I am a bit stuck. I want to write a sarcastic best man speech for the Kevin Arnold character of my Wonder Years spin-off. I am not that good at those types of speeches. Wayne (the brother) is gonna give the speech; there will be a few references towards the original series. He will use words like "butthead" and "scrot"; but, it's not to me comical. I want funny, like that one time your brother did that stupid thing and the whole family has made fun of him ever since type of funny. Watched hours of speeches on YouTube, but none of them seem to work. If anyone has any suggestions; I would appreciate the help.
Screenwriting : The perfect best man speech by Brian Knight
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Try the BM speech that Cumberbach's Sherlock gives at John's wedding. It blends a mild roasting with subversion, and of course, being Sherlock, triggers a cascade of plot-related events.
Thank you for the suggestion. That speech was actually one of the first ones I reviewed when I first attempted to write mine. Somehow, I just couldn't get it to fit. I do like how he put basically the whole room down before making them all cry out of joy though. It will come to me though. Thank you.
Brian - do you have a request and permission to write a Wonder Years spin-off? If you don't, then that's probably not a good thing to attempt.
Several people have asked that. They way I am looking at it, is that any concept I come up with is the property of Fox; only they can produce the show since they are the proper owners of the copyright. As of now it is only fan fiction, which will never be published. That being said; I do have a request in to 20th Century Fox to be granted permissions to use the title and characters Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper (plus various others). I have not received a reply yet. But being I don't make any claim and don't plan on producing, publishing or selling this concept to anyone else; I don't see any illegal issues at this time. My plan is to give 20th Century Fox the completed working concept; and if they like my stories and WISH to do so; they can pay us for the stories themselves. We have around a dozen in the works. It's not about money for me; it's about making sure Kevin and Winnie end up together. The spin-off was just a byproduct of that conclusion.
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In reality you can write whatever you like. You can never sell or distribute it, but there is no crime in writing it (look at all the fan fiction). Plus for years people have been doing TV show specs as writing samples. Now on the speech. I think half the comedy comes from how the jokes land with the audience. I have watch comedy laughed my head off with friend, rewatched it later and hardly smiled. My brother did an entire speech of back handed compliments.
My point exactly Craig; its not exactly to spec; but, I am not looking to sell it to any other network so... Dan; I disagree with you. Doing something that you love to do, like writing, is never a waste of time. Neither is writing in hopes of selling your concept to a (specific) network. If I was to put these scripts on the Internet (when they are done); or try to make a web series out of them; I would need permission; because several of the characters are trademarks of the Wonder Years series. Both Fred Savage and Danica McKellar have both stated, in interviews, that they would be willing to reprise their roles as Kevin and Winnie with the right concept. I am hoping I have one that they'd and Fox will like.
It doesn't matter who you contact at Fox, they won't want to read your script, and that is intentional because it then leaves them open to prospective law suits that you may raise because they saw your material. To protect themselves, they have to decline any offers of unauthorised copyrighted material.
This is a great best man speech, from the British series "Sherlock"; Sherlock Holmes giving the best man speech for Watson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JfDRiV_Mkc
The Dans are right - it will never get made. However, a buncha years ago someone landed representation and a ton of meetings when they wrote a Golden Girls movie and everyone loved it. Gimmicks involving known properties can work but ONLY as a writing sample.