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As I write this, Dustin Diamond has just died. The man known forever as Samuel “Screech” Powers was only 44. That is jarring. On the other hand, Diamond was by all accounts a bad person. They left him out of the Saved by the Bell reboot with reason. I never met the man. Outside of Saved by the Bell I have one memory of him, and it’s one of the bleakest things I have seen on television.
I must admit I watched both episodes of Celebrity Boxing that FOX aired. To be faired, they aired in 2002. I was 15 when they aired, which is to say I was perfectly primed to watch celebrities fight each other because they needed the cash. I could recognize how bleak it was, but I also found it absurd. Dustin Diamond’s fight with Ron Palillo, though, was not absurd. It was just sad.
They were faced against each other because both men played the “nerdy” outsider in their group of friends. Diamond was Screech, of course, but Palillo had played Horseshack on Welcome Back, Kotter, a show I really enjoyed as a kid (it is not good as an adult). Diamond was still in his twenties and in pretty good shape, but Palillo was in his fifties. Unfortunately, Diamond was taking this boxing match very seriously.
Screech pounded the hell out of Horseshack. He knocked Palillo down twice in the second round, and the fight was stopped. Horseshack got two black eyes. It was awful. Diamond was beating up a middle-aged man who clearly did not have the ability to defend himself. Sure, they had agreed to this celebrity boxing match, but Diamond looked like he wanted to hurt Palillo. He went all in, and he did not step back for even a second.
I have forgotten every other Celebrity Boxing match. I will never forget that fight. It represents the bleakness that celebrity and pop culture can sink to in their worst moments.
