eric's buddy

Part 2 of the full original television script of That 70s Show, Season 1 Episode 11 “Eric’s Buddy.”

This took HOURS (I won’t say how many), but this is the entire television screenplay for That 70s Show, Season 1 Episode 11 “Eric’s Buddy.” While you can find transcripts of the episodes online, there is no full script that I was able to find (although there are people on ebay selling the physical scripts--some signed--of episodes to the show but not of this particular one).

So I spent hours reviewing the footage and manually adding in all the scene info into this screenplay format. I’ve no experience writing a screenplay, so I’m sure this is chock-full of editing, formatting, and stylistic errors that I can’t recognize right now. I tried to make this as accurate as possible (I used a “Friends” script I found online as a reference).

The reason for this though was that in the first time in my 21 years, I’m seriously thinking of writing fanfiction for something, and I want it to be for this Buddy Morgan and Eric Forman au ship that I love so, so much. In my fanfic, I want it to be formatted as a script for t.v. so that it can feel that much more real because the truth is, this was in fact something we could have seen played out on the screen. But the writers chickened out. And even if they were to revive the show with a new cast, you can’t replace the power and charm that is young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or the chemistry he had with Topher Grace. I will always want to see that original iteration of their characters have that story line of a bisexual Eric navigating his sexuality with Buddy. I will always feel like something precious was stolen from me--because it was.

This episode stands out for so many reasons besides the fact that it features the first male|male kiss in North American primetime television. The first gay kiss America saw on t.v. was this one! But also this ep is so funny and cheery and heartwarming and so full of possibility. It stands strong among the rest and so regardless, I would still want to have this. The words, to remember it by.