Well what do you know ... I had one more in me.
I am thrilled to share the original script for S7xE25 "Til The Next Goodbye" with you all. There's lots of Eric/Donna goodness in this script - I was hoping there would be. 🥺
Read on for my summary of the differences between the table draft and the episode that aired!
Jackie and Kelso's scene to start the episode is nearly identical, but there's an added line about the Chicago sports teams that makes me (a transplant Chicagoan) laugh:
The rest of the scene is the same. It ends with Kelso offering to stay awhile and get a burger with Jackie.
Next up we have the scene in the Forman kitchen with Eric, Donna, Red, Kitty, and Bob. It's written a little differently in the table draft:
Donna bought Eric travel books for the extremely nervous traveler lol 🥺🥰 (Also - can I get that series?? Asking for a friend.)
I also like how she pushed back on Kitty here on Eric's behalf, reminding her that her adult son can make his own decisions... well, until Kitty glares at her and Donna ducks behind Eric to get out of the swing zone 🤣
Then we have the scene of the gang in the basement.
In the table draft, Eric isn't worried about his mom throwing him a surprise going away party.
Eric, Donna, and Hyde's cut dialogue here made me laugh out loud. 😂
Kelso's recounting of dropping off Jackie - and Donna's about her calling several times to criticize her outfit - are the same as in the episode. Then Jackie calls, and Hyde's surprised she wants to speak to Eric.
Eric and Jackie's dialogue is a little different (more sentimental, I'd say):
The scene ends the same way, with Jackie asking to speak to Red after she's finished talking to Eric.
The next scene is Fez and Charlie talking on the driveway, and then Eric and Donna approach. Fez tells the story about what a good friend Eric is because he poured soda all over him after he fell into a hole Kelso and Hyde lured him into 🙈. It's word for word, except Charlie interjects a few lines.
It's particularly clear in this draft that their original plan was to set up Charlie to be a regular in season 8 following Topher and Ashton's departure. As I think most of us know, Charlie's actor, Bret Harrison, got offered his own show called The Loop, resulting in T70 writing him off in the first episode of S8 by saying he died falling off the water tower. I am personally in the I-would-definitely-have-preferred-Charlie-over-Randy camp, even though they still might've tried pairing him up with Donna to manufacture angst. This gives me an idea for a What If story. Hmm...
There's also this added exchange at the end of the scene, mocking Fez's sentimentality and manhood 🙄
Next is Hyde and Leo at Grooves, discussing Loud Girl. The scene is word-for-word up until this point:
Leo provides more of his stoned insight: "I mean, you guys fight sometimes but deep down you really care about her. There's no shame in that." 🥰
Speaking of Charlie... here's another scene he had with Fez and Eric, that was greatly shortened in the aired episode:
*Wonders about how Fez's S8 storylines would have been different if Charlie was around instead of Randy* 🤔
The scene continues with this:
Which leads directly into the guys' final circle.
Eric says, "Hey, pass me some more courage!" to start the scene and then they go into the exact dialogue from the episode.
The following scene with Red and Kitty lecturing the guys in the kitchen while they're stoned out of their minds is also word-for-word to what aired. It ends with Red saying he can't think of any worse punishment than sending Eric to Africa, so guess what pal, he's going to Africa!
Hyde and Leo's next scene about Loud Girl, Chicago, and Leo watching the store for him is also nearly identical. I'm not including screenshots because of the image limit.
Up next, Eric and Kelso at the hospital getting their shots. In the table draft, Red came along with them, too. Well, until he heads across the street to get a beer. 😂
Kelso is extra pervy towards Donna.
I prefer their interaction from the aired episode, where she gives him a painful wedgie when he asks her to help him with his pants. 😅
Eric and Kelso's goodbye moment is similar, but I can see why some of the superfluous lines were cut.
I think it's obvious that the show was acknowledging here that both actors/characters would be leaving in S8.
In the draft, Eric and Donna's goodbye scene is next. It's in his bedroom rather than on top of the Vista Cruiser.
I kind of laughed at Fez realizing he crossed a line and that this is too intimate of a moment for him to witness, but I'm just not a big fan of the Fez-creeping-on-E/D-from-closets joke to begin with so, meh. I feel fine that this was cut.
I do love that among Eric's "bare necessities" for the year away are his GI Joe's and Donna's bra (🤣), and also the stage direction that when they hug, "it's obvious that neither of them wants to let go." 🥹😭
But overall, I prefer the scene that aired in the episode.
The scene in the episode is longer, and includes more sentimentality from Eric (he tells her she's his best friend, and that he loves her so much).
It's interesting that they flipped the line, "I'll be back before you know it, and then we'll have our whole lives to spend together." In the table draft it's Eric who says it, but in the episode it's Donna's line.
And finally, I think thematically it makes more sense for Eric and Donna's last scene on the show (theoretically anyway, we all know that Topher came back for a cameo in the series finale but they probably didn't know that then) to be on the Vista Cruiser. It's a natural bookend to their story; it subtly reminds us how far they've come when they reminisce about having their first kiss.
Eric and Red's scene is next. It's very similar, but with a few different lines.
Donna packing crackers so Eric doesn't get car sick on the way to the airport is sweet/wifey of her, but it is that same ridiculous infantilizing of Eric routine that the writers really leaned into in S7 (and eventually T90S, too). 🙄
I liked Red's final line in the actual episode better. "You lose that knife, don't come home," always gets a big laugh from me.
Finally, the goodbye scene on the driveway.
Kitty has, of course, thrown him a going-away party. She has a banner printed, but there's a mix up and it wishes him a "HAPPY RETIREMENT, FRANK!" 😂
Leo's already doing a bang-up job watching the record store for Hyde, *lol*
And there's some more Fez and Charlie interaction, making me wonder - again - how Charlie staying on as a main cast member in season 8 would've changed storylines for Fez, and for everyone else...
Eric and Hyde's scene is very similar, except Eric starts to get sentimental and Hyde immediately shuts it down.
Bob has a surprisingly nice interaction with Eric (before introducing his oompa band). 🙄
Kitty's goodbye to Eric is similar - she hugs him and doesn't let go until they have to pull her off of him *lol*
But I missed Eric's line from the episode about, "I'm really only allowed one carry-on." I wonder if it was improvised.
Just like in the episode, Eric's car won't start and so his friends and family push the Vista Cruiser from the driveway for his series exit. I get by with a little help from my friends, right? 🥹
Now, there is one more Very Important scene in this episode: the one with Hyde knocking on Jackie's motel room door in Chicago.
I hit the image limit for this post so I can't include the last screenshot. But I'll type the last page of the script in case any Zennies wanted to see it:
Hyde: Y'know, okay. (THEN) Is everything alright?
Jackie: Everything's fine. I just didn't expect -
(Kelso enters wearing just a bathrobe and carrying a bucket of ice)
Kelso: I checked and no one can see us doing it from the parking lot.
(Kelso sees Hyde, screams, and throws the bucket of ice in the air. Ice flies everywhere. The moment is frozen until...)
Hyde: You son of a -
(Kelso turns to run out the door. Hyde grabs his robe. As Kelso bolts, Hyde holds onto the robe which peels off Kelso as he disappears out the door)
Kelso (OS): I'm nude!
Fade Out.
It's very similar to what aired, and imo doesn't hold any extra clues as to what Jackie and Kelso did (or planned to do) in the hotel room. The writers left it purposefully vague and open to interpretation.
The tag at the end of the episode is what aired - Kelso running around the parking lot naked, grabbing a fedora to cover his privates, and then running into two attractive women and flirting with them.
Whew, that was a long one! Thanks for reading along with me, @thatseventiesbitch and check out some of the other original That '70s Show scripts I've posted!
S2xE20 "Kiss of Death" S2xE22 "Jackie Moves On" S2xE23 "Holy Crap!" S2xE26 "Moon Over Point Place" S3xE23 "Backstage Pass" S4xE2 "Eric's Depression" S5xE21 "Trampled Under Foot" S6xE20 "Squeezebox" S7xE8 "Angie"
