script: Rolling Thunder

[lmlewis]

Well, right off the bat in scene one we've got a line that always sounded strange to me--not the words, but the tone, as though it had been dubbed in later. Flip says "The Coyote's not ready to drive but I've arranged for you to do some practice laps at the track." . The camera is shooting from behind him, you never see him say the line. It's obviously a set up for the scene where McC is driving at the track in a not-Coyote when he gets word of Flip's death. Clearly it was added later.

Was the track scene added as a late revision as well? Scenes were added to the script as late as June 28th. The track scenes are lettered (as is Flip Johnson's death sequence). Looks like the track sequence takes the place of original scenes 20-39.

[owlcroft]

It's surprising that they couldn't do a better job of dubbing that in, even back in the early '80's. It's so obviously a late addition. On the other hand, at least somebody was keeping track of continuity back at the beginning. Except for the born in Kansas remark. It makes more sense for the judge to have been born there than for his folks to have sharecropped there, though.

[lmlewis]

Okay, scene three. McC and Flip in the car.

Script has McC saying 'Yeah, I think the guy want to send me back to jail, Flip'
then he looks at his watch and makes a crack about 'Mickey's little hand . . . that's it Mousketeers.'

Subbing in the finished product is the much stronger:
'This guy definitely wants to send me back . . .' and all the fluff about the Mickey Mouse watch is gone. It raises the panic level a lot higher. McC isn't joking here.

Two scenes later, scripts says, 'I'm gonna try an' fool 'im."
The final product is: "I'm gonna try something." Now, this is subtler, and might be a paraphrase, but, again, it's in the direction of upping the ante. Yeah, it's a con, but the implications are that he's seriously worried and not fooling around.

[owlcroft]

Well, see that's the key to me; the flippancy, the smart remarks are no longer hiding the fear that something is very wrong. That allows McCormick to think how to take care of the problem, which he did. I know they wanted to establish the Fastest Mouth in the West quickly, but that frivolous attitude was inappropriate and nearly incomprehensible. Now the scene in the courtroom is terrific.

[owlcroft]

Another change they made in McCormick's attitude is shown in the truck coming up the drive to the house. Instead of being "depressed" when he says "Get um up, Scout", he's wryly humorous. The sense of humor is much more apparent, and the good spirits that almost nothing can depress are becoming increasingly evident. I think that's an important change. McC was born one of those happy-go-lucky kind of guys, always cheerful and making do with what life hands him; when things went wrong and he had to cope with the bad stuff, humor was a big asset.

Sure we've already seen the sarcastic wit and the smart mouth, but this is more self-deprecatory and almost invites the judge to join in the joke.

And it was very interesting to see Kimosabe spelled correctly, even though I don't do it myself!

[lmlewis]

Okay, scene 9a, Hardcastle and Sarah packing up his office stuff.

In the script there is an exchange re:a trophy and Hardcastle reminisces about basketball. Also there's a remark later on to the bailiff about a pick-up game, all set-up for the crucial scene of one-on-one with McC (in scenes 107-113), but this bit got yanked. Good, too, it's a distraction, the scene is really about the files.

(BTW, Sarah says 'we're going to run out of room in the basement--settling, once and for all, the question of where the files are kept. ;-))

[lmlewis]

owlcroft said:

Another change they made in McCormick's attitude is shown in the truck coming up the drive to the house. Instead of being "depressed" when he says "Get um up, Scout", he's wryly humorous. The sense of humor is much more apparent, and the good spirits that almost nothing can depress are becoming increasingly evident. I think that's an important change. McC was born one of those happy-go-lucky kind of guys, always cheerful and making do with what life hands him; when things went wrong and he had to cope with the bad stuff, humor was a big asset.

Sure we've already seen the sarcastic wit and the smart mouth, but this is more self-deprecatory and almost invites the judge to join in the joke.

And it was very interesting to see Kimosabe spelled correctly, even though I don't do it myself!

You're ahead of me but, yes, the bitter, very sarcastic guy from the courthouse and the cell gets transformed to a bemused, slightly sarcastic guy in the truck and the gatehouse.

But the spark, the humor, was mostly a function of tone and expression. Points to DHK on that one.

[cheride]

lmlewis said:

You're ahead of me but, yes, the bitter, very sarcastic guy from the courthouse and the cell gets transformed to a bemused, slightly sarcastic guy in the truck and the gatehouse.

But the spark, the humor, was mostly a function of tone and expression. Points to DHK on that one.

Yeah, just a general comment, really. The first time I ever saw a script-- which I think was some Trek episode or another, not that it matters-- I was sort of amazed at how little direction there really is in terms of the emotional context of any given line of dialogue. Gives a whole new respect for the acting craft.

[lmlewis]

cheride said:

lmlewis said:

You're ahead of me but, yes, the bitter, very sarcastic guy from the courthouse and the cell gets transformed to a bemused, slightly sarcastic guy in the truck and the gatehouse.

But the spark, the humor, was mostly a function of tone and expression. Points to DHK on that one.

Yeah, just a general comment, really. The first time I ever saw a script-- which I think was some Trek episode or another, not that it matters-- I was sort of amazed at how little direction there really is in terms of the emotional context of any given line of dialogue. Gives a whole new respect for the acting craft.

And just a casual analysis of the first fifteen pages or so, I'd say BK and DHK were much looser in their rendering of the dialog. The guy who did Flip was word for word on-script. Haven't gotten far enough in to say if this is a general trend. Might just vary from actor to actor.

Dalem's secretary had a whole line about Tahoe that wasn't in the script. Then DHK throws a line at her, something about her being good (can't quite make it out), as he walks into Dalem's office.

[Liz]

I took a while to get through the script, but I have to say that the filmed version was an improvement on the written version, even one as late as ours. I also have an earlier version that stunk big time. I have to believe that the improvement was due to SJC's input and assistance.

The trimming of the speech in the beginning, using more slang, was an important aspect to giving us a feel for the characters.

The editing and flipping of two scenes was the right choice in my opinion. First, moving the Judge's retirement party to after the funeral was a good touch as we keep a sad theme going here. And as a personal aside, I think DHK did a marvelous job with his scene where he hears of Flip's death, so much better than what was sketched out in the script.

In regards to scene 89, page 34, I'm glad they removed the "peanut-eatin' retard" comment. It jarred, although I know what they meant by it, the wording didn't seem right for Hardcase.

Did you catch the early name for the house? Knoll House? Nah, just doesn't work. Seems like they didn't catch it in all the pages because just a little while later you can see that it is Gull's-Way.

My personal opinion? I think during the basketball game, the first one, that the double check by Hardcastle was an improvision by BK as was the hat tug by Mark being DHK's idea. There is nothing in the script that even would lead to this being done.

I always wondered how the goons knew that Mark was in the Gatehouse, rather than the main house or the gardener's trailer.

Biggest and, to me, very important change was on page 90, scene 217, where the script has the Nevada cop giving the sign of the cross to deputize Mark as he tears off. I'm sorry, but it just worked better with the Judge doing it. If Hardcase HAD asked the cop to do it, I have a feeling he would've gotten a dumbfounded look.

[jadzia2000]

I think it's really interesting to be able to read these scripts to see what was added and what was taken out. The scene with Mark and Barbara at the race track walking around instead of sitting on the grandstand. Mark talking about his days with Flip before he decides to steal the coyote for Barbara. I think that would have added a nice touch to the scene just before they cut to Mark stealing the coyote.

When hardcastle and mccormick chase the bad guys after failing to kidnap him, then they start talking in the car, Mark's "I'm gonna die". again not in the original script, but wondered if this is improvised by the 2 actors.

I'm a sucker for the romantic stuff, so the script basically confirmed my speculation that Barbara and Mark were somewhat of an item. I think I would have liked to have scene that relationship as opposed to some of the others we've seen Mark go through (i.e. Kiki Cutter, (Yuck!!)).

I wonder why they didn't film Mark and Rick fight? It would have made more sense when Barbara asked him if he was alright with cuts on his face. But no cuts, no reason to ask if he wasl alright. Because she sounded panicked.

[owlcroft]

Yeah, what was with that "Knoll House" reference? Was it some well known estate elsewhere or had they planned to use a made-up name for Gull's Way but were foiled by the archway?

I have to agree with the change in who "deputizes" Mark. It's just so much cuter to have the judge do it, but I want to make any point about that. During the first few episodes, starting right off in RT, the judge is not the irascible, crusty, gruff character he becomes later on. He's jovial at times, amiable in his reactions to some of McCormick's antagonism, smiling and making light remarks and being a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. Yes, there's some hard-nosedness displayed, but it's only after a few more episodes that the constantly irritable, short-tempered Hardcase shows up.

And it's driving me nuts seeing all the omitted scenes and thinking we'll never know what was left out!

[Liz]

The earlier script that I got from Nanci has the pilot as a flashback, with Milt and Mark talking about that first time. Any first time script writer would know that you should save those type of episodes for later in the series, not kick off the show that way.

[susanb]

I hope you don't mind if my posts for this episode are from memory. My brother helped me pack some things, and he packed up my season 1, and now can't remember which box he put it in. I have noticed some of the changes you mentioned in the script when I looked through it earlier. I remember noticing some small dialog change when I printed it, but I can't remember what it was now.

I agree it was better that the judge was the one to deputize Mark.

I also agree that the judge was a lot more jovial in this episode than later in the series.

I'm going to read through it again, and see what else I noticed.

[lmlewis]

I think Knoll House was just the early--pre-location scouting--version of the estate, and both name and initial description got left in. Not so much in eror, I suppose, as it was something that didn't have to be changed, since it was only description.