Although there are eight scenes, this one takes up eleven pages, almost one-third of the script. It's back to David's apartment, the same night, with "parallel action."
David calling Laverne "so cute" in her nightie and hugging and kissing her was added, since the first stage direction is "Laverne and David are heading towards the bed area."
Their hugging and kissing in bed also isn't mentioned in the script. We did lose this suggestive dialogue:
LAVERNE
David, do you always take the phone off the hook at night?
DAVID
I don't want to hear bells ringing when I hear bells ringing.
LAVERNE
That's the most beautiful thing I ever heard.
Most of the next almost two pages made it in with minor rephrasing, but they added the David line asking "Honey" to not let her father walk on the rug. This was omitted:
LAVERNE
And Len, what are you doing back here?
LENNY
Well, I couldn't find the keys to the truck, so I thought I might have left them at home. I walked back home to look, but couldn't get in because I didn't have a key, so I came back here...
LAVERNE
(SEARCHES POCKETS) I'm sorry, Len. Here's your key.
LENNY
Thanks, Laverne. But I'm not leaving alone.
LENNY HEADS LAVERNE TOWARDS THE DOOR.
LENNY (CONT'D)
I did a lot of walking and a lot of thinking at the same time.
LAVERNE
I know how hard that is for you.
Then the script is mostly followed for a page, but Lenny happily hugging Laverne when he thinks she's getting married was added. We lost this:
LENNY
David, David, David. Laverne, forget about David and think about Frank Sinatra.
LAVERNE
Please don't give me a headache tonight.
LENNY
Was it not the Italian philosopher, Frank Sinatra who said, (SINGS) LOVE AND MARRIAGE, LOVE AND MARRIAGE, GO TOGETHER LIKE A HORSE AND CARRIAGE.
In the script, "Lenny sends Laverne out the door," while it sounds like McKean ad-libbing about "the nightmare" and "the moist bath."
After Lenny says his mother was meant to be a welder, Laverne was supposed to say, "I'm sure she was a very good one," to which he'd reply, "Spotty."
Laverne hugging Lenny, when he asks what kind of man she thinks he is, is in the script, but there she says he's a "good man," which became a "terrific man." We lost his exit line, "And don't worry too much about your trial period. God's probably so busy with Easter coming up, he probably won't get around to you for awhile."
David calling Laverne Honey again when he exits the bathroom was added. Some I think important dialogue was left out:
DAVID
(GETTING NERVOUS) Laverne, you know how I feel about marriage. There's no need for it. The birds that fly don't do it. The fish that swim don't do it. People are the only ones dumb enough to do it. It's only a stupid, silly, meaningless piece of paper that the government thought of to make money.
LAVERNE
Well, if it doesn't mean anything, and it wouldn't change anything, I'll pay the two bucks and there'll be a marriage license rolled up in one of those coffee cans, next to my socks.
On the aired episode, this turned into Laverne wearing her sweatshirt as a veil and humming the Wedding March.
David calling Laverne Sweetheart when he wants her to come back to bed was added, as was Laverne saying she loves David during her speech about being an old-fashioned girl. And David calling Laverne Honey three times as she's about to leave is another addition. Furthermore, David saying, "Sweetheart, I am totally crazy about you, you understand?" wasn't in the script either.
Now here's where the script is more innocent than the aired episode. After they agree to do the one thing that doesn't make them scared, one last time, "They go to opposite sides of the bed, pick up their guitars and start to sing." But this is the last we see of David onscreen:
Some thoughts:
- "Several hours" have passed since Lenny took Laverne's luggage over to David's apartment, thinking that she was going on vacation. In that time, Lenny has walked to and from, presumably between Burbank and another part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. He shows no signs of exhaustion. He apparently doesn't have David's phone number, and fortunately for the girls he doesn't stop by to ask Shirley if she has the number. (Perhaps Lenny did try to call but it was while the phone was off the hook.) The lines are funny but a bit of a Chekhov's Gun as a distraction.
- They could've and should've included Lenny singing Sinatra.
- So Lenny's mother was a welder but not a good one?
- Easter is coming up in a script written in November, for an episode that would air in December? "Christmas" would've made more sense but maybe wouldn't have been as funny.
- I still don't know if David being verbally and somewhat physically more affectionate was due to the casting of Sand, but he actually seems sweet in this scene, if scared of marriage.
- Laverne does not emphasize her love for David in the script.
- The end of the aired scene is bittersweet and it's strongly implied that Laverne and David will make love. The script instead ends on the running joke about their shared love of music. I don't want the David in the script to get farewell sex, but I sort of think Sand's David earns it.
Aww, the copy of the script I have actually has a whole bit with Lenny where he asks Laverne if she doesn't want to have kids with clothing with L's on it, and she says it'd depend on what she named them, and then he's very confused.
ReplyDeleteThe Sinatra bit's kinda in there, but he speaks it instead of singing it.
HOW DOES HE KNOW SHE'S NOT A GOOD WELDER?
There's also a bit where he tells her how good she is with kids.
I wish they'd had more of him talking about what a good mother Laverne would be. This is the shooting script. What version is your copy?
DeleteMaybe he saw his mother welding in her trailer?
Mine's the revised final draft! The difference is Lenny says he's been sitting in the truck for hours waiting for her instead of walking all over LA.
DeleteThe dialogue runs like this:
LAVERNE:
Who says I want to have kids?
LENNY:
Laverne, you love kids.
LAVERNE:
Well, maybe we'll have kids some day.
LENNY:
Laverne, you're not getting any younger and YOU are meant to be a mother (insert the welder dialogue). See, Laverne, most people ain't got anything they're REALLY good at. But you do. In most things, you're just as dumb as the rest of us. But when it comes to kids, you're a genius.
LAVERNE:
Well, there are plenty of kids around. I can always go down to the park and get into a pick-up game of ringalevio.
LENNY:
But it ain't the same as with your own kids. Don't you want some little tiny Lavernes walkin' around with little tiny 'L's' on all their clothes?
LAVERNE:
Well, that would sort of depend on what I named 'em.
LENNY:
It would?
LAVERNE:
You see, I wear an 'L' because my first name...forget it. You waited around just to tell me how you felt?
LENNY:
Yeah, that and you have the keys to the truck...
There's also a mini scene where Lenny helps Laverne move in and says that he and Squiggy once went away for ten days and never changed their clothing once.
Possibly! Or she welded before she left?
Well, it was the Rosie the Riveter era.
DeleteAccording to the "script requisition" sheet included with my "Tar Pits" script (and some other scripts), the order went: Work Draft, First Draft, Second Draft, Final Draft, Revised Final Draft, and "Other," which seems to include "Shooting Script" and "Revised Shooting Script," with possibly other others. I assume that not every script went through every phase, but your version might've been the one right before mine.
I don't know if I like Lenny sitting in the truck any better than him walking all over L.A. I mean, it's less exhausting, but why not just knock and get the keys? And then, wouldn't he notice that they don't leave the apartment, even though they're supposed to be going on vacation? It's probably just as well that this was left out of the episode.
It's interesting that Lenny thinks that motherhood is Laverne's true talent. The line about not changing their clothes is in the script (and filmed episode), but it's back at the girls' apartment (Scene C) and it's for a whole month. How could Lenny help her move in? I mean, was he actually in David's apartment before he shows up to talk to her about God?
It was indeed!!
DeleteHuh! Interesting!
See, it makes sense to me that he wouldn't knock on the door and just ask for the keys if he's avoiding an uncomfortable truth and/or he knows or thinks David and Laverne are boffing.
I love that line about the kids with L's on their clothing.
See, I completely blanked out on that, but yep, in this script he says that and the line relates to their long vacation, but he brings all of her stuff up and then leaves.