Last night, I was on the "Remembering Mayberry" website, and happened to be looking at Maggie (Charlene Darling) Peterson's script from "The Darlings Are Coming" when that actual episode came on MeTV. I couldn't believe the coincidence. I thought it would be fun and interesting to follow the script while watching the program to look for differences and changes; there were more than I expected.
The pages were all in light blue, which indicates , as Randy Turner mentioned in his excellent blog posts about researching the TAGS scripts at UNC, that they were revised from the original script. There were handwritten notes throughout the script written by Maggie, which were pretty interesting. The first thing I noticed was on the third page of script, listing the cast. The hotel clerk was named "Walter Harris", and there was no actor listed yet for the part - obviously this changed when they cast Olan Soule as the clerk, and used the name "John Masters" that was used in other episodes when he was the choir director. Also, there were only 2 Darling boys mentioned, "Jebbin" and "Frankie" - these parts were not cast yet either. So, at some point soon afterwards, the decision was made to add 2 more Darling boys. Reading the script along with the show surprised me with the frequent changes in words and dialogue, mostly minor, but some very interesting. For example, when Andy is waiting at the bottom of the rope outside the hotel and catches the first Darling boy, the script has "Frankie" saying "Thank ya" - but as we know, in the filmed version he says nothing. In the jail cell scene, the script (and Maggie's notes) show that during the song, Andy was supposed to pull a chair up *outside* the cell where he played the guitar along with the Darlings. Charlene was supposed to get up and dance around the cell to the music. But, as we know, in the filmed final version, Andy sat *inside* the cell while Charlene sat still but kept touching him with her foot. Also in the cell, just prior to the music, Aunt Bee says something to Charlene like "You're a pretty young thing, aren't you ?" - but in the script, this line is not there. Aunt Bee just asks Briscoe if he liked the beans. In the script, and in the full filmed episode, the Darlings and Andy played a second song: "Salty Dog" - this song is cut from most of the syndicated episodes, Finally, near the end of the episode when Charlene is chasing Andy around the courthouse, the script says that Charlene is about to put her arms around Andy when Briscoe opens the door and enters, and yanks Charlene away. But, as we all know, in the final filmed version, Charlene had Andy wrapped up in a big hug and doesn't let go even when Briscoe enters. So, I know this was pretty long, but I couldn't help it - it was just so interesting to read the script along with the actors and note the differences. Joe Suszczynski Grand Island, NY _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.wbmutbb.com/
