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56-788: The Wonder Years is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black . It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII . The series stars Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It co-stars Dan Lauria as his father Jack, Alley Mills as his mother Norma, Jason Hervey as his brother Wayne, Olivia d'Abo as his sister Karen, Josh Saviano as his best friend Paul Pfeiffer, and Danica McKellar as his girlfriend Winnie Cooper, with narration by Daniel Stern as an adult version of Kevin. The show earned

112-655: A Fourth of July parade. During this parade, the adult Kevin ( Daniel Stern ) describes the fate of the show's main characters. Kevin makes up with his father, graduates from high school in 1974, and leaves for college, later becoming a writer. Paul studies law at Harvard. Karen, Kevin's sister, gives birth to a son in September 1973. Kevin's mother becomes a businesswoman and corporate board chairwoman. Kevin's father dies in 1975 and Wayne takes over his father's furniture business. Winnie studies art history in Paris while Kevin stays in

168-408: A Little Help From My Friends" at the opening. Fourteen songs were replaced, in most instances featuring generic studio replacement music in place of the original song, while on a few occasions, the original soundtrack song was replaced with another version of the same song. None of the necessary music replacements resulted in footage from the episodes being removed. Also, not a music change per se, but

224-430: A bet. Desperate, Kevin confronts Winnie and her new boyfriend at the restaurant and ends up punching him in the face. Kevin then leaves the resort on foot. On a desolate stretch of highway, Kevin decides to begin hitchhiking. He finally gets picked up by an elderly couple and much to his surprise finds Winnie in the backseat. Winnie was fired over the fight Kevin instigated at the resort. Kevin and Winnie begin to argue and

280-474: A break in the final narration. Kevin responds, "I'll be right there." In 2011, the finale was ranked number 11 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales . The series was conceived by writers Neal Marlens and Carol Black, both of Growing Pains fame. They set out to create a family show that would appeal to the baby-boomer generation by setting the series in the late '60s,

336-459: A break, I go to school. It's really intense because I have to get a lot done in short periods. And it's hard because if they need you back on the set, they pull you away every 20 minutes. If you're writing an essay and suddenly get inspired, you've got to stop and go back to work." Many exterior shots were filmed in Burbank, California. Three different versions of the opening were made, each set to

392-502: A car crash. After graduating from junior high, Kevin and Winnie both go to McKinley High and Paul attends a prep school. Paul would later transfer to McKinley High and join Kevin and Winnie. Earlier seasons of the show tended to focus on plots involving events within the Arnold household and Kevin's academic struggles, whereas later seasons focused much more on plots involving dating and Kevin's friends. Kevin has several brief flings during

448-428: A costume designer on the show named Monique Long filed a sexual harassment charge against stars Fred Savage and Jason Hervey. The suit brought forward unwanted publicity to the show. In the end, the case was settled out of court with Savage stating that he was "completely exonerated" and adding that it was a "terrible experience". In January 2018, Alley Mills said that a sexual harassment lawsuit against Savage and Hervey

504-422: A double date to a school dance, and find themselves more attracted to each other than their respective partners. In late 1972, Kevin's older brother Wayne starts working at NORCOM, and dates his co-worker Bonnie, a divorcée with a son, but the relationship does not last. Kevin's father quits NORCOM, and buys a furniture-manufacturing business. Shortly before the finale, mirroring the women's liberation movement of

560-424: A game of bowling and reconcile. In the series finale, Winnie decides to take a job for the summer of 1973 as a lifeguard at a resort. Kevin, meanwhile, is at his job at his father's furniture factory and calls Winnie, who is distant and seems to be enjoying her time away from Kevin. Eventually, Kevin and his father fight and Kevin announces that he is leaving, reasoning that he needs to "find himself". Kevin drives to

616-539: A major defense contractor (many located in Southern California at the time), to Wayne's driver's license listing Culver City, California . When they started writing the series, Marlens and Black took a script for a future film with which they had been toying, which featured an off-screen narrator. Black explained, "We liked the concept that you could play with what people think and what they're saying, or how they would like to see themselves as opposed to how

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672-417: A marvelous actor with a natural quality – which essentially means he has no quality at all except being a kid. It sounds funny, but it's a rare thing to find in a child actor." Marlens and Black took this approach when casting the other kids for the show, looking for natural ability rather than professionalism. According to Marlens, they saw 300 to 400 kids before narrowing it down to 70. "My wife and I made

728-410: A new school, Lincoln Junior High, she and Kevin decide to remain together and maintain a successful long-distance relationship. A beautiful new student named Madeline Adams joins Kevin's school and quickly catches Kevin's eye, but it is Winnie who breaks up with Kevin after meeting Roger, a jock at her new school. Neither relationship lasts long, but Winnie and Kevin don't reunite until she is injured in

784-508: A reason for their sudden departure, it may have been due to Black's pregnancy. She hinted at it in an interview in April 1988, saying "We have secret plans to leave Los Angeles before our kids reach the age of cognizance." One challenge for the cast and crew was filming around a child actor, meaning that the show had to obey child labor laws. Savage at the time explained, "You have to get at least three hours of school in every day. So whenever I'm on

840-420: A recurring nuisance for Kevin. Winnie eventually dumps Kirk as well and Kevin and Winnie share a second kiss at the start of the 1969 summer vacation. Around Valentine's Day 1970, Winnie temporarily dates Paul, who has broken up with his girlfriend Carla. Winnie and Kevin start dating each other soon after. Just before the summer break, Winnie and her family move to a house four miles away. Although Winnie attends

896-479: A spot in the Nielsen Top 30 during its first four seasons. TV Guide named it one of the 20 best shows of the 1980s. After six episodes, The Wonder Years won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1988. In addition, at age 13, Fred Savage became the youngest actor ever nominated as Outstanding Lead Actor for a Comedy Series . The show was also awarded a Peabody Award in 1989 for "pushing

952-456: A time of radical change in America's history. They also wanted the series to tie this setting in to the life of a normal boy growing up during the period. After writing the script for the pilot episode, Marlens and Black began pitching the series to television networks. None of them were interested, except for ABC , with whom Marlens and Black reached an agreement. Marlens had originally wanted

1008-498: A total of 13 tracks, featuring Joe Cocker's cover of The Beatles ' "With a Little Help from My Friends", which is the show's theme song. After the series' original run was over, Laserlight Digital released a five-disc compilation box set under the title Music from 'The Wonder Years in 1994. This same company later released the first two DVDs for the series, The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years . The disc included 40 oldies favorites and five original songs (each

1064-435: Is a housewife . Kevin also has an older brother, Wayne, and an older sister, Karen. Two of Kevin's friends and neighbors are prominently featured throughout the series: his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, and his crush-turned-girlfriend Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper. Storylines are told through Kevin's reflections as an adult in his mid-30s, voiced by Daniel Stern. In the pilot episode, Winnie's older brother Brian, whom Kevin admires,

1120-492: Is an important characteristic of the genre, which relies on dialogue and emotional responses, rather than action. The story is sometimes told in the form of a flashback. Historically, coming-of-age films usually centred on young boys, although coming-of-age films focusing on girls have become more common in the early 21st century, such as The Poker House (2008), Winter's Bone (2010), Hick (2011), Girlhood (2014), Mustang (2015), Inside Out (2015), The Diary of

1176-506: Is killed in action in Vietnam in 1968. Kevin meets Winnie in a nearby wooded area called Harpers Woods, and they share what is implied to be each other's first kiss. This unsaid relationship between Winnie and Kevin remains dormant for a long while, with Winnie starting to date a popular eighth-grader named Kirk McCray and Kevin briefly going steady with Becky Slater. After Kevin breaks up with Becky due to his feelings for Winnie, Becky becomes

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1232-465: Is repeated twice in the set) written exclusively for the series by W. G. Snuffy Walden . In 2014, Time Life released a new soundtrack for the show that accompanies deluxe versions of its complete series DVD set. The CD is not available for purchase separately from the DVD box set, however. The Time Life DVD releases feature around 96% of the original music soundtrack, including Joe Cocker's cover of "With

1288-547: The Joe Cocker rendition of " With a Little Help from My Friends ". This first version of the opening was very basic: Nothing but a black screen was shown, after the title logo, with each cast member's name appearing in the center one by one. Much like the Arye Gross narration, this version of the opening was only used once when the pilot first aired after Super Bowl XXII. This opening consists of home-movie footage from

1344-413: The 1970s, in 1973, Kevin's mother, not wanting to let her college degree go to waste, gets a job as a comptroller at Micro Electronics, making $ 225/week. Meanwhile, Kevin and his friends get their SAT scores , with Kevin scoring a respectable 650 verbal/590 math, while Winnie scores a near-perfect 725 verbal/757 math. As a result, Kevin and his father start feeling inadequate, but then beat their partners in

1400-595: The Daniel Stern redub of the pilot is used, with the standard opening sequence. Other than the above music changes, all other music is intact. The UK DVD release from Fabulous Films was intended to have no replaced music, but reviews on online retailers and fan websites show that this is not the case. The Wonder Years wrapped its sixth and final season in May 1993. Its cancellation was partially blamed on conflict between producers and executives at ABC. As Kevin matured,

1456-543: The Monday-night comedy block, which also featured Murphy Brown . The series was later promoted to main channel TVE1 , where it aired Fridays 9:00 pm. Years later, in the late '90s, commercial station Antena 3TV recovered the series and aired it first in its 2:00 pm comedy hour, later relocating it to a 5:30 pm slot as part of the youth macroshow La Merienda . Initially, the first four episodes were released on two VHS cassettes by Anchor Bay in 1997, with most of

1512-465: The UK, the show began airing on Channel 4 on August 20, 1989. In (West) Germany, the show began airing on RTL plus on February 28, 1990 as Wunderbare Jahre . Seasons 1-4 were shown on RTL plus until February 1, 1992 on Saturdays at 6:00 pm. Reruns were shown on RTL 2 between September 6 and October 25, 1993 and December 17-31, 1994. On July 17, 1995, the show began airing again on RTL 2 on weekdays until

1568-500: The United States. Winnie and Kevin end up writing to each other once a week for the next eight years. When Winnie returns to the United States in 1982, Kevin meets her at the airport, with his wife and eight-month-old son. The final sounds, voice-over narration, and dialogue of the episode and series is that of Kevin as an adult, with children heard in the background: Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers,

1624-423: The ages of 12 through 17. Where the Arnold family lives is never specified other than being a suburb, but some episodes have license plates showing California and New York . Each year in the series takes place exactly 20 years before airing (1988 to 1993). The show's plot centers on Kevin Arnold, son of Jack and Norma Arnold. Kevin's father holds a management job at NORCOM, a defense contractor , while his mother

1680-500: The audience is seeing them." They based the show, in part, on their own childhood growing up in the suburbs. Black recalled that "we naturally [took] elements of our experience and [threw] them into the pot. The basic setup, the neighborhood, the era – that's the time and place where we grew up." The show's title was a satirical nod to a famous 1970s Wonder Bread ad campaign promoting the highly processed white bread as perfect for "The Wonder Years", ages 1 through 12. The search for

1736-476: The boundaries of the sitcom format and using new modes of storytelling". In total, the series won 22 awards and was nominated for 54 more. In 1997, "My Father's Office" was ranked number 29 on TV Guide ' s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time , and in the 2009 revised list, the pilot episode was ranked number 43. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked The Wonder Years number 63 on its list of 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2017, James Charisma of Paste ranked

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1792-475: The deal were added to the Watch Instantly service by April 2, 2011 while The Wonder Years remained unavailable. On October 1, 2011, 114 full-length episodes of the series were added to Netflix. The clip show from the end of Season 4, which was released on DVD, was not included. On September 26, 2011, Amazon Prime 's streaming video service announced it would be adding The Wonder Years , describing

1848-401: The elderly couple lose patience and kick them out of the car. A rainstorm begins and Kevin and Winnie search for shelter. They find a barn and discuss how much things are changing and the future. They make up and kiss passionately (it is heavily implied that they lose their virginity to each other). The narrator's monologue states: Once upon a time, there was a girl I knew who lived across

1904-513: The end of the year; this time, between October 20 and December 29, 1995, previously unaired Seasons 5 and 6 were shown. In Canada, the show aired on CTS Ontario from September 2010 until September 2, 2011. In Australia, the show aired on Network Ten between 1989 and 1995, then from March 31, 2012, on ABC1 . In the Philippines, the show aired on GMA Network . In Spain, the series initially aired Mondays 9:30 pm on TVE2 (now La2 ) as part of

1960-412: The final choice ... each of whom had to be approved by the network." For the choice of Savage's character's main love interest, the choice came down to actress Danica McKellar and her sister, Crystal McKellar . With just days to go before shooting, the producers eventually selected Danica to play Winnie Cooper. However, Mary Buck, the head of casting, noted, "it was practically a tossup". Crystal McKellar

2016-483: The finale was not what he would have wanted it to be, but because the cast and crew were unsure at the time of filming if the sixth season would be the last, he was forced to have the ending be open-ended until the recording of Daniel Stern's narration. Fans were somewhat disappointed with the ending, in particular the revelation that Kevin and Winnie do not end up as a couple. Brush acknowledged this disappointment, saying, "Some viewers [were] surprised that nothing works out

2072-510: The former is usually a wider genre. The Bildungsroman (from the German words Bildung , "education", alternatively "forming" and Roman , "novel") is further characterized by a number of formal, topical, and thematic features. It focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age ), in which character change is important. The genre evolved from folk tales of young children exploring

2128-548: The kind of venerable cachet that the show had obtained with its audience. We would get notes from the network saying, "You could do this on any show besides The Wonder Years ." Other reasons for the show's cancellation were escalating costs and declining ratings. The cast's salary increases, coupled with location shooting (which was due to the producers wanting to reflect Kevin obtaining his driver's license), led to Brush claiming that they were spending $ 1.2 million an episode. The final episode aired on May 12, 1993. Bob Brush noted that

2184-546: The main lead of the show did not take long. Marlens and Black went to five casting directors and interviewed them for recommendations. All five of them recommended Fred Savage, who at the time was famous for his roles as the grandson in The Princess Bride and as Charlie/Marshall in Vice Versa . Marlens and Black, having never heard of Savage, decided to see the rough cut of Vice Versa . Said Marlens, "[We saw]

2240-411: The music intact (a select few songs, however, were re-recordings). In the coming years, fees for licensing music prevented further episodes from being released on VHS. The two volumes that were released on VHS were later released on DVD in 2000. Four episodes of the series were also included in two official "best-of" DVD sets ( The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years ), without much of

2296-403: 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 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. A little boy (Stern's real life son, Henry ) can be heard asking "Hey, Dad, want to play catch?" during

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2352-564: The original music. For many years, full seasons of The Wonder Years remained unreleased on DVD due to music licensing issues. Because of this issue, The Wonder Years routinely appeared on the list of TV shows in high demand for a DVD release. In a blog update on the Netflix website on March 30, 2011, and a press release issued the next day, Netflix stated that they would be adding The Wonder Years to their instant streaming service. The other three 20th Century Fox series noted as part of

2408-555: The pilot, after the title logo is shown, ending with the "Created by" credit. In season five, more footage is added to show how much the cast has aged. The opening was overhauled completely in this version. It consisted of stock footage and images of various moments throughout 1960s and early 1970s culture (i.e. John Lennon and Yoko Ono 's Bed-in , the Kent State shootings , the Moon Landing , and an antiwar protest ), and

2464-471: The producers wanted the storylines to mature, as well. The executives at ABC, though, felt uncomfortable with more explicit content given the time slot, saying, "We felt it was inappropriate to present Kevin's awakening because of the setting in the 1970s, the gentle tone of the series, and most importantly, the 8 pm time period." Bob Brush noted, "When Kevin became 16 and 17, there were really things he needed to get to that we couldn't do at 8 pm, especially with

2520-495: The resort where Winnie is working, hopeful that she can secure him a job and they can spend the rest of the summer together. Kevin eventually secures a job at the resort and plays a round of poker with the house band. He wins big and goes out to search for Winnie to tell her of his good fortune. To his surprise, he sees Winnie engaged in a passionate kiss with another lifeguard. The next day, Kevin confronts her and they fight. Kevin then plays another round of poker, losing his car in

2576-515: The self-growth of an artist. In film, coming-of-age is a genre of teen films. Coming-of-age films focus on the psychological and moral growth or transition of a protagonist from youth to adulthood. A variant in the 2020s is the "delayed-coming-of-age film, a kind of story that acknowledges the deferred nature of 21st-century adulthood", in which young adults may still be exploring short-term relationships, living situations, and jobs even into their late 20s and early 30s. Personal growth and change

2632-470: The series as "available on digital video for the first time", although Netflix added the series ahead of Amazon's release. All 115 episodes (including the clip show) became available to Prime members starting October 6, 2011. Coming-of-age story The plot points of coming-of-age stories are usually emotional changes within the character(s) in question. In literary criticism , coming-of-age novels and Bildungsroman are sometimes interchangeable, but

2688-465: The setting to be Huntington, Long Island , where he grew up. Elements were also taken from Black's childhood from the White Oak section of Silver Spring, Maryland . ABC, however, insisted that the location remain nonspecific (the colloquial "Anytown, USA"), but several items refer to the setting as Southern California, from car license plates, to the lack of snow and winter weather, to Jack working for

2744-427: The show's opening sequence number 14 on a list of the 75 Best TV Title Sequences of All Time. As of recent years, many critics and fans consider The Wonder Years to be a classic with tremendous impact on the industry over the years, inspiring many other shows and how they are structured. The series depicts the social and family life of a boy in a typical American suburban middle-class family from 1968 to 1973, covering

2800-483: The street. Brown hair. Brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled. When she cried, I cried. Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way, had to do with her. That day, Winnie and I promised each other that, no matter what, we would always be together. It was a promise full of passion, truth, and wisdom. It was the kind of promise that can only come from the hearts of the very young. They soon find their way back to their hometown and arrive hand-in-hand to

2856-474: The summer of 1971 and the 1971–1972 academic year. After Kevin's grandfather gets his driver's license revoked, he sells his car to Kevin for a dollar. Paul transfers to McKinley High after his first semester at preparatory school when his father runs into financial troubles. Wayne decides to join the army as a result of his inability to do well in school. This gets turned around when Wayne is not able to pass his physical. Winnie and Kevin are reunited when they go on

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2912-409: The way your fondest wish would be," and explained, "The message I wanted in there is that that's part of the beauty of life. It's fine to say, 'I'd like everything to be just the way it was when I was 15 and I was happy,' but it seemed more nurturing to me to say that we leave these things behind and we go on to forge new lives for ourselves." As the show was in the process of wrapping its final season,

2968-677: The world to find their fortune. Although the Bildungsroman arose in Germany, it has had extensive influence first in Europe and later throughout the world. Thomas Carlyle had translated Goethe's Wilhelm Meister novels into English, and after their publication in 1824/1825, many British authors wrote novels inspired by it. Many variations of the Bildungsroman exist, such as the Künstlerroman ("artist novel"), which focuses on

3024-452: Was a significant factor in the show's cancellation. Reruns of the show aired in syndication between September 1992 and September 1997. Nick at Nite then reran the show from October 13, 1997 to January 21, 2001. It also reran on The New TNN (January 22, 2001 to September 28, 2001), ABC Family (November 12, 2001 to October 2, 2004), Ion Television (April 2, 2007 to October 4, 2007), and The Hub (October 11, 2010 to August 31, 2012). In

3080-411: Was liked so much by the producers that they eventually created the character of Becky Slater so that they could have her on the show. Danica later reflected on the experience, "I auditioned, like everyone else. They had read lots of girls but hadn't found their 'Winnie' yet, and I was thrilled to be chosen." At the end of the first season, Marlens and Black departed from the show. Although they never gave

3136-401: Was set to a new edit of Cocker's rendition of the song (starting with the chorus, versus the opening of the song, as was the case in seasons one through five). The final image in this version is of Kevin, Paul, Winnie, and presumably some of their classmates in a group photograph edited to look like it belonged in the time period. The official soundtrack released in 1988 by Atlantic/WEA contains

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