On Monday night, Lifetime finally debuted their unauthorized Saved By The Bell story largely based on the tell-all book by Dustin Diamond who played Samuel "Screech" Powers on the show. Terrible casting aside (Zach was horribly miscast and AC Slater was just confusing) the movie was at least interesting. It showed some of the beefs that the cast members had - seems that Mario Lopez and Dustin Diamond didn't really fuck with one another - and also showed that Zach had a jones for Lark Voorhies which immediately made him good money in my book.
Of course, they showed the rehearsal footage of the most watched and popular episode of Saved By The Bell, the episode where Jesse was taking the diet pills aka the "I'm so excited!!!!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!" episode. It immediately took me back to Will Smith's amazing performance in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air when his daddy ain't want him no more aka the "how come he don't want me, man?" episode that left nary a dry eye in any room across America. I'm sure even KKK members watched that and shed a tear for the little boy. Like Antwone Fisher.
FYI. I just watched that scene again and it STILL chokes me up. You go, Will. You go.
Well, because we're greedy, when we get one biopic/BTS style movie we always want more. Here are a few more show biopics I'd love for any other network but Lifetime to take a stab at. Oh, also, no BET either. Mmkay, pumpkin? Thanks.
1. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
It's not secret that there were personality conflicts on Fresh Prince. Namely, the first Aunt Viv (Janet Hubert-Whitten) and Will Smith really didn't see eye to eye, which led to her ouster, and the introduction of Lightskint Aunt Viv who, to the surprise of no one, was a total wacksauce replacement. I'd love to see how the show evolved from the eyes of somebody else but it almost seems like they all have a gag order. It's like the first rule of Fresh Prince is that nobody talks about Fresh Prince. Also, RIP James Avery.
2. Family Matters
Y'all remember Judy and Richie? Of course you do. You probably also remember that them niggas cold disappeared from the show without a single explanation. The writers probably sat around a meeting trying to figure out how to explain why they weren't going to be on the show anymore, realized nobody gave a shit, and just moved on to the next order of business. Judy of course went into pr0n and I have no clue what ever happened to Bryton McClure. That's a lie. I just googled him. He's an actor on soap operas and a singer and goes by Bryton James now. Me no know either. I wonder if Jaleel White was knockin' chicks off because of the popularity of Urkel. And there's never a bad time for the story of Cherie Johnson. I'm saying, let's get Richie on the line and let him tell the story.
3. Martin
We know for a fact that there was drama on that set. Hell, Gina (Tisha Campbell) literally phoned in her entire last season appearances because of the sexual harassment suit that was filed. Point is, I can imagine that show had a lot of hilarious moments but also a lot of drama as well. I'd like to see that. We'd need Carl Anthony Payne's story to make it really entertaining since he was the low man on the totem pole.
4. Dallas
Who shot JR? Who cares…I used to love this show but I figured with all of those larger than life personalities involved in the 80s that there'd be some juicy juice on the western front.
You ain't see Dallas coming did you?
5. In The House
You remember this show with a young Maia Campbell, Debbie Allen, and LL Cool J? Well we all know Maia Campbell has experienced some issues with mental health. I wonder what that set was like with LL being super duper hot shit back then and Maia Campbell burgeoning, etc. I'm just saying, they got ride of Debbie Allen and her errant kid for season 2 and focused solely on LL and Maia Campbell and brought in Carlton Banks. I smell a story. And young Austin would be the one to tell it.
That's 5 shows…for what other shows would you love to catch an unauthorized biopic?