These scripts have been posted online virtually unchanged since 1996 or 1997. Having my original ISP sell off its webhosting and EMail division to a new ISP forced me to end up changing my website URL to my own domain name and then revise the pages because of quirks in the new server system. This prompted me to consider other ways to bring this script into the 21st Century.
One of the things that made both
The Wonder Years and Tour of
Duty very effective as series, in
depicting events 20 years in the past, was the use of era-appropriate
songs for background music. I tried to match that in this script in
music directions. Back in 1997, YouTube hadn't been invented yet. The
new feature I've introduced will open new window to a YouTube version
of each particular song or other music piece, for your added
enjoyment and in an attempt to emulate the ambience of the series.
If you are one of those fans of The Wonder Years who was happy with the way the series ended, with Winnie going abroad to school and Kevin marrying soneone else after he and Winnie had promised to always be together (and had presumably lost their virginity together,) go back to the Main page or whatever. This program is not for you!
If, however, you are among those fans who did not like the way the series ended, would have liked to have seen Kevin and Winnie stay together, and/or would have liked the series to have continued further into the 1970s and beyond, this is a portal into that alternate universe.
It is this author's opinion that the production staff of The Wonder Years have painted themselves into a corner. Sooner or later, there is going to be a demand for a reunion movie of The Wonder Years, but I seriously doubt if anyone is going to be interested in a series reunion without Winnie, or with Kevin married to someone else. They are more than welcome to buy the following scripts at the going market rate. Whether they do or not, mark my words: they're going to use the same device I used, or something very similar, to end up with Kevin and Winnie still together.
A hearty welcome is extended to fans of the series Tour of Duty, which, like The Wonder Years, was also produced by New World Television, premiered during the same TV season and also depicted events 20 years in the past. I have always seen those two shows as two sides of the same coin:i.e. the battle front and home front of the Vietnam war. My storyline was initially conceived as a combined Tour of Duty/Wonder Years episode, and although I had to change the names and backgrounds of the Tour of Duty characters for literary compatibility, the spirit of that concept remains.
Please be forewarned, expecially those who read the longer version of the script: like Kevin Arnold, I was born in 1956, graduated from a suburban American high school in 1974, and my first car was a beat-up, 4-door, light metallic blue mid-1960s Olds Cutlass, but I am also a card-carrying Dittohead, and as far as the 1970s goes, my wonder of those years is tempered with a healthy dose of cynicism. After you've read the script(s), your comments are welcome at: lpadilla@voicenet.com, but don't say I didn't warn you.
My "alternate universe" is offered in two versions:
is written as a 2-hour TV movie script. Kevin and Winnie go on to college together. It is 1975, the last year of the Vietnam War. Amid the campus protests that accompany the renewed fighting of that year, Winnie comes to terms with the death of her brother Brian, and in so doing serves as a microcosm of America coming to terms with the Vietnam War.
is written as a limited-run revival of the series, and incorporates the script of For Us the Living, intertwining it with a look at the series characters in 1990-91. It is primarily a study in contrasts between America's attitudes toward the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War.
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Last updated on 4/28/13