I finally finished reading "Time out for Ginger" and then last night watched the "Shower of Stars" tv version, and the t.v. pilot version. Interesting to see what changes were made from the play to the t.v. version to the pilot.
The two sisters were combined in the pilot and then the sister's storyline was changed completely for the film. Oh and the name goes back and forth from Joan and Jeanne, to Joan, to Jean.
Fun to see a dark haired accentless Karl Swenson. Oh, I guess that sounds kind of racist, it is just different and a switch after growing up knowing him primarily as Lars Hanson on "Little House on the Prairie."
Somehow Candy Moore got directed - misdirected question mark - to be a too loud, too butting in overgrown female Dennis the Menace. It is too bad that the pilot failed probably bec of that - but yet DM lasted for how many seasons??? Without that, I can see that the show could have had some heart and some promise. I guess that you are not familiar with the currently running Canadian drama "Heartland" but it has the character of "Mallory" who is overly talkative and always butting in. She brings in the comic relief,butyou can't help totally loving her. If the pilot version had made Ginger that kind of character, maybe the show could have worked.
I especially liked Roberta Shore. Since she is LDS, I know a bit of her career. She did several things here and there, but it would have been nice to see her in more of a main part in a hit show. She may not have been able to carry her own show like Marlo Thomas, but I can see her taking the Tim Considine/ Don Grady oldest child role in a female "My Three Sons" or an ensemble role in a 60's "Facts of Life" or a t.v. version of "Daddy Long Legs" sans the quizzical 80 year old love interest. (Poor Leslie Caron and Audrey Hepburn with their similar stories both being paired with Fred Astaire who though great was far too old for them to be playing against.)
Candy Moore is far too femnine to be convincing as a tom boy, and Janet Parker is a bit too unattractive to carry a show - though convincing as a tom boy. It is a difficult balance. Patty Duke does show that with a nice balance. I still don't care though for her hair in "Billie."
Difficult conclusion in the play, t.v. version, and film - not addressed in the pilot - that you can't be a girl and athletic. I dunno. I somewhat follow BYU women's athletics. The gymnasts are of course all cute petite feminine girls, but some of the volley-ball players, soccer players and basketball players are ... not. But, yet there are some who are. I dunno. I know that we have discussed all of those things before.
Oh the opening dialogue in the pilot between Agnes and Lizzie was well done. It that tone - although far too sexist for today's standards - had been the tone of the entire show - it also would have worked.
Interesting to see that many lines in the original play made it into the film in spite of the story line with the sister being changed from being in play to being newly married, and the story line of the dad from his bank job being in jeopardy to his run for mayor being in jeopardy.
I still don't get why Ginger/ Billie asks her father out on a date to the play/ victory dance when the family is supposed to be going together - and what about the mom. Daddy daughter dates are great, but as their own thing and not a thing as part of a family activity.
Interesting too to see what getting dressed up meant in the '50's, to being dressed up in the '60's. The message though is the same. Ginger/ Billie's sudden caterpillar to butterfly transformation from a tom boy into a young woman.
I was surprised that Ginger at the end of the play brings up that as kind of a joke that they let her play the last couple of minutes and opened up allowing her to score, basically to be making fun of her not taking her seriously, or treating her as what she desired - a total equal. Ginger complains about it, but then it didn't get further dealt with. There was no further discussion, or anything made of Ginger's trauma or frustration with it. In Billie, Billie legitimatly wins, but I don't think that in real life that a track meet would have that much fan attention, cheerleaders, or her being carried off the field.
Two films both based on real events - "Rudy" and "1000 to 1: The Cory Weissman Story" at the end of a game - Rudy football, 100 to 1 basketball bring in a deserving player to finish off the game, but it is out of love, not to make light of them. It is a way of honoring a player who has played his heart out, but situations didn't him to enable to contribute to the team the way that he would have desired.
Cute dialogue in the play with Howard embellishing his own life stories, and acting as if he was the one who got the win. That doesn't happen in the film.
The play is teeny teeny bit racy - as complared to the film. I've never been to Broadway, but my guess is that if I were to go to Broadway now that I wouldn't find anything that I was comfortable with.
One of the IMBD reviewers thought that the Shadow of Stars version was also a pilot. I don't think so. Wasn't it kind of a thing in the '50's to do different plays on t.v.? I know you can see "The Fantasticks" that way - it is now posted on line, and I can't remember if it was "Oklahoma" or "Carousel" or what it was that I also saw.
Anyway, interesting to see the evolution, from play to t.v. to t.v. pilot to film
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