Hayley Mills remembers Good Morning, Miss Bliss costar Dustin Diamond: 'He was a really sweet kid'

Hayley Mills has fond memories of her former Good Morning, Miss Bliss costar Dustin Diamond, who died from lung cancer in February at 44.

"He was a really sweet kid. I'm very sad about that," the actress tells EW while discussing the 60th anniversary of another of her beloved screen projects, The Parent Trap. "I remember [Diamond] always being sweet and really funny. I was very fond of him, as I was all of them."

Though Mills only worked with Diamond for one season, Miss Bliss would launch him and several castmates, like Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Lark Voorhies, and Dennis Haskins, to stardom after it was reworked as Saved by the Bell.

"The success of that series has been so great," the Academy Award-winning actress shares. "I only did one season, but dear Mr. Belding [Haskins] carried it on while the kids just got bigger and bigger. It was fun, and I loved doing it. It's odd because even though I only did one season, it never did go away. [Laughs] What it did for me personally was that suddenly young kids who hadn't watched The Parent Trap or any of my Disney movies recognized me from Saved by the Bell. That one season gave me a whole new image on television."

Although Mills had dabbled a bit in TV when Miss Bliss came around, it was her first time working on a sitcom. Prior to that, she made appearances on The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

"It was a very different experience, working on a sitcom. I had never done that before, and it was really nerve-wracking," she recalls. "They re-write [dialog] up until the last minute. They'd give you a page and just as you're about to shoot and, 'Oh my God,' [we'd stop for changes]. It really keeps you on your toes! But the spontaneity, it's quite good for comedy."

Peacock is not currently available in the U.K., where Mills resides, so she's not been able to enjoy the revival's debut season as of yet. But if producers are interested in having Miss Bliss make an appearance in a future season, the beloved actress is definitely interested.

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