"Dinner for Four," Scene D

We return to the "girls' apartment - a short time later."  In the draft, there's this opening:

THE GIRLS ENTER.

SHIRLEY

I'm so ashamed.  When Lenny and Squiggy get down here, I hope we can get them to forgive us.

LAVERNE

Yeah, we have to do whatever it takes to make it up to them.

SHIRLEY

Right, as long as we don't have to touch them.

In the shooting script and onscreen, the girls' epiphany about the parallels doesn't happen until after they enter "in an obvious rage" and vent a little.  Laverne yells up to the boys through the dumbwaiter, but Shirley reminds her they're at the picnic/fish fry.

In both scripts this is what happens:

LENNY AND SQUIGGY BURST IN.  SQUIGGY CARRIES AN ANT FARM.

But in the draft, Squiggy's line is "This better be important, cuz Lenny and me was counting the ants in our ant farm," and Lenny adds, "And you made us lose track.  It's very hard getting ants to sit still."  In the shooting script, Squiggy says, ""Well, did you call us down here to rub more salt in our wounds?", while onscreen Squiggy asks if the girls want the boys to eat their garbage.  Lenny's line in the shooting script about the girls running them over with a truck did, however, make it onscreen.

Laverne telling them, "We're trying to talk to you like human beings," and Lenny's retort, "Good luck," were added for the filmed version.

From the girls' apology to Lenny mixing up weekends, this section of the draft made it all the way to on the air.  However, this is the last page of the scene in the draft:

SQUIGGY

Yeah, see Lenny got his shindigs mixed up.  Today was the annual Henry Boobar Weenie Roast and Ant Safari.  (DISPLAYING HIS ANT FARM)  We used our weenies for bait.

LENNY

That gives us a whole week to brush up on our mud fighting.

SHIRLEY

I can barely wait.

SQUIGGY

You won't have to.  We can recreate an actual mud fight using ordinary leftovers.  Len, see if they got any mashed potatoes.

THE BOYS MOVE TOWARD THE KITCHEN.

LAVERNE

Get out of here.  Out.... out....

THE GIRLS START PUSHING LENNY AND SQUIGGY OUT THE DOOR.  THE BOYS DROP THE ANT FARM ON THE FLOOR AND IT SHATTERS.

LENNY

Quick, throw them some weiners [sic].

And Act Two ends with them all "dashing after the ants."  The ant farm is unexplained in the Shooting Script until the tag, and it's wisely left out of the filmed version of this scene.  And what we get in the later script and onscreen is the boys heading for the bedroom, but in the shooting script is this dialogue:

SQUIGGY

Follow us.

LAVERNE

We said we'd go anywhere, not do anything.

SHIRLEY

And we thought they had feelings.

And it ends with the girls going to "get the boys out of the bedroom."  Onscreen, however the boys escort the girls to the bedroom, there's a mostly offscreen struggle, and the injured boys stagger out, having gotten "nothing" off the girls, but "that's a start."

Thoughts:

• Shirley, even at this point, is reluctant to touch the boys, but Laverne doesn't feel that strongly averse.
• I think the epiphany about the girls' treatment of the boys works better here than in Scene C, because there's too much going on in the scene at Rob's apartment, and it works better for the girls to see the parallels after more time has passed and they're alone.
• The Ant Safari sounds awesome.
• The mashed potatoes make me think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), but I don't know if that was intentional.
• I prefer the innocence of the boys and their ant farm to either version of them going in the girls' bedroom, but at least we'd get the ant farm in later tags, which I'll discuss next time.