Somerset author's coming-of-age novels may become movies, featuring '80s icon Erik Estrada

SOMERSET — Summer days in the Southcoast lasted longer in the 1980s. The nights were warmer, the music catchier, the cars faster, the emotions higher — or perhaps it only felt that way.

Novelist Steven Manchester’s 2020 book “Lawn Darts & Lemonade” took readers to the summer of 1984 in and around Fall River, a time when the Lincoln Park rollercoaster thrilled families, teenagers baked in the sun at Horseneck Beach during the day and cruised the Ave at night. Now he’s in early talks with a film production company and ‘80s pop culture legend Erik Estrada to bring his coming-of-age story to movie screens — one of two film projects he sees on the horizon, along with an adaptation of a second novel set in the ‘80s.

Manchester said the film talks are still exploratory, but that Estrada has “already given the gentleman’s handshake.”

“It's not just an idea that’s being talked about and floated around," Manchester said. “Everyone understands fully that funding needs to be in place, but we’re working toward that as well.”

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Coming of age in Fall River in the early 1980s

Manchester has a fiction empire. In the basement of his Somerset home, stocked with several vintage typewriters and shelves packed with volumes, he has produced over 17 books, several of them best-sellers. His novels and stories have been produced in audio form, turned into a podcast limited drama series, and adapted into a wholesome Christmas film. Characters are born and come to life here, leading lives of drama, humor, tragedy and hope.

The characters for two of his books — “Bread Bags & Bullies” and “Lawn Darts & Lemonade” — came to him easier than others.

“This is based on my own childhood with my two brothers,” Manchester said. “The younger guy’s Cockroach, the older guy’s Wally, and I’m in the middle, Herbie.”

The books are fiction but inspired by his childhood growing up in the Southcoast in 1984, with all the pop culture landmarks familiar to anyone coming of age at that time: the Rubik’s Cube craze, big-hair hits on MTV, “The Karate Kid,” Bradlees, S&H Green Stamps, Slush Puppies at the corner store. Readers travel back to a simpler time before cellphones, when social media was cruising the Ave, when streaming movies meant renting VHS tapes at the video store.

"The first kiss. The first crush. Going to the movies," Manchester said. “You’re at a time when kids used to walk the mall — do laps on Friday night, meet up with their friends, all that stuff. And it doesn’t exist anymore, for the most part.” 

When promoting the books, Manchester sought promos and blurbs not from other writers, but from ‘80s icons — Barry Williams from “The Brady Bunch,” singer Taylor Dayne, “The Jeffersons” and “227” actor Marla Gibbs, singer Colin Hay from Men at Work, and tons more.

“I literally started writing letters, and I don’t want to exaggerate — it was over 400," Manchester said. Dozens of them replied with glowing praise.

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How Erik Estrada became involved

One ‘80s icon that Manchester connected with was Estrada, best known as Ponch from the TV cop drama “CHiPs.” Estrada has been working with production company Heartlight Entertainment, which also produced “The Thursday Night Club,” a 2022 film based on Manchester’s novella.

Estrada arranged a meeting with Manchester, saying he’d heard that Heartlight was considering adapting his two '80s books into films.

“He said, ‘I want in. I want in for both stories,’” Manchester said. “Normally what happens is, the funding comes first and you attach talent. With this case, what’s going to happen is they’re going to attach the talent and then try to lure in the funding.”

Manchester said the company is also attempting to see if they can attract interest from actors Donny Most from the sitcom “Happy Days” and Corey Feldman from dozens of films including “The Goonies.” It’s his goal to fill the films with cameos from ‘80s legends.

He’s also hoping to have a hand in the producing this time, as well — always one to think ahead, he’s already started considering places to hire period-specific cars.

“I’m pushing for some of it to be filmed here,” he said. The production company’s infrastructure is based in Connecticut, he said, “but this story takes place in the Southcoast. You have to pay homage to your people.”

An '80s childhood that anyone can relate to

While it’s still not a done deal, and he’s had film projects fall through before, Manchester said "I think we're in good shape for this one.”

He’s finished adapting “Lawn Darts” as a screenplay, and is hard at work on the “Bread Bags” script. The process of adapting each 300-page novel into its own screenplay can be tricky, and means scuttling much of the prose; as a general rule, a page of script equals about a minute of screen time. But one thing he’s careful to keep is each book's nostalgic essence.

And while the setting and many of the references are specific to Greater Fall River, Manchester’s pen makes them relatable to anyone.

“What I’m excited about is continuing to share the type of lives that we live down here," Manchester said. “My readers are all over the world, but I don’t care if you’re in Nevada, Utah — there was a chance there was a corner store you rode your bike to, where your mother had a tab. ... I’m sure there’s a lot of different cities that have Sam’s Bakery, but they don’t have Sam’s meat pies like we do.”

He has children and now grandchildren — kids who are growing up in the same area as him, but a radically different time. Lincoln Park is long gone. McCoy Stadium is closed. The malls are largely history. Who can cruise the Ave when gas is $3.50 a gallon? What excites Manchester most about these film projects is being able to transport his loved ones back in time.

“I’ve been working for 30 years,” he said, “and now I have an opportunity to be able to share that with the people that I love in a really tangible way.”

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Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Erik Estrada in talks to act in adaptation of Somerset author's novels