The Wonder Years

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The Wonder Years
(L to R) Hervey, d'Abo, Savage, Lauria, Mills, Saviano, McKellar. </small>
Genre	Comedy-drama
Running time	22 minutes
Creator(s)	Carol Black Neal Marlens
Executive producer(s)	Bob Brush (Seasons 2+)
Starring	Fred Savage Danica McKellar Josh Saviano Jason Hervey Olivia D'Abo Alley Mills Dan Lauria
Narrated by	Daniel Stern as Adult Kevin
Country of origin	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Original channel	ABC
Original run	January 31, 1988–May 12, 1993
No. of episodes	115
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Wonder Years is an Emmy Award winning television dramedy created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1993.

The Wonder Years tackled the social issues and historic events of the 1960s and early 1970s through the eyes of main character Kevin Arnold. Kevin also deals with typical teenage social issues, including those prompted by his main love interest, Winnie Cooper, as well as typical family troubles. The story is narrated by an older, wiser Kevin (voiced by Daniel Stern), describing what is happening and what he had learned from his experiences.

The show achieved a spot in the Nielsen Top Ten for two of its six seasons.<ref name="museum">The Wonder Years from the Museum of Broadcast Communications</ref> TV Guide named the show one of the 1980s' 20 best<ref name="museum" />. After only six episodes aired<ref name="museum" /> The Wonder Years won an Emmy for best comedy series in 1988; it was awarded a George Foster Peabody Award in 1989, for achieving two seemingly contradictory effects. On the one hand, its concentration on one family evokes the tradition of American situation comedy, from Father Knows Best to The Cosby Show. At the same time, its imaginative use of the techniques of modern television push the boundaries of the sit-com and point the way to new modes of storytelling.<ref>Peabody Award Winners Archive</ref>

The show's theme tune is Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends". This song was included on the soundtrack for the program.

1 Major characters
2 Other characters
3 Episodes
4 Story
5 Final episode
6 Trivia
7 DVD releases
8 Reruns
9 References

[edit] Major characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) — An average American teenaged student, growing up in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The voice of Kevin as an adult (and the show's narrator) is supplied by Daniel Stern.
Gwendolyne "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar) — Kevin's main love interest. She lives on the same block as Kevin. Their first kiss and her older brother's death in Vietnam play an important part of the pilot episode. In one episode her parents decide to get separated out of their grief over the death of their son.
Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) — Kevin's lifelong best friend, intelligent and an excellent student. In the final episode it is revealed that he went to Harvard for college. He is allergic to everything.
Jack Arnold (Dan Lauria) — Kevin's father, a sullen man and a Korean War veteran. Originally, he worked at NORCOM, a large corporation, in a middle management position he hated. Later, he started his own business, building and selling handcrafted furniture. The last episode reveals that he died a couple years after the last episode.
Norma Arnold (Alley Mills) — Kevin's stay-at-home mother. She met Jack as a college freshman. When he graduated, she moved across the country with him and didn't finish college. She eventually finishes college late in the series, and starts working at a software startup called Micro Electronics.
Karen Arnold (Olivia D'Abo) — Kevin's older hippie sister. She eventually gets married and moves to Alaska.
Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey) — Kevin's older brother, who enjoys physically tormenting Kevin and Paul. He takes over the furniture business when Jack Arnold dies, according to the epilogue for the last episode.

[edit] Other characters

Grandpa Arnold (David Huddleston) — Kevin's paternal grandfather. Gives his last car (and Kevin's first) to Kevin for $1.
Coach Cutlip (Robert Picardo) — Kevin's gym teacher who excels in bullying his students
Miss White, later Mrs. Heimer (Wendel Meldrum) — Kevin's junior high school teacher, whom he has a crush on. Her name is changed to Mrs. Heimer when she gets married.
Mr. Cantwell (Ben Stein) — Kevin's junior high school science teacher.
Becky Slater (Crystal McKellar, sister of Danica) — Kevin's junior high school classmate, who is briefly his jealous girlfriend in one episode. Her character is physically aggressive.
Chuck Coleman (Andy Berman) — One of Kevin's high school friends.
Delores (Juliette Lewis) — Wayne's girlfriend in high school.
Dave "Wart" Shafter (Scott Menville) - Wayne's best friend who gets shipped off to the Vietnam War.
Bonnie Douglas (Paula Marshall)
Jeff Billings (Giovanni Ribisi) - Plays Kevin's good friend in the later end of the series. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mom, which is why he moves in late.
Alice Pedermeir (Lindsay Sloane) — One of Kevin's classmates in high school.
Joey (Dustin Diamond)
Madeline Adams (Julie Condra) — Kevin's temporary flame in his last year of Junior High
Debbie Pfeiffer (Torrey Anne Cook) — Paul's younger sister, who has a crush on Kevin.
Alvin Pfeiffer (Josh Moskoff) — Paul's father.
Ida Pfeiffer (Stephanie Satie) — Paul's mother.
Eric Antonio (Don Jeffcoat) - Kevin's classmate in Junior high.
Young Kevin (Eric Lloyd)
Michael (David Schwimmer) — Karen's live-in boyfriend and then husband.
Mr. Collins (Steven Gilborn) - Kevin's algebra teacher. Kevin admires him at some level. He passes away in episode - 43 (named Goodbye!)

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of The Wonder Years episodes

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Story begins with Kevin, Paul and Winnie on the verge of starting junior high school. In the pilot Winnie's elder brother gets drafted and sent to Vietnam and gets killed there. Kevin meets Winnie in a nearby wood, and they end up sharing their first kiss (for both of them).

This unsaid relationship between Winnie and Kevin remains dormant for a long while though. Winnie starts dating a popular 8th Grader Kirk McCray. Kevin briefly goes steady with Becky, but soon breaks up with her realizing his feelings for Winnie are too strong. Kevin also has a major crush on his English teacher Miss White, who soon becomes Mrs. Heimer. Winnie eventually dumps Kirk as well.

Kevin and Winnie share a second kiss at the start of their Summer break. Winnie's parents start having differences between themselves due to the grief of their son's death. Soon Winnie's father moves to Chicago and starts living separately. But Winnie gives a very emotional performance in a school play Our Town and eventually her father comes back to live with them.

Near Valentine's Day Paul's girlfriend Carla breaks up with him, and to raise Paul's spirits Kevin asks Winnie to ask him out. The plan back-fires when Paul seems to fall for Winnie, and Kevin becomes extremely jealous. Winnie however breaks up with Paul, telling him that she likes someone else, and hints at Kevin. Kevin rushes to talk to Winnie but she gets mad at him. She tells him that she just wanted to let Paul down easy, and thats why she said Kevin's name even though it's not true. After Kevin's apologies on Valentine's Day, amidst confusion Kevin and Winnie finally start dating each other. Kevin admires his math teacher Mr. Collins in junior high, and is devastated when he passes away in the episode Goodbye. Paul has a brief crush on Kevin's mom, and Norma handles it really well, and breaks Paul's heart without breaking it.

Just before the summer break, Kevin finds out that Winnie and her family are moving away from their block to a house 4 miles away, and for a while it seems Winnie will break up with him because it is infeasable to maintain long distance relationships. But they seem to hold on to each other. Winnie starts going to a different school from next year. A new girl called Madelline joins Kevin's school, and openly flirts with Kevin. Even Kevin seems to be attracted to her, but his love for Winnie keeps him an honest man, just barely though. Eventually Winnie breaks up with Kevin when she meets Roger. But Winnie seems to be emotionally unstable for a while after that, and she gets hurt in a car accident.

Karen goes away to college, and she meets Michael at the college. They start living together, which forms a wall between Karen and Jack (Kevin's dad). She eventually marries him and they move to Alaska because Michael gets a job there.

Kevin, Winnie and Paul graduate from Kennedy Junior High, and Paul starts going to Prep School from next year. Winnie and Kevin go the same high school. Kevin almost misses his graduation as he goes with Mrs Heimer to the hospital when she goes into labor.

The following year Kevin has brief flings with Denise the Grease, and Wayne's then-girlfriend Sandy. Kevin's grandfather gets his licence revoked because of too many accidents, so he gives his car to Kevin for a dollar. Winnie and Kevin get reunited when they go on a double date to a school dance, and end up feeling a strange attraction towards each other.

In the final year of the series, Wayne starts working at NORCOM, and starts dating Bonnie who is also an employee of NORCOM. She is divorced and has a son, which makes the situation awkward between Wayne and his parents. She finally goes back to her former husband, and Wayne is heart-broken. Kevin's dad quits NORCOM, and starts up a business of manufacturing furniture. Paul returns to Kevin and Winnie's high school, and they take their SAT's that year. Kevin gets 650 in verbal and 590 in math, while Winnie shines with 725 in verbal, and 757 in math. Kevin has problems digesting at first, but he eases up soon. In the finale double episode, Kevin and Winnie have a huge fight because Winnie feels Kevin is intruding on her personal space, and Kevin feels Winnie is slipping away from him again. They make up in the penultimate scene of the series, and promise to never forget what they had.

[edit] Final episode

Reflecting on how everyone eventually grows up and how childhood comes to an end, Kevin and Winnie have one last passionate day together before going their separate ways once and for all. Winnie goes to Europe to study art, while Kevin stays in the States, gets married, and has a son. The two write to each other for eight years.

Kevin's father dies in two years (the cause of death is not mentioned) and Wayne takes over the family business. The fates of many supporting characters are resolved, and the narrator (adult Kevin) tells us:

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

You can watch the ending epilogue here on YouTube. [1]

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.

An early episode of The Simpsons had a scene aping The Wonder Years, with Bart looking up to his father — "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by The Byrds playing in the background — and Daniel Stern providing the narration.<ref>http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F21.html</ref>

The series was known for frequently exploring situations of adolescent awkwardness and eliciting feelings of embarrassment from sympathetic viewers. This prompted some [2] to adopt the phrase "Wonder Years moment" as a label for a similar circumstance occurring either for a television viewer or for a third party engaged in a social situation in which another has committed a faux pas.

In the 1990s, an Internet rumor spread that stated Josh Saviano (who played the character of Paul Pfeiffer) grew up to become American musician Marilyn Manson. This rumor has since been proven to be false. <ref>http://www.mansonusa.com/mmfaq/</ref>

In the Justice League Unlimited episode entitled "Hawk and Dove", Savage and Hervey reunite as brothers. However although they were originally cast with Hervey to play the older brother they reversed it and Savage played Hawk to Hervey playing Dove.

Fred Savage, who plays Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years, is the real life brother of Ben Savage, who played the lead role of Cory Matthews in another "growing-up comedy-drama", Boy Meets World. In one of the later episodes, Fred plays a teacher at the university that Cory & his friends attend.

The Wonder Years one of four successful sitcoms that carry the tradition of being produced two decades later than the setting in which the show takes place. The Wonder Years takes place in the 1960's and was produced in the 1980's. Others shows include Happy Days which was produced in the 1970s and depict the 1950's, That 70's Show began production in the 1990's and depicts the 1970's and Everybody Hates Chris which began production in the 2000's and depicts the 1980's.

Crystal McKellar, who plays Becky Slater, the romantic rival of Winnie Cooper, is the real-life sister of Danica McKellar who plays Winnie.

In episode 45, Daddy's Little Girl, there are 19 candles on the birthday cake instead of 18.

In 2002 "TVography" produced a documentary about "The Wonder Years". You can watch it here: [3]

[edit] DVD releases

Unlike most long-running popular American TV sitcoms, as of early December 2006 The Wonder Years has still not yet been released on DVD as official season box sets, probably due to the cost of securing the music rights. Officially, The Wonder Years has so far only been released as two 'best-of' DVD sets. They are the following:

The Best of The Wonder Years July 24, 1999 : 1 Disc
The Christmas Wonder Years July 24, 1999 : 1 Disc
These sets only have 2 episodes each, and do not contain the original music that was used in the original episodes. Despite that, though, prices for these out-of-print DVDs are extremely pricey -- according to Amazon.com, "The Christmas Wonder Years" DVD now retails for $74.99, while "The Best Of The Wonder Years" retails from $97.84 used to $186.99 new. [4]
Amazon.co.uk and Play.com have been advertising an official 'Wonder Years' DVD release for R2 since the start of 2006. The release date was first slated as March 2006, but was then changed to August and now states December, although the latest release date provided by amazon.co.uk [December 4, 2006] seems to have fallen through. Play.com are still advertising a December 26 release. Although no further information is yet available, this release, to be distributed by Fox, will probably be the first season only, with others to follow in 2007. It must be noted that there is still no word on an official American release.[5]

[edit] Reruns

In the United States, The Wonder Years will be returning to i. [6]
In Canada, TVtropolis began airing the series on September 11, 2006. It airs Monday-Friday at 1:00pm and 4:30pm (same episode, also repeated the following day at 4:30am) and Saturday-Sunday at 10am.
In the UK, The Wonder Years sometimes airs on Paramount Comedy 2.