley was dating one of the producers.  I know there's more than that though. 

Edited by Princess Sparkle
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emma675

emma675

 

I am super disappointed that we didn't get the juicy stuff from DD's book - even if it's all bullshit, it was PERFECT for a Lifetime movie.  How in the world did they give up an opportunity to have multiple castmembers having threesomes?

Wait, what?!? Dammit, am I going to have to read DD's book??

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Nighteyes

Nighteyes

(edited)

Uch. That was bad.

 

I did not know about Mario and his reputation prior to reading this thread! I never liked him during the run of the show (I had SUCH a crush on Zach Morris back in the day!), and I was never (and still am not) a fan of the overly muscled jock. 

 

I have to say that I actually met Mario Lopez once. He and Maria Menounos were filming Extra, and I saw him while visiting LA. Me and this girl (who was also visiting, but whom I had never met) were watching them film, and talking about our love for SBTB, and hoping to take pictures with him (because even though it was AC Slater, it was still SBTB!). Anyway, when they finished filming, his manager/person said that they could only do 1 picture. We said that the two of us (myself and the other girl) didn't really know each other. His manager was all like, "Whatever, not my problem." We ended up taking a picture with the 2 of us flanking Mario Lopez. He didn't speak to us, didn't say hello, just had a look on his face like he was sick of us. That destroyed any good feeling I may have ever borne for him.

 

Maria Menounos, however, is the nicest person. Absolutely freaking gorgeous in real life, was super nice about taking pics with us, chatted to me about where I was visiting from, and was helping out her camera guy afterwards. Such a class act, and very friendly. I thought that she was pretty before I met her, and now think that she's an amazing person. 

Edited by Nighteyes
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niklj

niklj

Did the movie show that? And how they felt about it? Please tell me that Tartikoff wasn't shown to be an ass. I've always liked him, and was sad when he died so young.

 

Tartikoff came off really well, which I was glad of too. They portrayed him as kind of like a second father figure to Dustin, giving him the "You're a good kid" kind of talks as well as being a smart executive with good instincts.

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Jeebus Cripes

Jeebus Cripes

Lame beyond the telling. My inner dialog was funny as hell, though. Great snark material. I was furious with the hairdressers for not giving the actress playing TAT her fabulous 80s/early 90s bangs. You had one job, people! 

 

Was I supposed to empathize with Dustin Diamond's nerd-angst? Cuz that didn't happen.

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benteen

benteen

I thought it was bad but in a fun and hilarious kind of way.

 

I saw one critic wonder if the "friend" who blackmailed DD was supposed to be an imaginary character.  Not imaginary like most of the BS Diamond wrote in the book but like someone who only existed in his mind in the world of the TV movie.

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Bruinsfan

Bruinsfan

So the movie was pretty boring and it does beg the question, why pick saved by the bell the unauthorized story to make a movie on when you have nothing to work with? BH 90210 actually would be a good movie to make, I agree. 

Seriously. I don't want to see squeaky-clean teen actors "misbehave" by riding dirtbikes, I want to see Shannen Doherty break a bottle against the edge of Aaron Spelling's desk and threaten to give him a Columbian necklace!

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qtpye

qtpye

The only thing I got from this movie is that most of the cast did not care for Dustin Diamond.  Since I have heard that DD is a huge jerk in real life, from multiple sources, no sympathy from me.  I never cared for Screech, either.  Like Urkel, Screech was supposed to be a lovable nerd, but I found both of them horribly annoying.

 

The actress that played Lisa had none of Lark's sparkle. Besides Zack and Screech, everyone else is so badly cast; it's as if the casting agent has never heard of the real SBTB.

 

I do not believe DD beat up a kid that taunted him in line for the movie.

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tribeca

tribeca

   Finally had a chance to watch this.    The kid who played Screech did a really good job.  During the movie I felt sorry for him.   Then I remembered the real actor & understood why the others did not want to hang out with him.

    JMHO Mario came off the worse in the movie.  

Was Jennie Garth really up for the part of Kelly

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