But you can see how the original casting idea would have made this a less depressing episode. Buddy, the guy Johnny's ex-wife is going to marry, was intended to be a big, strong, athletic, good-looking guy whose bad qualities aren't instantly clear (and Paula, the ex-wife, was to bring him around to show off his apparent superiority to Johnny). With Hamilton Camp in the part, the guy has no redeeming qualities, and Paula becomes a pathetic character. Also, Ruth Silveira demonstrates why she's not one of the better-known Committee alumni; she doesn't do that well. With the miscasting, the downbeat story and the downbeat tone of the last part of the third season, this is probably the most depressing episode of the whole series, and there's something a little "off" about a lot of it.
Les has some good lines, though; I think it was Kampmann who got the idea to write him as a total psycopath who semi-deliberately messes with Johnny's mind (here and in "Frog Story" and a few other episodes). There's also one line, "I make money, you make money and no one knows the difference," that's lifted from the SCTV Cisco Kid redub that Kampmann and Peter Torokvei made with Martin Short.
The music in the opening scene is "Book of Love" by the Monotones; I've forgotten what song is playing in the closing scene.
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ReplyDeleteThe song at the end of the episode is "We Just Disagree" by Dave Mason -1977
ReplyDeleteit is so great to see these INTACT. i've been watching the first season on hulu and the music replacement and voice dubbing is distracting and awful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for continuing to post these. I look forward to watching them as they come up.
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