scripts in Sesame Street Unpaved

[minor muppetz]

I'm sure that anybody with the book has notice,d but in Sesame Street Unpaved, most of the sketch scripts have differences between the book scripts and what was said/ done in the scenes represented. Sometimes it's more subtle, while in other cases (like The Golden An script) they only include the important dialogue and actions.

This made me wonder, could this have been done to avoid having to pay residuals? Could rewriting a script and changing a few things make it different enough that the writers don't have to be paid? I assume that the songwriters (and their estates) had to be paid for the reprinted songs, and this could be why the book includes so few songs.

 

[Beauregard]

More likely, the original script was longer or just different, and during filming and cutting of the actual clips, along with improvisation, things changes.

 

[minor muppetz]

After reading this I started wondering if the writer watched the sketches for reference or if he looked at the scripts, or if he did a little of both. It's very difficult to transcribe a scene word-for-word, even after watching it many times. And I've read that the performers often improvise, so minor differences could have been the result of improv (and also, I've read that, in the early seasons at least, most scenes were recorded in just one take, so mistakes were left in).

Of course, whether making slight changes to avoid having to pay the script writers is true, this wouldn't be a problem with the sketches where the Muppets interracted with kids, as there was no script for those. In the sketch where Kermit and Joey recited the alphabet, I only noticed one difference between the script as presented in SSU and the on-air sketch: At the beginning of the sketch, Joey first says "COOKIE MONSTER" after F, but in the book she first says "COOKIE MONSTER" after G. Otherwise I think that's word-for-word accurate.

 

[Dshibshm]

I read that there was a 2002 reprint of the book. Where can I find it?