CAN YOU HEAR THE LAUGHTER Script

[Cheryl Harrell]

I just finished reading my script for the CAN YOU HEAR THE LAUGHTER movie. It was an interesting read. I noticed in some scenes it had listed where he was supposed to cry. I didn't recall him crying in the movie but it's hard to see everything & take in everything when you've only seen it twice. In one scene it acts like he was caring about the baby, where he cries over it cuz of the divorce. In another scene he's crying & they have him go to the sink & splash water over his face to try to dry his face & tears. I also got the impression from reading it that he didn't like the fact that he was light colored in his skin for a Puerto-rican & wished he had darker skin.

I was hoping it'd list the origional lines & then the corrected lines but it doesn't. No crossouts. It have like 15-17 OMITTED. Listed like that. I'm curious to know what was omitted. So I'll never know how it was origionally before they changed it. Oh well.

I got the impression from reading it that he was so distrught & upset over the fact that when his former manager sued him for firing him & getting a new manager cuz he wanted on that was in LA, that that plus having to pay all the money to him plus lawyers & court fees, plus having to pay his secretary Carol Novak & paying agents, publicists etc plus paying for Kathy's maid & her extravagances. It all got to him & he simply couldn't bear it anymore.

There is a line in there where Nat asks Alan Bursky why no one saw what was happening. He said they did but by then it was too late. Too late? Because they ignored his cries for help & his problems, he is no longer here with us. He was a sweet dear Puerto-rican boy who going thru alot a problems & having a hard time but no one helped him & he died all too soon. How could anyone let this happen? It just upsets me so.

At the end when he died it had me reaching for a hankie & putting it to good use. It's so sad how he died. I just wish I could go back to Jan 1977 & put my arms around him & tell him he is loved & please don't end it because I care...

I hope to start scanning it soon & post online for folks to read. Once I've started posting it online I'll put the urrl up on here so folks can go & read it. I'll try to post on here when I have added more script pages to the site so folks will know when I've gotten more done for folks to read...

[Anna]

Cheryl, That just breaks my heart how people turned their backs on Freddie when he needed them most. Poor Guy, he was crying out and no one listened.

[SitcomsAreTheWay]

Originally posted by Cheryl Harrell
I just finished reading my script for the CAN YOU HEAR THE LAUGHTER movie. It was an interesting read. I noticed in some scenes it had listed where he was supposed to cry. I didn't recall him crying in the movie but it's hard to see everything & take in everything when you've only seen it twice. In one scene it acts like he was caring about the baby, where he cries over it cuz of the divorce. In another scene he's crying & they have him go to the sink & splash water over his face to try to dry his face & tears. I also got the impression from reading it that he didn't like the fact that he was light colored in his skin for a Puerto-rican & wished he had darker skin.

I was hoping it'd list the origional lines & then the corrected lines but it doesn't. No crossouts. It have like 15-17 OMITTED. Listed like that. I'm curious to know what was omitted. So I'll never know how it was origionally before they changed it. Oh well.

I got the impression from reading it that he was so distrught & upset over the fact that when his former manager sued him for firing him & getting a new manager cuz he wanted on that was in LA, that that plus having to pay all the money to him plus lawyers & court fees, plus having to pay his secretary Carol Novak & paying agents, publicists etc plus paying for Kathy's maid & her extravagances. It all got to him & he simply couldn't bear it anymore.

There is a line in there where Nat asks Alan Bursky why no one saw what was happening. He said they did but by then it was too late. Too late? Because they ignored his cries for help & his problems, he is no longer here with us. He was a sweet dear Puerto-rican boy who going thru alot a problems & having a hard time but no one helped him & he died all too soon. How could anyone let this happen? It just upsets me so.

At the end when he died it had me reaching for a hankie & putting it to good use. It's so sad how he died. I just wish I could go back to Jan 1977 & put my arms around him & tell him he is loved & please don't end it because I care...

I hope to start scanning it soon & post online for folks to read. Once I've started posting it online I'll put the urrl up on here so folks can go & read it. I'll try to post on here when I have added more script pages to the site so folks will know when I've gotten more done for folks to read...

I can't wait to read it!

It's so sad.

You know something,why is depression always ignored or just blown off by other people? As we all know, it can lead to suicide and I'm just wondering why it isn't taken seriously enough.Then again,there are alot of people who aren't educated about it and really don't understand what causes it nor the signs and symptoms of it.

This subject reminds me of a certain website entitled "S.A.V.E-Suicide Awareness Voices of Education(www.save.org).It's a site about suicide and how to determine whether one of your friends or family members are depressed and suicidal.There are some pictures on the site of people whom have committed suicide because of untreated depression.One day I saw a big billboard(you know the ones that just happen to catch your attention while driving on the highway.)of a woman who took her own life because she suffered years of depression and I felt like crying my eyes out.

Poor Freddie,he must have been so torn inside.

[catcopy18]

It's funny you should mention "Can You Hear the Laughter" because I finally won the VHS tape on e-bay and got it Friday. I watched it that night and I couldn't sleep for thinking about it!!! It was sooooo different from Freddie's mother's book wasn't it? It made him out to be a hyper-active, womanizing young man who didn't know what he wanted in life. It left out a whole lot of vital information but then I guess you couldn't expect them to get his entire 22 years of life into a 96 minute movie. It didn't mention a thing about Freddie's first secretary Diane Rappaport and it didn't make Freddie sound like he was very close to his mother as we all knew he was. His meeting of Kathy was very different than his mother's book and it didn't talk anything about his relationship with Kitty Bruce. I did think the actor looked a lot like Freddie at times (with exception to Freddie's dreamy eyes) and he even captured a lot of Freddie's expressions and mannerisms. I wish they could have captured a little more of his emotions when it came to the birth of Freddie Jr. I wonder if Freddie Jr. has ever seen that tape?! Anyway, I'm glad I finally got the chance to see what it was all about. When I did watch a CATM episode the next day, I felt a little bit different about Freddie than I had. I felt like I knew more about his "confused/depressed" side. Some of the magazine interviews that I've been reading about him from my e-bay purchases make him sound like he certainly didn't have the Chico personality at all. Such a beautiful human being who needed so much help!!!!!!

[Pitooey]

I was reading on the Save website that sitcomsaretheway posted and I noticed that it had said "People who are suicidal drive fast" and Freddie did indeed drive fast, with not a care in the world. He had so many of the suicidal symptoms...... that it still baffles me that so many of his close friends turned their backs on him.

[Cheryl Harrell]

Glad you got to get a copy of the tape of the movie. It's a sad one & a good cry... What bothers me is they left so much stuff out & didn't show his sweet side with his mom & the baby nor his religious side. It's so sad what happened to him...