Thursday, August 26, 2021

"Look Before You Leap," Scenes B and C


Onscreen, we see Laverne's Alka-Seltzer bit but Shirley is in the kitchen and going to go into the bedroom until she drops a fork.  

They left out Carmine saying, "Why didn't you tell me they were here?", meaning the boys, and Shirley replying, "I didn't know you were gonna come in here yelling at me."  And a little later, Carmine was supposed to tell the boys, "Hey!  This is private!"  

They omitted Shirley saying, "The next morning I was in bed, fast asleep... Laverne thought she could fool me by sneaking in."

Otherwise, the scene is intact, so let's move on to Scene C, in the "Girls' Bedroom - Early Morning":

SHIRLEY IS IN BED ASLEEP.  LAVERNE TIPTOES IN, CROSSES TO DRESSER, TAKES OUT HER PAJAMAS.  SHE STARTS TO UNBOTTON [sic] HER BLOUSE.  SUDDENLY THE ALARM CLOCK GOES OFF.  LAVERNE REVERSES HER ACTION, STARTS BUTTONING UP HER BLOUSE.  SHIRLEY SITS UP, LOOKS AT LAVERNE.

LAVERNE
Rise and shine, sleepyhead.  I'm all ready for work.

SHIRLEY
Hmmm, speedy this morning, aren't you?  Made the bed and everything.

LAVERNE
Oh yeah, I got energy to burn today.  I'm rarin' to go here.

SHIRLEY
You can't pull the wool over me, Laverne.

LAVERNE
I went out to get the paper?

SHIRLEY
No.

LAVERNE
Milk?

SHIRLEY
No.

LAVERNE
(BEAT)  I stayed out all night?

SHIRLEY
Bingo.  Where were you?  I thought you were right behind me when I left the party.

LAVERNE
I was, but then I decided to stay and enter the Chug-a-lug contest.

SHIRLEY
Spare me.  And you got no sleep at all and now you'll probably fall asleep on the conveyor belt and you'll get docked just cause you had to Chug-a-lug.

LAVERNE
It was worth it.  I won.  Well, after the contest I got a little dizzy.

SHIRLEY
Gee, I wonder why.

LAVERNE
(SEES HERSELF IN MIRROR) Mighta been all that beer.  Oh, look at this....

For filming, they had Shirley sum up in voiceover Laverne chug-a-lugging and leaving late, and Laverne doesn't try to trick Shirley.  Both girls are awake as the scene opens onscreen, and Shirley is brushing her teeth.  The rest of the scene is faithful to the script, and Act One ends with both girls reacting to Laverne's boxer shorts.

A few thoughts:
  • Omitting Scene A moves the reveal to this scene, so that the audience finds out at the same time as the men and Mrs. Babish.  I think this is stronger structurally, although there are things I like about Scene A.
  • Carmine and Shirley argue a bit more here than onscreen.
  • I think it's just as well they left out Laverne trying to trick Shirley.  It's better for the girls to be united from the start in this episode.

2 comments:

  1. Yep, I like the scene we get, where Shirl is even slightly titilated by Laverne's antics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They do have Shirley titillated, it's just after this part, which would've gotten things off on the wrong foot.

    ReplyDelete

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