1776 (musical): Difference between revisions

* [[Bowdlerise]]: Up until recently, the only version of the movie to reach TV was a severely-edited copy that obscured or completely removed many of the raunchier bits, including the whole "New Brunswick" sequence and the latter half of Franklin's "it's like calling an ox a bull" exchange with Dickinson. Even the version that hit the theatres was badly chopped, among other things excluding lines that made it clear Rutledge's opposition to the slavery clause was not due to mindless evil, but because he saw it as a betrayal of a promise that the independence faction would allow states to govern themselves as they saw fit.

* [[Catch Phrase]]

** Adams: "Oh good ''God''" and "''In''credible."

** Lewis Morris: New York abstains... courteously.

* [[Happily Married]]: John and Abigail Adams, Thomas and Martha Jefferson. Both of them, incidentally, are [[Truth in Television]]; the Adamses in particular were quite happily married for ''fifty-four years.'' Sadly, despite how much in love they were, Jefferson and his wife didn't have nearly as much time together, as Martha died tragically young. (The Martha Jefferson listed as Jefferson's First Lady is actually his daughter.)

* [[Hate Sink]]: John Dickinson, who isn't at all evil, but takes point for the anti-Independence side.

* [[Hollywood Night]]: Both averted and not. The "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve" number is clearly shot at night in front of the Independence Hall façade, but the later duet where John and Abigail walk across their farm at "night" is obviously a blue-filtered daytime shot. Then again, it ''is'' an [[Distant Duet|imaginary/dream sequence]], and the filter use may have been an intentional stylistic decision to emphasize that.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: "Two [useless men] are called a law firm." John Adams was a lawyer -- in particular, he was famous for defending the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre.

** Ben Franklin cannot sit down without doing so in a noteworthy manner.

{{quote|'''Franklin''': What are you staring at? Haven't you ever seen a great man before?}}

* [[Minor Character, Major Song]]: Ron Holgate as Richard Henry Lee, who has just one major scene and a minor one, but carries some great big wonderful slabs of roast pork while he's singing "The Lees of Old Virginia."

* [[Not So Different]]: "Molasses to Rum" has Rutledge spotlighting the North's complicity in the slave trade.

* [[Oh Crap]]

{{quote|'''Edward Rutledge''': "I was wondering if you could repeat a small passage: The one beginning [[Slavery|'He has waged Cruel War']]" *Jefferson stands up abruptly*}}