Saturday, December 11, 2021

"The Tenants Are Revolting," Scene B

Now it's "night" at the girls' apartment:

THE APARTMENT IS SET UP FOR A MEETING.  MOST OF THE TENANTS ARE ALREADY THERE.  SHIRLEY IS STANDING NEXT TO MRS. KOLCHECK AND IS FANNING HERSELF WITH A MAGAZINE.  LAVERNE IS EATING PRETZELS OUT OF A BOWL.

LAVERNE
Pretty good turnout, isn't it?

SHIRLEY
Quit eating the pretzels.

Those couple lines were skipped.  They also omitted Shirley saying, after Mrs. K rejects her friendship again, "All right, welcome to the world of hate."  On the other hand, Laverne calling Lenny a "scaredy-cat" was not in the script.

They left out this exchange:

LENNY
As it turns out, the voodoo rays can only penetrate through your eye cavities.

SQUIGGY
It's true.  I read it in a book.

LAVERNE
You can't get a license to practice voodoo in Milwaukee.

After Rex Romano successfully commands the boys to sit, this was in the script:

LAVERNE PASSES A HAND IN FRONT OF THE BOYS' EYES.  SHE SNAPS HER FINGERS.  THEY BOYS ARE IN A TRANCE.

LAVERNE
(TO REX) You ain't all bad.

When Carmine is trying to hypnotize Shirley, he originally "grabbed her by the back of the hair," which was thankfully dropped.  He's a lot more insistent onscreen about wanting a $5 refund from Dr. Romano.

In the script, it's Laverne rather than Lenny who asks when the boys started paying rent.

There are a lot of simultaneous lines towards the end of the filmed scene, but I believe that most of this part did not air, as several of the tenants leave:

SHIRLEY
Please wait.  I'm going to serve cookies.

LAVERNE
You're going to have to go through us to get out of here.

THE MOB PUSHES PAST LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY.

LAVERNE
I know what will stop them.  (CALLS OUT DOOR) Onamor.  Onamor.

SHIRLEY
They didn't stop.

MRS. KOLCHECK IS ASLEEP ON CARMINE'S SHOULDER.

CARMINE
No, but Mrs. Kolcheck is asleep.

And so ends Act One.

Thoughts:
  • There appear to be three tenants who are extras and mostly sit with their backs to the camera.  This gives us a total of ten, and I assume this is everyone living in the building besides Mrs. Babish at this point in the series.  (Jerry Callahan presumably has moved out by now, possibly back in Season Two.)  
    • The girls live in the basement.  
    • The boys live somewhere between the third and fifth floor.  
    • Mrs. Kolcheck lives on the second floor, presumably alone, and I don't think anyone in this group has Dr. Romano for a roommate.  
    • We know Carmine lives alone.  
    • The pregnant woman may be married to either the hairy man in the undershirt or the guy with glasses, so let's say two apartments total for the extras.  
    • So seven apartments for ten tenants?
  • I like the "world of hate" line.
  • Some of the boys' fear of Dr. Romano did make it to air of course, but I like the "eye cavities" part.
  • Carmine is both more and less of a jerk in the script.
  • I want to believe that Shirley was serving leftover "firemen cookies."
  • We do see Carmine and Mrs. K still sitting on the couch as the crowd goes but she doesn't fall asleep on him, as far as I know.

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