Lyle F. Padilla's Proposed Reunion Script for

FOR US THE LIVING
A TIME TO KILL, A TIME TO HEAL

STOP!!!
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 soneoneelse 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 auther'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 show 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 in 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:

The Wonder Years: For Us the Living

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.

The Wonder Years: A Time to Kill, a Time too Heal

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 09/19/1997

Copyright 1995-1997 Lyle Paddilla & AYANO*TANAKA
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