Sunday, August 30, 2020

"That's Entertainment" script, Scene J

Yes, there's no Scene I.  We begin Act Two with another set-up scene, this time two pages long.  In the script, "Frank is doing movements similar to Carmine's dance steps in D scene" [sic].  Then he bows and touches the floor with one hand but needs Carmine's help getting back up and sitting down.  In the episode, the two of them are already sitting.  Carmine says that music has changed so dancing has changed.  Frank says that it sounds like men tearing up the street.  Carmine says Frank would like rock & roll if he gave it a chance, and Carmine starts naming off some bands.  Then we fade to Lenny and Squiggy and their California band.  But it's, again, longer in the script:

FRANK
You ask me, I think it's noise.  It ain't romantic.  You can't dance to it.  The way kids dress nowadays, you can't tell the boys from the girls anyway.

CARMINE
(SMILING) I can.  Mr. DeFazio, you gotta keep up with the times.  There's a lot of good music out there.

FRANK
I'd rather stick with my kind of music.  I don't want to be some middle-aged teeny-bumper.

CARMINE
That's teeny-bopper.

FRANK
Whatever.

CARMINE
Mr. DeFazio, I know you'd like rock and roll if you gave it a chance.  Have you heard the Sopwith Camel, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Electric Prunes...

FRANK
Are those the groups or the songs?

A couple things going on here.  Frank is again asserting he'd rather stick with what he knows and what fits with his generation, while Carmine argues that Frank should keep with the times and keep an open mind.  Also, Carmine's list of groups (no, they're not songs) are heavy on the psychedelic rock, suggesting that this takes place in the Summer of Love or later.  The episode as aired blurs both points, in order to move things along and not spend as much time on set-up.  Another thing I never really thought about before was that the girls started calling Mrs. Babish "Edna" fairly early on, but I don't think Carmine ever got to the point of calling Mr. DeFazio "Frank."

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