My So-Called Life (1994) - So-Called Angels (Season 1, Episode 15)

Scott Winant (0:00)

Hi, I'm Scott Winant, the director and producer of So-Called Angels. I could say off the top that Christmas episodes are very important to me. I did them when I was producing 30-something, and I was keen on doing one the first season of my So-Called Life. And so I solicited Winnie to do that.

The idea of the prayers at the beginning was this notion that there were other children who were on the street, who were homeless. The interesting thing about this story, the most interesting thing, is that Winnie and I were unaware that what was happening to Ricky, the character in this episode, was actually happening to Wilson Cruz, the actor. He had just come out to his family and had been kicked out. And so, he had been living on the street, too. And so, this episode rang true for him. Juliana Hapfield was somebody who was brought to our attention as a singer-songwriter who was interested in acting, and we designed this role for her. And she wrote an original song for us.

I always like to transition both in audio and visual. That's why that musical score crossed over the cut. What do you do?

SPEAKER_2 (1:28)

Keep like a running tally of everything we buy for Angela?

SPEAKER_4 (1:31)

Well, yeah. Danielle, we cannot afford...

Scott Winant (1:34)

Oh, also, it's very expensive for us to do snow shows. So we assigned two or three episodes a season to being a snow show, and this obviously was one of them.

The snow you saw in the opening was a snow machine that was brought in. That was shot in Culver City. It was probably around 80 degrees when we shot that.

SPEAKER_2 (1:58)

It must be warm.

SPEAKER_5 (1:59)

How come we never go to church?

SPEAKER_2 (2:02)

Uh, well...

SPEAKER_4 (2:04)

Well, you know, in the last few years, you girls, um, haven't shown much enthusiasm.

SPEAKER_5 (2:12)

So do you believe in God?

SPEAKER_2 (2:16)

Well, look, just because we...

SPEAKER_4 (2:17)

You know, just because we don't attend church on a regular basis...

SPEAKER_2 (2:20)

Exactly. You can believe in God without...

SPEAKER_4 (2:23)

Yeah, because, you know, your father was raised Catholic, and I wasn't, so we have certain... certain differences, which doesn't mean that we don't, um...

SPEAKER_5 (2:33)

Do we have to keep talking about religion?

SPEAKER_6 (2:37)

It's Christmas.

Scott Winant (2:41)

Classic Winnie line.

All the episodes I directed were episodes written by Winnie, and it was very important for me to do an episode that was music-centric, because I feel like when I direct, I think of an episode as a piece of music. There's always a theme and a reprise, a chorus and verse, and usually a coda, which this episode has.

SPEAKER_6 (3:12)

Whoa. So you landed on your face or something?

SPEAKER_7 (3:16)

Oh, I don't know. How am I supposed to know? Does anybody have quarters? I need to get a candy bar before I switch.

SPEAKER_3 (3:21)

Cool.

SPEAKER_8 (3:22)

I got change.

SPEAKER_3 (3:25)

Cool.

SPEAKER_7 (3:26)

See you later.

SPEAKER_3 (3:29)

Do you think that was true, about falling?

SPEAKER_8 (3:32)

Sure. Probably.

I don't know. Look, Angel Food, there's... See, Ricky has this, like, tendency to get beat up, and he doesn't always love talking about it.

Scott Winant (4:17)

That was the old, my so-called, lean. It was, you know, Claire's way and Sharon's lean.

SPEAKER_3 (4:25)

Here, take some of these. So we're set, right?

SPEAKER_5 (4:27)

Christmas Eve, you and I, representing Liberty at the teen helpline.

SPEAKER_9 (4:31)

Listen, Trish.

Scott Winant (4:32)

Jill Gordon, little known fact, my wife.

SPEAKER_9 (4:36)

So, un-sign me.

Scott Winant (4:38)

La, la, la, la, la, la. Alan Poole, our producer, went on to produce Six Feet Under.

SPEAKER_2 (4:48)

To make Brian, huh?

SPEAKER_4 (4:50)

They've skipped town.

Scott Winant (4:52)

What?

SPEAKER_4 (4:53)

Seriously. They're on some ten-day cruise. Bernice called me from the boat. Would I look in on Brian?

Scott Winant (4:59)

So when we started this episode, I told Winnie about a final image, which is the last image in this episode. And we sort of designed, and Winnie wrote the episode to fit that image.

SPEAKER_2 (5:19)

What do you want for Christmas, Shorty?

SPEAKER_4 (5:22)

I want you to come with us to church on Christmas Eve. You just think about it.

Scott Winant (5:29)

Shorty even seems cold. Teeny, teeny little stage on the west side of Los Angeles used to be a factory that made ceiling pieces. But it was the only space we could afford.

Oh, that's me. We had just, I had just asked for them to build me the outside of the house, which we've never shown. So, that's a fate, we just faced the actual set. And there's not much beyond those trees, probably the wall of the stage.