Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (31 page)

Golden Years (1991)
 

The screenplay for the first King television series,
Golden Years
, has never been published but copies circulate within the King community. A copy is also held in Box 2317 at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono. 

The review in this chapter is of King’s screenplay for Episodes 1 and 2 from the Final Shooting Script, dated 17 January 1991; and Episodes 3 to 6 from Box 2317. Episode 7 and the Alternate Ending Scripts held in Box 2317 were written by Josef Anderson and as such are not summarized here. 

As the series is now available on DVD in an abridged form and with a formalized ending it is important that readers who view that form understand that it varies from the TV series actually shown. For the purposes of this chapter the scripts have been dealt with
exactly
as written in the drafts noted above. There are numerous changes from the script to the actual series produced. Also, it should be noted that the drafts in Box 2317 interchange Terrilyn Spann and her father, Otis Spann. Nevertheless, it is important to summarize only what King wrote, not what a director or others changed at a later time, as those variations are no longer “King.” 

The scripts were produced for television as the series
Golden Years
or, as it is sometimes known,
Stephen King’s Golden Years
. The first two-hour episode was shown on the American CBS network on 16 July 1991. The remaining episodes screened on 18 and 25 July; and 1, 8, 15 and 22 August, after which the series was cancelled. According to the credits the produced screenplay was by Stephen King for episodes 1 to 5; and Josef Anderson for episodes 6 to 7; with the story by Stephen King for Episodes 6 and 7. The directors for the series were Kenneth Fink, Allen Coulter, Michael Gornick and Stephen Tolkin. 

The lead actors were Keith Szarabajka as Harlan Williams; the wonderful character actress Frances Sternhagen (
Cheers
,
E.R.
,
Misery
) as Gina Williams; Felicity Huffman as Terry Spann; Ed Lauter as General Crewes; Stephen Root as Major Moreland; and R D Call as Jude Andrews. King delivered a delightful cameo as a grumpy bus driver. The DVD is available individually as
Golden Years
, released in 2002; and boxed with other titles as the
Stephen King Horror DVD Collection
(1999); or
Stephen King’s Golden Years/The Langoliers
(2001). 

The original 104-minute pilot and six 52-minute episodes (a total of 6 hours and 56 minutes) were edited down to 236 minutes (3 hours and 56 minutes), including added material for the video/DVD. The slow pace and the questionable acting from a number of the players will disappoint viewers. However, if one can bear these defects the actual storyline is quite interesting. It is clear the series suffered from trying to squeeze too many TV hours out of too little story action. As the series was cancelled midway through its first season it was necessary for the producers to compile an ending for the video/DVD and, to avoid the inevitable let down at the end of some four hours of viewing, it is important to understand this when viewing the final product. Overall, the result is disappointing, as evidenced by
www.imdb.com
members rating it a poor 5.0 out of a possible 10. 

In the storyline a janitor is accidentally exposed to an explosion at a top secret Government facility. The Department of Scientific Affairs (DSA) ran the Gold Series experiments at the Falco Plains Testing Station in New York under the brilliant but erratic Dr. Richard Todhunter. During one of the experiments in October or November 1985 Todhunter ignored protocol. This resulted in an explosion, killing Dr. Charles (or “Tommy”) Jackson and fatally injuring Horace Redding, an intern.  

Green dust from the explosion “infected” Harlan Williams, a 70 year old janitor working at the plant and he started to become younger as a result. When the injured Redding was examined it was noted that about the age of 6 or 8 he had suffered a cut, scarring his left forearm. He’d also had an appendectomy aged about 14, a vasectomy, and he had a large napalm burn scar on his lower right calf. Sometime between his death and the examination the later scars, from the burn and the vasectomy, mysteriously disappeared. 

The day following the explosion investigators from a secretive government organization known as the Shop interrogated Dr. Todhunter. Jude Andrews was one of the Shop agents and he began to focus on Williams. Andrews began killing those who had witnessed the changes in Redding and Williams. Williams decided to flee with his wife, Gina and they were assisted in the escape by a DSA employee, Terrilyn (“Terry”) Spann, who had recently begun a sexual relationship with the head of the Falco Plains facility, General Louis Crewes. Spann wished to expose Todhunter, protect Harlan Williams from capture and Gina Williams from most likely being murdered by Andrews.  

Andrews and his men chased Spann and the elderly couple through New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. They narrowly avoided capture before heading toward Chicago, the home town of the Williams’ blind daughter, Francie. At this point King’s script ends. 

There are a number of interesting links to King’s other fiction in this America Under Siege work. Harlan Williams told his wife Gina that the Virginia Shop installation had burned down “a couple of years ago.” Andrews mentioned that he was aware of the pasting the Shop took over the McGee operation. Spann mentioned that people in the Shop thought John Rainbird was the best field operative ever but she thought Andrews was better. Crewes also mentioned Rainbird. These are all references to events and characters in
Firestarter
. 

The Shop is also mentioned in
The Langoliers
, the
Uncut
version of
The Stand
and
The Tommyknockers
. It is interesting that King has not returned to this shadowy and unprincipled government agency since
Golden Years
was written in 1991. One new aspect of the Shop is King’s revelation in the script that it has a facility in Maui, likened to a Club Med, where the residents can use beads to buy sex and drugs. The catches are that the place is surrounded by electrified barbed wire and the “vacation” never ends! 

In scene 123 Spann says to Andrews (having previously been told to stop calling him “Popeye”), “Really? You want to go for it, Stud City?”
Stud City
is the name of a story that forms part of the novella
The Body
and was originally published as a King short story in the University of Maine literary magazine
Ubris
for Fall 1969. 

At one point, Williams and Spann came across an accident on Route 17 West near Zanesville, Ohio and stopped. They were recognized by a State Cop and ended up stealing his cruiser. Zanesville, Ohio is also mentioned as the town in which Chip Coombs and Red McFarland learned barbering in the unpublished and incomplete King story,
Chip Coombs
. 

Falco Plains Testing Station reminds one of The Arrowhead Project in the classic King novella
The Mist
. In that story the Project was on a small preserve near the town border with Stoneham, it was manned with sentries and surrounded by wire. It was only 30 or so miles from Bridgton. Bill Giosti claimed something atomic was going on there while Dick Muehler thought it was simply an agricultural station. It may have been responsible for the Mist’s appearance.  

Compare that description with the Falco Plains facility, which was a classified location, with signage indicating it was a US Department of Agriculture facility. It was surrounded by an electrified fence and could only be entered via a security station at the facility’s road connection to the two-lane county blacktop road. There was a lot of security at the site. Clearly Arrowhead and Falco Plains are birds of a feather.  

Golden Years
is yet another example of a major theme in King’s fiction, the disaster that may be wrought when science, often manipulated by government, spirals out of control. This thread weaves its way through King’s writing career, from the early days of
I’ve Got to Get Away
and
I Was a Teenage Grave Robber
to its sophisticated expressions in
Firestarter
and
The Stand
, through
The Mist
and
Golden Years
to
The End of the Whole Mess
and
Everything’s Eventual
. 

King had never before mentioned the town of Falco Plains, New York and he has yet to revisit it. It is upstate, near Falco Lake. Among the businesses in town are the Falco Plains Drug Store and the Falco Plains Hotel, where Andrews stayed in Room 422. These and a bar opposite the hotel are all on Main Street. It is unclear where the other businesses mentioned are located. These include the town newspaper, the
Free Democrat
; Hayman’s Funeral Home; the hairdresser, Suzy’s Unisex Express; and Warren’s Market, where the body of Eakins was kept in a meat locker, as the operators of the funeral home could not be contacted (a typical King touch!). Andrews had murdered Eakins, Harlan William’s optometrist. 

It is most unlikely at this late date that these scripts will ever be published, leaving readers with the choice of traveling to Orono to read the entire set, acquiring one of the copies that circulate in the King community, or viewing the heavily altered DVD version of the series.  

As a footnote readers may be interested in King’s article
How I Created Golden Years … and Spooked Dozens of TV Executives
published in
Entertainment Weekly
for 2 August 1991. Spignesi reviews this article
⁶³
, noting King had originally intended to write the story of Harlan Williams and The Shop as a novel.  

As King’s first attempt at series television (the next,
Kingdom Hospital
would not screen for another 13 years) this disappointing production at least stands as an important historical note to King’s career. 

King in
The New Yorker 

The New Yorker
is a prestigious literary magazine. For a writer whose first short stories were published in pulp and men’s magazines King’s acceptance by the editors of this magazine must have provided some satisfaction. These are the King works of fiction (they have also carried his non-fiction) published there to date: 

The Man in the Black Suit (*)
October 31, 1994
 

That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French (*)
June 22 and 29, 1998
 

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (*)
January 29, 2001 

The Death of Jack Hamilton (*)
December 24, 2001 

Harvey’s Dream (**)
June 30, 2003 

Premium Harmony
November 9, 2009 

(*) These stories also appear in King’s collection,
Everything’s Eventual
(2002) 

(**) Appears in King’s collection,
Just After Sunset
(2008) 

⁶³
The Lost Work of Stephen King
, Stephen J. Spignesi, p.245-247
 

Heroes for Hope: Starring the X-Men (1985) 

This story, partly by King, appeared in a Marvel Comic,
Heroes for Hope: Starring the X-Men
, volume 1 number 1, 1985, published on 1 December. All proceeds from the comic book (cover price $1.50) went to Famine Relief and Recovery in Africa. The total story was written by 18 different authors over 48 pages. 

King wrote only pages 10 to 12 inclusive. Bernie “Berni” Wrightson, who has illustrated a number of King projects including
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
and
Cycle of the Werewolf
was the “penciler” for King’s section. The “inker” was Jeff Jones, the “letterer” Tom Orzechowski and the “colorist” Christie Scheele. 

Chris Claremont, Ann Nocenti, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Starlin and Jim Shooter wrote the overall story. Harlan Ellison wrote the section appearing on pages 22 to 24. Shooter, the Editor in Chief of the book, explained its genesis on the inside back cover: 

One night, a few months ago, artist Jim Starlin called me at home to propose an idea that his friend and fellow artist Berni Wrightson had suggested to him – that Marvel Comics publish a special issue of The X-Men, a benefit book for famine relief in Africa. Jim and Berni wanted to do the book as a “jam”, with many artists and writers contributing, which would enable us to bring a small army of outstanding talents together on the project, making it a real event. I thought it was a great idea. I pitched it to Publisher Mike Hobson and President Jim Galton. They liked it. They agreed that if the creators would donate their work, Marvel would donate all revenue from the book to an appropriate charity organization … So we began. Jim and Berni recruited the artists. Chris Claremont, the highly-acclaimed regular writer of The X-Men, quickly volunteered to recruit writers … 

The story is unique in that it is the only time prior to
American Vampire
King had contributed original material to a comic book/story other than his own complete work (
Creepshow
) and is yet another example of King’s willingness to try different delivery methods and styles. However, as only a small part of a comic book and pretty not much more than an (effective) diatribe against hunger in the third world, this is perhaps the least interesting of all King’s fiction and is often overlooked by both critics and fans. 

The comic book is not difficult to find and is generally available from specialist comic book sellers, specialist King booksellers and various on-line sites for under $10.00 per copy. 

Only King’s part of the story is summarized in this chapter. There are no links to other King works of fiction and no timeline for the story is given.
Note: Kitty’s surname was provided in a previous section of the comic and is therefore shown in italics
. 

In King’s part of the story Kitty
Pryde
leaves her X-Men friends for the kitchen, seeking food. A creature, dressed in a black cowl, grabs her when she gets there, “…the tendons in his thin hands feel as powerful as steel cables. Dry hands settle over her face; its breath is rank with empty death. And yet she has never been so hungry.” Kitty quickly transforms into a ravenous, starving husk. 

The creature then offered her a meal of medium rare steak and hot buttered corn: 

“I’ve spent most of the morning slaving over a hot stove, but
I
don’t mind … you might say I take great
pryde
in my work.” Kitty reaches out with shaking hands that have become little more than bones wrapped in skin. Her head swims with the maddening aroma of juicy meat and buttered corn …  

When she accepts, the meal immediately turns into a “…sickening slush of putridity … maggots squirm in the rotted remains of the sirloin…”  

She asks the creature who he is, and he replies:  

“I am misery’s maitre d’, the chef of starvation, waiter to the waifs of the world, hash-slinger to the homeless! I am, my dear, every hungry bloated belly, every dying eye, every picked bone drying in the desert. I’m pestilence and desolation, Kitty … but my friends just call me
hungry!
” 

The creature then instructs Kitty to “starve” and Nightcrawler, curious over the length of time Kitty has been away, finds her wasted, but still living, body on the kitchen floor. 

Other writers and artists then continue the story, which is part of the New Worlds Reality.