The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years was a 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.The Wonder Years from the Museum of Broadcast Communications TV Guide named the show one of the 1980s' 20 best. After only six episodes aired The Wonder Years won an Emmy for best comedy series in 1988; it was awarded a George Foster Peabody Award in 1989, for:achiev[ing] 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.Peabody Award Winners Archive

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.

Major characters

*Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) â€" 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) â€" 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 divorced out of their grief over the death of their son.
*Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) â€" 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) â€" Kevin's father, 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.
*Norma Arnold (Alley Mills) â€" 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.
*Karen Arnold (Olivia D'Abo) â€" Kevin's older hippie sister. She eventually gets married and moves to Alaska.
*Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey) â€" 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.

Other characters

*Grandpa Arnold (David Huddleston) â€" Kevin's paternal grandfather.
*Coach Cutlip (Robert Picardo) â€" Kevin's gym teacher who excels in bullying his students
*Miss White, later Mrs. Heimer (Wendel Meldrum) â€" 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) â€" Kevin's junior high school science teacher.
*Becky Slater (Crystal McKellar) â€" Kevin's junior high school classmate, who is briefly his jealous girlfriend in one episode. Her character is physically aggressive.
*Chuck Coleman (Andy Berman) â€" One of Kevin's high school friends.
*Delores (Juliette Lewis) â€" Wayne's girlfriend in high school, never without a chewing gum
*Bonnie Douglas (Paula Marshall)
*Jeff Billings (Giovanni Ribisi)
*Alice Pedermeir (Lindsay Sloane) â€" One of Kevin's classmates in high school.
*Joey (Dustin Diamond)
*Madeline (Julie Condra) â€" Kevin's temporary flame when he starts high school.
*Debbie Pfeiffer (Torrey Anne Cook) â€" Paul's younger sister, who has a crush on Kevin.
*Alvin Pfeiffer (Josh Moskoff) â€" Paul's father.
*Ida Pfeiffer (Stephanie Satie) â€" Paul's mother.
*Eric Antonio (Don Jeffcoat)
*Young Kevin (Eric Lloyd)
*Michael (David Schwimmer) â€" Karen's live-in boyfriend and then husband.
*Mr. Collins (Steven Gilborn) - Kevin's algebra teacher.

Episodes

List of The Wonder Years episodes

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:

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

Trivia

* 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.http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F21.html
* The series was known for frequently exploring situations of adolescent awkwardness and eliciting feelings of embarrassment from sympathetic viewers. This prompted some 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 1990's, 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. http://www.mansonusa.com/mmfaq/
* In the Justice League Unlimited episode entitled "Hawk and Dove", Savage and Hervey reunite as brothers. However although they were orginally casted 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 real life brother of Ben Savage who played the lead role of Cory Matthews in another "growing-up comedy-drama" Boy Meets World. The theme of Boy Meets World is very similar to The Wonder Years and is currently syndicated on ABC Family and Disney Channel.
* 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.

DVD releases

The Wonder Years has released only 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 DiscThese sets 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. [2]

A full-season DVD set has yet to be released, due to music rights. It is unlikely that the series will be released in the near future, and if it does, at least some of the original music will not be included. [3]

The Wonder Years: Encyclopedia BETA

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