"Nuclear Family"



Cut Scenes:

The first version of the script was dated March 4th 1991.

In it, Stevie's guns are specifically described as merchandise from the TV show
Gunsmoke.

Mac and Burt have a short chat at the start about Eddie and about Mac's current success (replaced with a slightly different discussion in transmission).

The distance between Cuba and Florida is changed (it's 120 miles away in the script - later shortened to 100 - with the ability to lob a weapon in 30 seconds; in the transmitted episode it's 200 miles or 40 seconds away... the original script is actually closer as the tip of Cuba is 90 miles South of the lowest part of Florida).

When promoting the shelter to Burt, Mac holds the poncho up to Sam (not Burt) to show how great it looks.

The sequence of Al appearing vertically too low is missing.

Sam and Al joke a little about Sam's poncho (Al:"Isn't it a little small?", Sam: "Sam's a dog", Al: "Hey, don't be too rough on yourself").

Al jokes about nuclear war as "bar-b-que city!".

Stevie is a little more precise when terrifying Kimberly saying paratroopers will "come down and attack the neighborhood!" ("...cities" in the final version).

Sam pushes Mac a little more about what he'd do in a panic ("You're saying you'd actually shoot, say... Burt?") along with a few extra lines in the scene where he emphasises how bad nuclear war could be.

When Sam comforts Stevie, he tells him that being afraid is "silly" (in the episode he corrects Stevie that it isn't "stupid").

Mrs Wishnetsky specifies that her tattoo is from Dachau, and when Sam speaks to her he says of the survivors "even if there are, what kind of world would they have to come back to?" (Mrs Wishnetsky then calls him a good salesman, while in the finished version she calls him a bad one for convincing her not to buy a shelter.)

Act Three opens with an extended version of Stevie and Kimberly watching Duck and Cover while Sam looks for Mac - part of this is moved to later in the act.

When Sam and Al discuss Duck and Cover, Sam says as in the finished episode "It makes them believe they can survive nuclear war!" then follows it up with "Then maybe their generation will be more inclined to start one".

The argument Mac and Sam have offscreen at the start of Act Four is fully scripted but ultimately adds nothing.

Al's unusual laughter at "selling fun instead of fear" is not present.