'Happy Birthday Pop' based on 'Sixty-Five Today'

Shared Plot

It is Father's sixty-fifth birthday. Son returns home from work with packages and pretends to have forgotten Father's birthday. After Father turns sadly to go to bed, Son hands over his present, a stylish clothing accessory that both Father and Son agrees should be worn for best. The present is not complete as Son has an evening on the town planned as well: drinks, a show, and dinner. Father doesn't enjoy the fancy drinks and finds them too expensive. The show is too upscale and long for Father's taste. Dinner at the Chinese restaurant doesn't go well either, with Father not liking the food. Son becomes upset that all his hard work is unappreciated and leaves.

Variations

From a pacing perspective, the episodes are very similar. Not requiring a commercial break, the Steptoe episode runs to about 31 minutes with the credits as they are part of the story, not repeating the same sequence every week. The Sanford episode is just short of 26 minutes with the credits included but those credits are not part of the story, they are the same piece of film every week. The Sanford episode also has a coda, a brief piece of non-essential story that was generally removed in syndication. If we take the timing from where the story ends, the length is 23 minutes and 15 seconds long, almost 8 minutes shorter than the British version.

The opening sequence where the Father's birthday is discussed and the evening out set up takes up about half of the episode for each version. The sequences in the bar and theatre run to similar lengths for both. The greatest variation is in the restaurant sequence which is about 4 minutes shorter in the American version.

While the general pacing is the same, the specific pacing is different and that's where the two approaches become unique. The Steptoe episode is from the second series. The characters of Father Albert and Son Harold are already established to the viewing audience. They have expectations. This is the second episode of 'Sanford and Son' so the characters of Father Fred and Son Lamont are still being established. The sequence of Harold pretending to have forgotten his Father's birthday is much longer than in the American version. Since the audience is already familiar with their relationship, this sort of thing would seem natural. If Lamont were to treat Fred in this way, this early in the history of the show the audience might turn on him as cruel.

Both Albert and Fred do the 'glasses' gag, digging through a drawer full of spectacles for the pair that will assist him with this specific task, but for different reasons. Albert uses the glasses in order to read the card Harold gives him. Fred uses them to read the phone book and dial the phone to talk to Social Security. In the American version, this conversation soaks up most of the time spent in the British version with Harold 'forgetting' the birthday. It's also mirrored in the coda sequence. Fred decides he's going to retire on the money Social Security will pay him. Lamont explains he won't get the maximum payout as he hasn't earned enough money to qualify. Fred calls to check. In both conversations with Social Security Fred asks a question. Both are answered to his satisfaction, responding to their explanation with multiple 'uh-huh' until he hangs up. This plays out better than it reads.