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"Black and White On Fire"
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Cut Scenes: The second revision, dated 27th September 1990, is very similar to the shooting script. Sam has a short internal monologue when driving Susan home: “There are summers when the heat is more than hot. It’s oppressive. And, it carries on its breezelessness a charge that something bad is about to happen. As we drove from the black section of Los Angeles, it was pretty obvious that whatever that something was, Susan was a part of it”. The Brewster family are called the Bonds and the Harpers are the Jordans. The commercial break that ultimately takes place at the start of the party instead takes place a little earlier, during Sam and Al’s conversation on the street. Ray’s mother is named Nita. The act break that would occur after Sam decides to go to the clinic was placed much later, just as Lonnie takes Susan hostage. |
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Syndication Edit: Near the beginning of the first act. Papa Dee has stopped choking Sam and Lonnie is chewing Sam out.] Sam: Color shouldn't have anything to do with relationships and ... [Looks in mirror and sees himself as Ray Harper.] ... no one should know that better than [Looks back] us. * * * In the syndicated version, the shot showing Ray's face looking back from the mirror is about 1.2 seconds longer while the shot that cuts back to Sam and Susan is shorter by the same amount.
Syndication Edit: In the second act, after the riot has gotten underway, there are three stock-footage shots of fires: 1) three silhouettes of firefighters, 2) a building being gutted by fire, and 3) the silhouette of a jet of water being directed at flames, right before a lap dissolve to a TV screen reflecting Ray's face. In the syndicated version there is about .3 second less each in the second fire shot, in the third fire shot, and in the footage of Ray's reflection in the TV screen.
Syndication Edit: [Daytime. The riot continues. In the middle of a crowd, a police officer pushes down on the head of a woman with her hair in pink curlers.] -- begin cut --> [Camera pans right while people scurry from left to right on a sidewalk on a street corner.] [Flame and smoke roar out of an old dark-blue car.] <-- end cut --- [Camera pans right while firefighters walk and run from right to left near a street corner while smoke issues from a building.] -- begin cut --> [A hook-and-ladder truck moves to the left while flames go up behind it.] <-- end cut --- [People pound on the roof of a police car. Lap dissolve to Sam asleep on the couch.]
Syndication Edit:
* * * [Some people struggle with police officers. A man in the foreground brandishes a bottle.] [A police car rolls slowly towards the camera with figures running around in front of it and more people throwing objects at it from behind. Fade out.] * * * The syndicated version replaces the last shot with 1.2 seconds more of the preceding shot of the people struggling with the police, followed by: [Shot through car window of the back of a truck on fire. Fade out.]
Syndication Edit: [Sam has left to go find Lonnie and Susan, and Mama Harper has chastised BB. Shots of rioting follow.] [A club smashes the headlight of a car.] [One man passes a looted box outside a shop to another man.] [People run off with looted goods.] * * * The second riot shot is replaced by: [Inside a business establishment, the silhouette of a man hands looted goods to other people in silhouette.]
Syndication Edit: The network closing credits consist of clips from the episode, which run for a few seconds and are then freeze-framed with credits. The syndicated closing credits eliminate all the moving footage and just use the freeze-frames with the credits. The syndicated closing music is shortened to fit. Clips: Cherry approaches Sam at the party. Sam ministers to the hurt boy at the clinic. Susan speaks up for Mr. Weintraub while Sam treats BB's arm. Lonnie takes Susan hostage. Sam moves to stop him, but BB holds a gun on Sam. Lonnie raises his gun on Susan and Sam gets in front of her. Sam scurries around the street and Al finds him. * * * The clip of Sam treating BB's arm is frozen a little later in the syndicated version, with Sam actually looking back over his shoulder. |
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