It’s Just Life
The Never-Before-Seen Sequel to the Holiday Classic, in which George Bailey finally Achieves His Dream
Elena Tucker’s rant about “It’s a Wonderful Life” prompted my looking up this piece I wrote on Cowbird about five years ago, “It’s Just Life”, with my take on the never-before-seen sequel to the movie. I’ve slightly edited what I wrote then, here
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I was telling my e-mail-pen-pal and old shipmate, Mike, about watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve, as is our custom and tradition.
In his reply, he told me: “I made it a point once about 30 years ago to watch that movie. It’s a good enough story, but I picked up a subtext that nobody has ever grappled with to my knowledge: it’s almost as though it’s telling you to not bother having dreams. George Bailey had these not-too-high hopes of traveling and he never got to do so. Yeah, he has friends and family, but he once had a yen to see the world and life screwed him at every turn. Couldn’t he catch a break just ONCE?? Or does he finally get to roam now that he’s come close to losing everything? And when does Old Man Potter pay the price for the theft of the $8,000? Where’s the JUSTICE???”
This was my reply to his reply: “Yes, in the sequel, George Bailey runs off with the saucey little number who he’s always bailing out, creating a huge scandal, but they travel and see the world and he lives happily ever after, while Mary finally hooks up with Sam Wainwright, becomes rich, sends all the kids to the finest Prep schools and becomes a star on “The Housewives of Bedford Falls”.
“Meanwhile, Old Man Potter finally gets what’s coming to him and goes to jail for theft, where he finds Jesus and becomes born-again. He gets out on good behavior, then starts up his own televangelist ministry. He makes billions, fleecing people of their life’s savings, before he’s caught having sex with young boys.
“After much ballyhoo and scandal, he winds up on the same bridge contemplating suicide, where Clarence the Angel shows up, throws him in the river, losing his wings in the process, but feeling pretty damned good about it, nonetheless.
“The goofy, memory-challenged uncle gets help writing a book about “String Memory Theory”, sharing his secret to a successful banking career despite having a completely shot-out memory. It sells millions and he becomes rich — but, of course, he loses it all through forgetfulness, and dies penniless, and gets eaten by ravenous squirrels.
“It was titled, “It’s Just Life”, but never got off the ground, as the writer was accused by Senator McCarthy of being a communist, so the sequel got blacklisted.”
Originally published at cowbird.com.
