Dustin Diamond (2008 Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp Appearance - Episode IV)

Episode IV - March 30, 2008

The fourth episode of Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp began with seven of the eight of the show's contestants riding on a bus out to the boot camp designed by drill instructor Harvey Walden. Not surprisingly, the one missing contestant was Dustin Diamond, the focus of this episode recap.

In the opening scene, the contestants made light of Brian Dunkleman's rude behavior during the previous episode while driving to the boot camp. Diamond was not yet much of a topic of conversation at this point in the episode, although Tina Yothers did say, "I want to know where our team captain is."


After the bus arrived at the boot camp, the contestants exited through the door on the back of the bus and lined up for instructions from drill sergeant Harvey Walden, IV. Brian Dunkleman immediately apologized to Harvey for his behavior in the previous episode and Harvey accepted Dunkleman’s apology.

When Harvey noticed that Diamond was missing, he said,

"Red team - holy freaking shit! It looks like you're one man down, and it is your lazy ass freaking captain. Imagine that ... AWOL.
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No matter what's going on at home, your priority to yourself and to your doggone team is to show up right here.
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Don't let his ass pull you all down. I would not let that happen."

Willie Aames was upset that Diamond was missing and mentioned the following in a candid interview: "We can't find a good reason for Dustin not to be there. If he's not loyal to the show, at least be loyal to your team. I was pretty ticked off."

Tina Yothers also chimed in, saying "Dustin not showing up is a big fuck you to everybody. I mean we're all here. This is a job and there's nothing worse than a quitter."

A.J. Benza, a member of the blue team, told Diamond's red team that Diamond was their dead weight, and Aames agreed with him.

All of the contestants then got back on the bus for a trip out to an oceanside beach for the next team challenge. During the bus ride, the contestants joked about Diamond and speculated that his lazy butt would show up after the physical challenge.

Tina Yothers called Diamond and said, "Dustin, where the hell are you?" Yothers said that Diamond claimed he couldn't make it because of bad weather in Wisconsin and that he couldn't get on another flight. Toccara Jones called a weather service to determine the weather conditions in Wisconsin and discovered that there were no weather-related airplane delays in the Milwaukee airport near where Diamond lives.

About Diamond's excuse, Willie Aames said, "The more we dug into it, the more we found out that really nothing happened. And that pissed me off."

A.J. Benza expressed his disgust of Diamond, saying, "This is right up his alley. It is. I love the kid but this is up his alley. This is bullshit. He didn't show up. I don't care what the excuse is. Dustin fucked up. He's not here and that's bad."

Finally, the bus arrived at the beach and were given instructions by Harvey and Ant. Each team had to navigate an obstacle course on the beach and pick up a 150-lb dummy that was supposed to represent a fallen teammate and carry the dummy back to the starting line. Each team member had to wear fins on their feet, a wet suit, a water tank, and a weight belt. To increase the difficulty of the challenge, Harvey was standing behind a water cannon (i.e., a powerful water hose) near where the dummy was situated and sprayed high pressure water onto the team members.


Regarding the challenge, Yothers said, "The point of the challenge was we had to go and rescue out dying teammate, and unfortunately we had Dustin in the back of our head and we didn't want to rescue him. Ha ha."

Diamond's red team lost the challenge to the blue team. Toccara was impressive and quickly got down near the location where her team's dummy was located. Toccara and Yothers had to carry their dummy back to the starting line by themselves because Aames injured his knee and was moving as slow as molasses.

After losing the challenge, Aames was voted as his team's "dead weight" and was ordered to clear the obstacles from the beach. Toccara and Yothers helped out the gimpy Aames, earning Harvey's respect in the process.

Next, the contestants returned to the boot camp for a Krav Maga (hand-to-hand combat) fighting instruction. At one point during the instruction, somebody dressed in black attacked Toccara from behind. In an impressive display of strength, Toccara picked up the assailant and body slammed him onto a mat. One can only imagine what Toccara would have done to Diamond if he had shown up at that moment - I'm guessing that thrown him around like a rag doll and given him a pile driver onto the ground.

Next, the contestants were provided with dinner in the mess hall. Not surprisingly, everyone started ragging on Diamond. The following exchange took place at the dinner table:

A.J.: [The Krav Maga] instructor would have kicked [Diamond's] ass.

Yothers: If Dustin comes back, we all should have like a one-on-one in the ring with him.

A.J.: Then let's do it. I think he blew it by doing this. Dustin fucked up. But if he comes back, what's to gain? Harvey's gonna rip him three assholes. His team is on his back. There's not going to be jokes flying around like there used to be. He fucked up ... You can't pull up lame every challenge and sit there and be hurt every time."

After dinner, Yothers was interviewed and said, "I have no idea what Dustin's plan is. If he had showed up halfway through the day, he would have saved some face." In a separate interview, Toccara said, "Even when Dustin is here, it's not like 'Oh thank goodness. Dustin's here, we have a shot now,' but the least you could do is go to the airport and see when the next flight is."

In the next event, each contestant had to climb the tower that was used in the obstacle course from the first episode. At the top of the tower were respective dog tags for each contestant. Six of the seven contestants successfully retrieved their dog tags. The only one unable to reach the top was Sommore, who gave her best effort but was instructed to stop by Harvey after spending over 50 minutes trying to climb to the top.

Finally, the contestants returned to the camp for the weigh-in ceremony. The following exchange took place:

"Ant: Have any of you heard from Dustin?

Yothers and Aames: No.

Ant: You know, last week when Dustin kept punking out, you defended him. so how are you guys feeling about his decision to not be here?

Toccara: It's not like when he's here it's like, 'Oh our savior is here. We have a great chance because Dustin's here.' But at the same time, we need him for the weigh-in ceremony. And we're a team and we can't win if we don't have our second part. We need that.

Aames: It just smacks of disrespect.

Yothers: Obviously, my biggest disappointment is that I crossed Harvey's opinion and trusted Dustin, who could have had a second chance here - that's more of a disappointment to me personally.

A.J.: He screwed his team. You at least have to call your team and say, 'Guys, I'm sorry, there's a big screw up, but just hang in there.' You can't say nothing.
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Yothers: There's really no excuse. I mean, Brian [Dunkleman] left his four-day-old marriage. I've got my two-month-old baby at home. We all have our lives. There's nothing that could be more important in Dustin's life to keep him from being here."

Ant then asked all of the contestants whether Diamond should be allowed to return to the show. Six of the contestants, including everyone on his red team, voted "No." The only one who thought that Diamond should be allowed to return was Sommore.

Finally, during Toccara's weigh-in, Harvey said that she handled herself well during the beach challenge. Harvey then stripped Diamond of his title as team captain and gave it to Toccara.

At the end of the show, a preview was shown for the fifth episode. Apparently Diamond receives an earful from Harvey and starts crying and threatening to sue the show for alleged mistreatment!

**Be sure to check out my other Dustin Diamond entries:
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode I
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode II
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode III
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode V
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode VI
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode VII
Dustin Diamond - Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp - Episode VIII

Dustin Diamond - (2007 Celebrity Fit Club Appearance)
Dustin Diamond - The Early Years
Dustin Diamond (2000-Present)