When Hope and Crosby filmed the Road Pictures, they supposedly had their radio writers beef up the script to the point where Hope said to the writer "If you come across a line that you wrote, shout 'Bingo!'".
Could this have happened in modern TV with modern protection for writers? For instance, Johnny Carson guest starred on Cheers. If he didn't think the script was funny enough and gave it to his people to completely re-write, would the show runner have to accept it?
Okay, I can easily answer this one because along with David Isaacs, I wrote the episode of CHEERS where Johnny Carson appeared.
First off, we made it clear going in that no TONIGHT SHOW writers would be involved. In actuality, it worked the other way. In our episode, Johnny had to deliver a monologue, and David and I wrote that, not the TONIGHT SHOW writers.
And as for his part...
The day we shot the episode I arrived early and knocked on Johnny's dressing room door. (David wasn't there that day). I introduced myself and said I was happy to rewrite any of his lines and tailor it to his satisfaction. Shockingly, he said it was great, and he was happy to do it just as written.
And sure enough, he did stick to the script word for word.
Happy to say that our monologue got laughs, although I wonder what the actual TONIGHT SHOW writers thought.
from By Ken Levine
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