Ooooh!

[sholio]

Apparently back in season two, Jeff Eastin would occasionally post individual script pages from White Collar to his Twitter as a preview/teaser of the next week's episode - which is kind of awesome anyway as a writing-process thing; I was completely fascinated by the revision notes - you can see several of them at this tag at whitecollar_tv. ANYWAY. One of the pages is from the shooting script of "What Happens in Burma", an excerpt from the Peter-Neal conversation at the end, and it has more dialogue than actually made it into the episode, including a really strong hint at the origins of Neal's hatred of guns. :D :D :D

The script page is here.

While super-spoilery bits are blacked out of the script (because it was released before the episode aired), it is very obvious that whatever Neal was going to say had to do with his dirty-cop dad (something that happened when he was a kid?). On the one hand, I can kinda see why they backed off and left their future options open since it wasn't integral to the episode, and I can see why they went a little more vague/oblique with Neal's worries about turning out to be a bad person like his dad (the final episode gets the same point across, but in a less overt way). And since this didn't make it into the episode and therefore isn't technically canon, it is possible that the writers will go a different direction in a future episode -- they've left their options open. But since Jeff Eastin is apparently very hands-on with the show, it's likely that this is what they imagine for Neal's past.


Oh, here's another cool thing - want to read the original pilot script for White Collar? Here it is - scroll down to "White Collar". It's kind of fascinating, because nearly all the character byplay is still there, but a ton of the specific details of setting and character and plot are different. The show was set in San Diego, Peter's last name was Stokes and his wife's name was Debbie. And the earliest version of Mozzie has to be read to be believed. (I gather they were going for something along the lines of "burned-out beatnik paranoid survivalist".)

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/360528.html with comments.

Comments

[dreamingoctober.livejournal.com]

I... am so glad they decided to go with "El" instead of "Debbie". >.> El is like, my favorite nickname right now. Thanks for the links! These shall keep me entertained until Wednesday. Maybe. :D

[sholio]

I know! It's really disconcerting having her referred to as "Debbie" in the script. :D (The only problem I'm having with "El" is that it's kind of weird writing her -- I don't think I've ever written a character with a name that short, but clearly "El" is how everyone thinks of her, not "Elizabeth". It's hilarious that it's throwing me for a bit of a loop, but it is!)

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Jeff Eastin is very good at laying that trail of crumbs in his twitter to stir up interest... on the other hand, for someone who generally wants to remain unspoiled, it's a constant temptation! But even when I'm good and don't peek, I always go and take a look after the episode (by which time he'll have posted something about the next one and argh!)

[sholio]

Hee! Yeah, I think it's getting to be more of a thing for creators to leak a lot of goodies to get fans interested. I'm trying really hard to be good about the last two episodes 'til the hiatus and not peek at anything, but it's haaard!