21. Jessie’s infamous caffeine pill addiction? Yeah, it was a bit over-the-top, and that’s because she was originally supposed to become addicted to speed.
“What fans don’t know is that, when I originally wrote the episode with Tom Tenowich, Jessie was hooked on speed, not caffeine pills,” Engel wrote in his memoir. “But Standards and Practices, the censorial department of NBC, vetoed it, saying speed was too serious for Saturday mornings.”
Still wanting to explore the serious issue of addiction, as well as the pressure kids can put on themselves, Engel and Standards and Practices eventually compromised on caffeine pills.
22. In 2009, Diamond made headlines when he published a tell-all book about the show and his former co-stars called Behind the Bell (which would become the source material for Lifetime’s The Unauthorized Saved By the Bell Story in 2014). In the memoir, he made allegations of steroid use, hook-ups and other off-camera antics, most of which were debunked by the cast. “Everything that I’ve heard about his book is negative and I don’t remember those things,” Gosselaar told E! News at the time.
While the rest of the cast had remained close over the years, Diamond lost touch and his tell-all was the final straw, with the actor being left out of their reunion for the 20th anniversary set up by People magazine in 2009.