MR. MONK GOES TO THE DENTIST
by Sal Savo
My name is Sal Savo, and I'm the script coordinator on Monk. I work with the writers in New Jersey.
Basically, I'm in charge of the scripts: when the writers want to make changes, they give them to me, I put them into the official script, and I email the script out to Los Angeles where it's distributed to the cast and crew.
When someone in Los Angeles has a question about the script, often they'll call me, and I'll go to the writers and see how they want to address the issue. I do other stuff, too, but that's the job in a nutshell.
During the making of this episode, "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist," I got a call from Sheridan MacMillan-Thayer, the co-producer in L.A.
In the episode, Lt. Disher gets mad at Capt. Stottlemeyer and quits the police force to reunite with his high school rock band, The Randy Disher Project.
In the script, the band performs a song, but there was only one verse of it on the page. They wanted to shoot a little music video for the song, so they wanted a full complement of lyrics, with multiple verses, a chorus, etc. They needed it by the next morning, and the writers had already gone home for the day.
So, as I do in these situations, I called Andy Breckman, the executive producer and head writer, and told him the deal: we needed a full song. He said he'd get right on it.
A little later, Andy called me back. Tom Scharpling was also on the line. (Tom is the co-executive producer). They wanted to know if I wanted to take a swing at writing the song lyrics.
I said sure, I'd love to. I too am a writer, after all, and this would be a great opportunity to do some writing. Always be writing. I got to work.
Andy had written a verse that seemed usable, so I took that as a guide and wrote some more verses, trying to maintain the rhythm and spirit of what Andy had started.
Obviously, the lyrics had to reflect Disher's anger at Stottlemeyer at the time, but they also had to reflect Disher's less-than-dazzling talent for rock and roll songwriting.
I showed what I had written to Hayley Helmreich, a friend who works for Monk in the L.A. office, and she helped me tweak the lyrics here and there to make sure the thing flowed properly.
Andy and Tom signed off on my work, and the next morning I sent the lyrics off to L.A. for everyone to see. This may seem like a small thing, but I was pretty nervous.
Fortunately, the lyrics went over well, and they were forwarded to the people in post-production to add music.
A day later, a copy of the song was emailed to me. I listened to it, and it really sounded great. A musician named Evan Brau did a terrific job writing the music and shaping the lyrics into a rock song. He actually took Andy's verse and made it the chorus, and took my chorus and made it the bridge. He made everything better. It was just right.
Then the song went to Jason Gray-Stanford, who recorded the final version in a studio, and then they shot the video. Jason performs the song himself, and does a great job.
I, for one, think he should take the "Project" on tour.
So that's my story. It was cool to sit down one night and write some song lyrics, and the next night have a finished song, with my lyrics put to music, sent back to me just like that, and then, have the song be in a TV show.
I'm really grateful to Andy and Tom for letting me write the lyrics. I hope everyone enjoys it. I certainly had fun contributing to it.
Anybody else need some song lyrics?
Past Entries:
