Season Five:

Episode 70:

NARRATOR:  I wanted to stay there, in that night... more than anything I wanted before. But I knew I couldn't. I was fifteen. I slept under a roof my father owned, in a bed my father bought. Nothing was mine, except my heart, and my fears. And my growing knowledge that not every road was going to lead home anymore.

Episode 71:

NARRATOR:  That first week of high school, as I watched our class band together.  I realized something about these strangers I'd just met.  Strangers I hardly knew.  Strangers who were just like me.  We were all sharing the same feelings.  The same fears, the same loneliness.  We were just starting out, and there was only one direction to go.  So we went - together.

NARRATOR: Poets say love comes and goes in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, in high school, it goes more than it comes.

NARRATOR: And then from somewhere, I don't know - it just came to me.
KEVIN: Love is a river, flowing where we know not. The wound is deep, yet the river is wide.
DENISE: That's beautiful.

NARRATOR: Maybe it was a dream. Or maybe I was crazy. Maybe Denise "The Grease" only knew one way to kiss. Or maybe, the most voluptuous girl at McKinley high, had just fallen for Calvin Arnold.

Only You (And You Alone) - The Platters
 
Only you can make this world seem right
Only you can make the darkness bright
Only you and you alone can thrill me like you do
And fill my heart with love for only you
 
Only you can make this change in me
For it's true, you are my destiny
When you hold my hand
I understand the magic that you do
 
You're my dream come true
My one and only you
 
Only you can make this change in me
For it's true, you are my destiny
When you hold my hand
I understand the magic that you do
 
You're my dream come true
My one and only you
 
One and only you

Episode 74:

NARRATOR:  Cars - the ultimate dream of every red-blooded American kid.  Cars meant freedom, status, maturity.  If you were old enough to drive, the world was your oyster.  But, if you weren't... your world was more of a sardine - to really stretch an analogy.

NARRATOR:  Let's face it.  On the main-street of life, we'd just about reached a dead-end.

NARRATOR:  We didn't really accomplish anything that night.  Nothing of any real importance, anyway.  But through the high school years that lay ahead... there would be a thousand other nights, just like that one.  Stupid, ridiculous, and glorious.

NARRATOR: And so, like some kind of prehistoric beast, the party trudged on.   The laughter flowed, the drinks were poured but, something was, different.   The thing is, no one else seemed to notice.  They just went, on doing what they always had, because... they always had.

NARRATOR: We took our time.  There was no need to hurry.  Didn't seem there was that much to go back to.  Still, that night, driving home through the neighborhood I grew up in, I realized something.  There was a time I knew every family on the block.  Their kids, names of their dogs, but most of those families were gone now.  Scattered.  The ones who stayed were not the same.  The world had moved on.  My world... their world.  And only the lights remained the same.

Episode 81:

NARRATOR: Every culture has its own rites of passage.  Ways of marking that leap from childhood, to manhood.  Complex rituals, weird dances, acts of courage and survival.  It's a tradition as old as civilization.  Or, as recent as crabgrass.  Fact!  In the suburbs, a boy's first steps towards manhood start behind a lawnmower.  Still, for me, at sixteen, lawn care had given way to something much, much, more important.  The driver's license.  The thing that separates the boys from the men.  And so on, and so forth...

NARRATOR: And there you had it.  Solid logic.  In theory, anyway.

Episode 83:

NARRATOR:   So I wasn't exactly panicked about my plans.  Hey - I was sixteen years old.  To me, the future was someone else's worry.

NARRATOR:  That afternoon, I thought about all the times that Wayne and I had when growing up was still a game.  And life was what we made it.  I thought about how we'd played at war, afternoons in Harper's Woods.    And how every night we'd shared a room, and how much I would miss him.

NARRATOR:  We spend our lives full of hope and expectations.  And, most of the time we're bound to fail.  But, that afternoon, as I watched my father sheltering his son against a future that was so unsure, all I knew was they didn't want to let each other down, anymore.

Episode 85:

NARRATOR:  But the thing is, that was all we did. Maybe it was happening too fast. Maybe we wanted to hold on to what we had. Or maybe we both knew there were other things we had to find before we found each other. All we really knew for sure was, as we sat there, looking out over the lights of the town where we had grown up together, it all felt right. It all felt...perfect.

[Song]
How can I forget
When each face that I see
Brings back memories
Of being with you
I just can't go on living life as I do
Comparing each girl to you
Knowing they just won't do
They're not you-oo-ooh
You are everything, and everything is you
Oh-Ohh, you are everything, and everything is you
Oh-Ohh, you are everything, and everything is you...

Episode 92:

NARRATOR:  I had joined the ranks of the gainfully employed.  And there was nothing I could do about it, but  sulk.    Things had gone from bad to miserable.  My best friend was a jerk.   My best girl was on a career track.  And the only person who understood me seemed a million miles away.

NARRATOR:  There are times in a young life when you have to do something for yourself.  When you have to stand up for what you believe in.  When the world has closed the door on adventure.  And your only choice is to bust out.

NARRATOR: That evening, driving through the dark, surrounded by the sounds of summer night, I was certain I'd found what I had been looking for.  Sure, Cara and I hadn't seen each other for eight months, but somehow, I sensed everything was right...  It was - perfect. The night, the stars.  It was like nothing had changed.  Well, almost nothing.

NARRATOR:  'Course that night I didn't sleep.  I lay there, feeling bad about what I had done.  Running off, full of summer madness. Using Cara. Leaving Winnie.  I felt like a stupid selfish adolescent, which I guess I was.

CARA:  Hey!  Send me a Christmas card?
KEVIN: I will.
NARRATOR: But, I didn't. After all, when you're sixteen, eight months is a lifetime. And time had moved on.  For both of us.   

Season Six:

Episode 94:

NARRATOR:  They say men are children, but sometimes children are men; maybe that's where the confusion lies... All I knew was that night the world suddenly seemed very big and I felt very small, so I did what I could... 1972 was a crazy time.    Kids played football, drove cars, went to school, celebrated life; while soldiers, heroes, their brothers struggled to find their way home from war; and young boys watched and grew wiser in their dreams.

Episode 95:

NARRATOR:  "The hardest part of growing up is having the ones you've always turned to, turn to you."

Episode 97:

NARRATOR:  Junior year was a time of...exploration.  A time for expanding horizons, broadening perspectives, seeking answers to little-known questions.  It was an opportunity to grapple with the great issues of our day, which as it happened, boiled down to only two.  One was sex, the other was economics, and by "economics", I mean cold, hard, cash.  Not that I had any.

NARRATOR:  After all, in a way, she had done me a favor, taught me a lesson in "life".  To wit, when it came to beautiful women and money, it would always end like this - some guy would get stuck on a ladder in November...  And some guy would end up alone.  All I know for sure is, it took me six weeks to finish painting that house.  It cost me two-hundred-and-fourteen dollars of my own hard-earned money. And the next spring, Mr. Kaplan put up aluminum siding.

Episode 99:

NARRATOR:  They say the hindsight is 20-20, and I guess it's true.    Because as I stood outside Winnie's house that night, I suddenly saw it all so clearly.  I'd sold both of us short-- by taking something that most people never have, and throwing it away for something less.  I'd been in such a rush to impress people who really didn't matter, I'd torn apart the only ones who did -- us.

Episode 102:

NARRATOR:  One thing a kid learns growing up, is that life is a series of risks.  It's a cause-and-effect relationship. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Still, with the proper guidance, we learn to deal with the risks.  And pretty soon, we set out into the world sure in our options, confident of our choices.  Until, that is eleventh-grade.  The year of decisions.

NARRATOR:  It was grim.  After sixteen years of hard learning our educational futures had suddenly been pinned down to four choices: "A", "B", "C" or, [if we want pudding or jello from the lunch lady].

NARRATOR: But no matter where we ran for comfort there was no escape.  It was getting harder and harder to deny what was going on.  At times like this, there was only one thing to do.  Take a risk.

NARRATOR:  I guess life is full of surprises, no matter what age you are.

NARRATOR:  And the next morning, at 8:00 AM, seventy-eight students gathered in the McKinley cafeteria to take what was supposed to be the most important test of their lives.  Everyone had a different way of coping that day.  Some were more effective than others.  But for all the risks and choices, I was one step ahead of them. After all, I knew that this was just one test in thousands I'd be taking in my life.  None of them final, none of them irrevocable.    And the way I saw it, maybe life was a risk.  But, this time, I was ready.

Episode 107:

NARRATOR: To my dad, his house was his fortress.    His children - his slaves.

NARRATOR: When you're sixteen, you have no real control over your life.  It can be turned upside-down and inside-out in a moments notice.

NARRATOR:  Still, in the world of in consistency and doubt, maybe home is what you make it.  Like I said, most suburbs were about the same.  Sure, some may have been a little bigger, and some may be have been a little greener [but], there was only one real difference.  Only one of them...was yours.

Episode 107:

NARRATOR: At some point in your teenage years, if you're lucky, you make a discovery.  You find out you're actually good at something.    It's that critical juncture, where talent becomes...expertise - kinda.     It's your chance to star or, end up flat on your face.

COACH: Why'd you let him pin you like that?
NARRATOR: Course, looking back, I probably just should have promised to do better. But instead -
KEVIN: Yeah, well...you know, these shorts are really hard to wrestle in!
NARRATOR: ...I made excuses.

NARRATOR: That night - maybe for the first time... I committed myself to something.  I left the excuses, I dumped the alibi's - I went for broke.  I was a wrestler. And I gave it everything I had.  Sure, maybe the score may have been lop-sided... And maybe a kid named Gurney got the win.  But for me - it was a victory.

Episode 110:

NARRATOR:  It seems that there was something to be said for keeping higher education confined to the classroom, because a little knowledge could be a dangerous thing.

NARRATOR:  Still, when it came to matters of cause and effect I think we have managed to learn a thing or two. Perhaps that day, despite all the chaos, there really were cosmic forces at work... Forces so powerful, so profound, they defied all our attempts of rational explanation.

Episode 112:

NARRATOR:  And why not? After all, she was my girl.    And I knew that she understood that in some small way my achievements were her achievements.

NARRATOR:  I mean no sense being pigheaded.  The way I saw it, the world was big enough for all of us.  And besides, so what if women could influence government, take over big business, alter domestic policy, dominate education, make the world a better place... In one important respect we had still a lot to teach them.  Yup, when it came to being jerks, they still had a lot to learn.

Episode 114 / 115 (final show):

NARRATOR:  I guess things never turn out exactly the way you planned. I know they didn't with me. Still, like my dad used to say, "Traffic's traffic... you go where life takes you." I remember a time, a place, a particular Fourth of July-- the things I saw in that decade of war and change. I remember how it was... growing up-- among people and places I loved. Most of all, I remember how it was... to leave.

NARRATOR:  I'd set out to find myself and ended up losing everything.  ...I examined my options.  I had no car, no money and no place to go.  It was clear, what I needed here was a new philosophy.  The philosophy of the loner.  The philosophy of the road.

[When Kevin was walking he hitched a ride in the back of a truck, it happened to have Winnie in it.  They began to argue and were kicked out.  It was raining and they went to find a place to stay dry.  After an effort to find separate places they wound up in the same barn...  That is where the following text starts at.    I put the rest of the episode in its entirety, it was too good to be shown in parts.]

INT. NIGHT. BARN.

[KEVIN and WINNIE are sheltering in a barn. KEVIN lights an oil-lamp. ]

NARRATOR:  So thanks to thirty billion kilowatts of un-metered electricity and about a ton of rain...we ended up sharing the same barn.

[WINNIE sneezes, KEVIN doesn't say anything.]

WINNIE: Thank you.

KEVIN:  Don't mention it. [pause] You know this is really, really great, you know that? It's almost funny.

WINNIE:  You think this is funny?

KEVIN:  Yeah. [pause] No. [pause] I mean, you grow up next door to someone and you figure you really know him.  And then like...overnight, you find out you...you don't know him at all.

WINNIE:  Yeah, well looks who's talking.

KEVIN:  Me?  Hey, I'm not the one who changed.

WINNIE: You really believe that?

KEVIN: You bet. [pause] I mean, changed a little but eh...not really, no.

NARRATOR:  But I guess I knew better.  I guess we both knew better.

WINNIE: Kevin?

NARRATOR:  It just took Winnie to say it.

WINNIE:  Here's what I think:  I think this had to happen...today...tomorrow...some day.  I mean it's not like we're kids anymore.    Everybody grows up.  It's not like Peter Pan or something...

KEVIN:  No, it's not like Peter Pan.  It's just...somehow I'd thought we'd be together, you know.

WINNIE:  Yeah.  Together forever.

[KEVIN smiles.]

KEVIN:  It's not gonna happen, is it?

WINNIE:  No.

[Suddenly KEVIN hears something]

KEVIN:  What was that?  Hello?

[KEVIN crawls over to the fence and stands up. He hears a sound and frightened of it, he jumps over the fence, where WINNIE's sitting.]

KEVIN:  Did you see that?  It's a horse!    God, it practically scared me to death.  Can you believe that?

[KEVIN looks at WINNIE, who's crying now.]

KEVIN:  Winnie?

WINNIE:  I don't want it to end.

[KEVIN and WINNIE start kissing each other tenderly.]

NARRATOR:  Once upon a time there was a girl I knew, who lived across the street.  Brown hair, brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled.    When she cried, I cried.  Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way had to do with her.  That day Winnie and I promised each other that no matter what, that we'd always be together.  It was a promise full of passion and truth and wisdom.  It was the kind of promise that can only come from the hearts of the very young.

EXT. DAY. MAIN STREET IN KEVIN'S HOMETOWN.

[The town was in a festive mood. People were celebrating Independence Day.]

NARRATOR:  The next day Winnie and I came home.    Back to where we'd started.  It was the 4th of July in that little suburban town.  Somehow though, things were different.  Our past was here, but our future was somewhere else.  And we both knew, sooner or later, we had to go.   It was the last July I ever spent in that town.  The next year, after graduation, I was on my way.

[KEVIN and WINNIE are holding hands and walk over to PAUL.]

KEVIN:  Paul! Hey, Paul.

WINNIE:  Hi.

NARRATOR:  So was Paul.  He went to Harvard, of course.  Studied law. [PAUL sneezes] He's still allergic to everything.

JACK: [buys a flag from a salesman] Thanks a lot.

KEVIN: [to PAUL and WINNIE] Listen, I'll be right back.  Hang on for one second.

[KEVIN walks to JACK]

NARRATOR:  As for my father...well.

JACK:  How are you doing?

KEVIN:  Good.

JACK:  Welcome home.

NARRATOR:  We patched things up.

JACK:  Norma!

[NORMA, WAYNE and KAREN, who is pregnant now, walk over to KEVIN]

NARRATOR:  Hey, we were family.  For better or worse.

KEVIN:  Hey, sis.

NARRATOR:  One for all...and all for one.

KEVIN: [touching KAREN's stomach] Gosh.

WAYNE: [points at KAREN's stomach] Little Kevin.

KEVIN:  I'm gonna be uncle?

NARRATOR:  Karen's son was born in that September.    I gotta say, I think he looks like me.  Poor kid.  Mom, she did well: business woman, board chairman, grandmother...cooker of mashed potatoes.  Wayne stayed on in furniture.  Wood seemed to suit him.  In fact he took over the factory two years later, when dad past away. Winnie left the next summer to study art history in Paris.  Still we never forgot our promise.  We wrote to each other once a week for the next eight years.  I was there to meet her, when she came home, with my wife and my first son, eight months old.

INT. EVENING. THE ARNOLD HOUSE.

[KEVIN and JACK sit at the table, drinking.]

NARRATOR:  Like I said, things never turn out exactly the way you planned.

JACK:  It was good.  It was a good fourth.

KEVIN:  Yeah.  So you're gonna be a grandpa huh?

JACK:  Not bad.

KEVIN:  Grey hair and everything.

JACK:  Yeah, soon enough.

[KEVIN and JACK smile.]

NARRATOR:  Growing up happens in a heartbeat.
One day you're in diapers; next day you're gone.
But the memories of childhood stay with you.
For the long haul.

EXT. EVENING. KEVIN'S STREET.

NARRATOR:  I remember a place...a town...a house
like a lot of other houses...
A yard like a lot of other yards...
On a street like a lot of other streets.
And the thing is...After all these years,
I still look back...with WONDER.

[Fireworks in the background]

[Fade to closing titles]

YOUNG BOY: [voiceover]  Hey dad, wanna play catch?

NARRATOR: [voiceover]  I'll be right there.

Seasons One - Four

Home

NARRATOR: We didn't have to hate ourselves for getting older, we just had to forgive ourselves for growing up.

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