The rest of the story

Joe got up to speak and talk about the Pencillator. He was nervous, but presentable. As he's talking, Beth hands a folder to Mr. James. Mr. James opens the sealed folder and his eyes widen.  Mr. James interrupts Joe and announces that the press conference is over and thanks everybody for attending. When one audience member protests, Mr. James breaks the Pencillator, saying it was a shoddy product that should never have been marketed. Dave tries to find out what was going on, but all Mr. James will say is that those "Pencil Boys" sure know how to play a game of hardball and that's all he's going to say.

As the press conference starts to break up, Joe sees the big guy smiling. Joe picks a fight with him and quickly gets put down. Dave asks what happened. Joe's supposed to know Kung Fu, but it looked like the guy that hit him knew Fist Fu.

Lisa catches Bill before he leaves and asks if he'll call and let Matthew go home. Bill's amused, sure that Matthew's already left.  It's 9pm. As Bill passes a phone on the way out, he decides to call.  Matthew's still there, waiting for his call. He's playing with some dominoes. Bill, with affection in his voice, tells him it's okay to go home.  If they haven't called yet, they won't call until tomorrow. Bill hangs up the payphone, a little ashamed of himself. Matthew hangs up the phone. The camera pulls back and shows an elaborate domino setup. Matthew tips a domino and they all start falling, spelling out the stations name or whatever else the producers decide to play with.

What I was trying to do

When I was writing the script, I got a newfound respect for the talented people who write an ensemble comedy. I wanted to give everybody something to do, but found a lack of space to do that to any credible extent. Lisa comes off light in this script and a final polish would have given her more to do. I wanted to spotlight Joe because I hadn't seen any episodes where he was the center of attention. Everybody else had an episode that revolved around their characters except Joe Rogan and Khandi Alexander. An earlier version of the script had some play between Joe and Catherine, but Khandi Alexander had left the show and I wound up scrapping scenes of her helping Joe rehearse his speech. I thought it would be fun throwing a little environmental awareness into a script.

One of the things I wanted to do was throw a little something in to ground the characters. Beth shoves a bunch of folders into the wastecan. That's good for a laugh, but when Lisa rifles throw them, Beth knows what's in the folders. I wanted to show that Beth is a good secretary, so good that she's basically got everything under control even though it looks as if she's loafing. Dave and Mr. James also know about Joe's inventions, so that says they're listening to the people that work for them. When Mr. James has to convince Joe to talk at the press conference, he's two steps ahead of Joe, ready with a substitute that he knows he won't need. That's the Mr. James character that I like, a guy whose businesses run like well-oiled machines, allowing him to have fun and associate with people that he likes.

I didn't have room to give Matthew anything to do, but I wanted to explore his relationship with Bill McNeil, a man he idolizes. Bill picks on him, but ultimately has real affection for Matthew.

The script here is an unfinished unpolished product. I reread it before putting it on the web and there's some areas that need to be punched up.  There's others that I still like.