The Good Life Script Material
The Good Life ran for all of 15 episodes during the 1971-1972 season on NBC. The half-hour sitcom starred Larry Hagman and Donna Mills as Albert and Jane Miller, who decide the best way to “the good life” is employment as servants for a wealthy family. Albert becomes is hired as butler/chauffeur and Jane as cook/maid. Rounding out the cast were David Wayne as millionaire Charles Dutton, Hermione Baddeley as his sister Grace and Danny Goldman as his son Nick. The series was produced by Screen Gems. Read more about The Good Life here.
Here is a three-page document that explains the concept behind the series and lays out six potential story lines that give “an indication of where THE GOOD LIFE can go as a series.” Unfortunately, the document is undated and has no author. Click on the cover page to see a larger version and to read through the rest of the document:
Here is an excerpt from the script for an episode titled “Dutton’s Retirement” (production #3506, broadcast November 6th, 1971). The revised final draft was written by Bernie Kahn and is dated June 23rd, 1971. Click on the cover page to see a larger version and to read a scene from the second act of the episode complete with two revisions:
And finally, here is an excerpt from another episode, this one titled “The Burglar Alarm” (production #3516, broadcast October 30th, 1971. The final draft was written by Ron Friedman and is dated July 7th, 2001. Click on the cover page to see a larger version and to read the first two pages of the first act, including a revision:
Last updated July 17th, 2009
July 17th, 2009 at 12:31AM
Larry Hagman wanted to do “THE GOOD LIFE” after five years of being Barbara Eden’s co-star on “I DREAM OF JEANNIE” (he was so intent on trying to make the series “better”- even after directing three episodes during 1967- he literally suffered a nervous breakdown during the third season, and would not talk about the series for years after it ended). He disdained it so much in its later seasons, he answered a question posed by someone during a Screen Gems publicity tour at “EXPO 67″- “Aren’t you Larry Hagman of…?”- responding, “Yeah, I’m the guy with the broad in the bottle.”
“THE GOOD LIFE” was HIS chance to be in the spotlight, and Hagman wanted to make the show work. That’s why he got Claudio Guzman, the producer and key director of “JEANNIE”, to do the same for him; Guzman was one of the few people on “JEANNIE” who could handle Larry when he was “difficult” [and he could be, quite often], and they were on the same wavelength creatively (as well as good friends)- he’d let Larry experiment with ideas that weren’t in the script, and encouraged his ability to create slapstick sequences. If “THE GOOD LIFE” had been a success, there wouldn’t be a ‘DALLAS” or “J.R. Ewing” as we know it today.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:18AM
I don’t remember if I ever saw “Dutton’s Retirement” [11/6/71], but I understand the revision on “page 28″- obviously, there had to be some kind of “tension” in the Chinese restaurant on Charles’ Dutton’s first (and obviously LAST) night of running the place, so let’s have his sister Grace {and her “snooty” society friends, Adelaide & Lydia} show up to try to “drum up support” for the joint, adding more pressure on Charles to make good. The line about preferring French cuisine- frog’s legs and snails- to what “horrors” the Chinese restaurant might serving {especially if someone like, say, Ruth McDevitt is speaking them} is funny.