The other kids at Saving By The Bell's Bayside High just thought he was odd. But for the other seven stars competing on Celebrity Fit Club's fifth season, there's probably a more apt, unprintable word they would use to describe Dustin "Screech" Diamond.
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"I don't hold it against anybody not to like Dustin Diamond," Celebrity Fit Club 5 executive producer Richard Hall told the New York Post about the one-time teenage TV star. "I'm sorry to say that, but it's true. He came in with a very contrarian agenda. He took shots at everybody. He would imitate the other cast members and mock them."
Diamond is one of eight stars competing on Celebrity Fit Club's fifth season, which premiered Sunday night on VH1 -- the first time the format of the show features a battle of the sexes -- as the men take-on the women to see which gender can shape-up the fastest. With not even one of the eight cast members more than 40 pounds overweight, Celebrity Fit Club's fifth season will be less about shedding the weight and more about living a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable.
"Frankly, what we found [in previous seasons] is that in the athletic competitions, we had a really hard time pushing people," Hall explained to the Post. "Not all the cast members could run up a hill and it was just setting them up for failure. But if we could find people who had to lose 30 pounds -- we would have a group of people not morbidly obese -- but just woefully out of shape."
Prior to appearing on Celebrity Fit Club: Men vs. Women, Diamond roamed the halls of Bayside on Good Morning, Miss Bliss and Saved by the Bell for more than 10 years, first as a student and then as an administrator.
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"In our previous series, we've always had that one meltdown show, with lots of tears," Hall told the Post. "This season, because of Dustin, it's so much more explosive. It's every episode."
One Celebrity Fit Club cast member who had to deal with Diamond is former American Idol 2 finalist Kimberly Locke.
"She came in saying, 'I'm never going to be a thin person,' Hall told the Post. "We're not asking anyone to become thin. We're asking them to become fit and healthy."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio