Oh, for...

As I noted earlier, Tom Batiuk thinks cable movies have pilots, and that a "table reading" is something you do to alter a script. Now we see that he thinks they "test" scripts instead of nearly (or even completely) finished films:



By the way, I'm not complaining that someone would buy a book that is entirely about a woman dying of cancer and then decide to have her live; I've seen adaptations that treat the source material as much less irrelevant than that. And I remember that they altered the ending of the film version of the musical Little Shop of Horrors because test audiences were unhappy that Seymour died (a prime, and fascinating, example of the difference between the stage and film experiences). In this case, I would think it a foolish decision but who knows? Maybe "Lisa's Story" has legions of fans who sob into their pillows every night, asking "why? why did she have to die?" No. I'm asking who the hell did the producer "test" an unfinished script on? Did he go to malls and cineplexes and pay people to read it?