"The Note," Scenes E through K

Act Two opens on the "apartment - a couple days later."  The initial part with Patti made it in.

Interestingly, "A bartender from the Playboy Club enters dressed to look youthful."  His name is Tom and he's played by Tom Trbovich, whose "Playboy Show" role didn't make it to air, so this feels like an in-joke, especially since Trbovich sometimes directed L&S.

They omitted Laverne's line, "The bag ladies in California look so much better than the bag ladies in Milwaukee.  Must be their tan."

They added Maxine having the same Beatles poster.  After Patti and Maxine leave together, Laverne originally said, "Fine.  If they're gonna desert me, better now than in ten years.  Who needs those people!"  Onscreen she'd insult the combination of milk & Coke.

The next scene is in the same place, "later that night":

ONLY THE BLACK LAMP IS LIT NEXT TO CARMINE.  FRANK, CARMINE, RHONDA, SQUIGGY AND LENNY ARE ALL DRESSED FOR BED IN THE LIVING ROOM.  SQUIGGY IS IN THE CRIB.  RHONDA IS IN A CHAIR.  FRANK IS IN A CHAIR.  CARMINE IS IN A CHAIR.  AND, LENNY, IS ON THE SOFA.

Onscreen, Squiggy says that a married woman changes her name, which he read in House Beautiful, while in the script he says, "I saw Lon Chaney change into a werewolf.  I'd like to see Shirl with a fuzzy face and fangs."

One stage direction is "They do a snoring bit (see Judy)."  I presume that Judy Pioli, the writer for this script had the specific routine for group snoring in mind and she had to explain it in person.

Onscreen, Squiggy says they didn't want Laverne to have to be alone, but he was scripted to say, "We're all gonna stay right here with you and spend the night.  Ooh, I like the way that sounds."

Scene J is in the bedroom, again with continuous action, and it's basically what would air.

Scene K goes back to the living room, still with continuous action.   Onscreen, Rhonda is sleeping on the other side of Squiggy in the crib, nowhere near the couch, but the script has the stage direction, "Lenny shakes Rhonda and, half-asleep, she slaps him, knocking him back to the couch."

In the script, Laverne, reading from Shirley's note says, " 'Love you always, Shirley.  XXXOOO XXX,' " so Squiggy replies, "I wonder what she meant by the last part."  In the filmed version, she says it as "hugs and kisses" and Squiggy has his line about always hoping to meet his own Walter.  Someone, likely Lander, added Squiggy saying he'll "miss that little whippet."

And that's it for Act Two changes.

A few more notes on "The Note":

• Laverne has understandable abandonment issues in both versions.
• Although there are some un-Lenny moments in this script, that lead-up to him sleeping on the sofa is just right.
• Squiggy having classic-horror-movie fantasies about Shirley is on brand, although the House Beautiful line works, too.
• Squiggy lusts after Laverne more in the script than onscreen, which is surprising, but then so is Lenny being interested in Rhonda, in both versions.
• Next time, we'll look at the tag, which short though it of course is, deserves to stand alone.