A Tale Of Three Transcripts - "The Debate"

 

East Side, West Side

In my blog entry for the episode The Debate, I mentioned that there were actually two different versions of this broadcast that were aired live that Sunday night in November, 2005. The first, original version was seen on NBC at 8 pm Eastern/7 pm Central, to air in prime time for those parts of the country. Naturally, since going live across the entire country all at once would mean the West Coast broadcast would happen at 5 pm on a Sunday evening, the network instead had the show performed live a second time at 8 pm Pacific, two hours after the first broadcast ended, in order to reach prime time viewers in California and other western states.

Living in Iowa, I saw the original, first, East Coast version live when I watched on TV. That would have been the one and only time to see that version, however; the producers and the studio decided the second, West Coast version would be the one kept for posterity. That's the version they used for re-runs and syndication; that's the version available on the show's DVDs; that's the version available on streaming services like Amazon Prime and Max. Unless someone recorded that East Coast version on VHS back in 2005, there's literally no way to legitimately watch that again.

So it seemed like the East Coast version had become "lost." Until I was discussing the matter on Reddit, and u/Hixie pointed out that were quite a few differences between the transcript of the episode available at westwingtranscripts and the DVD/streaming West Coast versions. Seeing as how I got myself into a rabbit hole with this, I spent a few days copying that transcript, then made my own transcript of the DVD version, and compared them side-by-side.

I really do think the online transcript is from the "lost" East Coast version. There are quite a few differences - some could be dismissed as just mistakes in the transcription, but many others are clearly different. Different words are used in some cases, phrases are spoken differently - and in one clear-cut case, the "global warming theories" conversation that I'll talk about more later, there's a huge divergence in the transcripts. It's clear these were not generated from the same performance.

It's kind of cool, I actually could catch places where Alan Alda or Jimmy Smits used a different word or phrase in the DVD version from what was on the online version, and then you could hear the actor stumble a bit or even lose his train of thought for a moment ... just as if that actor knew he had missed the wording of the dialogue as it was scripted. That's another little insight that convinces me we're looking at separate versions here.

 

The Edited Version

The original live broadcast in 2005 ran about 50 minutes without commercials. NBC had only limited commercial breaks, making the episode appear as close to an actual Presidential debate as they could within the constraints of their one-hour broadcast window. There was an ad break after the teaser and opening credits; another one about midway through the episode, right after Vinick's spirited description of the effects of oppressive tax rates in Africa; and then another at the end of the episode, before the final credits.

However, for re-runs and syndication, the studio wasn't going to be able to get away with those limited commercial breaks. The episode needed to be edited down into a more typical 43-minute version, with two additional ad breaks built in - one that cuts off the end of the education portion of the debate, just before they move to health care, and another in the middle of the energy policy part of the debate, between Vinick's desire to put all the oil wells in Alaska and the moderator's question about nuclear power.

That shorter version is the one available on Max (I'm told the Amazon Video version is the full, 50-minute edition that you can see on the DVDs). Frankly, the edits are ... a bit weird.

• It not only seems to show Santos rudely jumping in and cutting off Vinick right at the start of the debate on immigration, it also removes a huge part of Santos' main attack on Vinick's program, which is that doubling the Border Patrol won't work with his plan to cut taxes.
  

• It also completely removes a discussion about Santos' flip-flop voting on CAFTA, a topic we saw in Message Of The Week which is very well-handled by Santos here.
  

• The moderator asks Santos if he's claiming Vinick is bringing up immigration purely because he's running against a Latino candidate. That's cut from the edited version.
  

• When we move to the tax policy portion of the debate, Santos describes his plan to raise taxes by degrees on those earning $1 million, $10 million, or over $100 million a year, and calls out Vinick for supporting the wealthy paying a lower effective tax rate than those who earn less. Gone from the edited version.
  

• A small portion of the education debate is cut, which doesn't lose that much from the longer version, although we miss Santos staking his potential second term fully on whether or not he improves public education in his first.
  

• There's a short section on the death penalty. The moderator asks each candidate if they would support a moratorium on the federal government carrying out the death penalty. Santos says yes, Vinick says no (literally, those are their entire answers). That section is completely edited out of the shorter version.
  

• In the discussion about energy policy, Vinick has a speech where he compares the Democrats' treatment of those who work in the oil industry to, well, I have to believe he means those caught up in the Communist witch-hunts and blacklists of the 1950s. I think that's a ridiculous argument, and I'm totally fine with that getting edited out of the shorter version.
  

• Also in the energy section, Vinick makes a comparison between the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Grand Canyon, asking the audience to respond if they've ever been to ANWR and then if they've been to the Grand Canyon. The shorter version edits out the first part of that, leaving us only with the Grand Canyon bit - which does seem a bit weird as you watch it, because it feels like Vinick is trying to make a clear-cut comparison (which he was), but you can tell you're missing part of it.
  

• There are a couple of chunks edited out of Santos' closing statement, including his final "thank you" to the audience. His statement ends rather abruptly in the edited version.
  

• Vinick also has a bit edited out of his closing statement, where he makes a reference to a heckler we saw earlier in the debate. It doesn't really affect much.

 

"Global Warming Theories": Whose Mistake Was It?

One of the best-known bits in the edited episode as it's been seen on the streaming services is what looks like a mistake by Alan Alda in the energy policy section. It appears he leaves out the word "theories," which throws off Jimmy Smits because he's supposed to immediately cut off Alda with his response, "Theories?"

Vinick:  "The same people who told us that we were going to run out of oil by the end of the 20th century are now trying to scare us with global warming."

Santos: "Theories?"

(There's a pause. Smits looks flustered, starts to smile. Alda tries to clarify.)

Vinick: "Yeah, global warming theories. That's all it is."

The two begin talking over each other, with Santos repeating his earlier phrase about the polar ice caps melting and then throwing in "I cannot believe that you're saying that, sir" - it certainly appears the actors have been thrown off script slightly, and from what we see, it looks like it's Alda's fault for dropping that word.

But ... if you go to the longer, unedited DVD version, Alda clearly says "global warming theories." It's all there. We do continue, of course, with Smits' immediate reply, followed by an uncomfortable pause and some scrambling by the actors - but why?

We can look at the online transcript of what appears to be the original East Coast version to see what probably should have happened:

Vinick: "The same people that were telling you that we were going to run out of oil by the end of the 20th century are now trying to scare us with global warming theories."

Santos: "Theories? You don't believe in the overwhelming scientific research that's --

Vinick: "No, you know what you're talking about? You're talking about one degree change in the Earth's temperature in the last hundred years --"

Santos: "Senator,  you have obviously not seen the scientific research --"

So here's what I think happened. I think Jimmy Smits dropped his line. He jumped in with "Theories?" as he was supposed to, but then forgot the rest of his line. Alda tried to help salvage it by repeating "Yeah, global warming theories" to give Smits a chance to catch up, which eventually happened, but the actors were thrown off a little bit there (hooray for live theatre!).

So it's a bit cruel for the studio to actually edit out Vinick's word "theories" from the edited streaming version in order to make it look like Alda messed up, instead of Smits. I couldn't find the reference in a quick search, but apparently John Wells has defended Alda by saying he got the line right in both versions - which means the studio streaming edit kinda screwed him over by dubbing out that word and making it look like Smits was thrown because Alda didn't say it.

 

The Transcripts

For your reading pleasure, if you wish, here are the side-by-side transcripts of the episode. On the left is the version from westwingtranscripts.com, originally posted online years ago, which I believe has to be the transcript of the "lost" East Coast version; on the right is my transcript of the version available on the DVD set, which reflects the second, West Coast version.

Things highlighted in yellow indicate words that are present in one version and not the other, or changed between versions; things highlighted in blue are rephrasings of the dialogue between versions. Text in red shows what was cut from the 50-minute original version to edit the episode down to the 43-minute syndication/streaming version.

 

 

 

The opening teaser has very few differences between versions, just a few changed words here and there. Coming up at the beginning of Act One, though, we see how the edited version has Santos cutting off Vinick's very first answer - kind of rude, especially since it was Santos who just complained about the possibility of Senator Vinick filibustering him. And then a good portion of Santos' attack on Vinick wanting to cut taxes while doubling the Border Patrol is taken out of the edited version.

 

Here's where the entire CAFTA section is edited out of the streaming/syndication version. In Message Of The Week we saw the Vinick campaign gleefully accuse Santos of flip-flopping, of voting for the bill in committee then against it on the House floor. Santos addresses that well here, with a nice explanation, but the edited version leaves all of that out.

 

Another big policy difference edited out of the streaming/syndication version, as Santos' tax policy proposals (raising tax rates on the wealthy) just disappear.

 

A little difference between versions that illustrates they are from different sources. In the online "East Coast" version, Vinick goes from talking about "eight cents" of every dollar to saying that would "cover half" of the education budget. In the West Coast version, he corrects that phrase to "address eight percent" of the education budget. Seems to me he messed it up in the first broadcast, then fixed it for the West Coast.

 

Coming up, our first added commercial break in the shorter, edited version. It also cuts out the final exchange where Santos accuses Vinick of giving up on public schools, and then stakes his potential second term on whether or not he improves public education in his first.

Another small slip upcoming: in the "East Coast" version, Santos says "Those people are in the 35% tax bracket," meaning the wealthy who would benefit most from Vinick's plan; in the West Coast version, he instead says "The uninsured are in the 35% tax bracket," which is the exact opposite of what he means.

There's a little more give-and-take between Santos and the audience in guessing about the administrative costs of Medicare in the West Coast version. That may be just a transcription issue.

 

A fascinating little difference coming up: in the first, "East Coast" version, Vinick says "Canadian price controls are unfair to American companies." In the West Coast version, he reverses the phrasing, saying "Canadian prices controls are not fair to American companies." It's pretty neat to see both Smits and Alda roll with it, adjusting the following lines on the fly to fit that initial phrasing (they're unfair?/They're not fair? - yes, they are/no, they're not).

 

Vinick appears to start off with "major airlines" in the West Coast version when he's supposed to say "older airlines," so he has to go back and correct himself.

 

Upcoming is the section on the federal death penalty that's completely excised from the streaming/syndicated version.

 

Here's where Vinick makes his comparison between those who work for oil companies and those blacklisted or attacked for their political beliefs in, I have to imagine, the McCarthyist Communist witch-hunt days. It's a terrible argument, and it's a rare example of a good edit for the streaming/syndicated version.

 

Right here in the original "East Coast" version I think we see a mistake by Forrest Sawyer. He appears to step in to redirect the question to Vinick too early, before Santos has finished his answer. The "excuse me" is, I think, an apology to Santos for stepping on his speech. It doesn't happen in the West Coast version.

Also coming up is the section about ANWR where Vinick asks the audience to clap if they've been there, and denigrates it as only a place the very rich can visit - a section edited out of the streaming/syndicated version.

The second added commercial break in the streaming/syndicated version comes here, right after the ANWR discussion and before Sawyer's question about nuclear power.

 

Here's the whole bit about "global warming theories" and did Alan Alda say the word "theories" and why did Jimmy Smits look flustered. I'm going to stick with my thought - Alda said "theories" in both broadcasts, but Smits lost his place in the West Coast version and both actors had to stumble their way back on track. And then the studio decided to edit out the word "theories" in the streaming/syndicated version, that made it look like Alda dropped the word and it was his fault things were bumpy for a little bit. That's what I believe, anyway.

 

The streaming/syndicated version edits Santos' closing statement, taking out a bit about Presidents leading and Vinick leaving 45 million people without health insurance, and then also cutting off the end of his statement about institutions being ready for a Latino. I think it's a strong closing that suffers from his "I am ready" section being cut out, and not just because it leaves off his "thank you."

 

The streaming/syndicated version also edits out a little bit of Vinick's closing statement, mainly about standing up to lobbies and hecklers, but being tough not being enough.