Here is one of the most interesting TaleSpin piece of history!

An original script that never got into production, which is an early draft to the "Grual & Unusual Punishment" episode!

I will comment it page by page below.

Click on the pictures to expand them!

.

What do we learn here?

- It has been written in late 1989, which I believe, was pretty late in TaleSpin pre-production so it's probably one of the last scripts written.

- It's written by "Michael & Mark Edens" (brothers?) I have checked the credits of the episode, and they were indeed credited as writers of "Grual & Unusual Punishment".

- The script was supposed to be a two parter, but as we know, only two of them were eventually produced for the series ("For Whom the Bell Klangs" and "A Bad Reflexion on You")
"Grual & Unusual Punishment" was only a one-parter. This is probably explained by the big "NO GO" and the indication to make this a 1/2 hour instead :)

- Not sure who "KK & DW" initials are for?

- So there was supposed to be a "Holland" parody country in the TaleSpin world, with a pun on "Bangladesh"?

- Some similarities with the original script (Baloo having to lose weight, the prison...), but some big differences too : Broadcast Sally would have been in it! As far as I know, she's only featured in two episodes : she has a major role in "The Time Bandit" , and a minor role (almost unspoken) in "Time Waits for No Bear" (if it's really her, because her name isn't mentioned in it).

- Notice the "Could be a lot of fun, but needs an emotional nook" and the "What's the emotional story" note at the top!

- So Becky has been on diets, uh? Why doesn't this surprise me? :)

- The scientist is named "Werner Van Brain", while in the final version, he is "Professor Krackpotkin"

- Pretty much else was kept, except the end - the storm never happens. And neither does the landing in Don Karnage lair!

Pretty much everything from this part 2 has been scrapped. It's a shame in a way, because somehow it would have been the only episode in which there are both the air pirates and the Thembrians (unless I'm forgetting one, I can't recall any with the two of them?) There was a lot of potential here!

I like the part with Karnage & the mad scientist collaborating, and Baloo being fooled (once again?)...

- Kit being overconfident seems pretty much in-character, and Don Karnage extorsion scheme reminds me a lot of Plunder & Lightning...

- He suddenly prefers revenge to money : the "Why?" note is clearly justified...

- Don Karnage "stopping the bad guy" would have been quite interesting to see!

- Is it only me, or is this ending really short and abrupt?

- Why did Baloo need a pilot licence in the first place? He already has one, right? They have different ones in that country? (that's never even mentioned)

So, what's my opinion overall on this script?

In some ways, it looks not much more than the usual fanfic, even though it was written by official writers. But still, it could have been a great, epic episode, much more than the final one.

BUT I have to agree with whoever rejected it (Jymn?) It definitely lacked EMOTION, something that TaleSpin definitely had! (and what most nowadays cartoons lack of!) The final episode definitely was more interesting on that aspect.

I'm glad to see that Jymn & others insisted on this, because the emotional side is probably the thing that makes me such a TaleSpin fan, and what makes it so unique, even compated to other fan-loved Disney Afternoon series like Darkwing Duck which clearly had more action that emotions.

Stay tuned for more, and please comment below!

Similar articles :

• "Gruel & Unusual Punishment" first version
• TaleSpin Promotional footage
• Don Rosa and TaleSpin cameo

Report this article

Last comments

Bullethe ad Baloo	August 02, 2012

wow Grual & Unusual Punishment was originally called Bedeviled Egghead i never knew that

TaleSpin Fan	June 28, 2012

In my version, I'm planning to use Professor Krackpotkin from "Gruel and Unusual Punishment".

Steet	June 27, 2012
	Webmaster
	BS leader

Why not? Go ahead if you want!

TaleSpin Fan	June 26, 2012

Could this be turned into fanfiction?

Steet	June 26, 2012
	Webmaster
	BS leader

Thanks for the input, I knew you would like this script

Gregory Weagle	June 26, 2012

Couple other notes: - KK & DW: Ken Koonce & David Weimers. Strangely; there are story credits despite the fact that they stopped doing that with TaleSpin. KK & DW were regulars for DTVA until Tarzan & Jane. David Weimer has since retired and went to England I do believe. Ken Koonce is still pretty much around; don't have a real grip of his current work right now.

Gregory Weagle	June 26, 2012

Huh. This makes the third known time that I have heard of a two part script being pared down in DTVA. I recall Quack Pack had a two part script planned; but it was considered so horrible that it was nixed in what would be described as the worst DTVA ever: Ducks By Nature. The other one was the pilot to Kick Buttowski: The Suburban Daredevil which was also a two part (albeit only a 22 minute episode since almost all Kick episodes are 11 minutes long.); which was used but it was split up into two separate episodes. Neither of those were good. This one is a good script in spite of the lack of emotion (It's Thembria; it's hard to take pathos seriously with them around anyway); and a couple of silly decision that weren't explained. Sadly; Gruel & Unusual Punishment was much better because they focused on one plot device instead of too many; at it was the most effective one to get the episode over. Mark and Michael Edens's best story and they are not good writers for the most part. I believe that they are brothers. I do recall Mark Edens writing Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers and he's responsible for the Piratesy Under The Sea debacle which was the first episode aired (and it's worse than the pilot episodes of Kick Buttowski no less. I am not making this up either.) . Needless to say; this really hurt DTVA as a division because whoever thought this was a good idea had no concept of how to debut a series. TaleSpin did; Rescue Rangers did not. Cannot wait for the rest of them. I have updated the Gruel & Unusual Punishment chapter of the 20 Years Of Spin to include information on that script in question.

Ann29	June 18, 2012

It's great to be able compare the original idea to the final episode, to see what was kept and what was cut. Very interesting to see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff!

Grace Kane-Kar nage	June 18, 2012

Really interesting! Do you plan on hunting down more scripts, Steet?

OraKi	June 17, 2012
	Site builder (info)

I've saw this scrpit and it'd be cool to make a comic based on that document (maybe next Virtual Season project?)