Wednesday, April 21, 2021

"Bowling for Razzberries" script, Scene B

We are now at the Pizza Bowl at "night":

THERE IS A BIG BOWLING TROPHY ON A TABLE NEXT TO THE BOWLING ALLEY DOOR.  ON THE WALLS ARE LITTLE PLAQUES AND ON EACH PLAQUE IS ENGRAVED THE NAMES OF PAST WINNERS OF THE SHOTZ BOWLING TOURNAMENT.  INSTEAD OF BOWLING FIGURES ON THE TROPHY, THERE IS A SHOTZ BEER CAN.  "THE HOT SHOTZ" ARE THERE FOR BOWLING PRACTICE.  THE TEAM CONSISTS OF SHIRLEY, LAVERNE, TINA AND MILDRED.

On the filmed episode, there is a case of trophies but none seem to have beer cans on top.

Laverne's line telling the "girls" to put their makeup away was given to Shirley.  And her line, after Mildred and Tina exit, "Do you believe them?  Go warm up, Mrs. Mackintosh" was omitted.

Shirley calling Laverne "Vernie," one of the most endearing things about Season One, was added during filming.

In case you're curious about the Hello Moment, here's how it goes in the script:

ENTER SQUIGGY AND LENNY.  LENNY CARRIES A PINK MARBLED BOWLING BALL WITH HIS FINGERS IN THE HOLES.

SQUIGGY
Hi, girls.


That's right, this is so early that it's not even a hello!  And Squiggy leading Lenny in must've been added by Lander & McKean.

Shirley calling Lenny "Leonard" was also added.  (In the script it's just "How did you do that?")  So him elongating "Shirley" was added, too.

This was how the scene ended after the girls tell Lenny to shut up:

LAVERNE
I'm gonna kill her.

SHIRLEY
Laverne, you can't kill her.  You're a sick girl.

LAVERNE
I'm not gonna kill her now.  I'm gonna practice bowling.  Tomorrow night I'll kill her.

THEY EXIT TO BOWLING ALLEY.

LENNY
(CALLING AFTER THEM) Don't say anything about her body.

SQUIGGY
Yeah, she hates that!

This was improved onscreen to Shirley reasoning with Laverne and then Laverne plucking the ball off Lenny's hand, to Squiggy's consternation upon his return with vinegar.  "What'd you do?  Lose it?"

Unlike with Scene A, the way this was filmed is unquestionably an improvement, all those little soon-to-be-iconic touches, although yeah, I would've liked to have seen a beer-can trophy.

3 comments:

Angel Face

Once again, I'm reluctantly writing another non-obituary for a star of Laverne & Shirley .  Three times in just over three years is ...