DR. MATHEW GENTRY IS LOOKING AT A FILE AND CHUCKLING.
DOCTOR
This guy's crazy.
Note that the spelling is different on the doctor's door, although IMDB has "Mathew" with one T. This is definitely an episode with interesting spelling choices.
After Lenny says, "Boy, you gotta get up pretty early in the morning to fool you," his line continued, "But you probably don't make appointments then." Then this was left out, from an episode shot in February and airing in late March:
DOCTOR
Lenny, let's get back to why you're here...
LENNY
Boy, oh boy. April already. It seemed like just last December it was Christmas.
At the end of Lenny's monologue about his concerns about Squiggy, he was scripted to say, "My life is a living hell!" I don't know if Standards & Practices objected, or it was just felt unnecessary for Lenny to put it like that.
This is what was left out of the end of the scene:
LENNY
(DIGS IN HIS POCKET) Doc, I wanna pay you for this.
DOCTOR
Lenny, you don't have to.
LENNY
No, I insist. Here's a buck. Buy something for the kids. The little one needs a hat.
Instead, the two men shake hands in the episode.
I'm glad the opening was removed, because it makes Dr. Gentry seem less understanding, but that ending would've been cute. I suppose this episode could've been set in April. Off the top of my head, I don't recall any chronological clues in Season Five, in the sense of holiday episodes or snow or anything. "Shotgun Wedding" looks like it happens in the summer, but I don't know beyond that.
I'm VERY happy they got rid of Dr. Gentry's line there; it doesn't work at all and makes him look callous instead of gently helpful, as he was in Testing, Testing.
ReplyDeleteThat last line is such a great mix of Lenny's gentle altruism and his Squiggy-influenced way of looking at money
Also yeah, the Living Hell line does NOT need to exist and feels too extreme for Lenny.
DeleteYeah, there are doctors in the series that could've gotten away with it, but it gets the scene off to a bad start. We're supposed to feel like this is a nice doctor that Lenny should listen to. But, yeah, the closing line is just right.
DeleteAs I note in my post of the following scene, Lenny's over-the-top lines and reactions were toned down or omitted. Lenny loves Squiggy, no matter how worried or stressed he gets, and he wouldn't have said the "living hell" line, especially when he's trying to get Squiggy help.